KELOWNA – Another successful CCSA Connect conference is in the books as about 200 folks from member companies, tech vendors and programmers made their way to Kelowna for a few days of learning, celebrating and fun.
Marketing maven Scott Stratten got Tuesday off to an entertaining, and relevant, start reminding delegates that everything (everything) they or their employees, or contractors do affects their brand and in these days of social media, doing good, or bad, by customers can spread quickly, “but bad travels farther, faster,” he explained.
Stratten also noted the paradox of the complaint call – which can be an opportunity to turn an angry customer with a problem into a loyal ambassador. “If you fix it at or above their expectations, they will love you more before the problem,” he said.
Also – don’t hate on millennials for changing everything or about their supposedly coddled upbringing where everyone got a trophy. “WHO WAS GIVING THEM THOSE TROPHIES!” Stratten rightly, and comically pointed out. Besides, older generations have always mistrusted younger generations anyway. “It’s just the law,” he said.
When you hire those young people and tell them you want their knowledge and feedback and to connect to their generation, “then listen to them,” urged Stratten. “Innovation happens through insubordination.” Don’t marginalize your new hires and their opinions just because they’re green. Besides, they probably have more Instagram followers than your entire business and can likely help with the company social media strategy.
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Cogeco had a solid presence at the Connect Conference as a gold sponsor where two of its executives were on hand meeting with and hoping to bring some or all of the CCSA on side to be a supporter of its hybrid mobile network operator proposal as the CRTC’s wireless review progresses. It’s an intriguing idea for both.
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Speaking of sponsors, this year’s big ones were Viacom (platinum), and gold sponsors A&E Network, AMC Networks, Fox Sports Racing, NBCUniversal, WarnerMedia (we’re sad to see the legacy “Turner” name disappear), TiVo, and Cogeco.
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CCSA CEO Jay Thomson said during his remarks at the closing dinner he recently read an article in The Economist, “which noted, with some shock, that more than 180 big company CEOs in the U.S., including the chiefs of Walmart and JP Morgan Chase, had just overturned three decades of business orthodoxy.
“It’s what sets you apart from the big providers. From the providers now threatening to pull their investments and their services from Canadians who need those investments and services the most right now.” – Jay Thomson, CCSA
“How? By pledging that their firms’ purpose was no longer to serve their owners alone, but customers, staff, suppliers and communities too.
“Huh!?” he added. “CCSA members, you have been serving your customers, staff, suppliers and communities since you first started in this business. Serving your customers, staff, suppliers and communities is your business orthodoxy. It’s what drives your success. It’s what sets you apart from the big providers. From the providers now threatening to pull their investments and their services from Canadians who need those investments and services the most right now.”
He also reminded everyone, “whether we are distributors, programmers or suppliers; whether we’re from the east, central, west, north or south, Canada, the U.S. or elsewhere; whether we’re labelled as millennials, Gen Xers, Boomers or some other equally maligned and misunderstood generational group – we all work in this exciting and dynamic Canadian industry because we have a shared purpose – that is, to serve and entertain Canadians wherever they live across this country, and, by doing so, to make their lives better.”
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Please join us in thanking and congratulating someone who works tirelessly behind the scenes for the CCSA, and for the 
Connect conference. The Alliance’s Debbie Randon, who has been running the conference for two decades (“She really is the one who steers this ship,” said Thomson on Tuesday), will retire in the spring from her position of events co-ordinator and manager of contracts. We at Cartt.ca will miss her tireless stewardship of our favourite conference, and her gentle, but effective reminders when we speakers and sponsors are late with things, and all of her hard work on behalf of the CCSA members. She is pictured here with Pelmorex’s Luc Perreault (who is also retiring, but we’ll have more on him later).
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Next year’s CCSA Connect will be held in Mont Tremblant, Que. Dates will be confirmed later.
Cartt.ca will have more to come from the conference later this week. Click to enlarge the images below.
Photos courtesy of Julie Pringle, Snap Commercial Photography.
