10 Things I Learned Speaking in Curacao

Last week, I had the privilege and pleasure of joining my colleague Mike Brown of The Brainzooming Group to talk at the second Social Media and Content Workshop, hosted by the Curacao Tourist Board. Mike, who had spoken at the first workshop in 2016, covered branding and inbound marketing topics, while my session covered Facebook advertising and marketing.

We had a splendid time on this gorgeous island in the Dutch Caribbean, and I learned a few things along the way about Facebook marketing, speaking, and of course, the incredible people of Curacao.

Here, in no particular order, are ten things I learned speaking in Curacao at our sold-out workshop:

1. There is so much useful information to share about Facebook marketing, advertising strategy, analytics and tactics I could have talked an entire day. As it was, I had to boil it down to about 90 minutes, plus an additional 45 minutes of Q&A.
2. In that vein, I learned that many workshop attendees are hungry for step-by-step lessons on creating effective Facebook ads and campaigns. If I am asked to present on this subject again, I have learned a valuable lesson on what many businesspeople want to know the most.
3. Curacaoans are some of the most vivacious, kind and fun people I’ve ever met. They live in a paradise; they appreciate that fact and welcome visitors to share in its culture, tourist activities and spectacular environment. You must visit if you ever get the opportunity!
4. You never want to follow Mike Brown at a workshop. That guy knows his stuff and can really get an audience’s attention!
5. PowerPoint slides with too much content on them are almost as bad as no slide at all. (I know better–but Facebook advertising is such a complicated topic I had a tough time paring it down to a brief deck.) Though Mike and our colleague Angelo Harms from the Curacao Tourist Board helped me with editing some stuff out on rehearsal day, I know now I should have asked Mike to review and get his input ahead of the conference.
6. You can never go wrong telling the audience that your “agency isn’t the biggest, but it is the best.” Ha!
7. No matter how hard you worked to prepare, no matter how long you worked while on site, when you travel to a gorgeous locale like Curacao to work, your friends back home will think you’re loafing on the beach the whole time. (Maybe those beach and boat drink pics I posted to social media gave the wrong idea…)
8. If Facebook ever loses the ability to Locally Target their ads, there will be some p-o’ed people out there in the retail and tourism sectors.
9. Twitter has crossed the line from being a social interaction platform into a breaking news feed. (Hat tip to my colleague from Curacao, Angelo, who gave an interesting talk about Twitter’s future to open the conference).
10. You can learn from the people you are speaking to. Attendees at this workshop shared valuable frontline insights into their marketing challenges as well as their takes on what is on the horizon. Being a good speaker means also being a good listener.

Thanks, Curacao! Someday I will return. Count on it!