Speaker announcement: John Espirian

You'll be shocked ... your next speaker at UpLift Live is me, John Espirian, the relentlessly helpful® LinkedIn nerd.

TRANSCRIPT

This is a solo episode of the UpLift Live podcast and that means that your next speaker at the LinkedIn-focused conference in Birmingham next March is ... me. I'm John Espirian. Welcome aboard.

Yes, so, it's me – I'm one of the speakers. No great surprise, I assume, as the conference was originally my idea. Still, just in case you thought I was just going to be doing only admin behind the scenes, I'm not: I will be talking about some advanced tips for LinkedIn.

I can't really share too much about what we're going to do, firstly because I don't want to spoil the surprise and secondly, the goal posts move so much that it might not be relevant by the time March comes along, which is the same as I noted with the other speakers that I've interviewed.

Anyway, I have got something fun in mind and that won't be the only fun thing on the day. I think LinkedIn has the potential to be quite stuffy and boring for a lot of people, and that's the exact opposite of what I want for our conference, so as well as just being a welcoming place to do lots of nice networking, we're going to try and make a real day to remember here, and I hope all of you enjoy it.

The first thing I thought about when coming up with the idea for a conference was an event specifically for LinkedIn specialists. The remit is definitely a bit broader than that, though. We are appealing to anyone who already knows how the platform works and just wants to push themselves to a new level.

So, for example, experienced social media managers who use LinkedIn for their clients might be the perfect fit here: people like that don't need to be told about creating a profile photo or updating their banner or really basic stuff like that. They want to get to the real juicy details of some advanced tips for using the platform, and that's what we're going to do in Birmingham.

Similarly, there might be some businesses out there who have a person inside the organisation who acts as their internal "LinkedIn expert", as it were. And those businesses might want to sponsor that person to come and soak up all of the goodies and then go back and instruct all of their employees.

Essentially, anyone who already understands the real value proposition of a business networking platform like LinkedIn would be a good fit to come to the conference and learn from all of the best experts on various advanced topics.

The bigger picture for me here is that if we can produce a business model that works in the UK, perhaps we can export it to other places. I know I've got lots of friends in the USA who I'd love to meet, and I haven't been there for 20 years so it would be great to have an excuse to go for both business and pleasure.

As I record this, tickets have been on sale for a couple of weeks but we've already sold a good number of them, and lots of people are really excited about coming to visit Birmingham and see the speakers and the other attendees.

I've got a few lovely voice notes from some of our Espresso+ members who are coming along to the conference.

In order, you're going to hear the voices now of Ann Davies followed by Lois Cliff and then Marjolijn Cohen.

I'm so excited about attending UpLift Live, the first ever LinkedIn-focused conference in the UK on 21 March 2024. There's going to be so many internationally renowned speakers. I really can't wait. Hope to see you there.

John Espirian, you legend. You have put together something totally awesome for LinkedIn that the UK has never seen before. What a lineup. It's incredible. You're awesome. And the team is awesome. UpLift Live in Birmingham next March for the win. To infinity and beyond.

I'm thrilled to attend the UpLift Live conference on the 21 March 2024 in Birmingham, and the speaker list is endless. It's such a high level, and also the attendee list. Well, I'm really looking forward meeting everybody and getting a deep dive into all the topics. Cheerio, John. Well done.

Lovely stuff and bonus points to Marjolijn because she's flying in from The Netherlands to be in the audience for this conference.

Now, I'm not sure whether a podcast should be for public service announcements, really, but we're currently sorting out things such as hotel discounts and a pre-event get-together the night before the main event, so that people can break the ice before the big day. Details of all of that will go out to ticket-buyers very soon.

If you haven't already got a ticket, now is the time, as we will be increasing the price pretty soon. You can hop aboard at uplift-live.com and that will get you an in-person ticket to see the apex operators of LinkedIn onstage on Thursday 21 March 2024 ...