The B2B Marketing Conference event organized by ANES - National Association of Sector Publishing - aims to reflect on the new challenges that B2B Marketing is being called upon to face for the restart. The conference will take place on June 16 in live streaming, with live broadcast from Assolombarda's Giò Ponti Auditorium.
The B2B Marketing Conference represents a key benchmark for the enterprise-level marketing industry. The event is characterized by its increasingly strategic role, becoming a unique and unmissable opportunity for key market players to analyze the most innovative marketing strategies in order to respond to the new needs of target communities.
The B2B Marketing Conference offers a thought-provoking, probing look at all the aspects facing B2B Marketing in today's business market landscape, taking us through the discovery of new the corporate business strategies to drive the industry's restart.
In 2019, how did the idea of holding and organizing the B2B Marketing Conference event come about?
The idea arose from the desire to expand the network we have always addressed, that is, the b2b, professional and specialized publishers that our association represents, toward the neighboring chain of marketers of the publishers' own client/insert companies, with the aim of fostering comparison and interchange between different but closely related players who, together, can certainly embark on a common path of mutual growth and evolution.
With the B2B Marketing Conference, we think we have created such an opportunity, and the very high approval rating of the first two editions makes us think we are on the right track.
We are curious to know how you faced the challenge of 2020 and the Pandemic and how that situation affected the organization of the second edition of your event scheduled last year?
It was a real challenge, really complicated to overcome.
Three days before the event date, the unforgettable for us Feb. 27, 2020, with tickets sold out, more than 20 speakers involved and all contracts signed in hand, the event lockout arrived!
At first we felt displaced, with great regret and a strong sense of discouragement, no doubt also increased by the worrying emergency situation then unknown to all that was emerging in the world at large.
I can no longer remember how many times, while waiting for the release of the new arrangements at the time, we would try to hypothesize a new date, resenting all those involved, with the hope (and illusion) of restarting our Conference in its original and traditional form of public attendance
Looking back today to those days, I remember so many dark moments, but I also remember that we never wanted to give in to the alternative of postponing to 2021, as so many other events have done.
At a certain point we sensed that it was imperative to get "the machine" going again to keep the large audience that had signed up, the speakers, the sponsors, with whom, I must say, we had the ability, despite the initial isolation, to keep contact alive for many months; until on June 24 we organized with great difficulty (we were still in the early days of digital events) an "intermediate stage" with a digital talk.
Then summer came, we all thought we were out of the emergency, the events started again, and our Conference could be held on October 8, with both in-person and streaming modes, registering quite a success with the audience, which, after the many obstacles we encountered, was very gratifying; even Covid itself, on that occasion spared us! A few days later Italy tragically re-entered the famous 2nd phase, which again reframed everything
On June 16, 2021, you will inaugurate the third edition of the B2B Marketing Conference, what are the most important things you have learned after facing last year's challenge, succeeding despite all the obstacles posed by the pandemic to realize both the 2020 and 2021 editions
The first thing we realized is that the way of organizing and proposing events has also radically changed, and for this third edition we immediately started by setting the event in a hybrid form, or phigitalaswe use to say, so that we would no longer have to chase after alternative solutions; in this way, however it went in these months, the date could not be shifted. And so it was, on June 16 the events could still be held only in remote mode and our Conference could be followed in live streaming.
We have also learned a lot about remote events, and in light of the experience of months spent on call on a daily basis, we have tried to set up a lively and engaging live stream...but the audience will be the ones to tell us in a few days if we have succeeded!
This year's title is "Innovating Communities to Accelerate Business. The Evolution of B2B Communities at the Center of Marketing Strategies." What prompted you to hold the event around this very timely topic and what are the main Focuses the day will focus on?
The pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation of business, but it has also created a sense of uncertainty and confusion in all sectors; we have sensed the need to "reset everything" and return to focus on the vital element of one's businesses: "the Reference Communities"; we think that 'analysis of the new needs of the members of the various communities is at this time more crucial than ever to anticipate changes in one's markets and be successful in new marketing challenges.
With this in mind, we have chosen four thematic focuses that will be debated and explored throughout the day by the authoritative speakers who will speak:
New Media Planning, Marketing Automation and AI; From digital relationship to b2b e-commerce; Innovative Ideas for marketing.
Given today's changing business landscape, characterized by its changing nature, how important do you think it is to focus on the best strategies to engage and "target" the right audience?
Essential and urgent for all who aim to return to growth.
The business landscape has completely changed, people have changed, habits have changed, companies and their needs have changed; it is essential to have the ability to be able to grasp and embrace this new landscape as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, toward which to direct the choice of the most emerging strategies.
Certainly through this event you will have made interesting partnerships, such as the one with Digital Innovation Days, and involved prominent figures, including the speakers who will speak during the course of the day on June 16, what are the prospects for such collaborations?
Yes, the organization of the Conference gave us the valuable opportunity to open new acquaintances with many influential partners and speakers, and with each of you, we hope to have initiated a more ongoing collaboration.
We are developing new projects aimed at the world of marketing and b2b communication that we would like to share, and I am sure we will succeed!
The B2B Conference will soon evolve into a full-fledged Community with the introduction of other new initiatives ... but I don't want to anticipate too much for now!
Explain to our Community how easy it is to attend the B2B Marketing Conference 2021
To attend the Conference, simply purchase a web ticket at the dedicated website www.b2btheconference.com
For your community we reserve, with the code promoconference21, a special price of 99 euros (full ticket 189 euros) with which you can follow all the speeches of the day and then have free access to all the videos and speaker presentations.