With sponsorship support from Stein IAS, BMA is taking over the role from the former BtoB magazine, now part of Ad Age, of publishing annual conference “dailies” at BMA14.

Tapping two well-known b2b marketing journalists—former BtoB editorial stalwarts Edmund Lawler and Kate Maddox—BMA will publish both print and digital “dailies” on Thursday morning, May 29, and Friday morning, May 30.

Edmund Lawler is best known for the “Copy Chasers” section that ran for many years in BtoB magazine. Kate Maddox is the former executive editor of BtoB and considered by many the “dean” of North American b2b marketing journalism.

BMA has selected a cutting-edge event technology platform known as Livecube to power social integration at BMA14.

“Livecube is the Swiss Army Knife of event technology platforms,” said Barry Seidenstat, PMP, of ROI Communication Solutions and BMA’s event technology advisor for all annual global conferences dating back to 2009. “It will be great addition to BMA’s annual conference, permitting attendees to become more digitally and socially connected than ever.”

Not technically an app, the Livecube platform is an online service, accessible via a URL—http://www.bma.livecubeapp.com—that BMA14 attendees will be able to use on their smartphones, tablets or laptops to:

• Access all BMA14 schedule info (speakers, sessions, times, etc.), courtesy of sponsor MasonZimbler, a Harte Hanks Company.
• Answer polling questions from speakers (more in a later update), courtesy of sponsor FINANCIAL TIMES.
• See and follow ALL of the conversations on Twitter
• Share BMA14 photos with others
• Send questions to speakers
• Earn activity-based points towards BMA prizes and badges

With the help of Livecube founder Aaron Price, Seidentstat has created a short video for BMA14 attendees in which he and Price explain how to power up and tap into the various Livecube services.

Please watch this video to familiarize yourself with Livecube.

A future BMA14 update will explain the polling (e.g., audience response system) component of Livecube.

Another upcoming update, including a video, will&&l

For several months, BMA’s biweekly newsletter, BMA BUZZ, has been featuring preview interviews with a number of BMA14 speakers.

You can read these previews at the following links:

• April 10: CEB’s Brent Adamson (go here)
• March 27: Winning the Story Wars author Jonah Sachs (go here)
• March 13: Youtility author Jay Baer (go here)
• Feb. 27: The Pedowitz Group’s Debbie Qaqish (go here)
• Feb. 13: Author and b2b sales consultant Jill Konrath (go here)

At least three more BMA14 preview interviews will appear in BMA BUZZ before BMA14 gets under way May 28:

• April 24: Social seller Jill Rowley (speaking May 28)
• May 8: Zuckerberg Media’s Randi Zuckerberg (speaking May 39)
• May 22: Black Ink’s Jeff Winsper (moderating May 29)

You can subscribe to BMA BUZZ by going here.

Replacing Brian Goffman, who recently left LinkedIn, VP of Marketing and Customer Support Nick Besbeas will lead a keynote session on May 28.

In his 30-minute talk, as yet untitled, he will discuss b2b marketer best practices using LinkedIn, address LinkedIn’s future, describe new products coming down the pike and take audience questions.

Besbeas joined LinkedIn January 2011 and drives all aspects of marketing and customer support across the globe.

Before joining LinkedIn, Besbeas was Senior Vice President of Marketing at Yahoo!, where he oversaw marketing, insights and customer care for all of Yahoo!’s products and services.

In 2000, Besbeas co-founded digiMine Inc. (now AudienceScience) and served as Chief Strategy Officer until 2005, running sales, marketing and account management.

From 1993 to 2000, Besbeas established and led the Direct Marketing and Business Intelligence Group at Microsoft, MSN. Prior to Microsoft, Nick held leadership roles at Quill Corporation (a subsidiary of Staples) and The Signature Group.

BMA is very proud to announce that The Wall Street Journal has signed up to serve as the title sponsor of BMA14.

As the title sponsor, the Journal leads a who’s-who list of some 30 sponsoring firms who help make BMA’s annual global conference possible.

“This is a watershed moment for BMA and its members,” said Gary Slack, BMA’s VP of Professional Development and its annual conference organizer since 2009. “The Journal is the first name in global business media, and we are honored to be able to associate the BMA and Journal brands in this way.”

“We are thrilled to become the title sponsor of the 2014 Global BMA Conference, the largest b2b marketing conference in the world,” said Trevor Fellows, Dow Jones Global Head of Advertising Sales. “The Wall Street Journal brand, encompassing print, digital, mobile, conferences and events, provides advertisers with a platform as powerful as the people who use it.”

The Journal is no stranger to BMA, Slack noted, as Journal executives have served over the years on the boards of the New York and Chicago chapters. And the Journal has been an active sponsor at the BMA chapter level, he added.

As part of its title role, a top Journal executive will take 2-3 minutes to address the BMA14 assembly just after the conference opening on May 28, describing new and planned features of interest to b2b marketers.

You can see a list of all BMA14 sponsors here.