• by Seth Burstein
• May 31, 2017
• Experiential Marketing, Haute Dokimazo

I had the good fortune of attending the inaugural Haute Dokimazo event conference in Austin, Texas last week, which is an event for experiential marketers.  The conference set out to be a collaborative, somewhat freeform event “to share ideas and best practices,” bucking the common trend of the sit and listen, keynote centered conferences.  Organizers Liz Lathan, Tom Spano, and Nicole Osibodu did a fantastic job of bringing together an all-star cast of experiential marketing professionals, both from the brands side and the agency side, while Adrian Segar was MC for the day’s events and his energy/excitement was contagious.

Unfortunately, I missed the breakfast portion of the event, which I heard was delicious, and joined the group for the morning activities, which included some informative breakout sessions, starting with a meet and greet and continued into discussions relevant to various aspects of the experiential marketing event industry.  A chunk of time in the afternoon was reserved for sessions that were yet to be determined at the onset of the event.  As part of the morning activities, people wrote down topics that they would like to discuss in the afternoon and the most popular topics were then selected and moderated by attendees with the most relevant experience for the topic.

The event wrapped up with a “group spective” where attendees were encouraged to share positive feedback and/or things that would like to see changed for the future.  One participant was just chomping at the bit to share what he’d like to change about the event.  When he finally got the mic, the one thing that he was so eager to share was his regret that “the day had to end.”

On a personal note, I wrapped up my trip to Austin with a pit stop at the NLand Surf Park, a man-made surfing lagoon, so I can now check surfing in Texas from my bucket list.  Check it out if you are ever in Austin, as it is quite an experience.

All in all, I was super impressed with the level of experience that almost all the participants brought to the table, but equally impressed with how eloquently people were able to communicate their collective backgrounds, strengths, challenges and solutions.  While this may have been the first Haute Dokimazo event, it was exceedingly clear that the organizers and host were leveraging decades of professional experience to pull off such a fun and productive event.  I’m definitely looking forward to participating again in the future and, if you are at all involved in the experiential marketing industry, you should consider attending as well!