Geeking out at the bottom of the funnel: Velocity goes to Vegas

Bright lights, red mountains, old people at slot machines, young people in fancy dress, too much design, too little style, data geeks, tattooed freaks, every hall’s a mall and every corner’s a casino.

Vegas, baby!

It’s the loudest, proudest train wreck of kitsch you’ve ever seen. Where attention-seeking behavior meets a chronic attention deficit disorder to create a place that is so stunningly lacking in self-awareness, it should be one of the wonders of the world.

And here’s the best part: we didn’t spend a cent on a slot machine – but we still had a great time. Why? We were neck deep in Informatica World 2014.

Full disclosure: they’re clients. So yes, we’re biased. But we love the people and their products make Big Data tangible. What’s not to love?

Geek-con level 7

Now, a conference about data governance in the enterprise may not sound like the most exciting thing you could do in Vegas. But being surrounded by some of the smartest data professionals on the planet, we were surprised (and it has to be said, somewhat concerned) at just how much we enjoyed the stunning geekery on display.

Because at the bottom of the funnel in a conference about data management, the light speed intelligence of the people around you can be pretty intimidating. Lucky for us we were stuck to the hips of two brilliant clients who were willing to translate as much as we were willing to learn.

As we soaked up the language and energy of the hundreds of people changing the world in not insignificant ways (you get to feeling pretty small as a content marketer when you’re surrounded by people whose day jobs are making healthcare smarter and finance safer), I was struck by two things:

The geeks have gone too far!

They’ve created technology that exceeds the limits of language. We sat through serious discussions about creating a set of terms and definitions for data professionals everywhere – it’s a discipline so new people aren’t really sure what to call stuff!

On the one hand, this is hugely exciting news for anyone who loves tech. On the other hand this is hugely exciting news for anyone who loves content marketing. How often do you get to be a part of a whole new language?

Go ‘method’ or go home

It was somewhat fitting that Der Kessler launched his latest tirade about the need for more granular content while we were drenching ourselves in data-speak at a client’s conference. Just as he described there’ll never be a saturation point for content, we realised we had no saturation point for our clients’ world.

And believe me, that notion was tested. In particular when you consider the the slides on offer:

But there’s a virtuous cycle that comes from dipping into a client’s world eyes and minds wide open. We get to see who we’re talking to and how they talk. This makes the content that much richer, which makes our clients do that much better which makes us that much more excited to work with them.

As we navigated through the constant assault on just about every one of our sensory functions, wondering how a place could get to be so visually corrupted, it was amazing to realise that our favourite thing about Vegas was the geeks we’d come to visit.