As we navigate the post-Covid chapter, event goer and event manager alike have certainly adapted to what virtual learning and networking, all the good and not so good!
Having said that, I would like to first give a mighty shout out to our B2B Marketing events team. Thirteen months ago, our team literally transformed our first planned live USA-based event into a vibrant online event on a first-time platform to boot. Fast forward through a year of mastering the new world of at scale virtual events, all that dedication and experience in hand, yielded an even more awesome 2nd annual Ignite USA. (Btw, our team chose this little SaaS Company a year ago called Hopin as our core delivery platform when they had 40 employees. Now they are one of the largest virtual event companies in the world, due in no small part to B2BMarketing.net!
As for our second Ignite USA, we continued our good fortune attracting the industry’s top domain experts as speakers and panelists over the two-day conference and three separate tracks. From Shanita Akintonde as an opening keynoter live from the host city of Chicago to Michael Brenner’s always eye-opening insights on the back end of Day Two, we hope everyone learned valuable new insights.
Our session moderators, Katie Martell, James Soto, and Shane Redding, kept the two days on track and as they do so well, summarized and calibrated each day’s affairs for all who attended. Keith Pigues gave a highly informative keynote around making growth marketing your core mission.
Our second annual Ignite USA replicated our engagement with the community, and our content contributors were there again with engagement and if a topic has an acronym, it must be important! We made sure to cover the most requested subject matter our community wanted. From ABX to CX and from GDPR to CDP’s. Sessions covered the gamut from Programmatic ABM to Sam Karow’s presentation on B2BMarketing’s very own campaign for Ignite USA.
Of note, we saw positive feedback on our sessions on DEI, how diversity and inclusion are top of mind for our marketer community. We heard firsthand from marketers how they are weaving this core team philosophy into actual practice. What was especially moving is hearing from real marketing practitioners who as minority executives shared their personal stories and how they continue to lead their companies in diversity initiatives. Kudos to Lauren McCadney Williams, Karen McFarlane, and Tyrona Heath!
And as usual, our very own Joel Harrison as host, led several spirited discussions around the state of our industry and emerging hot topics; and shared throughout the conference, vital insights from around the globe on just what makes our industry move and how it marshalled through the Covid epidemic.
Finally, thanks to our Advisory Board and Event Sponsors for their advocacy, networking, and support of Ignite USA. With the Covid curtain lifting in Chicago, we were fortunate enough to host post event cocktail event at the London House Chicago where a number of our local based speakers, Advisors and Sponsors shared a few pints! It was so energizing for us as for many it was the first in person business meeting in months.
We hope to build on our success when we host our 3rd annual conference back in person, in Chicago next June, IRL and of course, online. It will be interesting to see how we all adapt to the new trend of networking and learning in person. But for you old fashioned types, you can also attend online!
For more highlights on the different streams and topics from Ignite USA, check out our B2B Takeaways Report here!
