IBM Business Connect 2013

Hello there! So this week I was lucky enough to get the chance to attend one of IBM's biggest conferences in our events calendar- Business Connect is an all-day event and is held at various locations across the globe! The conference focuses on technology and innovation in IBM's areas of expertise: social, mobile, cloud, analytics, big data etc. The event was held at Twickenham Stadium and due to IBM's partnership with Rugby Football Union, the entire event was rugby themed. As Registrations started at 7:30- I had a very early start and decided to stay with my friend in London- this was my view of Canary Wharf at 5:30am

 

Very early start indeed!

I arrived at Twickenham Stadium and I was interested to see how the entire conference area had been transformed into an IBM event by the use of fantastic branding- the rooms looked great!

 

I was quite lucky to be able to watch the speeches as I was working inside the main auditorium, I was able to meet David Stokes- CEO of IBM UK which was such a great experience! Then I listened to his speech about the future of technology- he said that 25% of future marketing jobs will have the need for a background in technology- and he predicted that the implementation of Cloud will produce a huge amount of jobs in the next few years- something worth thinking about taking an interest in!!

 

David Stokes on stage 

Throughout the day there were lots of smaller debates and workshops for the deligates, business partners and IBMers to attend. I was mainly working behind the scenes. I had a great chance to see how such a large scale event is run- and ultimately how well IBM present themselves at their own events and how great the feedback from attendees is!

I also got a sneaky chance to sit in IBM's corporate hospitality box at Twickenham Stadium and have a look at the stadium!

 Here's a selfie of me in the stadium!!!

After a very long, but interesting and rewarding day, I got to hear a speech by Ben Kay, former Rugby World Cup Champion.

Here's Ben Kay on stage

He spoke about Leadership, Motivation, Determination, Teamwork and Discipline and how these strengths helped his team win the world cup. He also spoke about how these strengths can be applied to Business.

It was a great day and I was very lucky to be able to attend!

Steph