I promised that I would write up some feedback on my day out in Cambridge yesterday, so here are some thoughts.

First, to set the scene, the event itself was being run by the Cambridge Business Academy (Kevin Potts’ company) and held the promise of both Russell Brunson and Chris Farrell speaking at the same event. Some of you will know that Chris is still in the US, as his wife is ill, and so this changed the format of the day slightly.

The venue was the Cambridge Corn Exchange, a building (presumably with amazing history) right in the centre of the town itself and I’m going to talk about the building here as a bit of a metaphor for the whole day. If I had to some it up, I’d say that aspects of it were superb, with a whole load of disappointments that dragged it down. Hopefully, what I learned about it all will help all of us put on better events.

First up, as a presentation venue it was excellent. High ceilings, banked seating, good-ish acoustics and a screen and stage setup that rivalled some of the best places I have ever spoken. This really was gold standard stuff. If you ever put on a show with low ceilings, small screens and even worse, long thin meeting rooms laid out lengthwise so the folk at the back can’t see, then the gods of presentation management should smite you where you stand! Higher, bigger and wider is the way to go for a comfortable audience. Even laying out your long room widthways with repeater screens is better than lengthways.

OK, so that was a plus point. Good presentation venue.

Flipside: As a conference venue it was mediocre at best…poor in places. It’s not just about the presentations folks! Your audience has to get there and stay there for a significant amount of time while you show them your awesome presentations. In this respect, the Corn Exchange is a dog.

Yes, it’s nice that it is in the heart of historic Cambridge – and maybe it is good to get away from London every now and again, but getting into town for a registration time of 9.30 is enough to try the patience of a saint…and the cost of parking is enough to make a grown man cry. Going with an out of town venue with parking onsite or nearby just makes more sense. Most big hotels can cope with conferences these days – just bite the bullet and book one. (Bearing in mind high ceilings etc etc.)

What do hotels also provide for their guests? Yes! Toilets!!

700 people packed into an auditorium for a day are going to want a comfort break at some point and it doesn’t matter what your audience breakdown (male/female) is, there just have to be enough places to pee! No excuses. In guy’s terms (as that’s what I’m qualified to comment on), 4 urinals for 500 men and a 10-15 minute break is a logistical calculation that only works somewhere like the Matrix where you can freeze time. Not only that, but when they’re done and they want to re-fill with coffee, a 2 spout coffee machine is also not up to the job.

Finally (for the venue). Try to get your audience inside the venue as fast as possible even if you have some monster logistical nightmare to handle for each person. Don’t funnel everyone through a linear bottleneck that is based on a split of surnames. This is guaranteed to be slow, as those whose name begins with W can’t see the desk for the queue and so never make their way to the sadly underutilized section with their name on it.

Scarily, this goes right back to my time in IT. We called it MSMQ…..multiple servers, multiple queues. It shortens the length of each queue but it does rely on folk finding their “server” for themselves. So, put a big letter sign up above each server (e.g. Surnames P-T), put them all round the room and just funnel folk into the room, telling them to find their surname letter for themselves.

Not only that, but let nearby queues interact. If one is empty, let the servers handle the overflow from next door – a simple duplication of namesheets lets this happen! Yes, I know it’s more work collating the sheets at the end, but as organizers you have all day while others speak. Take the burden on yourself and you won’t end up with people queuing out of the door and down the road on what was a pretty miserable, damp and cold October day in Cambridge.

And another thing! Don’t then film the queue you have generated! “Here’s a bunch of miserable people that we forced to stand in the cold at our last event” doesn’t feel like a good advertising ploy to me

Alright. Enough of the venue. What about  the day itself?

Strangely, it had the same kind of Jekyll and Hyde character. Kevin and Russell Brunson did the first two slots, delivered some good solid content and generally got the thing going very well. Some nice reminders of basics in marketing combined with a few hints and tips that had everyone writing notes. (Sidenote – damn, Russell speaks fast!!). When I look at what Russell delivered for the day, I’d say that this was the content that got me there and kept me there.

We moved on after the break to Paul Lynch. Paul’s grasp of traffic generation looks astonishing and as a lowly starter in this field I have almost no place to comment on his techniques for doing this – he’s a smart guy. What I do have the right to comment on was his delivery yesterday. I don’t know what posessed him to play videos at us for the whole of his speaking slot! Yes, they were very slick and showed a lot of relevant material but I could have sat at home and watched videos.

The pleasure (and the pain) of being on stage is that you get to be a real person. Your triumphs and disasters are both “writ large” for the world to see and I, for one, would have like Paul to actually speak to us. One of the videos was even one I’d seen in the previous week as a result of the promotion for the event. That’s 30 minutes or more of my life that I’ll never get back! Paul, man up. Do it live! I’ll train you myself if you feel you need it.

The other session of the day was given by Ian Judd(?), who works with Kevin and Paul. Along with Paul, he pitched a “done for you” business and traffic system that had some ups and downs for me. Traffic from Paul (up), membership site description (down) – and so it went. The components of the system seemed interesting, but we had another video and their passion didn’t come across for me. Not only that, but this was a seriously high ticket item. You need something a bit special going on in the presentation to sell something up in the stratosphere….no matter how much of a good deal it is.

I’d put it all down to it being the first time they’d sold from stage, if it weren’t for the religion factor. If you don’t know, Kevin came out of some kind of religious ministry when he started doing this. Ok, nice branding feature for the business, but it seems like everyone involved with CBA was  in the same boat. So I was expecting much more of an “altar call” for the selling, as they’ve all patently had practice before with speaking to congregations

So, there you have it. A mixed bag of a day, really. Learned a bit of stuff and spoke to some fellow attendees – as usual that can be the best bit of any event – and came away to face a stiff car parking price and a long drive home. Glad I went to see Russell and Kevin but I won’t be doing Cambridge again in a hurry.

Were you there? Let me know if you agree/disagree violently with any of my points.

Tomorrow sees me getting out of the house for a day, rather than being locked to my laptop, building links for the millionth day in a row!

Anyone else going to the Cambridge Business Academy? Russell Brunson is over and speaking and I’ve always liked his content, so I’m hoping to have a good day out.

I have no delusions about it though. We’ll see how many pitches ensue during the day and I’ll bring you a full report tomorrow night after I get back home.

As I commented above, I’ve been linking for all I’m worth to my Halloween site -  there I’ve said it. I’m trying one of these very focussed sites that will bring me nothing for the rest of the year, but is already ramping up in traffic nicely. I sold my first costume a couple of days ago, but conversion is pretty poor so far. Not sure if I should be changing the page layout slightly.

I think I’ve said this in the past but having just got back from Robert Puddy’s UK IM conference, I’m going to say it again.

There is nothing quite like going to one of these conferences in person. I still haven’t been to one of the mad ones in the States yet, so this was the biggest show so far and I’m just starting to understand fully why everyone says the deals are done in the bar!

So, short and sweet as conference reviews go. I’ve finally got to the point where I feel like I know a bit of every technique and I just have to get down to doing only one of them until I make some money!

Standout sessions included Jonny Andrews – not sure if telling him he’s as mad as a box of frogs really translates across the Atlantic divide, but a great exposition on using “The hero’s story” in selling. One of the 7 stories that go back through all of human history, Jonny spoke about how it has changed hs own approach to the sales offer process.

Second up for comment was Sterling Valentine. He came across as very “sensible and understated” but was an excellent speaker…I’m still not sure if the comment about his slide being in the wrong currency was planted in the audience (it was in dollars at a UK conference) but his reaction – just flipping the $ to a £ on the pre-prepared slide – was one of the finest bits of showmanship I’ve seen for ages! Not only that, but his “change the offer in order to change the price” gambit at the end of the pitch was something I’ve already made a note of for my own use.

Finally, there was Ambar Hamid. He spoke about taking your offer to the world of B2B deals rather than B2C. This has been an area that I’ve felt for some time that the IM world is missing out on. My old life in corporate IT left me very comfortable in that world so I’ve signed up for Ambar’s UK training on all of his techniques…..feels like a good investment.

So, plenty of material and even more making of new friends and generally drinking until ridiculous times. I really felt like I was involved with it all this time….

What can I say, make it happen for you too….you just need to find something going on nearby and treat the travel and accomodation as an expense item for your new business. Let the tax man take some of the strain of making new partners.

One of the challenges to your early life in the IM world is just how you get to meet some of these “greats” that you hear so much about. These are the marketers that have made it already, whose names you see all the time in your email.

Well, I’ll tell you one way that works. (Disclaimer here, there may be others!)

Are you ready?

Pay them!

There, that seems simple-minded doesn’t it, but actually one of the things it does is signal that you are prepared to invest in yourself as much as you are in their product. If you are in a coaching program for 8 weeks and you have a chance to make a face-to-face meeting then you have earned that right – so do it!

Don’t back out at that point, making excuses about the time it will take because, like it or not, this industry runs on relationships as much as any other business.

So, what am I getting at here. Well, on a personal level, I’ve just signed up for a 6 month Mastermind group with Chris Freville here in the UK that I am really looking forward to. Apart from the pressure to perform and actually get on with it, I’m going to find meeting up with like-minded internet marketers a great way to break out of the “working alone in a bedroom” syndrome that this business brings.

What’s just as awesome is that I’m also off to the Philippines for John Jonas’ outsourcing retreat in March. I spent some time in September last year working with someone out there after signing up for his “outsource myself” program. I’m hoping to find someone more appropriate to work with me this time round, but again, I’m looking to meet folk from around the world who are going to the event….

….oh yes. I’m also going to enjoy a bit of a holiday!

If you’re stuck in London as an Internet Marketer, thinking that you never get to see others doing the same as you…let me know…I’m easily convinced that a chat over a beer is a good thing .

Alright, I confess. I was at another free pitch-fest over the weekend. Are these things on all the time? I missed a seminar about public-speaking that I would have chosen in preference (but didn’t hear about until it had already started).

This time it was the World Internet Summit down at Heathrow. I say Heathrow when what I actually mean is “in a hotel down a little alley, hidden off a side street, near Heathrow”. The Thistle Hotel Heathrow, really has to work on its image somewhat! As a result, this felt low-key in some ways and yet all the usual names were there.

I went down on Thursday and Friday before getting twitchy about actually doing some work and making money rather than listen to others tell me how/sell me their scheme.

Having said that, the chance to talk to others in the UK who are in the same position as me is always useful and I’ll follow up a couple of them with some ideas, so the time I spent wasn’t wasted.

Of all the speakers, two stood out for me. I think I have written about Steven Essa before, an Aussie who has really taken on webinars as a means to making money. This still piques my interest, even now, after several days of cooling down, as I used to do so many in the corporate world. I have at least identified a final goal of being back on the stage using my speaking skills and webinars come a close second to that. I may still follow up with Steven, he seemed like a genuine character.

The other speaker of note was a guy from the UK who I have not seen before. By trade Andy Harrington is a motivational speaker and his talk fell very much into that category on day 1 of the show. He delivered a great talk to motivate people out of their inactivity but what I liked about his talk (as I say as an ex-speaker myself) was his ability to lead folk down a path in his talk to the point where they were about to fill in his next sentence – and then come out with something at right-angles to that!  So, for example, while talking about fears, he talked about babies only knowing a fear of falling and being isolated at birth (I think…eek where are my notes?) He went on to list something like 10-12 other fears (failure, looking stupid etc etc) and then asked “Do you think these are fears we are born with?….No, they are…” and you could hear the audience say the word “learned”. Andy, on the other hand, didn’t say that, he finished his sentence with the word “Bollocks” – completely breaking the flow of people’s thoughts.   Quite Brilliant!  He did a few other things that left me in no doubt that these were all planned. I will be making sure I don’t miss him if he’s on again.

So, what are your thoughts on all this? Do these seminars serve a purpose for the man in the street? Once again I was staggered by just how low the low end of knowledge really is. People wanting to get into Internet Marketing with almost no knowledge of computers? Wow, that market is just open for training!