Conference Schedule

Thursday, October 10, 2024

Fuel for the Journey:

Caffeine, Sugar, and Big Intentions

8:30am - 9:00am

Stop at the registration table to grab your name tag, Roadmap Conference materials, and a light breakfast!

Opening Keynote:

Mapping for Success in 2025

9:00am - 9:40am

Our event hosts will start the day with a closer look at why Roadmap was created and how marketing, communications, and creative professionals can make a bigger impact in 2025 through sound strategies focused on business goals, tactics and tools that are powerful yet realistic for small businesses, and a network of talented people who can not only bring ideas to the table, but know how to get shit done.

Break & Networking

9:40am - 9:55am

Introduce yourself to three new people! Connect on LinkedIn, set up a follow up Zoom call, or share your experiences at the conference with each other.

Your Itinerary - Sound Strategies

Enhance Your Brand & Customer Relationships with Online Community

10:00am - 10:45am

Once you have earned a customer’s business, how do you keep the momentum going to turn them into a repeat customer or even a super fan? Learn more about leveraging your community.

Calley O’Neil

Calley is the Customer Success Lead at Zest and the Community Development Manager at The Coven in Eau Claire. She has extensive experience fostering customer relationships through online communities to drive brand loyalty.

Detour!

Navigating the Future of Marketing: The Intersection of B2B and B2C

11:00am - 11:45am

Marketing is constantly evolving, but lately, it seems like it’s been happening even more rapidly. To be successful in B2B and B2C, it’s important to understand the distinctions and intersections of both. Ted will provide an overview of what Mason Companies is doing to stay competitive and how it could translate to your business.

Ted Rogers

With over 20 years of executive experience in retail, e-commerce, and credit industries, Ted is a seasoned marketing and e-commerce expert dedicated to driving growth, expansion, and customer loyalty for both B2B and B2C organizations.

Lunch Pit Stop

11:45am - 12:15pm

As professionals in marketing, communications, and creative fields we know that talking to people is a must, especially if you’re also in a sales role. Knowing how to start up conversations with strangers is a skill that can be developed.

During lunch, sit with someone you’ve just met. Here are a few conversation starters if you’re struggling to find something to talk about:

  • Listen first, and then come up with some follow up questions. Need some help? Here are a couple:

    • What was your favorite part?

    • What really challenged you?

  • Listen first, and then come up with some follow up questions. Need some help? Here are a couple:

    • How will you go about doing that?

  • Listen first, and then come up with follow up questions. Need help? Here are a couple:

    • What was that like?

    • How do you do that?

    • Where are your favorite places to do that?

Detour!

5 Ways AI Can Enhance Your Marketing Job

12:15pm - 1:00pm

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could offload all the manual tasks and mundane projects so you could actually have “think time”? Well, you can. All you have to do is hire AI and train it. Your job isn’t going to go away; it’s going to be enhanced. You’ll be able to demonstrate your marketing prowess, show how valuable marketing can be, when you have time to think not just do.

From content creation, to market analytics, to competitive research, to branding–AI can execute your ideas and strategy, but you have to know how to integrate it into your business. And it’s not just using ChatGPT. We’ll look at five scenarios AI can help take your marketing role to the next level.

Megan Effertz

Megan is an author, speaker, educator, and marketer with a passion for helping marketers overcome roadblocks.

Ryan Nelson

Ryan is an experienced designer and digital marketer that is helping marketers use AI to improve their workflows and productivity.

Your Itinerary - Tools, Trends, & Tactics

1:15pm - 1:55pm

Trend Report: How to Harness Popular Social Media Formats to Grow Awareness

Staying relevant is the name of the game. Learn how to capture the moment and translate trends to fit your brand.

Alexandra Robinson

Alex is a content creator and digital strategist who believes that embracing the online storytelling formats opens worlds.

2:15pm - 2:55pm

How to Build B2B Trust Faster with Video

Trust is everything in B2B. And with snooze-worthy AI content and scams on the rise, it’s getting harder and harder to believe what’s real – and what’s fake. That’s where founder-led video content comes in.

Justin Vajko

Justin is an experienced content creator, and helps his clients easily create meaningful video content that drives results on LinkedIn.

Closing Keynote:

Making It Happen.

Your 2025 Roadmap

3:10pm - 3:55pm

Our event hosts will wrap up the day with a review of the Roadmap for 2025 that attendees have created throughout the day. We’ll go through different approaches to implement your plan, how to advocate and secure resources (time, money, people, tech), and how to communicate about your plans internally so your whole team is on board. We’ll be collecting questions throughout the day and will take some time during this session to answer as many as we can for everyone.

Beer ‘N Curds

A Truly Midwestern Happy Hour

Immediately following the conference

We’ll open up the bar and bring in some snacks. Hang out, wind down, and reflect on the day over a local brew, cocktail, or mocktail.