Event Preview: Adapting To The New Normal & Building Personal Networks At B2BSMX 2020

Last year’s B2BSMX was a highly successful in-person event, with many B2B marketers and organizations walking away with expert insights into ABM, revenue ops, AI, the changing role of CMOs and more. Attendees such as TopRank Marketing’s Lee Odden also had the opportunity to network with their peers.

“On top of the great educational content, there was plenty of networking with both new connections and longtime friends in the industry,” Lee Odden wrote in a blog post. “It was great to see familiar faces like B2B guru Ruth Stevens and conference photographer Steve Hall, as well as new connections like the publisher of Chief Marketer, Beth Negus Viveiros.”

With the success of 2019’s B2BSMX event, Demand Gen Report is determined to make this year’s virtual event just as content-filled and engaging with relevant content and themes that reflect the current state of the B2B industry. Demand Gen Report has also, once again, partnered with The Pedowitz Group and Terminus to help bring the virtual event to life.

"The theme of this year's event addresses the new revenue realities B2B companies are dealing with during this challenging time," said Andrew Gaffney, Content Director for the B2B Sales & Marketing Exchange. "We have some really great sessions featuring both marketing and sales executives who will share creative approaches their teams are taking to engage prospects, even when they really don't have opportunities to get in front of them face-to-face.”

Facing A New Reality

This year’s keynote sessions will explore the new normal of B2B, how to find success and overcome internal and external challenges, how to keep up with your competitors and more.

The first keynote session, The New Plan A: How To Regain Clarity, Get Proactive & Do Exceptional Work Again, will come from Jay Acunzo, who will discuss how to get an organization back on its feet and become better prepared for the future. Acunzo will expand on his previous discussion on the B2BMX podcast, helping attendees understand the importance of authentic connections and build a community with buyers.

Another keynote session will feature Casey Foss of business technology consultancy West Monroe. The session, titled: David vs. Goliath: How A High-Growth Company Is Combining Brand & Demand To Topple Industry Giants, will explore how B2B marketers can surpass their competitors through unique branding and demand generation strategies.

Sales and marketing alignment expert Jeff Davis of JD2 Consulting Group will also take the keynote stage to share how the B2B buyer-seller relationship has changed and why companies must have a sense of urgency about alignment transformation.

In addition to the keynotes, the B2BSMX agenda features a variety of case studies, lunch & learns and breakout sessions presented by top B2B voices from Forrester, ITSMA, Demandbase, Terminus, GumGum, The Pedowitz Group and many more.

Some standout sessions include:

• ABM In The C-Suite: Lessons Learned From Five Epic Failures from FireEye and ITSMA. Listen to ITSMA’s Rob Leavitt and ABM strategist Marlowe Fenne’s discussion on common pitfalls when marketing to executives, and learn how to reinvent your C-suite ABM programs;
• Communication. Collaboration. Orchestration: How Effective Sales Enablement Is Fueling Revenue Engines, Even In 2020 presented by Roderick Jefferson of Roderick Jefferson Associates. Jefferson will share the importance of and best practices around how to re-evaluate and re-invent, as well as establish new ways to communicate, collaborate and orchestrate with teams to wow customers and buyers.
• Marketing In Times Of Crisis: Embracing Empathy Is The Key To B2B’s Future from the Marketing Insider Group. Join author and CEO Michael Brenner to learn how storytelling can bring focus to customer value, and help deliver better business outcomes as a result; and
• How TikTok Can Shape Your 2021 Revenue Strategy from The Pedowitz Group. Hear from Revenue Marketing Therapist Debbie Qaqish about the impact of the social media app TikTok and three ways marketing and sales can use it to grow revenue.

There are tons of sessions to choose from for the entire team, so there is plenty of content for marketers, industry insiders and businesses to learn from.

Building A More Personal Network

According to the virtual event survey, 55% of respondents believed they would benefit from topical discussions with B2B experts, and 30% would participate in peer-to-peer networking opportunities. This year, Demand Gen Report wanted to provide those opportunities to ensure attendees get the opportunity to network with like-minded peers and learn from industry experts in a more intimate setting.

B2BSMX 2020 is also hosting a B2B mentorship program that allows rising sales and marketing professionals to register for 1:1 meetings with established heads of sales and marketing teams to gather personal insights into their success. These 15-minute private discussions allow marketers to ask for advice about their own marketing and sales programs and obtain guidance on topics ranging from collaboration, requirements and skills for success to tactics for negotiating with partners and much more.

In addition, day-one will include a variety of hands-on workshops to provide participants with actionable advice from industry experts. Some of these workshops include:

• How Marketers Can Support Sales When They Can’t Visit Their Customers with B2B marketing consultant and author Pam Didner. Join Didner to learn how marketers can alleviate sales’ pain points and support them throughout buying journeys;
• Pressure Test Your Message with Tamsen Webster of Find The Red Thread. Attendees will work with Webster to learn how to keep their message consistent throughout marketing campaigns; and
• F The Funnel — How Marketing Loops Will Turn Leads Into Lifelong Loyalists with Jeff Pedowitz, President and CEO of The Pedowitz Group, who will teach the audience to depend less on the lead generation funnel and start focusing on the customer for true revenue impact.

Lastly, B2BSMX will be carving out timeslots for multiple networking roundtables, providing attendees with an opportunity to socialize and have discussions on topics of their choice. Topics include new approaches to direct mail, sales enablement, the rise of virtual events and partner marketing. Everyone participating in the roundtable will be able to share their personal experiences in these fields, finding like-minded people to network with for potential future interactions.

This is just a small chunk of what the B2B Sales & Marketing Exchange online experience has to offer. Visit the website for more information, full agenda and registration options. We hope to see you there!