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Airbnb's Chris Lukezic gives a sneak preview into his session on 'New Currencies' for Contagious Now/Next/Why

Gina Rembe, Researcher Contagious blog
By Gina Rembe  //  Wed 6th March 2013
Director of Communications for Airbnb Chris Lukezic will be speaking at the upcoming ContagiousNow / Next / Why Session in London on 18th April.

Chris will talk about New Currencies by looking at the peer-to-peer economy model as an example for a new definition of sustainability, and assessing why brands should be thinking about this as a multi-faceted framework to operate within.

He's shared his thoughts with Contagious, ahead of the event.

Brands can no longer exist to serve only themselves, as consumers now demand that they exist as an active member of the community to which they sell their products and services. Their access to information and the transparency in which companies are expected to conduct themselves means that marketing is no longer a one-way street. Today, the role of marketing stretches across the entire organization; from customer service to product development.

At Airbnb we rarely use the word brand, instead we consider what we are doing to be community building. Airbnb and the rise of the collaborative consumption movement have taught me that businesses can no longer exist to serve themselves. Brands must be stewards of sustainability, helping to prolong and enhance the communities in which they operate, whether they are a multi- national corporation or a locally owned small business.

My experience over the past 4 years of helping to build and grow the Airbnb community forced me many times to articulate what it was about the business that made it worth spending my life doing. The decision to diminish the importance of our own brand and substitute it with the mission of building a sustainable community meant putting the company in a situation with tremendous responsibility. In the future I think this will be the case for all businesses, as sustainability won't be a selling point, it will be a necessity.

To hear more from Chris, join Contagious at their upcoming Now / Next / Why Session on 18th April. For more information on New Currencies and the other trends they will be focusing on, simply click here.

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