HodgesCon 2023 recap: Enneagram, innovation, creative thinking – oh my! 

Our annual agency day of learning returned this fall and, wow, it was a good one. HodgesCon was born last year as a result of our teammates sharing their desire to learn, but without the time to focus on expanding their knowledge base.

This year, the HodgesCon planning committee reviewed topic areas and feedback from last year’s event to come up with this amazing line-up: 

• Logan Jones: Our team learned about the nine types within the Enneagram, thanks to Logan Jones of Logan Jones Coaching. We explored what it means to be a heart/head/body type and we started the inward looking at ourselves to figure out our fears and motivations. 
• Media Panel: We invited three local journalists (Eric Kolenich from the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Ian Stewart from VPM and Brendan King from CBS6) to discuss the current state of the newsroom, and we asked them to play a game of “Publish or Pass!” 
• TwoTango: In our other morning breakout session, we had Taylor Miles from TwoTango (formerly ndp) to talk about 360 media planning. We learned that everything can be media, and we also had some great takeaways about negotiation and creative placements. 
• Brand Federation: Our long-time friend Kelly O’Keefe brought the lunch keynote session to life with his conversation about innovation. He used real life examples and left our team with some tangible takeaways to be more innovative in our daily work. 
• Creative Thinking: Kyle Peppers brought a boost of creative energy around how to revamp the quality of our brainstorms. The team tapped into their inner child, reimagining mundane office objects with whimsical names and revealed unexplored facets of their identities. 
• Cultural Considerations: Adriana Velasquez of Growth Designs has been serving as a cultural consultant to our team for a few years now, and she shared her insights in this breakout session – about when, how and why marketing to a Hispanic audience matters. 
• Winding Down: Hodgers who attended this session got a much-needed dose of Zen and had a moment to stretch out the stress and meditate with Jim Morgan and his relaxing sound bowls.   
• Dominion Energy: To close out the day, Kelsey Leavey came back to Hodges to give a presentation about social content creation. She walked through a campaign from start to finish and highlighted the many hats required to make a piece of content. 

We’re left with fuzzy pink monster ball and a handful of post-it notes that we’ll probably never remove from light fixtures that will forever remain mementos of HodgesCon 2023, and we now have a new visual for when we pitch media. Let’s hope for more of those “Publish” signs coming through our inboxes.