Not too long ago in September, I was lucky enough to attend the 2017 Fireside Conference, with some of the best minds in technology and digital marketing today.

The sold-out conference, now in its third year, was created by Steven Pulver and Daniel Levine. It brings the industry’s best thinkers and most accomplished doers together and puts them in the middle of the woods three hours north of Toronto Ontario, without any distracting LTE or wifi.

The conversations and the ideas shared here will form the playbook that tech innovators and digital marketers need to follow for the coming year.

Fortunately, the notes app on my iPhone doesn’t require a data signal. And I was able to put my beverage down long enough to jot down some of the amazing ideas that were discussed.

Here’s what most people need to know for the coming year.

Framing Your Product into a Belief Statement

A belief statement is about the emotional intelligence of your company. Why does a product matter to you on a human level?

As technology leaders, we need to develop emotional intelligence for our products, as well as for the company itself. The branding has to have a belief statement and emotional intelligence around it in order to break through in the marketplace.

Find Your Most Lovable Product (MLP)

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) has been the standard way of building out a SaaS-based product. This typically is combined with using an agile process to build out your features list, which will hopefully grow your user base.

But it is time to think differently.

Think of it this way. Maybe you don’t sell your customer a Ferrari tomorrow. But you sell them a skateboard. And then you sell them a scooter and then a bike. They’re receiving incremental gains in your product.

Take it a step further with your Most Loveable Product (MLP). A new way for you to build traction from influencers, and/or viral growth.

Product managers need to figure out what is the feature that humans will love the most in a product. And from there, start to add in extra love over time.

Many would argue that the minimum viable product should already have that loveable aspect, but that’s not always the case. Chances are your Most Loveable Product is going to organically become your Most Viable Product. But it’s unlikely that it will work the other way around.

It ties back to the first point of the emotional intelligence and what is the emotional connection to this product. If you’ve done a great job on the branding side of your belief statement, and mary that with your features, the magic starts to happen.

An Individual Way of Living: Purpose and Intention

This one’s a bit more philosophical, but no less valuable. Ask yourself big questions. How is this working for you? This life? This whole thing?

Do you have that sense of place in the community that you live and work in? And what is your role in innovation and as a technology leader? What is your purpose and intention in this life to make a change?

Ask yourself the big questions and you might find yourself needing to make big changes.

Control Your Narrative

How does one control the narrative? Either at an individual level or a business level?

This applies to everything from crisis management to simple branding. If you can frame the narrative, that means you’re controlling the conversations that people are having about you — it doesn’t matter if you want them to talk about climate change or your new product line.

The playing field is level when it comes to the tools we used to spread our respective messages. It’s the businesses that know how to use those tools to control the narrative that will win.

Blockchain and Cryptocurrency

Ethereum & Bitcoin has us asking if these currencies are really the future.

Not all blockchain conversations are about cryptocurrency. It’s around the utility of the chain. So the blockchain could provide security features and it could be incorporated into enterprise level software in the future.

Think of it this way. Instead of my insurance policy being a record in a database (a row that could be easily deleted by somebody with super admin privileges), my policy is owned by company XYZ and could be disseminated/ held on multiple servers potentially around the world. The blockchain is more of a ledger-based way of storage and record keeping.

With blockchain, what they’re pitching is really less about cryptocurrency, and more for personal security and your identity. Of course, it could be used here and work in First World situations, but it could do more for Third World countries that don’t have passports or digital records for birth certificates.

A lot of these Third World countries can rise up and adopt this technology. And it really allows the people in that country to have the general feeling of security, without having the massive infrastructure and capital needed to run full government programs.

As an example, people investing in the country for land sales could feel a little bit more secure knowing that they actually do own the land. It’s not a deed that may, or may not, have value. It’s not just a piece of paper in a locker that could be taken or burnt if there is turnover in that country.

AI & Machine Learning

How is AI going to change your life in 2018? I started using X.ai after the Fireside Conference. Amy, the x.ai robot, works to schedule my meetings for me and I have found that we have started to work efficiently together and she has saved me countless hours of time each week.

AI will infiltrate our daily lives in 2018, more than ever. The harnessing of big data in the cloud will help start-ups to offer-up valuable AI bots to end menial daily tasks.

Look for more technology companies to bring out software in this area. Travel assistants and shopping assistants will help you with your Christmas shopping on Shopify and Amazon.

AI will have larger ramifications for society and the overall world. Follow the story as it evolves next year.

Chatbots & Messaging Platforms

There was a reason why Facebook bought WhatsApp for $17 billion. Gaining additional market share in messaging apps will allow Facebook to have more control in the upcoming B2C ecommerce revolution.

Imagine a day when we think back and say that ‘checking-out’ with a shopping cart was so 2017!

On this day, you will message and say, “I need new shoes.” Your shopping assistant will text back with a question — “do you need them for the office or for your upcoming family vacation?” Then a conversation happens and the transaction takes place.

You didn’t “Check Out,” You didn’t even go to the retailer’s website or app. And you didn’t have to worry about the assistant understanding your personal preferences for shipping.

This will also be where customer support will move to in 2018 and beyond.

The future of B2B Sales

We’ve seen an evolution already with more b2b business leaders using their marketing team to have more control over the sales strategy. Leading with a content strategy and integrating it tightly with marketing automation. Obviously, that’s a big gain to help people scale their sales operations and business.

We are also now looking at utilizing advocates, influencers and getting your employees to help scale your messaging and content on your behalf. As well as having people who are utilizing your product to start advocating and influence sales.

I want to thank Sean Stephens, TreeFrog & PerfectlySoft Founder & CEO, for pushing me to attend this year’s Fireside Conference.

What trends do you think will shape 2018? Let me know in the comments below?