Have you ever considered how you learn? The majority of conferences and events are “passive learning events”. That is, they are events where the knowledge flows one way, from the stage to the audience. At Interactive Minds, we are the first to advocate for the value of educational events, after all it’s our background and a large body of our expertise. But, we also know that there is so much benefit that marketers can gain from more personal, active interactions, and that these interactions are difficult to organise and nearly impossible to scale. Over the years we’ve witnessed the need for both large scale industry events where we learn passively, together with more active event opportunities where we participate in order to keep our knowledge fresh and do our best thinking. We need to hear what is working for others, plus get input on where we are going, our priorities and ideally have some help to stay aligned with our goals. In the marketing space, traditionally there has been an abundance of “passive” events and almost no “active” events, (perhaps outside of a specific workshop or course). But that has now changed with the addition of Marketing Mastermind Days. The mastermind day concept first gained traction with entrepreneurs and business owners who benefited greatly from active conversations with like-minded peers. These days are more about “active learning” and differ from educational events in a few significant ways, let me explain the difference.

Interactive and personal

Mastermind days are interactive and personal. Unlike a conference where you could attend and it would be possible to not say a word to anyone for the whole day (though not advisable!), mastermind days are the opposite. There is no stage or microphones and no presentations given to you. You are not one of 500 or 2,000 in the room, you are one of 6 or 8. By the end of a mastermind day, you know everyone else in the room not just by name, but you understand some of how they work and what they work on and you’ve benefited from their experience.

Participation is key

At a mastermind day everyone participates in the conversations. Everyone works as a group to solve problems, to give feedback and to generate ideas. Plus, everyone has the chance to get the input of the collective group on something they are working on. What would you ask if you could get valuable input from six experienced peers? Unlike at a conference where the information flows one way (one to many), at a mastermind day it’s the opposite, ask your question and you get multiple people giving you input.

New relationships

At the end of a mastermind day, attendees have forged new, deep relationships. A relationship where you could pick up the phone and call someone you’ve met and have a meaningful follow up discussion. These are real relationships that go beyond a single event, but that you can continue nurturing for years to come.

Highly relevant

At a mastermind day, you are part of every conversation in the room. If you didn’t set the topic for that particular conversation yourself, then you are still contributing to it and benefiting from it. After experiencing the benefits first hand of participating in mastermind days, Interactive Minds now runs regular Marketing Mastermind sessions for senior marketers to collaborate. The benefits have certainly passed through to marketers who have been involved. Check out what some of our participants have said.
If you’re interested in participating actively in your next event, consider joining us for a mastermind. You can check out upcoming dates below or take a look at The Circle, a mastermind program for senior marketers. Upcoming Masterminds:  There are currently no mastermind dates scheduled. Sign up to receive our monthly emails to be the first to know when more dates are released.