BMA to “ENGAGE!” B-to-B Marketers

October 20, 2009; 01:31 PM

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--After staging its largest national conference in 20 years in Chicago this past June, the Business Marketing Association will return its national conference to downtown Chicago June 2-4, 2010, at the Swissotel on Chicago’s river and lake front.

Themed “ENGAGE!,” the conference will showcase innovative ways leading b-to-b marketers are engaging employees, channel partners, customers and other demand drivers to generate rapid brand, sales and profit recovery after the “Great Recession.”

“Many of the 450 who attended June’s ‘UNlearn’ conference told us it was the best marketing conference they had ever attended,” said Gary Slack, BMA chairman. “Our goal in 2010 is for our expected 600+ attendees to say the same thing about ENGAGE!”

“The ‘UNlearn’ conference riveted our attention during a deep recessionary period on newer, faster, better ways to get the job done,” Slack noted, adding, “The ‘ENGAGE!’ conference will show how companies are deploying primarily digital strategies and tactics to reinvigorate brands and get sales, profits and market share growing again.”

With the conference theme set, world-class speakers are now being recruited. Already booked are David Meerman Scott, the 2009 conference’s top-rated speaker, who will premiere a brand new talk based on a book he is writing, and Chris Brogan, a well-known Twitter authority and author of the just-published Trust Agents.

In a first, BMA will create a fee-based online adjunct to the physical conference, tentatively called ENGAGE! ONLINE, enabling thousands of b-to-b marketers in the U.S. and around the world who can’t be in Chicago in June 2010 to virtually experience up to 50% of the conference presentations and content.

BMA national board member Mike Brown will again lead a social-media team to document the conference, whose hashtag is #bma2010. Also, Swissotel facilities will be equipped with power strips and sectioned for blogger groups, and keynote sessions will carry real-time Twitter feeds on plasma screens embedded throughout the audience.

The 2010 conference will include, for the first time in years, a parallel b-to-b marketing services exhibition pavilion bringing together exhibits and personnel from a wide array of up to 30 providers of key products and services used by b-to-b marketers, including media, analytics, database, PR, social media, digital technology and related services.

BMA has negotiated an even lower sleeping room rate for 2010 than last year, Slack said. “ENGAGE! attendees will love the brand new Swissotel conference center plus beautiful, European-style rooms and views as well as a great health club and close proximity to running and walking paths along Chicago River and Lake Michigan.”

Following in the footsteps of Sullivan Higdon Sink, which created the arresting visual imagery for “UNlearn,” Stein Rogan & Partners has volunteered to develop the visual identity and promotional materials for ENGAGE!

With capacity at the Swissotel conference center capped at 600, BMA expects ENGAGE! to sell out early, Slack said, just as the UNlearn conference did two weeks early this past June. While early registration for ENGAGE! is not yet open, those wishing to reserve a seat or block of seats can assure access to early registration by going to and filling out the simple form at http://www.marketing.org/reserve2010.

For conference updates, visit and bookmark http://www.marketing.org/ENGAGE2010.

About BMA

Established in 1922, the Business Marketing Association (BMA) works to increase the importance, impact and value of marketing in businesses worldwide. BMA is the only professional organization exclusively focused on business-to-business marketing and its key drivers: customer engagement and relationships, product and service innovation, value pricing, channels, online/offline marketing communications and analytics. BMA’s members embody state-of-the-art expertise in business-to-business marketing and communications and share best practices for the benefit of the global business community. To learn more, visit http://www.marketing.org or contact us at 630-544-5054 or info@marketing.org

Contacts:

Business Marketing Association
Chris Barry
Communications Manager
cbarry@marketing.org
630-696-4009