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A Lightning Strike in the Age of Disconnection

Play Bigger's Ashli Walkiewicz has been front and center for many Lightning Strikes and is, once again, at the center of the action for Hubspot's #INBOUND22 in Boston. She's currently attending in person on day 3 at their annual conference. We are excited to share some of Hubspot's insights into what it takes to be different in order to change the way people think about a problem.

Doesn't she look excited? Here's Ashli on day 1 taking a selfie (2 hours early so she could grab a seat in the front row) before watching Hubspot CEO Yamini Rangan on the big stage where she shared Hubspot's commitment to solving the Crisis of Disconnection. 

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And here's an awesome dispatch from Ashli, live at #INBOUND22:

"Each and every Lightning Strike event targets the cognitive biases of the entire category ecosystem, which helps a company anchor their agenda, create group-think, and drive commitment to become the Category Leader. A Lightning Strike aligns every function of a business to work together as a single unit in a concentrated period of time. 

As a Category Designer, one of the most exhilarating moments for me personally is the calm before the storm, aka the strike. It’s a peaceful few minutes before the company’s CEO and/or Founder takes the stage to announce something revolutionary.

It’s a rubicon about to be crossed just before that leader walks on stage with fire in their soul and conviction in their heart as they endeavor to help others see what they see as the future. They know something others do not -- a secret they intend to reveal to the world, and in their mind it is irrevocably brilliant. It's a time when you can feel the electricity building in the air.

As a Category Designer, you know something BIG is coming and the audience has no idea just how impactful it's going to be. Little do they know, they are about to witness history." - Ashli Walkiewicz

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Yamini Rangan, CEO of Hubspot opened up the event with an extraordinary keynote addressed to 60,000+ attendees that were watching both IRL in Boston, and virtually all over the world. She spoke of the blurred lines between digital work and non-work life, the rollercoaster of a year she has had including the loss of her father right after becoming CEO, and illustrated the problems we are all facing when it comes to disconnected systems, disconnected people, and disconnected customers. She also shared research proving the existence of the digital fatigue and overload we all face, while expressing the need for evolving the strategies that drive connection. 

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Here is Yamini's entire published P. O.V.

Our own Al Ramadan says:

"This is a very powerful POV from one of the most insightful CEO’s we have worked with. Yamini Rangan nails the problem. Unlike many tech CEO’s, she spends most of the time talking about the problem. It’s emotional, it’s factual, and flat out right. We are all feeling this problem in every facet of our daily #work #tech lives. Her manifesto is a call to arms for those of us feeling this problem and I can’t wait to see the solutions to this problem roll out over the next year or so. Play Bigger runs on HubSpot. Marketing. Sales. Customer support. We began in 2017 and it’s more important today than it ever was. We love seeing leaders embrace category design,, while changing the way people think about an important problem."

It's not too late to register for Day 3 of INBOUND22.

Former President Barack Obama is speaking today at 11:45am PT!

We also want to mention that the online event platform is top notch and super friendly! It is giving us the ability to customize an agenda, network with peers, get 1:1 support within different topics and watch incredible video quality from our couches. 

You can watch discussions On Demand with Hubspot's Founder and Executive Chairperson Brian Halligan, Co-Founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah, and Chief Product Officer Stephanie Cuthbertson. 

Emma Grede, Founder and CEO of Good American spoke about Category Design, and the always inspirational Jane Goodall motivated the audience to focus on conserving the natural world we all share, moving the audience to tears. Can't wait to check out day 3!

Cheers and see you in the chats! 

The Play Bigger Team 

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