It seems like my email inbox receives a pitch for a new marketing conference every week, each at a beautiful destination resort, promising scintillating keynotes and plentiful networking with top notch marketing professionals. But since neither my time nor my professional development budget are limitless, I limit myself to a couple of conferences per year, and usually opt for ones close to home (which is easy to do here in San Francisco).
This week, however, I’m jumping on a plane and heading to Cleveland for Content Marketing World, the 2-day annual conference put on by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI).
3 Reasons Why I’m Going to Content Marketing World
So what was it that got me to commit to spending 4 days (2 days traveling and two days at the conference) and a good amount of my professional development budget for the year on this conference? I’ve narrowed it down to my top 3 reasons:
- It’s laser focused on what I do.
A lot of marketing conferences are trying to appeal to the entire universe of marketers. The thing is, I’ve worked in marketing communications/content marketing for almost 20 years. So I’m looking for content in specific areas I’m working on, and with a number of intermediate and advanced sessions. I want to have a B2B track to choose from, and to be confident I’ll come home with actionable ideas I can implement right away — and with having made connections with other folks who share my passion for engaging audiences with useful, informative content. This conference is 100% focused on what I do every day, and meets all of the above criteria. - The agenda features a who’s who of content marketing experts.
They have a solid mix of practitioners from top brands and a number of the authors and bloggers I read regularly. But don’t just take my word for it — for more on the awesome line up of speakers at CM World, check out this recent SlideShare:
- They’re attracting amazing attendees from a wide variety of places.
I’ve gotten a sneak peek at the level of networking and peer interaction through the weekly #CMworld chats, like this one focused on Financial Services content marketing. From those initial conversations, I’m expecting to learn as much from meeting and talking with the attendees as from the speakers.
Since I’m writing this on Sunday, as I take a break from packing my bags, it’s probably too late for you to decide to attend in person this year, unless you happen to live in the greater Cleveland area. But you can still participate online:
- Watch the #CMworld hashtag for a ton of live tweeting from the sessions
- You can keep up with the sessions I’m attending by watching my @sferika twitter feed
- Through a partnership with LinkedIn, keynote sessions are going to be livestreamed and available free of charge, starting on Tuesday, September 10, 8:30 a.m. Eastern
I’m looking forward to connecting with the members of the CMI community I’ve gotten to know via twitter, and getting some new ideas on where my profession is headed. Hope to see you there!
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