The 13th ‘Managing An Agency Business’ series (or MAB for short) was held last Thursday night at Windy Films in East Boston and I felt damn proud to be a panelist there.

In case you missed it, Ross Beyeler of Growth Spark hosts about 3-4 event panels each year around the Greater Boston area and I was lucky enough to be asked to speak at this one.

The focus of this ‘MAB’ event was about storytelling. With the other panelists being Will Humphrey from Windy Films, and Nick Briggs from Global Business People, I was having some serious issues on how I would relate Inphantry’s core strengths in user experience, and digital development, to storytelling and how it impacts our agency.

The closer the time got to our panel discussion (again, huge shoutout to Windy Films and KO Pies for hosting and feeding us) the more I knew I was just going to wing it. On the way over, I was asking my Lyft driver some of the questions I knew were going to be asked at the panel. Luckily, he fed me some great answers and I decided to roll with the table he set.

After I got there, I was pretty surprised to see about 60 people all networking and enjoying the East Boston seaside view. Speaking of, Windy Films has an epic view. I would highly recommend checking them out and taking a visit over to their killer studio. But segway back to the panel after about an hour of chit chat….

After we all did our intros (who we are, what we do) it began to click….User experience is the same as storytelling. You’re crafting the narrative for another to experience. “Holy shit!” I thought, that’s what I’m gonna roll with tonight…and no, it wasn’t the wine helping me connect the dots.

Suddenly, my answers started to make sense (to me at least) and I found my voice. Using past stories and experiences of winning new business and overall at Inphantry, I told tales of how our foray into producing the best possible ‘user experiences’ in and of themselves are a story. They are stories for our clients, they are stories for us, and also for the people who engage in those experiences.

And then it hit me…Inphantry’s mantra is:

Whether it’s an app, website or full out experiential production, Inphantry caters and focuses on the best practices and technology implementations for that given experience. 

Moving on….the panel was going extremely well. Again, huge shout out to Will and Nick for giving such thoughtful, insightful answers into what it takes to produce an engaging and moving film for their clients….and from their answers, it’s not easy. Much respect to any film production agency in that regard.

Through my three quarters filled mason jar of red wine, I tried to relay previous examples of what we’ve dealt with here at Inphantry…lost projects…mismanaged relationships, winning projects, networking, events, etc…you name it. Every agency goes through battles and wars to keep its doors open and Inphantry is no different.

You’ve simply got to take the good with the bad. 

On top of that, I began to share and bring up recent campagins of clients, brands and companies whom I love most. Many of whom also produce excellent user experiences. Whether content-wise, or experientially. Some of those brands being, Reebok, Red Bull, Under Armour, Nike (of course) Bacardi, Heineken and I’m sure many others I’m missing.

The audience played a huge role also…most of the panels I attend as an audience member, there was only a few questions during and after. The scene here played a huge role in allowing for more of an open vibe where audience members actually commented on pieces of the discussion. By sharing some of their thoughts, and then posing them into questions, it played an enormous role in creating a mutually interactive discussion.

But all in all, throughout the panel, I began to realize…here in the early 21st century, we’re past the point of, ‘The customer is always right.’ And now we’re in the business of ‘Crafting the perfect experience so the customer can’t even complain.’ And that to me, was a very interesting segway into how companies will market here in the future.

Interesting stuff…if you want to read more about Ross Beyeler’s MAB Series, check him out here! 

Follow me on Twitter @CamKing747 or email me at: Cam@inphantry.com 

Here’s a few pics of the event down below!