In December last year I had the pleasure of attending Google’s Accelerate Event over in Dublin at their European Headquarters. Exclusively for Google Partner agencies, the event was designed to provide leading agencies from across Europe with the opportunity to build their relationship with Google, learn what was in the pipeline for digital marketing in 2015 and of course, network with peers (over a Guinness or two).
The all expenses paid 2-day event trip kicked off at Google’s own purpose built event centre, The Foundry. This was to be our home for the next 2 days and this was in no way a hardship – food including Sushi and lots of sweet things, barista made coffee available constantly, smoothies, and of course excellent Wi-Fi throughout meant all of us (geeks) were in our element – it's all about knowing your audience.
The event itself included presentations from Googlers working on the latest and greatest in terms of all that Google now has to offer. On day one, I particularly enjoyed listening to Peter Juszczynski, Branding Evangelist for North and Central Europe and his presentation on ‘Brand, Performance and the Unsuspecting Consumer’ – his ideas and enthusiasm for digital provided some real inspiration.
I also found the ‘10X Thinking at Google’ presentation interesting – how Google push their teams to think outside of the norm, driverless cars and Project Loon (great name) were my two particular favourites and worth checking out if you’ve not seen what Google have been up to with these two things.
At the end of a ‘tough’ first day we were treated to a trip to the Guinness Storehouse in the centre of Dublin. We had the place to ourselves and, as you’d expect, there was a lot of networking, Guinness sampling (and pouring, my own effort below) and mince pie eating.
Day two was much more about the Google Partners program itself, what’s in store for us Partner Agencies in Europe, Middle East and Africa – this again was really interesting to learn of the efforts Google are going to to get closer to Agencies once again. As a truly international event, with over 300 attendees, there was a range of ideas and feedback offered, and to be fair, the Googlers fronting the questions did seem to take note and gave straight forward, honest answers.
As day two drew to a close, I spent my Google voucher in the Google Store, every home needs a cuddly Android toy right? I managed to exchange contact details with some really interesting and helpful people with whom I must make an effort to keep in touch with and headed for the airport.
Whilst sitting on the runway amidst the semi-famous ‘weather bomb’ which hit conveniently as I was about to take off for home, I had a chance to read through my notes and reflect on what was a really enjoyable experience, in which I had learned a lot, met some great people from all over the world and realised what a great industry it is I work in.