This Tuesday and Wednesday, August 4th and 5th, the North American regional office presidents of GyroHSR and I will be attending ANA and BtoB magazine’s “2009 B-to-B Marketing in the New World” conference. As the name indicates, the conference will focus on the rapidly changing climate in which B-to-B marketers are doing business. There are a number of senior-level executives speaking at the event this year, and I’m very much looking forward to hearing their thoughts as well as providing my own.
As a sponsor of the event, I have the distinct pleasure of opening the conference with the introduction of Bob Liodice, president and CEO of ANA. On Wednesday, August 5th, I will moderate a panel discussion titled “Herding Cats: Creating Alignment Between MARCOM Ops and Transformational Corporate Strategy.” The panelists I will be moderating include Bill Fox, senior vice president, managing director, Fidelity Investments; Juanita James, vice president and chief marketing and communications officer, Pitney Bowes; and Susan Popper, senior vice president, marketing communications, SAP.
As B-to-B marketers down in the trenches, the panelists will provide their perspective on how to align an organization to ensure all parts of the company are supporting each other’s efforts. It’s no secret that this is a difficult task in fruitful times, so in times of an economic downturn when people are stretched very thinly, it becomes even more difficult. Throw in a multitude of emerging media in which to communicate and it becomes readily apparent that alignment is vital.
I hope to see some of you at the conference and for those who cannot attend, follow us on Twitter (@GyroHSR) for live tweets and check back here on the blog for updates. I guess you could say we’ll be embracing the new world throughout the conference.
Rick Segal
Chief Executive, North America
Global Practice Leader, B-to-B Marketing