6:00-7:30 am
Fun run/walk/swim/ride
8:00-8:30 am
Keynote session
Winning the Story Wars: Why Those Who Tell—and Live—the Best Stories Will Rule the Future
According to Jonah Sachs, the only brand and cause messages that break through are those that tell great stories - the only thing that has ever moved minds and changed behavior. But the quality of stories, he says, has devolved from ones calling us to adventure, higher values and citizenship to ones playing on fear, insecurity and an endless need to passively consume. Hear Sachs share three simple tools for breaking through and becoming an icon: be interesting, tell the truth and live the truth.
8:30-9:00 am
Keynote session
Pairing the Right Stories With the Right Skills: How Marketers Can Assist Sales in Communicating Value
In an increasingly commoditized market, the last bastion of competitive differentiation comes down to your salespeople with their lips moving. This session will offer new research on how marketers can do two things to equip salespeople to have successful customer conversations. One: telling the “right stories” that identify prospects’ “unconsidered needs” and create urgency and uniqueness so they change and choose you. Two: learning the “right skills” to use whiteboard-style visuals (versus PowerPoint) so that their delivery is as different as their story.
SPEAKER: Tim Riesterer, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, Corporate Visions
9:00-9:15 am
The ABCs of “Social Selling”: Always be Connecting and Curating Quality Content
SPEAKER: Jill Rowley, Founder and Chief Evangelist, Jill Rowley #SocialSelling; former Social Selling & Social Business Evangelism and Enablement, Oracle; and “Eloqueen,” Eloqua
9:15-9:30 am
Firestarter session
Brand, Engagement and Organic Growth
Aon research shows an engaged workforce drives organic growth but that getting there requires investment in people’s health, financial, emotional and social well being. Learn how workforce engagement has become a top priority at Aon as they share examples of engagement driving campaigns that fully leverage brand and marketing skill sets.
9:30-10:00 am
Networking break
10:00-10:45 am
Panel session
Understanding the DNA of a Growth Marketer
Growth. It is the goal of every marketer and the ultimate measure of success. It goes beyond revenue and focuses on customer engagement. But what are the necessary building blocks for achieving all-important momentum on this front? New research from SAP reveals the three pillars a true growth marketing organization must develop to attain success. This session, led by gyro, will explore the findings as well as best practices from top B-to-B marketers.
MODERATOR: Adryanna Sutherland, President, Cincinnati, gyro
PANELIST: Mark Rentschler, Head of Marketing, Americas, Makino
PANELIST: Paul Sebastien, Chief Marketing Officer and VP of Growth, T-Mobile
PANELIST: Lisa Armstrong, VP, Marketing & Branding, Pentair
PANELIST: Madhur Aggarwal, VP Marketing, SAP
10:45-11:00 am
Firestarter session
The Rubberband Theory of Revenue Marketing Leadership
Transforming marketing from a cost to a revenue center requires vision and discipline plus new or modified leadership behavior. It’s not just your team members who need to change, it’s your fearless leader! You will learn what’s required of today’s b2b marketing leaders as they assume real revenue accountability. You also will gain a better understanding of the role of leadership in the revenue marketing transformation and identify key needed behaviors.
MODERATOR: Debbie Qaqish, Principal and Chief Strategy Officer, The Pedowitz Group, and author,
The Rise of the Revenue Marketer
11:00-11:45 am
Panel session
How Can a Data-Driven Business Stay Ahead in a Data-Driven Economy?
Consumers, customers, and businesses alike all contribute to the data-driven economy. The volume of data leads to unprecedented innovation, change, and uncertainty. Marketers are now in an enviable position to capture and analyze the information like never before. This experienced panel will share a diverse range of thought and experiences across key marketing themes such as the vision of the new age marketing organization, customer engagement, and advanced demand generation. It’s a balance to embrace and prepare for uncertain change, yet leading change to challenge the status quo.
MODERATOR: Jeff Winsper, Founder, Black Ink ROI
PANELIST: Joseph Puthussery, VP of Marketing, GTM Global Demand Center, Cisco Systems
PANELIST: Jim Donovan, VP of Global Marketing, Teradata
PANELIST: Michael Foley, Director, Marketing Science Lab, EMC
11:45-12:00 pm
Firestarter session
12:00-12:15 pm
Break and head to lunch in the Grand Ballroom
12:15-1:15 pm
Luncheon
How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World
According to social media expert Gary Vaynerchuk, thanks to massive changes in and the proliferation of social-media platforms, it is no longer enough just to develop high-quality content. It is now about developing high-quality content perfectly adapted to specific social media platforms and mobile devices—content tailor-made for Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and Tumblr. Hear Vaynerchuk , a New York Times bestselling author, provide a blueprint for social media marketing strategies that really work to connect with customers and beat the competition.
SPEAKER: Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO and Co-Founder, VaynerMedia, and author,
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World
MODERATOR: Michael Krauss, President, Market Strategy Group and Director,
BMA/Chicago
1:15-1:45 pm
Break and return to International Ballroom
1:45-2:15 pm
Keynote session
Tiebreaker Selling
The Kellogg professor who brought us Value Merchants , his 2007 treatise on demonstrating and documenting superior value in business markets, has spent three years researching the issue of how non-strategic product or service sellers can win deals with purchasing agents without immediately jumping to price cuts when pressed for deal improvement. Called “Tiebreaker Selling,” the title of a March 2014 article in the Harvard Business Review, the practice involves providing value-added “justifiers” that break ties in your favor.
SPEAKER: James Anderson, Professor of Marketing and Wholesale Distribution, Kellogg School of Management
2:15-2:30 pm
Firestarter session
Ignite Employee Passion with Your Corporate Responsibility Story
Corporate responsibility (CR) initiatives have been proven to generate deep workforce loyalty and commitment that, in turn, increase innovation, improve customer services and drive down costs. Learn from a leading global CR communications practitioner how you can enhance your company's performance by tapping into sky-high employee engagement with your corporate responsibility story.
2:30-3:00 pm
Panel session
It Takes Two: How HR and Marketing Aligned for Uncommon Results
At Lincoln Financial Group, Human Resources and Marketing have forged a formidable alliance. Together, the leadership teams successfully steered this venerable American brand out of the darkness of the recession and into one of the brightest success stories of the company’s century-plus history. Lincoln Financial’s dynamic duo will take the stage to discuss how their unique relationship, the You’re in Charge® message of empowerment and the Chief Life Officer® campaign ignited its staff, its customers and the industry at large.
MODERATOR: Keith Loell, Executive Creative Director, gyro
PANELIST: Lisa Buckingham, Chief Human Resources Officer, Lincoln Financial
PANELIST: Jamie DePeau, Corporate Chief Marketing Officer, Lincoln Financial Group
3:00-3:15 pm
Firestarter session
A Retro Moment in Marketing History
Once upon a time, Broadway and business had a baby — a mutant offspring called the "industrial musical." Such “musicals,” of which hundreds were made from the 1950s through the 1970s—some sublime, some lame—were used at sales meetings, conventions, etc. In this fun and irreverent session, channel your b2b forebears.
SPEAKER: Steve Young, author, Industrial Musicals, and writer, “The Late Show with David Letterman”
3:15-3:45 pm
Networking break
3:45-4:30 pm
Panel session
The Impact of Social Media Globalization: Why People Are More Important Than Your Logo
While your brand is one voice with one logo and one mission statement, people’s social media behavior varies wildly across the world. Yes, it’s your content, brand values, calls to action, but it’s their culture. For brands implementing global social media strategies, your efforts won’t resonate unless you think global. Hear four social media professionals from four countries on three continents talk about how global brands can be flexible to the social media interests of individual cultures while maintaining a cohesive voice.
MODERATOR: Rick Stoner, Social Media Strategist, Bader Rutter & Associates, BBN USA
PANELIST: Paul Myerscough, Director of PR & Social
Content, Stein IAS
PANELIST: Thomas Foell, Head of Social Media, wob AG, BBN Germany
PANELIST: Anol Bhattacharya, CEO, GetIT, Singapore
4:30-5:15 pm
Panel session
Inside Scoop: What Marketing Automation Users Wish They’d Known Before Buying Their System
Experienced users are the only people who can tell you the real pros and cons of a marketing automation system. Here is your chance to hear a panel of seasoned veterans with no axes to grind systems to promote give you the inside story of what they learned after they signed the contract. What are the questions they wish they had asked? What turned out to be harder or easier than expected? And what would they do differently next time?
MODERATOR: David Raab, author,
B2B Marketing Automation Vendor Selection Toolkit
PANELIST: Mike Ballard, Demand Generation Strategy Manager, Lenovo
PANELIST: Heather Burton, Director, Marketing and Demand Generation Operations, Solar Winds
PANELIST: Don Gushurst, Director, Global Marketing Operations Services, Molex Incorporated
5:15-5:30 pm
Firestarter session
And Now A Word From Our Young Professionals
9:00 pm-1:00 am
Networking event
Young Professionals' After-Party