Dear members of SoDA, 

I’m just back from a trip to Moscow, where I was invited to speak
at a conference entirely hosted and presented by Grape, a recent
addition to our global membership.

The partners and team at Grape were incredibly warm and attentive
hosts. They put together an impressive conference for a high-end list
of invite-only clients and prospects that any of us would be proud
to assemble.

But one of the brightest moments was created by You:  The video
introduction to open the conference was a compilation of messages
from other SoDA members around the world  — Brooklyn, Los Angeles,
Sao Paulo, Paris and Bogotá.

It showed Grape’s audience that the conversation they were taking part
in was connected, informed; that the group they were investing their day
with was one who was a part of a much larger conversation outside of
their own market; and that the service they will come to expect from
Grape, is on par with leading shops around the world.

You created that value through the simple act of showing up (or, in this
case, by appearing on camera). Some did a group thing, some learned
a bit of Russian.

It also showed me, one of the founding members of this organization,
why we exist. It was a demonstration of our purpose that I got to just
witness, having done nothing for it myself. It was awesome.

We have a lot of collective knowledge and experience. The pace of
innovation is accelerating. And the more we teach each other, the more
we’ll learn (and produce and sell) ourselves.

Thank you for submitting those videos.  Grape has posted it on YouTube,
and I think it’s good for everyone to see:

  Jay Wolff
president | odopod
vice chair | SoDA board of directors

www.twitter.com/jodopod