Why should I attend The Annual?
Read on to learn more about the event
Marketing Week’s The Annual next week is the perfect place to kick-start the debate over marketing’s future.
What is The Annual?
The Annual is Marketing Week’s new flagship conference. It takes place at the Renaissance London Chancery Court Hotel in Holborn on Wednesday 29 September.
Why should I be there?
Quite apart from the unrivalled new business and networking opportunities attendance at The Annual represents, there are two reasons to book your place now. We’re seeing The Annual as a valuable day of learning and a chance to help progress an agenda that we all have a stake in.
On a learning level, we will host an incredible dynasty of marketing leaders ready to outline detailed, practical lessons of success. There won’t be a better opportunity anywhere for you to cram in such an intense day of precious training and development.
But there’s another reason to be there. At Marketing Week we believe that due to a number of overlapping socio-economic factors, the marketing function is currently at a crossroads. Marketing faces a greater opportunity to “rebrand” itself, to prove its value and importance to future growth and prosperity than ever before. That window of opportunity could be temporary. We need to act now to prove our value. Those of you who felt strongly enough about a recent Marketing Week Leader column to comment online and phone or email us to voice your support, all had ideas of your own as to what must happen next. The Annual is a place to come and kick off some of these debates – with the speakers, with us at Marketing Week, and with one another.
Why launch yet another marketing conference on to what is already a fairly saturated market?
As our regular readers will know, we’re consistently raising the bar when it comes to editorial content. Since we relaunched our magazine and website in 2009 we’ve constantly looked to do things differently. As far as possible we try to listen to you when you get in touch to tell us what you want from Marketing Week. In many ways, The Annual is another example of us moving with you as you look for the type of content you value the most.
In terms of the themes and topics that will be covered next Wednesday, The Annual is intended as a mirror-image reflection of our magazine content but in an interactive live arena. That means there will be all the brand case studies, all the strategy and learnings and all the shared experiences that we offer in your weekly mag.
Who else is going?
When we began gathering our speakers, we aimed the programme at a more senior audience; decision makers, budget holders and people with vision whose job it is to shape the strategy of their businesses. And predominantly, that’s the profile of the audience that has already signed up.
We have directors – global and European marketing directors; commercial directors and managing directors; as well as chief executives and chairmen from brands in every sector. Google, Freeview, BP, Aviva, Barclays, Starbucks, Mars, Tesco, Sony, The Carphone Warehouse, 20th Century Fox, Unilever, Virgin, Birds Eye, British Gas and Heineken, as well as many agencies and consultants are all sending their best managers.
But there is also a huge number of talented and passionate young brand managers that have registered to attend The Annual. For example, as mentioned in this week’s cover story, we are welcoming all the scholars from the 2010 Marketing Academy to the event. This younger generation will provide us with a fairer representation of our industry and perhaps a different perspective to the debates that we hope will ensue.
And remind me of some of the speakers?
We have top international brand and marketing bosses from Walmart, Diageo, Starbucks, Kraft, Metro Bank and Aviva. We also have our very own columnist and associate professor of marketing Mark Ritson. But in some ways we’re less excited about who is speaking than we are about the thought-provoking topics they’ll be speaking about. Go to www.theannual.co.uk and click on the “programme” button on the right-hand side of the screen to have a look for yourself. You’ll see why we think the content will be so fabulously rich on the day.
Ok, how do I book?
Simply visit the website www.theannual.co.uk. Alternatively, call David at Centaur conferences on 020 7943 8106, Ashley on 020 7970 4253 or Alanah on 020 7970 4089. Whichever way you choose to do it, the booking process takes less than a minute. Book now to secure your place. l
