Last week I was excited to be a part of the WSI Digital Summit in London. Whilst I could gripe about many a topic on here until you’re all blue in the face with access issues, the fact it was held at Microsoft’s (begrudgingly impressive) Cardinal Place HQ and that getting anywhere in London takes an age, the event was itself spot on.

Cardinal Place

I was somewhat relieved that my Movember disguise was already taking impressive shape by that point as I marched into enemy territory armed with my iPhone, iPad and Macbook Pro – otherwise I might have been escorted out by security or a frugged staff member.

With over 100 guests from all shapes and sizes of business in attendance, the event was completely oversubscribed as they mingled with fellow WSI consultants and presenters – who all had this in common: they were fiercely enthusiastic, passionately devoted, industry altering, digital marketing fanatics.

After the fun I had finding a disabled parking spot (think needles and haystacks) and customary teas and coffees (the only reason I normally turn up) Dan Monaghan kicked things off with an introductory presentation about the complex world of digital marketing and how far it has come since he co-founded WSI in 1995. Other presentations followed throughout the day from HootSuite’s Rylan Holey, Hubspot’s Conor Douglas and Kevin Dowling and Microsoft Bing’s Aaron McGrath – all of whom made amusing last minute changes to their presentations referring to Bing (not Google) being the largest search engine provider – given the host location, this was well taken in jest.

Chatting amongst the guests over the lunch break and in between presentations, it was clear that everyone got a lot out of the day and that there are exciting times ahead in the digital marketing sphere. We’re hoping to organise similar events all over the globe, not least in the UK. I strongly believe that Leeds could benefit from a similar event, an ideal location would be New Dock with its new owners (Allied London) already indicating that they intend to relaunch the ghost development as a digital and creative hub for the city.

Rm.