(video summary at: https://conversionhotel.com/session/keynote-2019-pitch-winner/)
One of the many things I strive to optimize year-over-year is the quality (and diversity) of the attendees. To me this is even more important then the quality of the performers (who are important too, don’t get me wrong). Performers are there to inspire and entertain, but the time you spend with your fellow attendees is way bigger. This is were you go in depth based upon the inspiration by the performers. And of course it makes sense if I state that the combined knowledge of the 200 attendees is way bigger then the knowledge of the performers combined.
Of course the performers are specialists, trained to deliver a performance. This is why they are on stage, but I also believe that there are also potential performers among our attendees. I’m not talking about the experienced performers that see this yearly Texel event as a nice final get together of optimization specialists before the winter conference break. I’m talking about people that are ready to take the step, but just need the final push.
This year at The Conference formerly known as Conversion Hotel we were having a keynote pitch competition. Out of all the keynote pitch applications we got from the ticket application proces this summer we selected 9 contestants. They were guided in their 2 minute pitch by world class CRO speaker and speaker coach Michael Aagaard from Denmark. All these pitches will be delivered on Friday and all the attendees voted “Yes” or “No” on the question for every pitch “Do you want this presenter and topic as a keynote”. The highest “Yes” score will become a keynote on the #CH2019 main stage on Saturday.
Number 9 got lot’s of speaker coaching by Michael and a bunch of drinks to recover. Number 2 to 8 were scheduled as a presentation in one of the two presentation rooms during the break-out sessions. Michael was there for support and will devote some coaching time after the conference!
Lucia won the pitch competition and took main stage on Saturday. She did great! Enjoy the slides.
Ton Wesseling
Founder & host of The Conference formerly known as Conversion Hotel