This year I went Atomicon for the first time. I don’t know what took me so long, it’s really local for me! It takes place at The Glasshouse in Gateshead which is right on the edge of the Tyne, you can walk over from Newcastle-upon-Tyne if you’re on my side of the river. Easy peasy.
Atomicon is “the world’s EPIC-EST sales and marketing conference to skyrocket your Small business” – honestly I think that’s a pretty good description, although I haven’t been to a whole lot of sales and marketing conferences.. it was GREAT.
I had high expectations. After all, this has been going since 2019 and every year people rave about it – and every year I wonder if I should go or not and bottle out.. except this year.
I loved hearing the speakers, making lots of notes and being surrounded by people who want to make their businesses better. It was as far from dull as you can imagine. Loads of pink, giant bubbles and pineapples and clouds, music, enthusiastic people, perfect organisation, things to do, stands to visit, things to take home, a notebook full of notes, thoughts and ideas and we were totally spoilt by the speakers. Over the weekend I was at a kids party and said to one of the Mams “I was at a conference on Tuesday” and realised what a dull day I’d made it sound! I had to get more descriptive, because whilst it IS a conference it doesn’t feel very conference-y. It feels comfy, welcoming, celebratory and exciting.
There’s also tons of extra bits, an app, a Facebook group, monthly online sessions, a whole year to watch everything back, the Big Networking week online, in person parties in the run-up to Atomicon.
I’m sharing a quote from each of the speakers I saw (there’s many more videos to watch for the talks I couldn’t do!) – maybe these will inspire you to do great things better and to come along next year? Although one quote from each speaker does a massive disservice to the talks.. really, you had to be there.
“You don’t need to be bigger, you just need to be braver NOW”
Andrew and Pete
“As a presenter you have to become your own brand quite quickly without knowing what that means”.
Fearne Cotton
“No-one ever unsubscribed because your email was too short”.
Laura Belgray
“By being slightly fearful not emailing our most engaged subscribers more frequently, we’re actually dragging out the time frame for them to actually convert”.
Shay Howe
“Don’t discount basic content ideas”.
The Two Lauras
“Be brave enough to grow into that person you’re trying to build”.
Tamu Thomas
“Human beings are the key to getting to the right place”.
Ravi Rajani
“We’re so busy optimising things by 3% that we forget to look for things that can actually make a billion dollars in an afternoon”.
Rory Sutherland
“Your greatest marketing tomorrow is the service delivered today”.
Geoff Ramm
The good photos (the ones with the quotes written on) were taken by Tynesight.co.uk, the others by me.
This post includes my Affiliate link to grab tickets for Atomicon 2026 on June 16th.
Amy Purdie, The Brand Explorer takes you on an Adventure to discover what your brand is all about, helping you to find clarity with your brand strategy, craft brand visuals that you’re proud of and love to use and to map out your marketing. You can join Bloom or join Amy in your very own Private Brand Adventure.
Amy has been enjoying designing logos, brand identities, illustration, print work and websites – since 2007 fuelled mainly by tea and chocolate.