This week I am enjoying Cisco’s Marketing Velocity conference in Chicago, IL. Cisco Marketing Velocity brings partners from all over the world together to hear from Cisco executives and industry experts to help get inspired, energize marketing practices, and learn what’s coming next. This year marks the conference’s 10th anniversary.
The opening general session was hosted by Wendy Bahr, Sr. VP, Global Partner Organization – Cisco, Michelle Chiantera, VP, Global Partner Marketing – Cisco, and Chris Dedicoat, EVP, Worldwide Sales and Field Operations – Cisco. The session opened with Doug Mckenzie, who made digital believers out of the audience with his digital magic. The executives outlined Cisco strategies and priorities, the role of marketing and sales, and Cisco’s partner commitment and enablement.
Michelle Chiantera took time to highlight the conference (noting that 10 years ago at the first Marketing Velocity the agenda included the topic “Will Social Selling Impact the B2B Market”) and the importance of marketing at Cisco. Chris Dedicoat focused on the rapid pace of digitization, Cisco’s innovative technologies, and digital transformation in action. Wendy Bahr shared with partners the changing needs of customers and the importance of digital impact and digital business agility.
This year’s conference features three new partner enablement sessions:
- Partner Ecosystem Meetings - 30-Minute Partner-to-Partner Meetings, intended to help partners capitalize on the digital transformation and forge new partner-to-partner connections and marketing relationships.
- 1:1 Executive Meetings – 30 minute sessions allowing partners to sit down 1:1 with Cisco executives to discuss marketing strategies and forge stronger business relationships.
- Tech 30 Sessions - 30-minute sessions, hosted by Cisco experts, developed for partners to learn about primary focus areas and business priorities, and hear how partners and Cisco can work together to deliver amazing results to customers.
I spent the afternoon in a creative session discussing the importance of storytelling in marketing and getting to the heart of your business story. Robert Rose, Chief Strategy Advisor at theContent Marketing Institute worked with a room full of marketers to peel back the buzz and get the that heart of what business storytelling really is. The session explored the general concept of what business stories are, and then focused in on the methodology for how marketing teams can get to better storytelling for their audiences.
Day 1 has been informative, enjoyable and really tapped into my creative marketing side. I am enjoying Chicago as much as I am enjoying Marketing Velocity and am looking forward to Day 2 tomorrow.
Written By: Eden Penman, LookingPoint Marketing Coordinator