Come one! Come all! Come several! Come few!
Step right up! Don’t be shy! You there in the back, with the funny hat, step right up! You over there with the earrings and the weird mustache, come on in! There’s room for everyone under the Big Top, and it’s time for the Greatest Content Marketing Show on Earth!
That’s right, Content Marketing World is mere days away. There is no more exciting place for a content marketer to be next week than Cleveland, OH(sure, it would be great if it were in Hawaii next year, but Cleveland is not without its charms). There’s a lot to look forward to: The opening night festivities! The keynotes! The sessions! The potential to see amazing marketing geniuses do bad karaoke!
If you’re headed to the big show, you have some tough decisions to make. There’s no way to see every must-see session live — there are 120 over just three days. But we’re here to help. Here’s our list of sessions we’re particularly excited to see. Use it to help guide your schedule-setting.
16 Can’t-Miss Sessions at Content Marketing World 2019
#1: How to Develop a B2B Influencer Marketing Program that Actually Works
Speaker(s): Lee Odden and Amisha Gandhi
Time: 9/3, 1:00 p.m.
Lee is the CEO of TopRank Marketing (maybe you’ve heard of him), but editorial bias aside, he’s well-recognized as a leading authority on B2B influencer marketing. Lee is doing for influencer marketing what Joe Pulizzi did for content: Turning it into a disciplined marketing strategy that gets results.
Amisha is the founder of the SAP* Global Influencer Program, responsible for creating and maintaining influencer relationships for a Fortune 500 brand, another pioneer in the B2B influencer marketing space.
Put them together and what have you got? An intense working session that will equip you with plenty of practical experience to apply to your own program.
#2: Keynote: MKTG 2030
Speaker: Joe Pulizzi
Time: 9/4, 8:15 a.m.
Going to Content Marketing World and missing Joe’s keynote would be like going to the Vatican and missing the Pope. Joe continues to be one of the guiding voices of content marketing. He’s sometimes thought-provoking, sometimes controversial, sometimes downright shocking — but he’s never boring.
#3: 3 Cs To Drive Your B(rand): Putting The Focus On Content, Customer, And Culture
Speaker: Maliha Aqeel
Time: 9/4, 10:15 a.m.
Customers are demanding consistent, and consistently exceptional, brand experiences. To meet that demand, marketers must step out of their comfort zone and work alongside sales, customer service, and customer experience. Maliha Aqeel has been working to build a holistic brand model at Ernst and Young, and her insights here are sure to inspire.
#4: Find Your Brand Voice And Connect With Your Customers
Speaker: Dipanjan Chatterjee
Time: 9/4, 10:15 a.m.
Here’s your first difficult choice: Forrester Vice President Dipanjan Chatterjee is presenting his company’s research on marketing for voice interaction at the same time as Maliha’s presentation. If your organization is exploring the potential of voice search and smart assistants, this is definitely a can’t-miss session. Pick the one most relevant to your current needs, and catch the other one on the replay.
#5: From Nontent To Content: Why Social Innovation Is The Future Of Winning At Relevance
Speaker: Carlos Abler
Time: 9/4, 11:20 a.m.
We’ve followed Carlos’ emergence as a content marketing thought leader for the last few years, as he’s gone from up-and-comer to sought-after public speaker. His work with 3M* has been consistently excellent. This session seeks to turn content marketers into “social entrepreneurs” to deliver hyper-relevant content.
#6: Content Marketing Fitness – 10 Exercises to Build Your Marketing Beach Body
Speaker: Lee Odden
Time: 9/4, 2:00 p.m.
I may not be the most physically fit guy in the world, but my content marketing strategy is totally buff. It’s all thanks to Lee’s content marketing fitness regimen: It’s all about trimming the fat, getting back to basics, and avoiding the temptation of new shiny objects. This session will help you ditch your content marketing bad habits and become a lean, mean, ROI machine.
#7: What Do We Want? Content. When Do We Want It? Asap. Your Strategic Approach To Sane + Sustainable Success
Speaker: Ann Handley
Time: 9/4, 3:05 p.m.
Ann Handley is a brand unto herself. Her name is synonymous with entertaining, high-quality, educational content. Just read the description for her session for a preview of how charismatic, relatable and knowledgeable she is. Just as you should never miss a chance to hear Lee Odden talk about influencers, you should never miss Ann Handley talking about content creation.
#8: Building A Business Case For Marketing Technology
Speaker: Zari Venhaus
Time: 9/5, 10:15 a.m.
Personalized content marketing at scale: That’s the dream. Martech is the only way we’re going to make that dream a reality. And until we have unlimited budgets, we’ll have to justify the expense of all that shiny new tech. As the Corporate Marketing Communications Director at Eaton, Zari has plenty of experience to bring to what promises to be a practical, tactical session.
#9: Diversity In Marketing Using Artificial Intelligence
Speaker: Robbee Minicola
Time: 9/5, 10:15 a.m.
Robbee is the Senior Director at Microsoft, so she’s bound to have the inside track on what’s happening with artificial intelligence. The idea of using AI for good — promoting diversity and inclusion in content, overcoming natural human biases — is particularly exciting to me.
#10: Empathetic Content: The Key To Creating Lasting B2B Customer Relationships
Speaker(s): April Henderson and Laura Ramos
Time: 9/5, 11:20 a.m.
Data nerds, rejoice: April and Laura from Forrester Research are here to bring their insights about the evolving nature of B2B consumers. This session promises to teach five data-driven best practices in creating more empathetic content.
#11: Walking The Tightrope: Architecting Teams To Deliver Consistently Innovative Content Marketing Results
Speaker: Carla Johnson
Time: 9/5, 11:20 a.m.
If you’re in charge of a marketing team, this session is essential. Carla is a keynote speaker and an experienced practicing CMO who has worked with dozens of innovative brands. She’s had to take diverse groups and turn them into productive teams over and over again throughout her career. She’s sure to have fresh insights to help your team be more productive.
#12: Don’t Let Them Scare You, A Machine Can’t Do Marketing
Speaker: Tameka Vasquez
Time: 9/5, 12:20 p.m.
Will AI replace content marketers? What skills should we be developing to survive and thrive as technology takes over? Are we freaking out a little too much? Tameka, Assistant VP of Marketing at Genpact, promises a refreshing new take on what machines mean to marketing.
#13: What the…Influencer Marketing!
Speaker(s): Amisha Gandhi, Tom Augenthaler
Time: 9/5, 12:20 p.m.
This session brings together an accomplished brand practitioner (Amisha Gandhi from SAP*), and a B2B Influencer Marketing consultant with a proven track record in the field. If you’re just getting started with influencer marketing, or looking to level up to a more strategic, long-term program, this is the session for you.
#14: Disrupting Thought Leadership: What It Really Takes to Create a Personal Content Platform that Works
Speaker: Amber Naslund
Time: 9/5, 1:45 p.m.
In a way, personal thought leadership is just content marketing with yourself as the client. Amber Naslund of LinkedIn* has been instrumental in developing the social media site as a platform for thought leadership. Their forays into long-form social and personal publishing have set a new standard for the industry. This session will help you choose the right topics, develop your personal voice, and distribute your content where it will get seen.
#15: Ushering In The Era Of Integrated Marketing: How (and Why) Content Teams Can Drive Organizational Transformation
Speaker: Shafqat Islam
Time: 9/5, 1:45 p.m.
Already comfortable with your personal thought leadership? Attend this 1:45 session and start thinking bigger about marketing’s role in your larger organization. As I said, businesses are starting to take a more holistic approach to marketing/sales/customer experience, and someone needs to drive the bus. This session promises practical advice on reforming your teams to meet the challenge.
#16: Guardians Of Content Vol 1: How To Scale B2b Influencer Content To Save The Galaxy
Speaker: Ashley Zeckman
Time: 9/6, 8:00 a.m.
You’ll hear a lot about personalized, more relevant content throughout your Content Marketing World experience. TopRank Marketing’s own Ashley Zeckman offers one of the best ways to create that next-level content: Ongoing B2B influencer marketing at scale. Learn what brands like Dell* and Adobe* already know: How to co-create amazing content with influencers regardless of your industry or vertical.
See You Under the Big Top
The TopRank Marketing crew have brought you the best of #CMWorld for five years running, and we’re ready to bring the noise this year, too. We hope to see you there, but if you can’t make it, we have you covered. Look forward to liveblogs, tweetstorms, tons of takeaways and dozens of selfies. Subscribe now to stay up-to-date on Content Marketing World and beyond.
*Disclosure: SAP, 3M, LinkedIn, Dell, and Adobe are TopRank Marketing clients.
