The Truth About Giving

Recently, while attending an active and exciting Trade Show, I witnessed something wonderful, fascinating and… just plain COOL. I rolled the dice and attended in person. (No, I did not watch it live on Facebook, or ask people to send me Snaps. I actually WENT. In person. This annual event is called “The Special Event.”

Oddly enough, this is where people who create and produce events of all sizes gather once a year to sell, buy, pitch, network… and share knowledge.

None of the actions in the list above surprised me; people go to Trade Shows to leverage something profound and highly useful in today’s business world: Face-To-Face interaction. I walked around the Long Beach Convention Center for hours watching and listening to people in a business that appears (at least to me, a relative outsider) to be basically about FUN.

One of the educational sessions was entitled: “It’s My Party” – the room was packed with excited attendees! Literally Standing Room Only.

Why am I recounting all of this?

Because something unique and wonderful happened – TWICE – in one day, and I have rarely seen this occur event ONCE – in any other industry.

People were presenting, speaking, and sharing knowledge for the good of the industry.

No sales pitches. No “Look at my products at the back of the room before you leave!”

As a professional speaker, this really caught my attention.

A morning panel discussion was led by a Titan in this industry. It was evenly balanced, made up of people from “boutique” agencies (that were locally based) to multi- national agencies with offices all over the globe!

The idea was that maybe people could learn what it is like to be the 800-pound Gorilla – and decide, based on what they heard – if they wanted to grow to a similar size.

Interesting… so, someone who bills out Millions of Dollars annually took time (travel from points distant, investment in accommodations, time away from the business) and GAVE their insight and advice… with the goal of making the INDUSTRY better.

Kudos to Andrea Michaels (facilitator) Janet Elkins (panelist), Michael Minihan (panelist), Annette Gregg (panelist) Colja Dams (panelist) and Ken Kristofferson (panelist) all spoke frankly and in a very transparent way about how they go about winning and keeping accounts, how they operate, and how they sell.

Now, this may not appear earth – shattering… until you learn this:

These people compete.

With each other.

Every day.

And they believe in the idea that there is plenty of business to go around – for every competitor, across the globe, of all sizes.

The title of this piece is “The Truth about Giving.”

These people LIVE this concept every day: When you help enough people, you cannot HELP but get help from others.

I was impressed. I believe you should be, too. And maybe someone reading this will volunteer to chair / facilitate a panel like this in their industry.

It was simply … remarkable.

There is so much chatter about “making the world a better place.”

Well… let’s take these folks’ example… and get to work, doing just that!

The Truth About Giving  (according to the panelists I spoke with) is that it FEELS great.

Based on the reactions of other people in the room: Giving ALWAYS pays off.