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Jenny Lassi

By: Jenny Lassi on October 23rd, 2014

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Value Things That Matter

mailto:demo@example.com?Subject=HighRoad Solutions - interesting article

slingshot

I had the opportunity to attend a gigantic conference last week, The 2014 MIMA Summit, and I wanted to share with you a key take-away that I took away from the event. This year's event was themed Rise of the Machines and it took a more technical approach to Interactive Marketing which not only speaks to the geeky side of me but also the realist in me because let's face it, marketers can want things, but it takes a developer/inventor/architect/engineer to realize and manifest something from thin air.

The lunch keynote speaker was Dean Kamen, the founder and president of DEKA Research & Development Corporation which developed the HomeChoice™ portable dialysis machine, the iBOT Mobility System, the Segway Human Transporter, a DARPA-funded robotic arm, a new and improved Stirling engine and the Slingshot

Dean has received many awards for his efforts, including the National Medal of Technology in 2000 and the Lemelson-MIT Prize in 2002. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2005 and has been a member of the National Academy of Engineering since 1997. 

His mantra: "From an early age, I've always wondered how this universe of ours operates and through the world of engineering, I wanted to start applying those rules to create inventions that would give people a better quality of life if those inventions worked." If you asked anyone who benefits from one of his inventions, they would tell you that Dean Kamen has a passion for finding real human problems and manifests a solution using engineering and technology. 

Among Dean's proudest accomplishments is founding FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), an organization dedicated to motivating the next generation to understand, use and enjoy science and technology. 

Dean had the ear of every attendee in the room. There were digital marketers from 3M, General Mills, Wells Fargo, US Bank, Medtronic, Lifetime Fitness, United Health Group to name a few. At the end of his keynote, there was a bit of time for Q&A, well not really, but 1 from a MIMA board member. She went on to ask him what challenge he would have for this large room of digital marketers. He didn't even need time to think. He said "Put a female science or engineering student on a box." Of course this was directed at General Mills as a direct challenge to just once, change the focus of the Wheaties box to highlight and value something that mattered and made the world a better place. We are raising today's youth to look up to athletic stars, celebrities and although they can be good entertainment, but no football game ever solved the world's clean water crisis, but a junior engineering student might. 

So the grand take-away is to value things that matter. Teach whomever you have the ability to influence to value things that matter and things that make a difference.

For your association or non-profit, you exist to carry out the mission of the organization and your goal is to deliver content to your constituents that matters. The mission is not to increase membership conversion metrics by X% in Q4. The membership conversion rates are a direct correlation with member engagement once you find what resonates with them and matters to them. We at HighRoad take pride in helping you do just that.