David Burke

David’s talk will discuss in detail why bringing in personal interests can be beneficial to a business. He  wants to set out how passion projects, handled well, can be a good alternative to traditional networking and can introduce new customers and even alternative revenue streams to a business. He will use music and visual prompts within the presentation as my interests outside of Biff Bang Pow are rooted in pop culture and its place within society, with music playing a significant part in those interests.

We will look at why traditional networking, a process that I have never enjoyed or in fact been very good at, can be difficult to actually benefit from. Be it over breakfast or in a conference centre, he finds that the majority of network attendees are there to sell their products and services and generally promote themselves and their own businesses. In those situations he finds himself talking to people about anything other than business which means that in reality his attendance is pretty much a waste of time and can even alienate potential contacts. However it is clear that talking to like minded people can be advantageous. Therefore the situation that the discussions and meetings take place in become a driver for the success of the conversations. The aim of the talk is to encourage people to be proud of their interests and hobbies, seeing them as a fundamental part of their personality. Being passionate about a subject means that when it is discussed, it is done with an energy and freshness that can be lacking if discussing ‘work’. But importantly involving your passion into your business will attract like minded people who are not looking to sell but are interested in what you are offering. These interactions are then not purely transactional but are based on a shared interest in a subject. The talk will discuss a specific example of a successful passion project that he introduced to Biff Bang Pow and the various opportunities that have now come from that introduction.