Rewarding assignment:
I recently had the rewarding and interesting assignment to plan, build concept, develop content, find and align speakers and ultimately moderate an Enterprise Mobile Summit – held at The Walker Art Center on February 16th. Thank you to Magenic – www.magenic.com for the assignment and for hosting what turned out to be a great day.
Summit Goal:
The goal of the Summit was to bring thought leaders together on the topic of mobile and the enterprise – addressing such things as challenges, opportunities and business implications. Our audience goal was to bring in leadership from across the organization – IT, marketing, business leadership and technology. The interesting aspect for all involved, I believe, was the great cross-section of responsibilities that participated.
Session Leadership:
In order to address the breadth of the topic, considering enterprise implications for mobile, speakers were aligned with varying points of view.
Jack Philbin of Vibes Media www.vibesmedia.com kicked off the Summit. Jack not only is the co-founder and President of Vibes, he is the Vice Chair of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). Jack shared his perspective on the state of the mobile industry and cited examples of brands that are really doing things right (such as Citi Bank and Starbucks).
Doug Rozen, SVP, Interactive Media and Mobile, AIMIA (emerging Carlson Marketing), gave us a marketing foundational perspective – www.aimia.com. The intensity and complexity of organizational data assets cannot be underestimated. Good mobile strategy does begin with knowledge of ones customer – their attitudes, behaviors and preferences. Starting with this foundational knowledge, mobility and mobile interactivity can drive loyalty beyond imagination
Guy, Thier, CIO, Bally Fitness, took us through his journey in getting some pretty impressive mobile initiatives off the ground – www.ballyfitness.com. It was clearly acknowledged that success in launching initiatives would not have been achieved without honest and vigorous collaboration with the CMO. Bally, has been able to really embrace technology, systems and consumer preferences to deliver highly interactive mobile concepts – concepts that have empowered their employees and enriched the customer connection to the brand (convenience, efficiencies, informative, interaction).
Finally, we closed out the day with Andrew Eklund, CEO Ciceron – www.ciceron.com. Those in the digital space, know Andrew as a blogger for Twin Cities Business and as a common face at organizations such as MIMA – www.mima.org. As Guy closed out his mobile journey, we learned that there remains much work to do in terms of consumer engagement. Andrew highlighted the opportunity we have to strategically and creatively engage the consumer through Social CRM and solid digital/mobile platforms. Organizational realities were also addressed. Enterprise mobility and Social CRM initiatives cannot get legs or meet goals if there isn’t cross-organizational collaborative planning.
Reflections
I’ve had the opportunity to personally connect with most attendees – an esteemed and engaged group of professionals. We’re thankful to have received such great feedback. We’re also thankful for the time and leadership provided by the session leaders and Summit participants
Our journey in taking the conversation to the next level has just started. I’ve established a Linked-In Group to keep the conversation going. The Group is “EntMo” – please connect to join us. – you can connect with me at: lcummings@focusbusdev.com
Link:
You can see more details for the Summit and track observations as seen through the twitter stream and photos taken the day-of the event - www.entmo.com
It was a fun and rewarding assignment. As marketing, technology and IT continue to converge and as mobile hits its tipping point (50% smart phone usage), we will all need to stay tuned. I intend to continue to stay focused on information development, content curation, and keeping this important conversation alive!
