The Minio Studio team made the most of the 2023 conferences. This time, we’re talking about GPeC , Retail Arena, Creativity4Better, Biz PR and Webstock. So, we invite you to read impressions and highlights that our colleagues found out about and experienced at the industry events from October 2023.

We start with Bogdan Ivașcu, Head of Growth, who attended the Retail Arena. For 2 days, specialists in retail, FMCG, logistics, courier and e-commerce presented their strategies to prepare for future trends.

1. Tell us one super-awesome thing you learned at the conference.

Bogdan: I actually have two.😊 The first one is about people: people in retail are increasingly concerned with understanding GenZ (and, by extension, Gen Alpha). Especially since they will represent about 50% of retail consumers in 2030. So the future looks bright for those agencies that know how to bring retailers and young people together. I know one 😉 The other thing was on the vibe level: connections, connections, connections. Retail Arena is an extremely prolific networking event because it actively encourages interaction between attendees, both live and from the Social Lounge, their online platform. I had the opportunity to meet high-profile marcomm people and learn up close what specific needs they have (communication, business, employer).

Next up is Cristiana Pană, Head of Strategy, who attended the annual global conference “Creativity4Better”, organised by IAA.

2. What was the most interesting topic discussed there, from your point of view?

Cristiana: Several points I thought were worth noting, especially how we can integrate all the new technologies (AR, generative AI, social networks, etc.) towards unifying well-being globally, to solving sensitive issues and even integrating certain groups of people to main resource networks. Also, what I liked was the aspirational, educational and balanced discourse on best practices, rules, tips & tricks on how to protect our copyrights in a world where content creation has been liberalized (including on AI).

Part of our agency’s Reputation team came to Biz PR: Marius Marin, Head of Reputation, and Mădălina Badea, PR & Influencer Executive, were among the participants of the 12th edition of the conference.

3. Who was your favourite speaker and what drew your attention to them?

Marius: I’ll mention two speakers – one as an agency representative and one from a brand. I liked Oana Bulexa‘s (Managing Director, MSL The Practice) honest x-ray of the PR industry in our country, who also pointed out how the role of PR has changed and that we need to give it more value in the campaigns we do, and I also liked Valentina Vesler‘s (Director of Communication & PR, Valvis Holding) who talked in a relaxed way about AQUA Carpatica’s latest brand campaign (Flavours), how they gave themselves permission to try something different, about the collaborative style with partner agencies, about being open to new creative perspectives.

Mădălina: Andrei Dunuță (Founder Speakings & The Art of NOT Selling), all the way. His presentation always seems like that kind of motivational speech, but if you listen to it you see that the metaphors he uses are so well integrated, they give you a bit of food for thought. Also, Simona Simon (Creative Director, McCann PR) & Roxana Dibă (Managing Director, Golin), who were super natural and effervescent and kept my attention throughout the presentation. And my soft spot goes to Virginia Oțel (Communication Leader, Garanti BBVA Romania / Co-President, PWN Global), for showing us that even the banking industry can be in the game with the big names in Marketing – if only it has perseverance and knows how to constantly reinvent itself.

We also didn’t miss the GpeC Summit, the conference that celebrated its anniversary with thought leaders in e-commerce and digital marketing. Minio’s representatives were Ioana Mucenic, CEO, and Marius Marin, Head of Reputation.

4. Tell us one thing that simply amazed you, something you first learned there.

Marius: It was a day full of information and know-how on the e-commerce area, but one thing that stuck in my mind and somehow amazed me is how much the online shopping we do from big Chinese sites, like Shein or Temu, contributes to the increase of the e-commerce level in our country. One of the guests even said that Shein has become a kind of EMAG, so much power has it got and high trust capital from Romanian customers.

We can’t end this article without mentioning the Webstock conference and gala, where we participated, judged, moderated, but most importantly – won! You can learn more about the experience of participating in all our various capacities, here.

So, you just found out how things went at the October 2023 conferences where our colleagues attended: they left them with know-how, insights worth remembering and applying, excitement on stage and, most of all, the joy of being recognized for an integrated campaign, enthusiastically implemented by a super client-agency team 😊