Ask anyone I've ever worked super closely with, and they'll likely agree that I'm not one to waste time going to conferences.

Conferences are usually productivity killers. Not workshops or webinars, that take 1-2 hours out of your day, but freaking conferences - that take multiple days and nights out of your week.

But there's one that caught my eye recently that I'm super-pumped to be attending - VaynerMedia and VayerExperience's VoiceCon in New York City on Tuesday, May 22, 2018.

And people, I've you've read my content in the last year, I can assure you this is not because of my man crush love for Gary Vee.

So, why would a Data Driven Digital Strategist / Web Designer and WordPress Developer go to a one-day conference on the state of the union in Voice and Digital Audio?

Right now, "Voice" means several things - Podcasts, AI assistants like Alexa, Siri and Hello Google.

1. Learning - five years from now (or less), every single person (and company) will be using voice devices like Google Home, Amazon Echo and Apple HomePod to run their entire day.

The assistants (you already know Alexa and Siri pretty well) will be telling us what's up next on our schedule, what's happening in the news, telling us when to eat lunch, when our last cup of coffee was, how many more calories we can eat each day and more.

And by "more," I mean things like "how's my website's traffic looking?"

"Are my conversions up since last week?"

In other words, digital strategists like myself and my teammates at Data Driven Design, will absolutely need to be leading the charge with our clients and partners ASAP on Voice.

Not to mention, industry leaders like Yext already report that by 2020, 50% of all searches will be completed via either speech or image search, and that the use of voice-enabled speakers will increase by 130%.

This means SEO has already started changing, big time, people.

2. Innovating - We will be building our own Alexa Flash Briefings and Skills, and rolling them out to clients as part of digital strategy packages. Data Driven Design, like VaynerMedia, will be leaders in Voice, not followers.

My podcast has just hit episode 41, and while I'm proud of that, I'm going to push myself to get to episode 50 before VoiceCon.

And not only that, but strive to continue to improve the content and post-production quality.

3. Networking - It's time to network. I love Nashville, where Data Driven Design will continue to be based out of and do most of our business, but and as many of you know, I'm moving to Spain with my family in August. VoiceCon in NYC will be a key opportunity for me to network, meet other like-minded people, and think globally about the present and future of digital strategy.

Attending VoiceCon is me putting my dreams into the world until they come true and making things happen, and pushing myself out of my comfort zone - something you have to do if you want to be a true innovator. I'm trying to get there, and I'm not going to back down.

Thanks for reading / watching - and have a great day!

Paul Hickey has created and grown businesses via digital strategy and internet marketing for more than 10 years. His sweet spot is using analytics to design and build websites and grow the audience and revenue of businesses via SEO/Blogging, Google Adwords, Bing Ads, Facebook and Instagram Ads, Social Media Content Marketing and Email Marketing. The part that he’s most passionate about is quantifying next marketing actions based on real data.