WPP STREAM – WHAT’S ALL THE FUSS ABOUT? Alice ter Haar. Senior Manager-EU Marketing, Deliveroo. I confess that I hadn’t heard of WPP’s Stream before As we board the coach, I’m starting to feel that school trip- I was invited. I guess it’s kind of like one of those style excitement, butterflies in my stomach accompanying "under the radar," cool-in-town spots that you haven’t a mixture of trepidation and excitement. Because been introduced to yet. The bill sounded intriguing; essentially, you’re with a bunch of strangers. If you’re an "(un)conference for (un)conventional thinkers". lucky, you might know a couple of people through your That could’ve been marketing buzzword speak — but it professional network, dahling. But this scenario has the turns out that it was anything but… potential to be an introvert’s worst nightmare and even So, what’s it all about? Well, firstly, the "un"conference make the extroverts blush — three days non-stop with 360 bit is about right — it’s about as far a cry from a regular people you’ve never met before. It’s basically a weekend of conference as you can imagine. In fact, I’d liken it more networking (bleurgh). to a festival. I can say that choosing between the daily Except it couldn’t be farther away from that. Yes, there discussion forums was more reminiscent of the agonising might be an awkward moment when you’re not talking to choice between Glastonbury stages. And the evening’s anyone in the lunch queue, or something that smelt a tiny entertainment and light-night finishes were certainly more little bit like a pitch from someone. But overall, I found akin to the same good time highs than any conference I’d those moments to be extremely few and far between. ever been to before. WPP invites a wide range of people from across the Now in its twelfth year, WPP’s Stream Europe is held media, marketing and communication spectrum, bringing in October in Marathon, Greece. 80% of attendees are together a plethora of movers-and-shakers from each new… although there’s a strong "old-timer" contingent corner of the industry; entrepreneurs, activists, agency of seasoned pro party faithful. As we walked through heads and us client-side folk. Everyone has something to passport control, we newbies are like doe-eyed Bambis, say — I can’t recall a single tedious conversation during with whispers to be heard "that the bedrooms aren’t the the weekend. And, boy, you soon get to know people… fanciest" and "WiFi is disabled to discourage people from by the end of it you are best buds (of course!). working". This does turn out to be true. And so much for the better. 2