The most valuable things that have happened in my career didnât come from a strategy doc or a cold email. They came from being in the right place, being open, and saying yes to the thing that felt slightly uncomfortable. There is no version of growth that happens from the sidelines. At some point you have to get in the room and then actually do something once youâre there.
OMR is this week. Europeâs biggest marketing festival, founded by my friend Philipp Westermeyer. And Iâve been thinking a lot about how to actually make the most of it. Hereâs the framework I use, and why I think it applies well beyond conference halls.
The Three Pillars of Any Great Conference
1. Inspiration
This is the most obvious pillar but the easiest one to get wrong. Most people try to attend everything. They pack their schedule with back-to-back sessions, burn out by noon, and retain almost nothing. The better move is to be selective. Pick two or three sessions that are genuinely relevant to where your work is headed right now and be fully present for those.
The best learnings rarely come from the stage anyway. They come from the conversation in the hallway right after, when someone next to you says, âThat reminded me of something we tried last year and hereâs what happened.â Stay open to those moments. Theyâre where the real value lives.
2. Retaining Existing Relationships
This pillar gets underestimated every single time. Every client, business partner, and friend in the industry is probably going to be there. Conferences compress months of âwe should really catch upâ into two days. Thatâs genuinely rare. Use it.
Book the breakfast. Do the morning run together. Grab a beer at the bar between sessions. Attend the afterparty with someone youâve been meaning to spend more real time with. These arenât wasted hours. Theyâre the relationship maintenance thatâs nearly impossible to do over email and that compounds quietly over years in ways that are hard to measure but impossible to ignore.
3. Expanding Your Network and Getting Out of Your Own Way
This is the one that makes people shut down. The moment someone says ânetworkingâ half the room mentally checks out. I get it. The image it conjures, working a room, collecting business cards, pitching yourself to strangers, is exhausting just to think about.
But thatâs not what this is. Getting out of your comfort zone at a conference doesnât mean becoming someone youâre not. It means making one deliberate decision before you even arrive: I am going to be open to the people around me. Thatâs it. The rest follows naturally.
Hereâs what actually moves the needle:
- Post before the event. Put something on LinkedIn or Instagram: âIâll be at OMR this week, who else is going?â Itâs simple, it gets responses, and it starts conversations.
- Reach out to specific people in advance. If thereâs a founder you admire or a creator whose work you respect, message them now. Keep it human: âHey, Iâll be at OMR. Iâve been following your work for a while and would love to buy you a coffee sometime.â No pitch. No agenda. Most people say yes because itâs flattering and low commitment.
- Use your existing network as a bridge. Tell the people you already know who youâd like to meet. Theyâll make the introduction at dinner, the afterparty, or walking between stages. A warm introduction is worth ten cold approaches.
- Leave room for the unplanned. Some of the best conversations happen when youâre not trying. The person in the queue for a keynote. The stranger next to you at the bar. Donât schedule yourself so tightly that you cut those off.
This Is How My OMR Will Look
Notice whatâs built into it. The morning run isnât just exercise. Itâs pillar two. The unscheduled stroll from 1 to 4 PM on Tuesday isnât wasted time. Itâs pillar three. The framework isnât something you layer on top of your schedule. Itâs something you build into it from the start.
Meanwhile, On The Other Side of The World
While I was putting this OMR week together, something interesting was happening in California. Stagecoach, the country music festival that runs the same weekend format as Coachella, was in full swing. And watching the brand activations come out of it, I kept thinking: this is the exact same game.
Hereâs why that matters.
Stagecoach isnât trying to be Coachella. It has its own world, deeply Americana, genre-specific, fiercely loyal. The audience lives country music. And the brands that showed up this year understood that completely: Syre, Paramount, American Eagle and more. They showed up in theme, visually aligned, tonally on point.
Thatâs the same principle driving the best brand work at OMR.
Stagecoach and OMR are more similar than they look at first glance:
- Both are niche gatherings with hyper-committed audiences.
- Both create a concentrated window of time where the right people are all in the same place at once.
Deals get made between sets. Relationships form at afterparties. Partnerships that look spontaneous on the outside were the result of two people being in the same room at the right momentâand being open enough to have a real conversation.
This is the thing most people miss: they show up as an attendee. The people winning show up as a participant. Be one of those people this week.
WHATâS HOT
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- How do content creators change the rules of marketing?: Creators arenât like celebrities. They succeed because people choose to follow their unique perspective, not because of centralized fame.
- Longevity: The next brand opportunityâmost people donât realize.
- How to enter a new market: How BDX MEDIA helped BVB expand their footprint in LA.
COMMUNITY & EVENTS
- May 4 // BDX Sports Marketing Summit | Hamburg đ©đȘ â Details & Tickets
- May 5â6 // OMR Conference | Hamburg đ©đȘ â Details & Tickets (code: omr26-bdx)
- May 28 // Off the Books | Los Angeles â Details & Tickets
Thanks for reading this weekâs letter! Hope to see you at one of our events soon! đ
-Benni
