Have We Gone Mad? Why Are We Organizing Our Own CX event?

Pierce Buckley at babelforce explains why they are organising their own CX event.

I’m organizing a CX event, by a lake. It’s gonna be a hell of a lot more fun than any convention. We’re gonna have good food and entertainment, and (hopefully), see CX in a whole new light.

But can I really justify dipping a toe in the complicated world of events management? Or are my co-organizers and I mad for even trying?

Have you ever been in one of those situations where a crazy idea kind of escapes from you?

Sort of like that holiday that someone suggests in a whatsapp group. The kind where you think ‘that’ll never happen’ and then somehow you end up outside a taverna with your old college classmates…and some guy called Artur who no-one invited but everyone likes.

It turns out a business event is way harder to organize than a holiday; but (together with our co-organizers from Leafworks) we made it happen. And this year we’re doing it again.

CX Fest started as a crazy pipedream; it came true because we were (obsessively) determined. And here’s why…

Most CX Events Are Boring. This One Will Blow Your Mind

It’s a drizzly Wednesday morning. You’re standing in the lobby of a chain hotel, queuing for your lanyard.

Your tie feels tight and your little paper cup of coffee is lukewarm. You must be at a tradeshow again.

What city is this? It doesn’t matter – Rome, Reading, or Rotterdam – the tradeshow is the same. The tradeshow never changes.

How many events did you attend in 2023? Were they useful? Were they… fun?

I’ll do my answers first.

Loads. Yep, I’ll keep going to them. No, they were not so fun.

I’ve been going to CX events for 25+ years, and I’ve noticed something. Most of them are separated into two parts. The ‘work part’ during the day, and the fun part during the evening.

I’m gonna say it. That’s a strange way to run an event. A lot of the time the real conversations happen at the evening event – once people have relaxed.

Which means the day event often involves a lot of waiting. You’re waiting for the fun part. And you’re waiting for the part where you actually make connections.

At CX Fest, we’re gonna do both at the same time. There’ll be keynotes, wakeboarding, panels, music; and it’ll all happen on the beach. Fun is a productivity hack.

We Want to Spark Some Divergent Ideas

**Warning klaxon, red flashing lights** Seemingly out of context reference incoming.

This Will Make More Sense in a Moment

Imagine that you and your team are sat around a table. And you have to write down as many ways of using a brick as possible. What kinds of things do you come up with?

Paperweight? Doorstop? Bookend?

Or, do you go more off-piste, and come up with ‘grind the brick into dust and use it to color paint’?

If your ideas were anything like that last one, you’d score highly. Because (surprise!) you were taking a test.

A test of ‘divergent thinking’, which you might otherwise know as ‘out of the box thinking’.

Now Here is the ‘More Sense’ I Promised

Divergent thinking is useful, and there are things you can do to make it more likely to happen.

It’s something I noticed at CX Fest last year. If you get a few hundred really clever people together, and then create an atmosphere where everyone can relax: you create the conditions for eureka moments.

Because basically the less stressed your people are, the more likely they are to have original ideas.

That’s what I’m looking forward to most this year. 350 CXperts, having fun and pooling inspiration.

(Check out ‘Brain Rules for Work’ by John Medina if you’d like to learn more about encouraging divergent thinking.)

Enriching Individuals is Great for Business

Another reason why we’re doing this: we want there to be an event that delivers massive value to the participants as individuals and as professionals.

You’d think this would be obvious, but most events actually skew towards value for business and overlook value for individuals.

The reason for this is obvious: event tickets are expensive, so event organizers appeal to the managers who are funding the tickets.

I totally get this. We all want an ROI if we’re sending our people out into the world.

Which is why our co-organizers and we are building value for business and value for individuals into CX Fest.

The tickets are more affordable than your average business event, but they still deliver unmatched educational value and access to insights from our industry’s rising stars.

And then there’s the other kind of ROI, the one that keeps on giving…if you invest in individuals.

Did you know that a single fun activity at work can boost creativity for 6 months?

Or that the ROI you get from investing in employee health can be as high as 3,300%?

I genuinely want everyone who attends CX Fest to feel rejuvenated and inspired. And I whole-heartedly believe that this is gonna feed back into some great CX work when we all go back to reality afterwards.

There Are Crazy Things Happening in CX

AI is changing everything. It’s getting harder and harder to hire agents. Consumers are savvier and harder to impress. The list goes on.

So we’re going to assemble the avengers. 35 speakers, and 350 attendees, sharing their own unique perspectives and solving problems.

Here are some of things I’m excited to geek out about, our four CX Fest talk tracks.

Just a Phase? AI & Automation Beyond 2024

Everybody knows that AI is here to stay. Nobody knows what that means yet. But if we bring together enough leaders on the cutting edge of AI and automation tech, you can guarantee some insight into where these wild new technologies are taking us.

Big, Crazy Predictions for CX

Does your CX roadmap make space for the unpredictable? What if we put our heads together and made some educated guesses about the direction our industry will take in the next decade…

How To Be a Leader Worth Following

Every day’s a school day when you’re a leader. So let’s talk about leadership checklists, how to be the most resilient version of yourself, and the key role of emotional intelligence. And hey, let’s talk about bad leaders too – what’s your checklist for being “worth following?”

There’s No CX Without EX!

Pierce Buckley

No miserable and stressed-out team ever delivered world-class customer experience. So how do the world’s greatest CX providers run teams that are cross-functional, collaborative, productive… and happy?

I love talking about CX, so getting our community together on the beach to discuss topics like these is a dream come true.

For more information about babelforce - visit the babelforce Website

About babelforce

babelforce is the composable customer experience platform uniting agents and automation. Our platform gives you the power to create the customer experiences you’ve always wanted, with tools anyone can use.

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Call Centre Helper is not responsible for the content of these guest blog posts. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of Call Centre Helper.

Author: babelforce