Virtual Conference: The Year Ahead

Opening Keynote: Making Sense of 2020 to Win Big in 2021

Last year taught us all some hard lessons. Do not let yourself squander the insights. As your organization’s chief communicators, marketers set the tone for what to talk about and how to say it so people will listen. In this hyper-competitive, chaotic new normal, that means your knowledge of trends and insights is more important than ever before. Efficient, effective communication hinges on a marketer’s ability to build great strategies and translate them to strong execution. So, what are the stories worth telling right now, and what tools will you need to tell them well?

As the CEO of both a digital marketing agency and a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) firm, here are the most important movements I am seeing across multiple industries that will help you win both personally and professionally: diversity and inclusion, authenticity, social media and data fluency, and continuous, competitive learning.

Let’s make sense of 2020 and learn actionable steps you can take to win big in 2021.

The New Roaring ‘20s: Accelerate Your Digital Transformation to Facilitate Connections and Fuel Growth

The way we connect with one another and our audiences changed forever in 2020, and will continue to evolve in 2021. In the earliest days of the pandemic, many businesses recognized that their only hope for survival, and of maintaining the integrity of their brand, was to adapt. This required that they change the way teams work and collaborate — basically, their entire process. It also meant companies had to accelerate the pace of their digital transformation.

In this session, we’ll share our best tips for what teams need to focus on to continue to grow in 2021, including flexible planning for the future, understanding customer needs, improving internal processes, and creating valuable products and services. We’ll also discuss why using collaborative work management technology, such as Wrike, is essential for teams to connect with each other and ultimately companies with their audiences. You’ll discover the many ways Wrike can help make your teams more efficient and productive to exceed your 2021 goals.

A Matter of Moments: Customer Experience and Digital Transformation in the Year Ahead

2020 brought a seismic shift to an already quickly evolving market and accelerated meaningful shifts in customer behavior. Customers are increasingly interested in engaging with brands that share their principles, that are environmentally and socially responsible, that are honest, helpful, and sincere. There’s never been a better time to evaluate how we communicate, both to our visitors and to internal teams, and to take a hard look at the experiences that help us build trust and relationships with our audience.

From brand values to data privacy to content creation, we’ll explore specific opportunities brands have in the coming year to reshape their customer experiences and redefine digital transformation for their organizations.

Brand Templating: The Secret to Creating More Effective Content That Gets Results

The buying process for your customers has changed. Content now fuels every step of the buyer journey. But as more and more content is published everyday it can be hard for brands to keep up with demand. Meanwhile, most content created falls short of expectations for consumers and for the brands creating it.

In this webinar, Garrett Jestice will discuss how brand templating can help you create more effective content at scale that grows your business without overburdening your central creative team.

You’ll learn:

• How the buying process has changed for customers
• The key elements of truly effective content that gets results
• The 10 most common template mistakes brands make and how to fix them

Keynote: Cutting Through Clutter with Brand Innovation

The world is getting more and more cluttered. Competition is intensifying. The consumer is bombarded by 5,000 commercial messages every single day. As technology has continually evolved in the last several decades, marketing has to change with it. If you want to cut through the clutter, brand innovation is necessary.

Join Raja as he shares the importance of brand transformation for a brand to remain relevant and be successful.

Demand Generation Planning Session: How to Stand Out in 2021

An ever-changing environment can shift business priorities in an instant, but one thing remains the same — demand generation has significant impact on the bottom line. So, what happens in 2021? And how can we prepare?

Join Hayley Ferrante, Head of Marketo Engage Commercial Demand Generation, Adobe Experience Cloud, for her demand generation planning session.

In this webinar, you’ll learn:

• How to achieve growth with limited resources
• Why and how intent data can be a core part of your strategy
• Simple tactics and optimization techniques to move the needle

The Stock of Stories is Up: Storytelling is Having (Another) Moment, and There’s A Clear Reason Why.

2020 taught us a million lessons in resilience and loss, leaving each of us with stories of perseverance and pain. Following an extraordinary year of disconnect, we need stories more than ever to find connection. Storytelling isn’t a buzzword: it’s a neurological process for sense-making. In the year ahead, marketers and teams who leverage the power of story will win, while those who neglect it will fall behind.

Join seasoned storyteller Kevin Doherty in this session to look at why storytelling works, tropes you can be using in your content, and guidance for how to embed storytelling in your 2021 performance campaigns. For inspiration, we’ll take a look at one example where Vyond’s marketing team made a measurable impact with story-driven content.

Takeaways:

• The brain-backed case for visual storytelling
• How marketers can use storytelling tropes like character development, the hero’s journey, and cliffhangers
• Tips and inspiration for creating your own story-driven campaigns

Keynote: The Future of Smart Digital Marketing Amidst Cybersecurity and Privacy Challenges

This opening keynote session will look at emerging and futuristic technologies for smart digital marketing in 2021 and beyond.  In a digital world where digital marketing opportunities are boundless, it is important to build in cybersecurity and privacy as well as comply with relevant law while taking advantage of all that smart digital marketing has to offer.

As marketers, rather than getting frustrated about how to implement and comply, it is better to be deliberate about cybersecurity and privacy and how these can impact or even enhance your smart digital marketing strategies. Three key smart digital marketing strategies will be analyzed.

Why A First-Party Data Strategy is Crucial to Providing a Stellar Customer Experience

Third-party data is quickly becoming second class. With so many new privacy regulations and browser changes depreciating the value of third-party data, companies now need to shift to a first-party data strategy to continue their personalization initiatives and reduce the risk of data regulation penalties. Hear why it matters more than ever, how to get it, and how to put it to use safely and effectively.

You’ll leave this session knowing:

• The benefits of a first-party data strategy
• The use cases that are possible with a first-party data strategy
• Tips for building a first-party data strategy

The time to start developing a first-party data strategy is now!

Closing Keynote: The Three Building Blocks of Successful Leadership

We’re always emerging as leaders. It can be a challenging quest. That’s because the pursuit of leadership excellence is as elusive as it is never ending – especially these days.

Dr. Jessica McWade’s presentation will examine three of the most essential and difficult aspects of developing leadership excellence – emotional intelligence, interpersonal communication, and persuasiveness. This presentation will help attendees consider their approaches to leading or developing themselves as future leaders while providing strategies for improvement.

What better time than right now to reflect on and build our leadership capabilities?