As part of my duties as Marketing Director for JCI Sheffield 2014, I was very excited to go off to the Marketing Academy Weekend (forgetting the 6am start!) and spend 2 days learning and discussing the best ways to promote our chambers.

As a marketing professional myself, I was (at the risk of sounding haughty) wary that I might spend a weekend being taught how to do things I do on a daily basis, but nevertheless I went along knowing deep down that a JCI weekend surely wouldn’t let me down.

And I was right.

As the room (in the amazing BPP building in the heart of Birmingham) began to fill up, the atmosphere just felt right. You could sense that the place was full of a bunch of enthusiastic, lively and friendly people and that we were going to have a great time.

Introduced in the morning by Kirstie Barnett and Paul Thwaite of JCI UK National Board, no time was lost and we got straight into training. Over the weekend there were sessions on PR, Social Media, how to successfully promote a membership lead organisation with appearances from some great trainers including Sofie Sandell, Dave Reed and our very own UK President, Kate Senter.

The weekend ignited a real fire in my belly to take everything we were taught and put it into a fantastic Marketing Plan that Andy (my JCI Marketing partner) and I can work with to help JCI Sheffield achieve its goals. And we wasted no time in doing this and spent the following Saturday in the pub (where else?!) with our laptops typing away our plan for the next 12 months. J

And the people, let’s not forget the people! Every single person was a pleasure to be around and work with for the 2 days. There was lots of experience shared and friendships made as the weekend went on, which will hopefully result in some cross-county chamber meet ups!

I genuinely can’t wait for Marketing Academy 2015, for which I’ve already offered my services as a trainer. And if I’m not taken up, I’ll be there to serve coffee – it really was that good!

So if you were unsure whether to attend this year, or are considering doing so next year – don’t think twice, just do it! It’s the best place to really spend some time thinking about the importance of marketing, for your chamber or you workplace, and it is SURE to leave you buzzing with inspiration to take back home and action.

My Top 5 Things I Took Away from Marketing Academy 2014

(In no particular order)

1.       Using Hootsuite Pro to schedule Social Media posts for weeks in advance

2.       Using Bambuser to capture short videos (that don’t save on your iPhone’s memory) to quickly upload on to Social Media and Websites

3.       Using an iPhone tripod to do the above – I was especially excited about this!

4.       Try using different pricing techniques for events to see what works and what doesn’t

5.       I make a very bad dolphin impression… don’t ask!