A year ago, I discovered the thriving Lindy Hop dance community in the Boston area where I live and I dove into the deep end, taking group and private lessons and going to social dances most weekends.
Lindy Hop, a partner swing dance loosely based on jazz, tap, and Charleston emerged in Harlem, New York City in the late 1920s.
As Artificial Intelligence drives significant aspects of our lives—streaming service video recommendation engines that obsess over your past viewing habits, social networks’ frequently toxic algorithms, robot chatbots that aren’t smart enough to answer your questions, and on and on—many people like me increasingly turn to in-person activities.
Dancing the Lindy Hop is about as far away from AI as you can get!
The improv music played by traditional swing bands—often including saxophone, clarinet, piano, drums, guitar, and a fabulous Ella Fitzgerald-style female singer—combined with Lindy’s focus on improv dancing proved to be an infections combination for me. Partner dancing to improv music is a conversation, with one person offering a dance suggestion for the other to interpret however they choose as the song holds the partnership together.
Humanizing your business
I believe we’re in a world where people increasingly crave real human interactions. This presents an opportunity for executive teams and for marketers.
Sure, if your business is offering a service that is done in-person already, dance studios for example, you need to show your humanity to potential customers. Restaurants, hotels, sports teams, and other businesses should showcase how they foster togetherness.
However, every company, even B2B technology businesses, have an opportunity to bring people together.
For example, HubSpot hosts an annual INBOUND conference that attracts well over 10,000 people to in-person programming. Yes, people attend INBOUND to learn. But many are also there to be together with like-minded people. It’s a place where you can interact with people like you at the breaks, meals, and evening events. HubSpot also hosts many local in-person events around the world. Yes, HubSpot is an AI-powered customer platform connecting marketing, sales, and customer service, however the company brings more than just B2B software to the marketplace. They also bring people together.
There are many ways to humanize a business.
Can a human answer your telephone and reply to emails? Can your salespeople get in their car or on a plane to meet potential customers? Are you using photos of real customers and employees on your website instead of AI generated drek?
Images: David Meerman Scott and Yukari Watanabe Scott by Ignis Arts Dance Studio. HubSpot INBOUND
Disclosure: Since 2007, I am served on the HubSpot Advisory Board.
