3 months, 27 events, 6 client evenings, hundreds of contacts
You may have noticed on my LinkedIn about the real impacts of the first article Tour de e-commerce conference. One of them was the impetus to kick off something similar in Slovakia as well. On November 24, the eCommerce connect event by TrustPay was held on the Sundeck boat in Bratislava. But the whole round started on August 30. Since then, I’ve flown through almost 30 more events, and now I’m flying to Sri Lanka to take a look at it from the other side (of the globe).
With the end of summer, an event a week
This time it started on August 30 with the first event from cc.cz/ecommerce, which CzechCrunch started its trilogy of e-commerce events. From non-public sources, I can confirm that they intend to continue with this. So you can look forward to it next year as well. Since it was their first e-commerce event, it didn’t go without some minor “fuckups,” like the fact that their managed networking wasn’t at all managed and actually wasn’t there at all. People in e-commerce are not very used to paying for their drinks, so they packed up and left right after the lectures.
Another event could be MBFWP, which lasted several days and I personally visited the Zoot fashion show, where I met not only many familiar e-commerce faces, but also a lot of influencers. I like it when these worlds interconnect.
At the beginning of September, the Shopcamp, which is overseen by Johana Kapošváryová, took place as usual. This time I didn’t make it to the event from the morning like in previous years, but I joined in the afternoon after work and focused only on networking. I left a less senior colleague and colleagues from support and marketing at our Ecomail booth. The afterparty was taken care of by Retino this time, who really excel at these events. They made an arrangement with a cafe opposite the ČVUT and organized it there. Thanks for that, Marek!
A week later, I went for the first time to an event by the Taste agency. I chose Social Date #9, where, among other things, my friend Klára Lošková spoke in general about reactive marketing. Martina Bechyňová (aka @inkoustovatecka) was also there, talking about how Liftago works with reactive marketing. I have to say: hats off! At the event, I got to know a lot of people from the Taste agency and, among other things, we arranged a cooperation for the joint E-mail Restart event, which you can look forward to in January (want a discount? write to me!).
The next day, we had training for our clients and partners at Ecomail. The whole day I networked at the Golf Hotel and got to know our clients. The main goal was for clients to know that there are real people behind Ecomail, not just emails and online chats. 🙂
From the training, I hurried straight to Eshopista, which this time took place in the Theatre Royal in Vinohradech. I have to tell you (and I’ve already told the organizers) that this space is unfortunately really not suitable for such an event… Due to the theater layout, the event during the lectures is absolutely unusable for networking, which for me as someone who goes to these events primarily for networking rather than content, was quite a problem. That’s why I was warned 3 times to be quiet. After explaining that people come to the event for different purposes, and after the end of the program, I evaluate it as a great event that we all enjoyed as usual. The next Eshopista was held on October 20 finally in different premises – Spojka Karlín. How did it work there? We’ll get to that too.
Is going for a beer also networking?
The next day, I had a beer scheduled with a client and a potential future partner. You may argue that this is not exactly a conference, but for networking and getting to know clients, it is a very important part. And that counts. After dinner, a few beers, and several agreed next steps, I moved on to the first autumn eCommerce Beers, which, as you already know, is organized by Marek Duda, Patrik Babinec and Alena Barnová. This time the event took place in the Bootiq offices in Prague 5 and again I met a lot of great people, although most of them I already knew.
On Saturday, September 17, I again stuck my nose out of e-commerce as such and visited Zažít Kamenickou Jinak, which is organized by Arina Kuranová and my friend Eliška Nováková – the donkey bridge – with Eliška we almost 3 years shared a store with DARK / Concept Store. At the event, I had the opportunity to meet a lot of people with their own brands or stores, which are still my potential customers, so it actually counts, doesn’t it?
After a few days, I went to the second e-commerce event by CzechCrunch and it was clear that they took the feedback I gave them at the first event to heart and adjusted a lot of things. For example, you won’t find any managed networking with them anymore and the alcohol is also “free” to a certain extent… But the event was much more beneficial in terms of networking, and when I was one of the last to move with people from CC to Dva Kohouty around 10 in the evening, I was really happy! Thanks to the whole organizing team led by Kája Kováčová.
On September 23, the Forbes Gala Evening was held, which completely passed me by – it was one of those events where the “cream of CZ e-commerce” gets together. Anyway, I know from hearsay that the event was successful and well done. Maybe next year it won’t pass me by… 😛
2 weeks of rest and back to the events
Other than private events, a visit to Moravia and the like, I had almost 2 weeks off. Subsequently, in our Ecomail offices under the guidance of Karel Dytrych and Jakub Stupka, we welcomed more than 10 salespeople who exchanged experiences with each other within the framework of the Mastermind. For that, thank you very much, because it was almost 3 exhausting hours, but very rewarding.
The next day, I went for a beer with one of our biggest clients, Alensa, and the Promogen agency. It was a very successful e-commerce gathering and also a great strengthening of relationships. Thanks, guys, and I’m looking forward to the next steps!
A week later, the first edition of Digifest, organized by Dáváme, started. The expo itself didn’t interest me much, mainly because of the large number of people in a small space. But the afterparty was successful, even though it wasn’t as big in terms of the number of people.
On Thursday, October 13, we at Ecomail, together with Zásilkovna and Shoptet, organized the Eshopy eshopařům event, which, from my point of view, was successful – 3 speakers, 6 concurrent Mastermind sessions and over 100 people in the great offices of Zásilkovna.
The next week on Monday, Marek Duda, Vít Matějka and Michal Tylček and I sat down for the first time for the input Mastermind from the beginning of the month and went deeper. We discussed our pipeplines, processes, but also the whole functioning of our business activities. We were ambitious and immediately agreed on (the first possible) date for December 5. But in the end it didn’t work out for us. One of us was in Italy, another had an offsite meeting there, and I was leaving a week before. Well, guys, so in February, right?!
On Wednesday, I visited another networking from the eCommerce Beers series, this time at testuj.to in Prague’s Karlín. I was really looking forward to this personally, because I know the girls who run testuj.to from these networking events of mine. But I also knew that I would finally make them a potential Ecomail customer – well, still only a potential one? In addition, it was special for me because I was arranging a guest for the panel discussion on influencer marketing. So in addition to Erika Eliášová, Eva Čejková and Martin Vévoda, Jonáš Čumrik also participated. Overall, it was a very successful event, because I also came up with a new business that we are now pushing further and further every day. If everything goes well, it will see the light of day next year. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
2 events a day? No problem
The next day, I had 2 more events – the first was the internal Ecomail Meet up for agencies and partners who cooperate with us, and the second was Eshopista. I left the internal event after part of the program and after greeting and exchanging a few words with all the familiar and some unfamiliar faces. Since Eshopista was supposed to be on the topic of customer retention this time, I needed to be there. At least that’s what I thought. This time the event took place in Spojka Karlín, which I know well from events by cc.cz and others. Anyway, it was very narrowly focused only on Exponey customers and unfortunately there weren’t that many people there. Actually, there were quite few, as Jakub Malý and I agreed.
After a short break, on November 1, I went to the last of the three-part CzechCrunch e-commerce events. You already know enough about them – this one also had a similar vibe. It’s nice to see that the events are connected. And thanks to that, a lot of familiar faces are circulating there, which only change a bit according to the topic of the lectures.
The next day, I had a long-standing dinner with the guys from Trenýrkárna, which I could again hide under the “client,” but I would rather call it a friendly one. Because with Ruslan Skopala and Adam Rožánek we already have something behind us and it’s definitely not just a client relationship – and that’s the nicest thing about it all!
The very next Thursday was the LiveSport Talk, to which I was invited, but in the end I didn’t attend. From hearsay, I know that the content of the event was great (branding was mainly discussed), but in terms of networking, it wasn’t that great. Anyway, these one-off, corporate events are another great opportunity to learn something and meet people who maybe don’t normally go anywhere, they’re just hard to find…
The next week on Monday, Footshop celebrated its birthday, and since they celebrated it as part of an exhibition at the Mánes Gallery, which is around the corner from my office, I went there at least to greet them and show up again. I believe you’ll find out why sooner or later.
The next day, I went to meet the person in charge of mailing at Zoot and their group, because we’ve been writing to each other for more than 2 years and we’ve never had the opportunity to meet.
Wednesday followed and another Minutové Deskovky – you’ve heard about them too. This time they were exceptional again, because they were on Wednesday instead of the classic Sunday and they were the last ones this year. Another great event full of new contacts and familiar faces with a great party and afterparty…
The next day, I attended the last eCommerce Beers of this year, this time at Opera under the guidance of TrustPay. There, among other things, I learned that the first part of this article was such a success that the girls from TrustPay actually motivated them to also get involved in such events.
In addition, Ruslan took me with him to the Breitling bootiq’s 1st birthday celebration, which I really enjoyed as a watch lover. So an evening on top, because as usual I collected a lot of new contacts and deepened a lot of relationships.
I ended the week with a beer with Jakub Malý, Marek Růžička, Lukáš Adámek and Petr Polák and again we have two new collaborations and one on the way – again one of the more successful client evenings.
“Expansion” mission to Slovakia
On November 24, I went to an event in Slovakia (thanks to Trenýrkárna for lending me a car), as I mentioned – TrustPay decided to get a little more involved in the events and so they started their series of Slovak events. The first one was held on a boat in the center of Bratislava and it was one of the best events. Because leaving an event where there were about 35 people, with the fact that except for those you knew, you talked to everyone and kind of know everyone, is priceless. Thanks to this event and the meetings I attended there over the two days, I can say that the “expansion” to Slovakia started successfully in all directions. Both for Ecomail and for me with regard to influencer marketing or social media. I’m really looking forward to the next one and I hope we’ll manage it soon after my return sometime in February.
Right from Slovakia, I went to Červený Jelen, where Kuba Stupka (co-owner of Ecomail) invited me and other colleagues as a reward for helping to build the booth at the events. It could be called a very pleasant end to the networking season, but unfortunately or fortunately we haven’t finished yet…
Was it too much?
Why was I at so many events? Simply because I want to be seen. I’m not able to get to know everyone at the event, but getting to know someone is much easier when the other party starts with the words “I’ve seen you somewhere before.” 🙂
You can look forward to another article where I’ll go into more detail on some of the events and also I’ll soon reveal where I’m definitely heading next year.
