Preparing for the 2011 Cause Marketing Conference in Chicago

While I am new at this whole cause marketing thing, the industry has been around for a while. That is proven by the fact that the Cause Marketing Conference is in its ninth year. This year, I will be in attendance. It feels like a very big thing to me for a few reasons. I plan to be a cause marketing practitioner for years to come yet I still am such a novice. What a great opportunity this is to learn from those so learned in the industry! Second, less important in many ways but personally more important, this is the first conference that I have ever paid to attend myself. When your company sends you to a conference, sure you want to make something happen (who wants to report to your boss that the time was wasted) but if it is, it isn’t like it is money out of your pocket. This time it is. Since I am paying my hopes and expectations are even higher.

I know myself well enough to know that after the conference there will be a review of the conference on this blog so let’s start out by setting my expectations and my hopes.
Expectations:

• Listen to panels/speakers that provide context about where the industry is right now and where it has come from
• Meet some very smart people who know and understand this industry.
• Participate in some fun twitter conversation about content. (Important? Perhaps not, but a favorite conference past time for me.)
• Learn more about the players in the space… vendors, thought leaders, etc.

 
Hopes:  

• Leave the conference with a few contacts that I can keep in touch with from time to time as I get more entrenched in the industry
• Take come actionable to do items that will change the way I conduct my business.
• Facilitated networking that gives me the opportunity to make sure I meet the people I feel make the most sense for me to get to know.
• Meet either some ecommerce companies in attendance or some companies that are useful in generating future business.

Let’s see how this goes,
Erika