Vantage attends Call to Action Conference in Vancouver
Mike here—more commonly known around the office as the “landing page guy”—to give you the lowdown on CTAConf. Having won tickets to the conference through talking with the Unbounce team about improvements to the platform and submitting a feature request document, we were the lucky few that received two free tickets to their annual conference! With the primary topic of the conference being centered on conversion rate optimization, Steve and I decided to take the reins and attend the conference. With landing pages still fresh on my mind, I was eager to learn new industry trends and broaden my scope of the discipline. The conference extended over a two day period with loads of content on a variety of hot industry topics.
The Venue:
Located on beautiful Granville Island, Vancouver, we were surrounded by views of the ocean and city. The two level building provided a constant stream of snacks and refreshments making our experience that much more rewarding. Staff and speakers kept the energy high from the moment you arrived until you left.
Day 1:
We arrived at Granville Island and were greeted by the always-high energy Unbounce staff. Walking into the venue, Steve and I began to explore the building and ready ourselves by casually talking to other like-minded attendees. Anticipations for the first session were high.
Oli Gardner, co-founder of Unbounce, kicked off the conference with a very informative presentation entitled “The Four Corners of Conversion optimization”. Using a wealth of data from their systems, Oli educated us on landing page optimization trends, including copy, data, and customer experience.
Two more speaker sessions played out as we looked forward to having lunch in one of the many options available to us. If you’re not familiar with Granville Island in Vancouver, it can only be descripted as a unique tourist area underneath a bridge overlooking the ocean. If you are to ever decide to visit Granville Island, look out for the aggressive urban seagulls that seem to out-number the human inhabitants at certain times of the day. They became more commonly known at the conference as the velociraptors, always on the hunt to steal your lunch.
Feeling re-charged and energized, Steve and I snagged a good seat in the theatre and awaited the remaining speakers for the day.
Day 1 concluded with a powerful talk by Wil Reyonds, the founder of Seer Interactive. He had great insight into topics related to Branding and Conversion Rate Optimization. Steve seemed to especially gravitate towards his material as he fiercely jotted down notes.
Day 2:
Inspired by all the actionable conversion rate optimization information obtained from day 1, I arrived an hour early to take advantage of the free breakfast and mingle with other conference attendees. Surprisingly, I met a handful of people from all around the world including Australia, Britain, and the USA. All experts in their respective fields that were just as diverse as where they came from.
As we settled in for the festivities of day 2, we were excited for the informational sessions to begin with Joanna Wiebe set to go first. Joanna’s a talented copywriter by trade who reinforced the importance of linking conversion rate optimization and copy. Her presentation, in my opinion, was one of the best of the conference.
Up next was Unbounce’s very own Michael Aagaard who was set to give his talk on conducting data-driven conversion research. His talk was incredibly engaging and was by far my favourite of the entire conference. His passion and personality seemed to shine brightly on the subject, leaving us with actionable insight that we can actually use. Later that evening, I even had the pleasure of meeting him at the after party to discuss his material.
The final two speakers rounded out our last morning as we all flocked to lunch readying ourselves for the upcoming events.
Delightful for the ego, many of the hot topics on the second half of the day were already weekly conversations being had at Vantage. The conference ended with a bang by offering up a discussion panel and live landing page smack down to the poor unfortunate souls that had their landing pages torn apart by some of the industry’s leading specialists.
The Wrap Up:
The informative and intimate sessions kept everything feeling like a tight-knit community. What I found truly special about the conference was the ability to interact with the speakers and attendees with ease. Unlike larger conferences everyone starts to recognize each-other over a two day period.
The great variety of speakers and attendees were also not afraid to speak their minds and dive into controversial topics in a room full of conversion rate optimization specialists and marketing professionals. This really did give the conference a sense of authenticity. Overall CTA Conference was a complete success leaving us feeling empowered, inspired, and ready to take home elements to improve our agency.
Hope to see you next year CTA Conference!
