PROMO Magazine is again holding it's annual promotional marketing conference which has been at the Navy Pier in Chicago since I can remember. This year it's taking place a little earlier than normal, September 17-19th, and it's been named PROMOLive!, the Promotional Marketing Event for Brand and Agency Marketers.
I'm having a hard time remembering the first PROMO event that I attended (which tends to happen more and more after you hit a certain age) but I can tell you that it was when the magazine was still owned by a small, private publishing company and run like a family business. The industry has certainly changed since then. Over the years I've attended as an attendee, an exhibitor, a speaker, a workshop participant and some years all of the above. This year however I'm very excited since I'll be attending as a blogger covering the event here on Donna's Promo Talk along with of course the editors from PROMO Magazine reporting via PROMO Xtra.
Ideas Take Center Stage for this year's event which promises new ideas for both brand and agency marketers to attract and engage their audiences. The Center Stage Forums will kick off in the mornings of each conference day with "PROMO Aloud: The Innovation Interviews" on Day 1 hosted by Daniel Levine, executive Director of Avant-Guide and with "Powering Up Your Creative" on Day 2 from Jim McCafferty, President & CEO of JMP Creative. I'll be writing more about these two guys and their companies over the next couple of weeks leading up to the event.
Each afternoon will feature a SPOTLIGHT Session focusing on trends. Day 1 Spotlight is PROMO's Annual Industry Trends Results which the editorial team will review the findings from PROMO's annual report which will be a first at this event. Day 2 Spotlight is on Virtual Worlds where Brent Arslaner from Unisfair, a leading virtual event solution provider, will discuss this growing marketing trend.
In between these sessions are break-outs to choose from with marketing subjects including: Ideation: Experiential; Social Media; Guerilla; Sponsorship; Loyalty; Interactive; Measurement & Metrics; At Retail. There is an area to meet with exhibitors called "The Hub" where you can also review case study demos from a selection to choose from. The Hub also serves as the networking/mingling/schmoozing/eating/drinking spot.
And of course an event like this wouldn't be complete without giving out some awards...PROMO's PRO Awards 2007 will be awarded on the evening of September 18th at a party in the Grand Ballroom that includes food, drinks, music and the awards presentation. All the finalists will be presented and the winners announced for each of the 22 categories. Two new categories have been added this year which are; Best Use of Consumer-Generated-Content and Best Use of Targeted Direct Mail or eMail. All the finalists will also be showcased in "The Hub" area to view anytime during the event.
Now what's new this year is a special mircosite that's been built called ThePromoEvent.com. On this site you can not only review the detailed schedule and registration information, but also read about all the speakers and their bios and have the opportunity to send them a message. Plus they've created a PROMOLive 2007 Blog which the speakers have been given access to post. There's currently a post by Daniel Levine from an interview with Michael Stipe, frontman for the band R.E.M., one of my all-time favorites. The developers of the Microsite are still in the process of getting me set up to have access so that I can post to this blog as well and they've also promised to include a link to Donna's Promo Talk. So, I'll keep you informed as we move forward.
I'm not only looking forward to covering all these great topics at the event, but I'm also excited about reconnecting with many people in the industry that I've know over the years as well as hopefully meeting many new people. So if you are planning to attend, please let me know and I'd love to meet up with you sometime over the course of the event. And, if you can't make it let me know what topic or session you are specifically interested in and I'll try and cover it. Between now and then I plan on trying to connect with some of the speakers in order to give you a little more perspective on who they are and their backgrounds. So, please plan on visiting back to my blog often, or better yet, subscribe so you don't miss out.
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