I'm very excited about my trip next week to Chicago to attend PMA's Annual
Conference.
It will sort of be my coming out for Donna's Promo Talk. I will be sponsoring the "Breakfast with the Experts" table each morning discussing Blogs with attendees over coffee. My Blog Team partner from WME Blogs will be joining me who is really more the "Expert" at blogging then I am. I'll be sharing with you all our observations about the conference from this blog and hope to do pass on insights from attendees as well as speakers. So, please join the conversation.
"This Changes Everything" is this year's Conference theme which is really so fitting because not only does it talk to how our industry in general is changing, but also about how much PMA is changing. I'll get back to that in a minute. There is so much great content on the agenda that I'll never be able to cover it all, but I'll try to hit the big topics. Of course, they've saved the best for last with Don Shultz from Northwestern University sharing with us his "Crystal Ball". How many times have we all said "If I had a Crystal Ball.....". If we did, we wouldn't need to be at this conference..instead possibly on a beach somewhere drinking a fruity cocktail.
Back to reality, another topic that is dear to my heart, (and which my first 2 posts in this blog were on) is the Dove Real Beauty Campaign. Maureen Shirreff from Ogilvy & Mather will be sharing a case history with us which is sure to go down in history as a campaign that "Changed Everything."
Wrapping up the Conference will be the Reggie Awards where we'll all get to see the best of the best and give our winners a big congrats. I'm especially interested to see who wins this year since I had the honor to be a Reggie Judge for the first time. I only covered two categories and out of those they were so many great campaigns it was hard to score one over the over. However, there are those that just stand out from the crowd for just being a bit different and really resonating with the target audience (the basic principals of promotional marketing never really change).
Now, a few words about PMA. As we know they are a member-based organization that exists to serve us, their members. This annual Conference is one of the many great events they put on and this year's appears to top the years before. PMA is looking for our feedback on what we think of their services and what we want more of as they work to deliver the best value for our investment. We'll hear from them in the opening announcements come Wednesday morning as they share with us their vision for the industry as well as the organization now headed up under new interim president, Bonnie Carlson. So, let me know what you'd like to see from them and I'll pass it on.
Look forward to meeting many of you next week. Please look for me and let me know what you think about all the "changes".
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