How industry events can help you get over politics

Meeting people with common professional interests can overcome prejudices and get your message to the right audience

Regardless of your political views and feelings about the US election results, life – and work – must go on. In the days, weeks and months to come, we must interact professionally with people who are anywhere on the spectrum between utter despair because they believe the American people have made a dreadful choice or are gloating over Donald J. Trump’s stunning victory.

It is a minefield.

The divisive campaigns in the US have polarised societies outside the country and the culture wars, I fear, are only going to ramp up. Politicians on either side of the Atlantic declaring them over does not make it so. But who do we trust, then?

Traditional media everywhere will engage in even deeper soul-searching, but there is undoubtedly a massive shift in how we consume information. Under the Trump administration, and with the political ascent of the legacy media-hating Elon Musk, this process is likely to rocket. Politicians, governments, businesses and PR professionals will search harder for alternatives to get their message across.

After the impact of the Joe Rogan podcast featuring Trump – it got tens of millions of views – the obvious go-to will be unfiltered, long-form podcast interviews. Former New York Times journalist Bari Weiss’s success and influence on Substack shows that is an attractive proposition, too: her start-up, The Free Press, was recently valued at about $100 million, and Weiss says she has more than 800,000 readers. Digital content creators  and influencers have had a far bigger impact on these elections than ever before: the global creator agency Billion Dollar Boy says political campaigners and influencers approached at least one in every four creators to produce political content in the run-up to the elections. (That’s besides the ultimate political influencer, Musk, who used X as a battleground for Trump.)

We know that influencers and content creators meet their audiences where they are: online, most likely in spaces where algorithms have pushed them towards like-minded people.

That is part of my concern.

Independent content creators are not held to the standards applicable to most of the legacy media. While traditional news media certainly has much to answer for, the principles are accountability, accuracy and honesty. There are gatekeepers to ensure reporting is fair. No matter the institution’s political and editorial leaning, journalists should report on and investigate without fear or favour.

There is no such compunction in the world of digital content creation.

So, what does that all mean?

We will all have to work harder to get the right information to our audiences – and also get the full picture from sources we can trust. We are going to have to overcome our political prejudices and set aside our differences. We must learn from and engage with people with opposing views.

But then we must move out of our algorithmic digital bubbles.

For me, one solution is to go out and meet real people in real life – people with a shared professional interest rather than a political leaning, in spaces where we can find common ground irrespective of our views on Kamala Harris or gender identity or slavery reparations.

Industry events provide such a space. When you host an event, you can share your content and knowledge directly with your audience and build a community. When you attend events, you interact with industry peers, gain insight and join knowledge-based platforms – all without the political anger.

Of course digital tools and platforms are crucial to reinforce your message, provide value and extend communities. But use in-person contact at events to make the connection, build trust and form relationships. Then follow up digitally.

In other words, be your own influencer and digital creator.