Why Business Needs to Look Beyond

Why Business Needs to Look Beyond.

My Keynote opening address to the 10th Birthday of the Compass groups Lime Venue Portfolio, at Edgbaston Stadium in Birmingham. 

On Friday 19th October, Lime Venue Portfolio (LVP) celebrated an entire decade of success by hosting ‘Beyond’, a celebratory conference that looked at the future of the events industry and the world of business. I was proud to start the day and host the proceedings. This was my keynote address to start the day :

When did Cars replace Horses? 

Short answer: In the US, between 1920 and 1939, depending on the area. It took about 23 years to fully replace the cheap buggy, starting from when the Model T was made in volume in 1916, to the end of the Great Depression in 1939, (which had hurt new car sales and gas sales).

Long answer: The answer depends on whether you are talking city or country. In the cities, cars took over shortly after Henry Ford, so cars dominated by about 1920. Many cities banned horses, because of manure and dead animals left in the road. (The stench alone was awful). In the countryside, they dominated until about 1939 when the Depression ended. (Exception: the Amish, who still drive them in small numbers today).

We do know that the horses were still around in huge numbers by 1930, start of the Great Depression. When some people could no longer afford gas, they bought horses to pull their modified cars, called "Hover wagons". We do know, that when the Depression ended in 1939, most of America dumped using horses for good (Amish excepted), and used the gas powered car only.

Controversial Note: Pure electric vehicles are on the same path today. In the next 10 to 20 years, cars like the Tesla and Nissan Leaf are poised replace gas-powered cars. They use cheaper fuel (electricity costs less than half gasoline in most places, for the same mileage). However, they are much more expensive at present. So early adopters buy these EVs. There are parallels between Henry Ford's cars and the car company of Elon Musk. While the Tesla Model S is not affordable to most, at $75K+, the Model III is promised to start at $35K, affordable to the Middle Class. If this happens, the Tesla Model III may become the new Model T for the computer age, and dominate the gas-powered car, sometime between 2020 and 2039.

Now IS THAT NOT THE BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD?? 

Which links me nicely to the sad true tale of Otto Rohwebber - inventor of sliced bread in the 1910’s the greatest invention since…..well, I've no idea what we said back then, to be honest.

You see he focused on the patent part, the making part …but here is the slice…after the first 15 years that sliced bread was available nobody bought it. 

You see nobody knew about it, it was a complete and total failure. 

and the reason is that until WONDER came along and figured out how to SPREAD The IDEA of sliced bread nobody wanted it. 

that the success of sliced bread and the success of everything we will talk about today, came from thinking and looking BEYOND 

And that it is not about what the business is, what the process is, who is doing it but getting it seen…EXPOSING IT to the right audience

Exposing is a theme here:Not on the High Street with Crafts and shops and Lime Venue Portfolio with its venues.  

The best way to win, is to think beyond..is to find a way to get your ideas to SPREAD. 

Copernicus famously said - as a matter of fact the world does revolve around me.

 (Nicolaus Copernicus changed the world. He published a theory that challenged the well-accepted belief that all the planets and stars in the universe revolved around earth. ... Earth is just one planet of many and it revolves around the sun, not the other way around)

the world revolves around me, me me me me , my favourite person is me, I don’t want to get email from anybody…I want to get me mail. So everyone in the world doesn’t really care about you, no matter how great your business is, part of the reason is that we have way more chances then we used to and way less time and in a world of having too many choices and too little time the obvious thing to do is to just ignore stuff. 

The thing that decides what gets done, what gets build, what goes beyond 

Is is it, remarkable? 

and remarkable is a really cool word it means worth making a remark about 

Every week, there is a new hot list of songs on iTunes or Spotify the reason its number one is cos it came out in that week, its new, its fresh and every client wants the new venue, the fresh venue cos people saw it and said, i didn’t know that was there, we are all now in the fashion business. No matter what business you are in, we are all in the fashion business. And the thing is people in the fashion business know what it is like to be in the fashion business they are used to it the rest of us have to figure out how to think that way how to understand that its not about interrupting people with big full page adverts or insisting on meetings with people its a new different process that determined what ideas go BEYOND!

People will be coming on to this stage and telling you about how they think, whats coming next and what they did that was BEYOND..but listen to..to how they thought differently..how no matter the business or talk..it was the the different that makes it BEYOND.

Lionel Poilâne was a French baker and entrepreneur whose commitment to crafting quality bread earned him worldwide renown.

He sold 10 million dollars worth of french bread with individual bakers baking in a wood oven and when he started his business the french Poo Poo ‘d it, they didn’t want to buy his bread. It didn’t look like french bread, it was not what they expected, it was BEYOND, it was remarkable! And slowly it SPREAD from one person to another person till finally it became the official bread of 3 star restaurants in Paris then London and then all over the world.

You see what we used to do is make average products for average people, that is what mass marketing is, now we don’t market to the mass as they don’t have the time. We market to the Me cos they love it, they care, they have OTAKU - they get obsessed and they will go BEYOND!

Find a group of people who care

give them something Remarkable 

as that goes BEYOND 

make it easy to share, so they can tell their friends

Sell to people who listen and maybe they tell their mates, people who love will tell many about it, one person at a time shares and the idea spreads. 

An idea that is easy to spread to a community who cares, like Citizen Event - Every Friday on the last day of the month between 8 and 11:30 for event professionals, started by Simon Burton and Kevin Jackson and now easy to share with people who care, event professionals like you. 

The riskiest thing you can do today is be safe, average for average is so yesterday. 

The beyond thing to do now is be on the fringes to Go BEYOND!  Being very good is hard, being very good is boring, very good is not even getting noticed. 

Silk Almond milk - they tripled there sales by doing something beyond, they put there product next to normal milk and not with the food intolerant section like there competitors and what did people see? MILK MILK MILK MILK... NOT MILK.

What happened? They tripled there sales in one year. 

How? By thinking beyond; Apple and the one button, not better …just BEYOND 

ONE MORE STORY THEN I AM DONE. 

IN THE BEGINNING, nobody knew how to use an iPhone. That informed everything about the device's design: The green felt in Game Center communicated fun and gambling, the messily ripped paper at the top of the Notes app made clear that this was where you scribbled away. The music app was called iPod, not Music, because Apple deemed that more easily understood. Using an iPhone was like bowling with bumpers—no one told you exactly what to do, but you couldn't screw up too badly either.

The home button was the most powerful tool in every new iPhone owner's arsenal. You didn't have to understand the inner workings of the app switcher to make use of all the stuff on your iPhone, or figure out how share sheets worked just to copy and paste something. The home button was the iPhone's ripcord: If you got lost in an app, or your phone suddenly froze (as it was, and is, prone to do), you could just mash the round button below the screen and you'd be airlifted back to safety. “On the front, there’s only one button,” Jobs said at the iPhone’s original launch. “We call it the home button. Takes you home from wherever you are. And that’s it.”

Ask any Android user what it's like when the screen freezes, and you're either stuck waiting for something to happen or pressing the power button to reboot your phone and be done with it. Or when you're in a full-screen app and can't figure out how to leave it. These are the little things that critics like to say separate iOS from Android in the first place, the "you already know how to use it" believers. The reason you already know how to use it? There's a button, right there in front of your face.

OK, sure, so the iPhone 7's home "button" wasn't really a button at all. It was just a dedicated spot on the bottom of the device where Apple's haptic feedback engines made you think you were clicking a button when you pressed it. And when the phone froze, it did too. There was still something soothing to pressing the button underneath a frozen GarageBand, hoping it would eventually take you home. Maybe it was just a placebo, like pressing the Close Door button in an elevator even when you know full well it won't actually Close Door any faster. It still helped you feel in control, rather than existing at the mercy of software.

Fighting for a button on a smartphone is like hoping for a stick shift in a self-driving car—the future is heading unstoppably in another direction. But it's worth wondering, as the button heads toward the great switchboard in the sky, whether the iPhone's good enough, and whether we're good enough at using the iPhone, to not need a parachute just in case, Apple is not scared to go BEYOND and neither should you be so a TOAST to Otto. 

To Be Remarkable 

To Go Beyond

To Speak to the Individual 

To make sure they care with a message that is easy to spread. 

Thank you!!"

Along with toasting ‘10 years’ with Lime Venue Portfolio’s (LVP) the celebratory conference at Edgbaston Stadium, Birmingham was about business and events and what comes next. In the words of LVP, " Over the past decade LVP has made a significant contribution to the establishment of the unique and unusual venue market, and has established itself as a firm fixture in the UK events industry. Boasting a diverse portfolio of over 90 unique venues across the UK, LVP has built a legacy that continues to capitalise on industry trends, and to mark this momentous milestone, LVP wanted to share their achievements with the wider events industry."

I had the great privilege of interviewing Holly Tucker MBE, Co-founder of Notonthehighstreet and Holly & Co shared her thoughts on looking ‘Beyond’. She said: “It's important that brands try to create an emotional connection with their audiences and truly listen to what it is they want. Whether that’s being mindful of the issues your audiences care about (sustainability) or engaging and communicating through social media.

Jason Allan Scott and Holly Tucker MBE, Co-founder of Notonthehighstreet and Holly & Co.

The future will inevitably be brands connecting on an emotional level, and those that don’t embrace this, will ultimately collapse.” When asked what she thought were the top three things a brand needs in order to ‘be successful’, Holly answered: “Create a personal connection, have a clear purpose with clear brand goals and stand out, be colourful!”

Caleb Parker - Bold and the Future in 15, and Amber Maher, 8PR, Leah Carter of AMBA and Eleanor Clowes - Unicorn Events. The millennial perspective on the future of conferences’,

The conversations throughout the day addressed the relevance for businesses and events alike to be looking beyond. Beyond being ‘beige’, beyond the hard sell and beyond traditional marketing, looking for ways to truly cater to the trends and needs of today’s changing audience. This theme resonated across all our delegates and discussions despite age, experience or industry background.

Rupert Barksfield, Futurist and Jason Allan Scott on what is coming next in technology.

Jo Austin Director of Sales for Lime Venue Portfolio said: “The feedback we have received from the day has been absolutely fantastic. There was some really great information shared from all of our panellists, and I think the clear take away from it, is that looking beyond is about being different. We are really proud of everything we have achieved so far, not just as a brand but as an advocate for the venues market as a whole. The Beyond conference really cemented this for us and being able to share our legacy with so many amazing people was the icing on our birthday cake! Here’s to another 10 years.”