The great marketing reset
Stephanie Selesnick reports from St Petersburg , Florida , on the SISO CEO Summit
he SISO CEO Summit ,
T held 21-24 March in St Petersburg , FL , USA brought together 300 CEO-level executives from around the world . Pre-conference Executive Women ’ s Leadership Forum was attended by 60 + women and the Small Business Roundtable 35 . While there were few Asiabased delegates , about a third of all delegates were from outside the US , including broad representation from the UK and Germany .
Common themes this year were sustainability , advocacy , and data / tech integration . A power panel on The New Normal , moderated by incoming SISO chair and co-founder MJBiz Cassandra Farrington kicked off the Summit with top global movers and shakers Hugh Jones , RELX plc ; Mary Larkin , Diversified Communications ; Charlie McCurdy , Informa Markets ; Hervé Sedky , Emerald and Russell Wilcox , Clarion Events Ltd . Delivering value to exhibitors and meeting their marketing and sales goals was top of mind . Coming out of the pandemic , most agreed that a solid mix of square metres and digital products is now normal .
The Summit was then treated
Above : SISO chair Cassandra Farrington and CEO David Audrain to economist Anirban Basu , Sage Policy Group , Inc . who delivered an impactful analysis of mostly US trends . Ken Holsinger , Freeman and Kimberly Hardcastle from mdg , a Freeman Company , shared insights with show organisers . Many databases are somewhat out of date with some 70 + million people in the US having left the workforce and called for a Great Marketing Reset . They urged delegates to invest now in technology and tools as we are looking at a younger , more digitally savvy audience moving forward . Two advocacy updates were given . The first was an update on US efforts with Tommy Goodwin , Exhibitions and Conferences Alliance ( ECA ) and Tori Emerson Barnes , US Travel Association , and the second on global efforts focusing in on the EU with Kai Hattendorf , UFI and Barbara Weizsacker , EEIA and EMECA . ►
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