I recently had the pleasure of attending this year’s MIMA Summit in Downtown Minneapolis. The MIMA Summit is the largest gathering of digital creatives, technologists, storytellers, advertisers, marketers, and product strategists in the Midwest. The Summit is full of forward-thinking energy and ideas and I was really excited to be a part of it.

Of the sessions I attended, my top five highlights of the day are as follows:

E-Nyamayaro

 

Elizabeth Nyamayaro of United Nations Women gave an inspiring speech on how she used social platforms to build a global coalition of male advocates for female empowerment through the HeforShe campaign.

Successful local mar-tech startups, including Clay Collins of Lead Pages, shared their experiences of building companies from scratch in a time when big brands are shifting their dollars from agencies to startups.

 

Blog

Morgan Spurlock taught the fundamentals of great storytelling and explained how he convinced big companies to pay 1.5 million for his movie, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold through product placements.

David Hussman, founder of DevJam, walked us through his process of helping teams build less of the wrong things faster, by building more of what is really needed by the user.

Chuck Klosterman book

 

Based on his new book, But What If We’re Wrong? Chuck Klosterman explained how he thinks people will perceive the present in the distant future. He gave a thorough argument as to why Chuck Berry will be the icon of rock music, as opposed to bands like the Beatles or Rolling Stones. Fascinating stuff.

I walked away from the MIMA Summit with several new perspectives on the digital marketing landscape. As a designer for RBA, this event has inspired me to continue to learn and share ideas that not only help how we serve our clients, but will help shape our industry for the future.