For Paul Telling, founder of the Visual Storytellers Group, the Sydney Executive PA Summit on 21 May offered something he hadn’t experienced before — direct access to engaged buyers in a format designed around real conversations rather than traditional exhibition selling.
Telling, who describes himself as a “visual storyteller”, attended the Summit after discovering the event through Executive PA Media.
“I’d never seen an event like this,” he said.
The Summit format is built around scheduled one-on-one meetings between suppliers and executive assistants and event organisers. It immediately appealed to him because it provided dedicated opportunities to explain his service directly to potential clients.
“What really sung true to me was hearing there would be allotted slots where we would literally be able to talk to possible clients and get future work,” he said.
Telling’s business specialises in live visual storytelling, capturing conference sessions and ideas in real time through illustrations and graphic recording. It is a niche offering that he says can sometimes be difficult to explain through conventional marketing alone.
The Summit’s workshop and presentation sessions proved particularly valuable because they allowed delegates to experience the concept first-hand.
“What I do is quite unusual, so it’s really hard for people to understand what it is,” he said.
During the event, Telling not only presented his own workshop session, but also visually captured presentations from other speakers throughout the day. That combination gave attendees an immediate understanding of how the service could work within conferences, meetings and corporate events.
“I was able to communicate the real value of using visual storytelling in your event and get everyone to experience actually drawing and having fun and seeing what the value is,” he said.
According to Telling, the interactive nature of the Summit significantly improved the quality of buyer meetings.
“That definitely made a huge difference to when I met people afterwards, because they were like, ‘Oh, it’s you — you’re the guy,’ and they were really excited to have a chat with me,” he said.
Rather than simply exchanging business cards, many discussions focused on practical applications for future events and internal business programs.
“I met a range of different people who were excited to meet me because they understood what it was I did and they could really see the value and how different and unique this was for them,” he said.
While some conversations centred on immediate event opportunities, others opened the door to longer-term collaboration and creative brainstorming.
“I said to a lot of people, let’s get on a call in a week or so and brainstorm some ideas and see what’s possible,” he said.
Following the experience, Telling said he would “absolutely” attend the Summit again.
“I’ve had a lot of fun. Everyone is so lovely. It’s a great bunch of people and they’re all enthusiastic and really friendly,” he said.
The Melbourne Executive PA Summit follows on the 23rd July.
Suppliers interested in participating can contact Sophie Prior on Sophie.prior@executivepa.com phone on 0416 558 457