We Went to HubSpot’s Inbound ’22 Conference! Hear Our Story

Our bags were packed, destination? HubSpot’s annual event, Inbound, a networking event curated exclusively for marketing professionals.

Located at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center in Boston, Massachusetts, you can’t help but feel the magnitude of the event echoed by the impressive size of the expansive venue. One of the largest in North America, its capacity can carry over 40,000 people.  

It was going to be a week that was jam-packed with inspiring events, thought leaders, breakout sessions, conversations around social media, discussions about inbound strategy (of course), and experiences led by the industry’s top-tier movers and shakers. 

We were excited to get the opportunity to see a range of well-known and successful entrepreneurs speak, meet with others in our industry, and learn so much that we could bring back to our team – from ideas around design and gaining clarity through passion, to expanding diversity in the industry.

Our Top 5 Inbound Sessions

Emma Grede 

One of the first speakers at Inbound we saw was Emma Grede, CEO and co-founder of Good American, co-founder of Safely, and founding partner of SKIMS. A British businesswoman and a woman of color, who had gone through all the trials and tribulations of starting a business in the U.S. She spoke about female empowerment, and spoiler alert: we left feeling empowered.

She invests in startups and “advocates for driving change and championing diverse and inclusive representation across the industry”, which is evident through her work as Chairwoman of Fifteen Percent Pledge. Over the past few years, SKIMS has catapulted to being a leader in female shape and loungewear. Skin tone representation in this industry did not exist, now it is as personal as selecting a cosmetic foundation.

She spoke about Diversity Equity Inclusion (DEI) and the importance of hiring outside of your network and emphasized hiring someone who was different in general, as well as, the benefits of hiring a range of ages, backgrounds, etc. You may be asking yourself, "what if my network doesn’t include diversity?” 

Her solution? “If you don’t have diversity within your own network, then hire someone who does.” 

Key Takeaway —  Hire with diversity in mind (race, background, age).

Dharmesh Shah 

Dharmesh is a 15-year veteran and founding member of HubSpot, but if you ask him he is just another ”Tech guy” who still writes code in his spare time. His session was brimming with authenticity and insights on digging deep when it comes to finding what your passions are because that is where success lives. 

He talked about being CTO and never managing anyone within his company or writing reports because, well, he never liked doing that – so why do it? Understanding what you like and what you don't like is essential. You'll show a lot more progress in doing something that you actually like. 

Key takeaway — Focus on your strengths to assure you always remain an asset and value-added to your endeavors.

Jane Goodall 

Jane Goodall is one of the world’s, if not the leading, female primatologist. She began her career in her early 20s and has spent nearly 60 years dedicated to promoting animal conservation and welfare. 

She went through many hurdles in her career. One of the major ones she spoke about was not having a formal education, which she later saw as an advantage allowing her to have a fresh perspective on everything she saw and experienced. Also, in a primarily male-dominated field, she was constantly being told that she was "just a girl" and that she couldn't go to Africa to conduct animal research and study alone, that she didn't know what she was doing.

 Now, she is an icon in the world of anthropology and a living example of passion and female empowerment and speaks about the environment and how essential it is to preserve and advocate for a better future. We appreciated this diversion from a typical industry lead.

Key Takeaway — "If you really want something, you’re going to have to work hard, you’ll have to take advantage of every opportunity but don’t give up." (Goodall)

Tusar Barik + Amy Marino - The Power of Creativity with B2B Marketing 

Tusar Barik is the Agency and Partner Marketing Director at LinkedIn and Amy Marino, Global Brand Marketing, Advertising & Social at HubSpot spoke about the criteria they use to determine if something is engaging. 

This session gave us actionable tools and a female-forward insight into approaching current endeavors with actionable ways to boost sales strategies, generate valuable content, and better customer acquisition and retention. 

Always ask yourself these questions when creating something.

• Clear – Would my mom understand this?

• Persuasive – Do I know why this brand/ product is better?

• Engaging – Does it give me goosebumps or giggles?

• Actionable – Do I know where I can go from here?

Key Takeaway — Best brands give you the "feels", an emotional connection.

Barack Obama

President Barack Obama is known to be a captivating and enigmatic public speaker. Since leaving the White House he has been writing a memoir and working with heavy hitters such as Netflix and Spotify on a variety of projects. Sitting in on a live interview with him was definitely a pinch-us moment. 

HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan led the session. He asked Obama to expand on his views of how the American landscape has changed over the past couple of years and how he feels about America today. He responded that part of the beauty of this country is its inclusivity.

The current climate has shifted to many of us being dedicated to one side or one opinion. The inherent nature of our country is the diversity of our opinions. He highlighted that our opportunity for growth lies in our ability to learn how to listen to one another and find opportunities to learn and evolve to move past this current culture of argumentative polarity. 

This session was captivating and inspiring. This was relevant in the sense of the country, but also in a business environment -- we're able to better deliver results when we are listening to each other's ideas.

Key Takeaway - Be tolerant, listen, and let your 'opponents' speak. 

Bonus: Meeting IRL ❤️

Our team works remote from all around the world, so after working from home for months this was an opportunity for some of the team members to actually meet in person.

This experience, aside from being extremely valuable and educational, also served to bring colleagues together. We would probably go as far as to say that this experience deepened and improved our personal and professional relationships forever. We came back unified, inspired, and excited to continue motivating each other to succeed. 

A Massively Engaging Experience

All in all, attending Inbound 2022 was insightful and inspiring. We absolutely think it’s worth going to Inbound and have already bought our Inbound pass for next year!

Here are three things that we've learned from our experience:

• Sign up for as many deep dives as we’re interested in, early!
• Understand that we’ll probably only go to about half of the events because the location is massive and there is so much to do (network, photo ops, meetups)
• While there are food trucks on-premise, we'll be making time to get there and to stay in line. On the very first day, we were in line for over 30 minutes to get our food!
• Appreciate the team-building opportunity and take this time to get to know each other  <3

We feel so lucky that we got to go. We learned so much and walked out feeling motivated and refreshed with new ideas and built strong relationships and made memories with colleagues.