After months of discussion, rumination and negotiation, the Business Marketing Collective (BMC) is finally in business, with the first Executive Council meeting held last week, and the first Agency Council meeting the week before. At last, we can start addressing our stated objectives, which are to provide leadership for the B2B marketing industry, and to help enable and accelerate its development.
Both meetings were extremely positive, with a huge amount of enthusiasm and positivity demonstrated by all those in attendance. Perhaps more importantly, however, attendees arrived with their own ideas and a willingness to take the agenda forward – this kind of ethos will be crucial if BMC is to succeed.
As befits a new organisation, both discussions were formative, with open debate about how BMC should set about its task. At the Agencies Council, the main topic of conversation for attendees was how the six annual council meetings should be structured to provide most value and resonance for members. There were some excellent suggestions tabled for further discussion – the conclusions will be posted on the Business Marketing Collective website.
The agenda at the Executive Council meeting was centred on the primary objectives and focus of the organisation as a whole, with a long discussion on which sub-groups should be established and which issues should be addressed. The conclusion was that two initial sub-groups should be established – Learning/professional development, chaired by Annabel Rake, director brand and marketing at Deloitte; and Networking/events, chaired by Fran Brosan, MD of Omobono. The next steps are to recruit members (from the list of individuals who registered their interest in BMC) and to start drawing up a framework for activities and deliverables. Further councils will be established in due course.
Further issues that required exploration by the Executive Council were the new EU data laws, which would be discussed at the next Executive Council meeting, the membership proposition for individual client side members (which was collectively decreed as requiring further development) and the some kind of accreditation for best practice for campaigns.
All in all, those of us who have been involved in the protracted discussions that led to the birth of the Business Marketing Collective were pleased with the outcomes of the meeting. Reaching this key milestone doesn’t mean that our work is done: far from it, in fact – the real work has only just begun. We have a big aspiration for BMC, and success will entail a long journey and lots of hard work, but nothing that was ever easy was ever worth doing.
* There’s more information about the aims and objectives of the BMC at our website (www.businessmarketingcollective.com) where you can also register to be kept up to date with the latest news. Alternatively, follow us on Twitter @BMC_forB2B or join our LinkedIn group.
