Steve Waugh, the cricketing legend who has multiple records to his name including being ranked the most successful test captain ever. Well, hearing that name from an author’s speech and even getting to know that the title of her book is inspired by Steve Waugh’s quote was even more astonishing. Well, all this and more was happening at an action-packed day on November 25th. This was the session by Ms Anita Bhogle. It was indeed enriching and focussed around the title of her new book – Equal Yet Different.
Coming back to where I was, it was this the first edition of SPECTRA in the physical form taking place in Mumbai. I travelled for it from Delhi’s and enjoyed every moment thoroughly.
The on -ground event had a unique group of eight speakers which was a mix of authors, business leaders, business leaders and motivational speakers.
A conference with a lot of learning and networking opportunities and as rightly put by one of the speakers at this conference “it’s a MYTH that networking and personal branding is for fools”.
The conference started with a talk on Reputation from the lens of a business leader by the finance professional turned entrepreneur Ms Shinjini Kumar, who is co-founder of fintech app for women – SALT. It was indeed enriching.
Aparna Primal Raje, the author of ‘Chemical Khichdi | How I Hacked My Mental Health’, beautifully shared from her life experience, that has led her to realise that mental health and illness are fundamental elements of the human condition, cutting across society, whatever the triggers and drivers, it is essential to withhold judgement.
A session on the future tech from Mr. Manas Dewan on ‘The business case for METAVERSE’, wherein he highlighted that brand communicators must take the first step towards technological progress by diving straight in and must constantly discover new ways to communicate. With some amazing examples he shared that using Metaverse, we can go from telling stories to “story-living,” which was an amazing insight.
Ms. Sudha Singh from the Purpose Room, during her session on “The importance of ESG in a Purpose-driven world” conveyed that Purpose is not a strategy, it is a “why” of the strategy. She also threw some light on hard facts, stating that By 2050, the oceans will have 80% more plastic than fish. We have been passive observer while our earth was being destroyed. We have less than 10 years to achieve our SDGs, the percentage of CEOs naming ESG as Ione of their priorities has doubled from 2020 to 2021 and much more on the topic.
A fun session about personal branding with Mr. Ambi Parameswaran, wherein he begun by saying that personal branding is too complex but there are some simple steps that you need to follow while working on personal branding, begin with 1. Know who you are. Can you define yourself, confirm if people think the same about you; 2. How do your present yourself; 3. What is your voice; 4. How do you monitor it. He also pointed out some very basic hygiene factors that we as communicators need to be careful with – Eg. While it’s good to have a shadow writer to build your personal brand, one person writing for three-four leaders in the same organisation is a big no-no.
The event also saw the launch of very insightful Brands in Motion report, “The Bravery Mandate: Make It Real” by Mr. Nitin Mantri.
The study reveals how perception towards brands in these uncertain times have changed. The four key highlights of the study are.
- Practicality Takes Precedence
- Show your work
- Start from the Top
- Lean towards S in ESG
Mr. Mantri also had a fireside chat with Ms. Nyrika Holkar, Executive Director, Godrej & Boyce, wherein she highlighted that – it’s the core responsibility of brands to shape preferences and work in a larger ecosystem. One needs to have patient capital when it comes to purpose and profits. You take a few bets, and it takes time, coordination with government, consumer awareness & education: it’s not immediate. The question is, how much is your appetite for waiting?
Finally, a super inspiring session from the business leader and author Karan Bajaj, the founder of WhitehatJr. which was enlightening. He highlighted the ups and down of his carrier path by simply defining it as “There’s a regular path, which is linear but there is also an alternative path, where you go through ups and downs, with growth events and then these dots converge showing that life is accelerating
Well SPECTRA 2022 saw a unique blend of story tellers from authors/motivational speakers to business leaders defining future tech that will help corporate communications professionals in building stories.
I can’t wait for the next edition. In the meanwhile, I am planning to be at REPRISE – a similar event in Bangalore on January 20th 2023. See you there!
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