Christian Muche on Embracing the World of Brands and Marketing through POSSIBLE
The CEO and Co-Founder of Beyond Ordinary Events Inc. reflects on his experience in the events space, creating the go-to immersive event of the year, and shares what to expect in two weeks as the industry convenes in Miami Beach.
Christian Muche is an internationally recognized executive and business strategist who has created successful brands and consulted with corporations and executives worldwide. Christian has worked for international brands, including AOL, YAHOO, and FIFA, and has extensive experience in digital marketing, technology, and events.
In 2007, Christian co-founded DMEXCO, the first business trade show and conference concept for digital marketers. It quickly became one of the industry’s most profitable event shows and draws over 60,000 attendees annually.
Today, as CEO & Co-Founder of Beyond Ordinary Events Inc., Christian has created yet another exciting industry event: POSSIBLE. Now in its second year, POSSIBLE brings together the most influential marketing, business leaders, and visionaries from technology, digital, media, entertainment, and culture for a three-day content and networking event. The immersive event includes curated content masterclasses, workshops, an exposition, an outside activation area, VIP networking, and entertainment.
POSSIBLE kicks off in Miami Beach on April 15, and The Continuum sat down with Christian to ask about his impressive career, the goals behind this event, and what attendees can expect.
We’re very excited to talk about POSSIBLE, but before we get there, we’d love to hear about your career journey. How did you get your start in marketing?
I never planned to go into marketing. After school, I became a tax accountant, which is, of course, very different from what I’m doing today. This was back in Germany, and one of my clients worked at a large media company. He asked me to be his assistant, and it turned out that he was the German representative at the Cannes Lions Festival. I was really lucky because I stepped into the media world for the first time in a big way.
A couple of years later, I founded my first company, which was really a one-man-show media company. I got in touch with the founders of a German web directory. Yahoo started as a web directory, and this was the German version in 1994 or so. I said to them that I was selling advertising in cinemas and out of home, but why not also do it online? I was one of the very first people in Germany to sell a banner ad to a brand.
After that, I was hired by AOL to run their German business, and later, I worked with Yahoo and FIFA. I didn’t get into the event world until after my family moved to New Zealand about 17 years ago. Maybe three months after we got here, I told my wife that I had a great opportunity and wanted to start a new business back in Germany. She was a little upset at first because we’d just moved to the other side of the world. This was creating DMEXCO, the Digital Marketing Exposition & Conference, which became the largest trade fair for the digital industry.
DMEXCO quickly became the annual event for digital marketers. What was your impetus for creating it?
So, this was back in 2007. What we called online marketing at the time—now we’d just say digital marketing—was growing exponentially, but we didn’t have an industry event at all. There was a small trade show in the U.S. called Ad Tech, but it didn’t cover the whole industry and wasn’t international. My business partner and I reached out to Yahoo and other tech brands to convince them that they needed a tradeshow where they could present their brands. At first, they looked at us like we were crazy and said things like, “We’re not an automotive company; we’re not selling hardware or furniture or whatever. All of our business happens behind a screen; it would be crazy for us to spend money exhibiting at a trade show.”
We realized that we had to make it different than your standard trade show. So, we turned it into a truly digital event. We had massive screens, three levels of exhibitors, and lots of keynote speakers. It felt like CES, even though brands weren’t selling physical products. By the time I left, 11 years later, we’d pushed it to 60,000 people from all over the world with more than 1,200 exhibitors and over a million square feet of floor space.
“There wasn’t an event where marketers and brands could come together, and many marketers told me they didn’t feel comfortable at other events like those designed solely for brands or ad agencies. So, we decided to start one where everyone would feel at home.”
After having so much success with that, what made you want to launch another industry event?
I believe that the expectations for events have dramatically changed since the pandemic. Thought leaders and senior executives are far more selective about where to go. It’s not just about shrinking budgets but mostly about where they’re willing to spend their time. I don’t believe it’s a quantity game anymore. It’s not about getting large numbers of people to attend your event. Smaller events where key decision-makers come together are the most valuable now.
I could see our industry having an event like Davos, where we have 3,000 to 5,000 decision-makers across the entire marketing world come together to talk about the strategy for the next generation. That is how POSSIBLE was conceived.
It then became our responsibility to provide a different outcome for this very selective audience. We had to spend far more time understanding what they want to hear, and we have to always make very careful choices about topics and speakers, so no one is wasting participants’ time with sales pitches or speeches they’ve already given at five previous conferences.
This is exactly what we’re doing with POSSIBLE, and I’m so excited about it.
You started working on POSSIBLE during the pandemic when a lot of other people were focusing on trying to make virtual conferences work. What made you think it was a good time for a new in-person event?
You know, I launched DMEXCO during the financial crisis of 2007-08. I think low times are often the best opportunity for something new. People are already in the process of readjusting their expectations, which makes them more open to change. Of course, there’s less competition because a lot of people want to wait out uncertainty before starting anything new. But if you do it right and you survive the low times, you’re definitely going to be on the winning side as things get better.
The pandemic changed so much in our daily lives and priorities; I knew we’d want something different coming out of it. It also felt great to be planning ahead, like it was proof that we would come out of this eventually and we could have a brighter future.
What was your specific goal when creating POSSIBLE?
We wanted to embrace the whole marketing world, which is far more developed than it was just a few years ago. There wasn’t an event where marketers and brands could come together, and many marketers told me they didn’t feel comfortable at other events like those designed solely for brands or ad agencies. So, we decided to start one where everyone would feel at home.
POSSIBLE is held in Miami Beach. How did you choose that location?
Miami Beach really is the intersection of marketing, tech, and culture. It’s a very open-minded environment and attracts an international crowd. It’s also already known for big events like Art Basel and Miami Tech Week. The location and the weather also allowed us to come up with a different concept than just doing something inside all day. We go outside and can really grow into the neighborhood.
The availability of one big venue in the historic Fontainebleau was also really appealing. You’re not sprinting across the city to get from event to event or spending an hour in the cab for a 20-minute meeting. Here, we keep everyone together for three days. I guarantee you’ll run into the same people several times over the course of the event. This creates far better opportunities for networking than most of the other conferences.
“I really believe that this shouldn't be seen as another conference—it’s an immersive experience.”
We also have to ask you about the name; it’s definitely not your typical trade show name. How did you come up with it?
We spent a lot of time thinking about this, and we had a lot of people providing their opinions. In the end, I really liked the idea of POSSIBLE. It offers positivity and captures the massive range of opportunities we have to create new business and growth in the industry. It also captures our goal of tackling the problems in the industry and overcoming challenges, and it creates many opportunities to link brands with the event.
Okay, so POSSIBLE is being held in Miami Beach for the second time from April 15-17. What can we expect?
I really believe that this shouldn't be seen as another conference—it’s an immersive experience. There will absolutely be the content and the networking opportunities that people expect at a conference, but my team and I have worked hard to position it as a collaboration and business opportunity as well. I want people—both partners and attendees—to come to the event prepared to really work together.
We have big names taking the main stage, 14 different content tracks, and have set up a hosted meeting program that offers brand marketers pre-scheduled introductory meetings with potential partners. We also have our Rising Talent Academy for up-and-coming industry professionals who will learn from C-suite executives and industry leaders.
What are some of the presentations and tracks that you’re most excited about?
I’m looking forward to the session with Gary Vaynerchuk and Swan Sit because they are two very different and dynamic characters who both have a lot of tech understanding but also marketing understanding. I'm also looking forward to hearing from some of the celebrities who will be speaking, such as Janelle Monáe, Pitbull, and Winston Duke. These people aren’t on the stage just because they’re famous. They are all creating massive media businesses around their own brands and have a lot to teach us. POSSIBLE’s chairman, Michael Kassan, will also be speaking, and I’m sure people will be very interested in what he has to say.
As for our educational sessions, I’m very interested in our business of culture and technology tracks, which we are approaching from a consumer perspective. Why are consumers behaving the way they are right now? What cultural trends are impacting them? What tech trends are impacting their behavior right now? Case studies from a couple of months ago won’t help us here, and speculation about the future of AI isn’t what we’re after. We really want to turn this into a discussion about what changes in culture and technology mean for marketers in the near term.
“It’s all about passion—if you have passion, you don't need another motivation because everything is possible.”
Networking and conferences can be a little overwhelming. What advice would you give to someone who is planning on attending POSSIBLE?
Be prepared. Get familiar with the agenda, check out the list of partners, and set some goals. Do you want to find partners who would be helpful in your daily business? Are you looking to be inspired? Do you want to be educated? Do you want to create business opportunities? Do you want to extend your network? Do you want to find your next career opportunity?
Answering these questions can help you decide if you want to prioritize our inspirational speakers on the main stage, our content workshops, or our social networking events.
Regardless of your goal, though, my main piece of advice is to plan to spend your time on-site. As I said earlier, it’s an all-in-one venue, so you can have the most opportunities to run into people you know, find new people, schedule one-on-one meetings, and engage in conversation. Spending time on site is the secret. If you invest your time in it, this will be the best experience you’ve had, I’m sure of it.
This is only the second year of POSSIBLE. Looking ahead to the next, let’s say five years, where do you see the event going?
We just started. Last year was our big splash and the very beginning. This year, we have grown in terms of having more partners and more attendees. But we’re not pushing growth in terms of numbers. I don’t want to reach for 50,000 people in five years; that would change the character of the event too much. And I wouldn’t try to predict our topics for five years from now because they will be different.
Hopefully, in five years, we’re even more relevant for the industry than we already are, and we’ve become a real tentpole event. When people are planning their year, I want everybody to carve out time and budget for POSSIBLE and say, “I have to go there because otherwise I would miss a lot.” That's what I'm hoping for.
Going back to your career for a minute. There’s no question that you're a visionary and not afraid to try new things. At a time when so many people feel burned out, what keeps you motivated?
A lot of people have asked me why I did it again and made another event. My passion is to serve the industry and to please all my partners, all my speakers, all my attendees, and all my investors. My home ground is to connect and to create, and the opportunity to do it differently is always exciting. It’s all about passion—if you have passion, you don't need another motivation because everything is possible.
April 2, 2024
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