2019 Agenda

In 2018, Rattleback and Bloom Group surveyed over 300 B2B marketers in North America and asked them about their strategies, processes, mindsets and behaviors around thought leadership marketing. The resulting research showed clear leaders and followers. To open the event, we will share an overview of the seven capabilities of exceptional thought leadership marketers, which will be explored more in-depth throughout the course of the event.

Disciplined Navigators know what topics their firm needs to own and have processes in place to produce high-quality content at scale. In this session, Lucia Rahilly of McKinsey & Company will share how the firm tripled its content output while sustaining exceptionally high-quality standards and the impact it had on the firm.

One of the key capabilities that emerged from the research — Patient Champions receive buy-in from senior leaders and recognize that being exceptional at thought leadership marketing takes time. Jason Mlicki of Rattleback and Bob Buday will share the research details around Patient Champions and lead working sessions on earning C-level commitment for thought leadership marketing.

Truth Seekers are after the truth, even if it doesn’t come from their firm. They see their work as a relentless pursuit to uncover new ways to solve clients’ most pressing business problems. In this session, we’ll share insights from the research around Truth Seekers and Serge Perignon, Global Head of the Thought Leadership Institute at Tata Consultancy Services will talk about how to develop a research agenda by identifying white space and selecting topics, how to design a study and analyze results, and how to involve subject matter experts at every step along the way.

Argument Shapers care more about helping their subject matter experts shape a compelling point-of-view than simply turning their loose thoughts into prose. To start the session, Bob Buday will share best practices on working with subject matter experts. 

Kelsey Eichhorn of Arup will share how she’s used storytelling training inside one of the world’s most well respected global engineering firms to develop content that breaks through the noise while simultaneously improving the working relationship between experts and content developers. After her talk, Kelsey will lead a working session where participants can learn how to apply this process in their firms.

To close the session, Sarah Green Carmichael of Bloomberg Opinion will talk about how to give editorial feedback that will actually be obeyed.

Audience Builders know how to get their message out there and connect with their audience, no matter what medium they’re using to do so. To open the session, Alan Alper, Vice President of Corporate Marketing at Cognizant will talk about the need for editorial leaders to get intimately involved in the thought leadership activation process and how to enable marketing teams and subject matter experts to activate your firm’s thinking in the marketplace.

We’ll hear from other experts on how to build an audience across specific media including email marketing, social media, and search. Finally, Jason Mlicki of Rattleback will share how to bring it all together through the use of integrated thought leadership marketing campaigns.

In this last session of the day, 3-time best-selling author Thomas A. Stewart will look back to where thought leadership has been in the last 20 years and forwards to where it’s headed in the near future. Tom will pull from his experience developing thought leadership in his current role as Executive Director of the National Center for the Middle Market and in his decades of work at Booz & Company (now Strategy&), Harvard Business Review, Business 2.0, and Fortune magazine.

Digital Enlighteners have a digital-first mindset and leverage everything digital technology offers them to reach clients and shape their learning and buying processes. In this session, we’ll hear from Tim Reason, Deputy Editor at Bain & Company, Lisa Cole, Corporate Vice President of Marketing at Huron Consulting Group, and Ann Dowd, Vice President of Fidelity Investments. Tim will share insights into Bain’s digital publishing practices, Lisa will talk about aligning marketing, sales and your entire organization around thought leadership, and Ann will share insights into Fidelity’s approach to measurement and personalization.

Sales Accelerators work diligently to engage the people in the firm that have the most ability to make or break the success of a thought leadership initiative — the sales team. In this session, we’ll first cover the study results around Sales Accelerators. Then we’ll hear from Eran Levy of Cisco and Maria Boulden of Gartner. Eran will share how Cisco is enabling its sales team to successfully apply their CIO insights into the sales process. Maria will talk about how she successfully used the Challenger Sale’s commercial teaching pitch at DuPont and how she applies thought leadership in her selling efforts at Gartner.

Our closing keynote will take a look at how thought leadership fits into the broader agenda of B2B marketing. 

Bob Buday and Jason Mlicki will recap the event and share their 2020 predictions for thought leadership.

For the rest of the day there will be optional 30-minute meetings with Rattleback.