All That Matters is one of the events that I make sure I always clear my calendar for every year. It is always fun and interesting to go mix and mingle with everyone who attends All That Matters every year.

This year, there are lots of familiar faces (but I cannot remember a lot of your names, sorry) and even more new faces!

I remember how it all started as Music Matters, then it grew to include Digital Matters and this year, Sponsorship Matters and Social Matters were added. There will also be a new one called Sports Matters in the later part of this year, August/September 2014 I believe. I saw the board but I forgot the exact dates.

Out of curiosity, I popped into Sponsorship Matters and Social Matters since they are new in Singapore. Social Matters was incorporated in the Hong Kong edition of All That Matters in 2013. This is the first time Sponsorship Matters has happened.

I definitely learnt a lot sitting through Sponsorship Matters but then again, I’m no branding/marcomms/marketing person so some of the topics were kinda dry to me. I gained some new perspectives with regards to how sponsoring an event, artist, sports or arts can work for a brand. It is very interesting because I never realised that sponsoring was more than just giving an activity/entity money to slap your brand’s logo all over the place. I used to think that sponsorship was a form of advertising but now I know, it is way more and more powerful than that.

Amongst all the components, ie, Music Matters, Digital Matters, Social Matters and Sponsorship Matters, my favourite has got to be Social Matters. It was pretty much Digital Matters but specifically focused on social media and social media marketing; something that I’ve grown to become very interested and fascinated with.

While there are many overlaps and recurring themes across most sessions in Digital Matters and Social Matters, the case studies from the various major brands and panel discussions breaking down what worked and didn’t for them made Social Matters the most interesting branch of the conference for me.

While it started out as a conference for the music industry, I’m seeing more people from outside the music industry attending All That Matters over the years. It is surely getting interesting and useful enough for anyone who is in the agency, advertising, marketing and/or branding department, head of departments even regardless of industry!

No doubt that I’m making sure that I’m in town for the 2015 edition of All That Matters. See some of you guys there, hopefully. 😀