In this episode recorded in December 2019 at JW Marriott Hotel Shenzhen, China, Allen Qu sat down with Wayne for a deep dive conversation and shared: * How they started out Marketing Ranking Awards and the back story of its beginning as an industry conference 9 years ago* Who their conference target audience are eg. top brands who want to do better marketing, partners, media companies like Baidu and LinkedIn* How the conference is growing in terms of attendance nos.* How the speakers were selected eg. Senior Marketers, CEOs who did well in their field * How the future edition will focus more on 5G and its impact on industry, best practices and studies, and recognising top performing brands* How their Shenzhen event is unique and feature domestic market and cross border market players from USA, Russia and how they look forward to more Singapore brands participating in the future* How marketing has changed in China since the first edition of Marketing Ranking Awards - Search was previously the dominant player especially Baidu; China Marketing Awards has incorporated with the latest trends such as mini video content marketing topics; rise of popular apps such as Douyin (Tik Tok), Quaishou; e-commerce retail (Tmall, JD) now dominating online shopping; social media becoming the main communication and payment transaction platform (WeChat)* How they leverage innovative strategies to give optimal value to their clients especially top brands in their niche; using cartoon characters in marketing materials; adopting robot tech placement in locations such as office spaces; implementing speech, visual recognition and AI technologies for real time interaction, using data, enhancing user engagement and personalised customer experience * Why conferences are still the best lead generator for his company in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen which are held annually, and attending global conferences to speak to audiences 30-50 times a year through content and value sharing (rather than hard sell) gain more trust and opportunities* Where he grew up, his family background and as kid, how photography, computers and Bill Gates inspired him to take up programming before moving to Japan, Australia and then New Zealand for his computer studies and marketing knowledge university studies* How his first job ie. building running an e-commerce store for electronic products from scratch; implementing infrastructure design, marketing and customer service structures, started him on this entrepreneurial path* How a conference organiser invited him to do a speech to audience and meeting his friend Charles sparked off the idea of moving back to develop his business in China in October (at a time when Chinese internet business was still at its infancy)* How he would advice a marketer newbie to join a decent company to experience the opportunity to work with real brands with real marketing dollars before encouraging them to be entrepreneurial in the niche that they love when they are ready to move on* Why starting his own company is not to become rich but to fulfil lifelong dreams of building something that belongs to him* Why improving internal efficiency is something he would like to change for his present company * What the challenging moments were especially during the early days of setting up his company eg. Chinese New Year clientele payment delays and having to pay employees bonuses up front and how he overcame these challenges* Why he thinks entrepreneurs who have no safety net, an unshakeable belief and hard work ethic will more likely become successful * Where and when next edition of Marketing Ranking Awards will be held ie. Nov ‪2020, Intercontinental Hotel, Shanlitun, Beijing‬