Marketing Profs Business-To-Business Forum 2007

I'm just back from an exhiliarating time at the Marketing Profs inaugural Business To Business Forum in Chicago... before taking off again for Phoenix for Thom Filicia Is Coming To Phoenix.

The learnings were so intense that I'm still digesting them. That's what happens when close to 300 marketers show up and you become totally engrossed in listening to brilliant panel discussions and then discussing the learnings with the participants over meals.

I'm an active MarketingProfs user, having learned more from the online seminars, the newsletters and the Daily Fix than from any other resource - all of it relevant and timely given that marketing is literally changing before our eyes.

Which made this Forum so wonderful. MarketingProfs extended the tone and content of the online learning environment to this physical Forum. Furthermore, having attended so many webinars, I was familiar with Roy Young's, Val Frazee's and Shelley Ryan's voices. Meeting them in person meant connecting with old friends.

And, from NYC Blogger Meetup: Night of the Iguana, I had briefly met Ann Handley, and got to know her much better! [Do view Matt Dickman's fun Video: 'Have You Googled Yourself?' of some of the attendees answering the question "What have you found when you Googled yourself?" Ann's there, and I helped with one of the interviews.]

In terms of making meaning [as Lois Kelly says], the general sessions, intensives and concurrent sessions absolutely delivered and I'll share those highlights in a separate post.

In the meantime, do check out MarketingProfs Daily Fix for coverage of many of the events. Here are a few to whet your appetite:

+ Podcast: Making Your Message 'Stick,' With Author Chip Heath by Paul Dunay. As author Chip Heath told the audience, "In a market where it is difficult to be heard - only the sticky messages will break through."

+ Social Media and B2B Marketing by Matt Dickman. These are his takeaways of the panel on emerging media and B2B marketing had the audience truly engaged.

+ Why Corporations Should Blog (Hint, It's Not SEO) by Josh Hallett. He says: "Yes we all know that Google loves blogs, but if your only reason for blogging is SEO, then you're going to fail. "

+ Kronos Branding and the Bottom Line by Christian Gulliksen. He says: "When Stuart Itkin became the CMO of Kronos, the company had an identity problem. "People in the market knew the company for what we had been, not what we were," he says."

+ The Quality of the People by Roy Young explaining that "The "user-generated" content from conference attendees was as valuable as the content from featured speakers. "

Thank you, MarketingProfs!

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