Why I'm Going to Worldz, and You Should Too

"We are scouring the earth looking for the innovators, the dreamers – and the rule breakers who are shaping the world of tomorrow. We are creating a year round community and summit uniting leader and global brands, start-ups, and tech companies along with artists and creators to learn and take action to do the NBDB (Never Been Done Before).” - Worldz co-founder and CEO Roman Tsunder

I attend around 25+ conferences a year. That sounds like a lot and when you factor in that I have to fly almost anywhere in the world because I live in Seattle, I spend a majority of my time 35,000 feet up to get to these events. Half I speak at (mainly because I'm an author more than because of what I do, my job title or where I work), the other half I attend because I'm always seeking to learn. I think it is important to treat the mind like a muscle. While I'm not an ultra-marathoner or a triathlete (though I play soccer like it's a religion and love Flywheel), I feel I'm the equivalent of that when it comes to mental endurance. And shouldn't we all try to aim for this in life? The mind atrophies when we stop using it and it's important to be exposed to things where you are forced to re-examine your beliefs. When you are exposed to things that make you doubt, this is a positive, not a negative because it makes you question your innate biases. It opens you to the world and it forces you to see things in a different light.

So I booked a ticket to Los Angeles for July 31-August 1. I mainly want to attend this event because of two reasons. One is last year a few of my fellow colleagues attended to either present or go to learn as witnesses. Many are skeptical like me of the majority of conferences in this day and age where you have presenters paying-to-play or where every presentation deck looks like a GIF factory for Tumblr. The other reason I want to attend is I'm tired of being exposed to tech group think. It happens a lot in this era of digital transformation. We call it drinking the Kool-Aid because once a buzz term catches on, everyone feels the need to get on the wave to ride it. Instead, I yearn for the opposite, how being exposed to the fringe thinkers, makers and doers of the world will create the next wave of business models. All industries can learn from one another now in this era of digital intersections. So I want to hear what people who don't work in tech think of the world more than people who work in tech. Besides, I'm exposed to the technology-centric point of view 300+ days out of the year because I live in Seattle, work at Microsoft, have a ton of friends at LinkedIn, Oracle, Salesforce, IBM, Twitter, Facebook, Google and Amazon and follow countless others who work in tech on Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

Besides, I really was intrigued by this quote from Cool Hunting's founders Josh Rubin and Evan Orensten who spoke at last year's inaugural event, and found the conference to be full of energy, curiosity and enthusiasm. “We were really impressed with the quality of the people there and their passion for discovery and engagement,” said Orensten. “The program mix was great—keynotes, smaller group presentations, small and large companies sharing what they are up to—the event was well programmed and we met several people that we’ve stayed in touch with," says Rubin.

Worldz sounds like it can teach many of the events I attend (or help put together) how to remix the conference category. Too many conferences are simply executives standing on a stage boring you with a PowerPoint (I'm guilty of this too so take my words as self-criticism) and leaving little room for questions or practical application of the information presented. Most are spoon-feeding you their narrative rather than getting a sense of what troubles people in this day and age and why they attend a conference in the first place. A whole day at a conference tinkering is so important to finding solutions instead of an executive landing some corporate narrative.

I'm going because I want to see what people who I don't get to hear from in my day-to-day like Georgina Pazcoguin (The Rogue Ballerina of The New York City Ballet) to Kelly Slater (11 time World Champion Surfer) to Moj Mahdara (CEO of Beautycon) to In-Q (National Poetry Slam Champion) may add to the conversation about building the world of tomorrow.

When you are surrounded by developers, sales people, marketers and data scientists for much of your day-to-day over the past four plus years like I have been, Worldz may provide a refreshing hands-on-view of where the world is heading when you smash culture, media, art, tech, entrepreneurship and creators all together. My one hope is that the entire two days I'm there I won't ever hear about "revenue goals" as the main passion point for what motivates people in the futurist world of business or that only STEM majors will dominate the future (I believe in STEAM). I'm probably wrong here, but revenue is what follows success, success isn't always jump-started simply by revenue (otherwise, why would we have created terms in business like "bootstrap" or "side hustle"?).

So I'll be in Los Angeles July 31 and August 1, taking in the sights and sounds, interviewing people for ideas for my next book (and about their thoughts on #NetNeutrality) and for collecting audio snippets for Radio Bing in interviews with some of the presenters (that I'll also broadcast on Facebook Live). I'll be writing live from the event here on LinkedIn and will definitely share my point of view afterward if it was worth it.

I guess my early learning before I even get there is a lot of satisfaction in life now comes as a result of being exposed to knowledge, education, connection, creativity, technology, inspiration, purpose and most importantly, really interesting people.

All roadz lead to Worldz.

Geoffrey Colon is a culture jammer, creator, author, podcaster, C-Suite influencer and communications designer at Microsoft. Check out his book Disruptive Marketing. Listen to his podcast Disruptive FM with Cheryl Metzger or watch his video blog on YouTube.