b2b marketing conference sydney australia 2024

Your feedback from the May 2023 Sydney B2B Marketing Leaders Forum:

The 9th annual B2B Marketing Leaders APAC 2024 will be held in Sydney 8-9 May.

Thank you everyone who attended and provided feedback after the B2B Marketing Leaders Forum APAC 2023 in Sydney back in May.

We had 97 of you complete the post-event survey (many in essay-style, great detail, thank you!) and you rated the forum 4.0 stars out of 5.

As we’re now preparing the 2024 agenda which will be released early 2024, I’d just like to share with you all, what you told us you wanted to see more (and less of) at the 2024 Forum.

You especially liked:

You preferred the speakers that provided practical advice and you want to see more practical sessions where the speakers are demonstrating a challenge, implementation journey and results.
That marketers presented case studies. You want to hear more case studies, successful campaigns in details, innovations, challenges, failures, successes. You want the speakers to deep dive into some of the specific areas and campaigns about what worked and what didn’t and provide examples of how they then handled the fail.
You want this in smaller and more intimate "round tables" to book in advance
You loved the community and networking of fellow B2B marketers during and in-between sessions

Practical, case studies with lots more time for group discussions:

Would like to see more time for questions and discussions, as there was still a heavy "presentation focus" with discussion rushed at the end
More case studies (success and failures).
Focus on failures and learnings
Just deeper discussion on the 'how to' not just on the 'what we did'
Learn what works, leading edge and best practice. What did you do, how and what where the results.
Anyone who can go deep on the tactics rather than broad, high level waffle.
I want to here more personal stories, how they did it, specifics on issues they faced and how they overcame them.
Case studies of campaigns that have worked well and how and why.
More real life stories and practical examples.
I’d love to see conversations go a bit deeper.
Less theory - deeper case studies and examples of strategies in action.
More best practice,
More in-depth, specific discussions or even workshops around practical marketing stuff.
Lead management - more practical example of the end to end process
Creating a blueprint for tomorrow
There weren’t any group discussions
Round tables but matched up to level in org / org type.
More interactivity. The polls were great but there was not a lot of opportunity to engage with delegates outside of the breaks.
Can some of the group discussions be a debate or get more audience participation.

Topics you want covered in 2024 (in order of popularity):

Future Focus

B2B skills required for the future
Future
Essential trends marketers need to master
I was surprised there wasn’t B2B marketing trends, global insights, changes in B2B marketing over the coming 5 years + with the serge of tech advancements.
More on what is coming next - what needs to be implemented for success
Would be good to hear something new. New channels new creative new and innovative ways of getting customers
Building a campaign with a robust marketing mix in 2024 - including campaign examples from different industries.
Emerging global trends
Continued to keep your finger on the pulse of the latest trends in marketing
ABM not enough on digital and new trends that come into this space.
Anything that is new and emerging. Always like how tech is being implemented.
Challenger Marketing models,
Latest methods of targeted digital advertising
Next wave of digital, integrations and true omni channel
Latest methods of targeted digital advertising
LinkedIn - More industry thought leadership and to upskill the audience on trends and skills

AI

AI
Impact of AI
AI impact on Marketing
GenAI for ABM could a good topic esp. How GenAI can be used to increase the business impact of ABM?
Leveraging AI in ethical ways.
AI – how are marketers thinking about leveraging AI
Leveraging or mastering AI
AI in marketing
An update on AI and ChatGPT - companies with case studies and how they've adopted these technologies. The AI track was a bit fluffy.
In 12 months time it will be interesting to see where we are with generative AI and other innovation
The best generative AI tools for content, automation and customer experience.
The current state of AI in marketing and how it has progressed since this year.
AI and how it will impact the role of the marketer
More of AI but deep dive. The AI talks this year were very surface level.
AI in creativity
Ethical use of AI
More on AI in marketing, latest products and success stories on using them,
more on AI, it will have moved on so good to know what is happening, where it is going
AI - but actual practice examples they can take home. Like a workshop style.
AI - how has it moved 12 months on
More on AI. I didn’t find the session this time useful at all. It wasn’t anything that I didn’t already know so I felt like it wasn’t the best use of my time at the conference.
Automation and AI too.
More on AI, specifically on the application and implementation
AI impact on Marketing
Leveraging AI in ethical ways
More AI coming into the creative landscape,

Account Based Marketing - ABM

ABM
I would be keen to see a more deeper discussion and presentation into ABM from a strategy framework standpoint
GenAI for ABM could a good topic esp. How GenAI can be used to increase the business impact of ABM?
ABM not enough on digital and new trends that come into this space.
ABM for small teams
Different ways to apply ABM. Not all many of us do pure ABM, and I'd like to hear about what works and doesn't for companies that are in a similar mode to me (doesn't have to be tech).
ABX
More on ABM - loved all the tips on this
A practical presentation on how to build an ABM program from the ground up.
ABM approach minus the expensive tech - how the rest of us can achieve results.
ABM – specially ABT tech like 6sense
abm for small teams
abm
ABM,
C-Suite/Executive Marketing,

Data/Attribution/MarTech

Ideas for marketing efficiencies
use of data, what to do when your systems and data aren't perfect
How to better report on successes and campaigns - Best metrics when sales $$ outcome is not the only focused, best formats.
Data and leading the business with data-driven decisions. What software do you use?
Metrics. There was a lot of discussion around metrics ie we need to do this, but would really like to see this unpacked a little more.
turning insights into opportunities and more fail fast stories - they were awesome
Database/Marketing Ops Management
Martech
Implementing new marketing practices/technology/methodologies
Show us your martech stack! - actually showing what technology companies have implemented and the results it has achieved
Case Study example of moving from a manual lead scoring methodology to tech led application. (Perhaps a vendor led session, but with a client implementation example)
Marketing tech landscape - this is ever evolving so think it'll always be relevant
MarTech stacks
best platforms and tools for marketers (Broadly)
More detail on how do you make MarTech solve your problems
Anything that is new and emerging. Always like how tech is being implemented.
Automation and AI too.

SMB - Smaller teams, budgets, resources

More content for smaller businesses/teams.
SME marketing - what works and what doesn’t with smaller budgets
Deep dive on digital - for where you don't have the budgets or all the best tech already implemented. How to get started on that journey and get some quick wins.
As we work in a small business with a small marketing team, we struggled to find tracks that were relevant to us. It would be great if there was an opportunity for people to connect by team size.. ie; marketing teams under 5 people.
It would be great to get speakers from small start-ups that have scaled really quickly.
abm for small teams
B2B Marketing when you don't have the budget for an agency - and other topics for small-medium sized businesses
'small marketing teams'- I think there's a lot more you could unpack there - the 'do more with less' scenario.
Medium-sized firm on a tight budget (not Woolworths or Coles) Businesses such as Europcar or Hertz, or anyone with approximately 1000 employees but a low marketing fund - a small marketing team of 4 or 6 persons resourcing
Doing more with less - tips and tricks
More on how to support small marketing teams and how to make your $ stretch further.

Focus on careers and building teams

Path to CMO;
Building effective marketing teams;
Influencing up
how to build effective teams,
Building marketing teams globally
How to build you marketing presence in a business (Career) Skills for the future or marketing leaders
More about internal engagement of teams (practically). This was a very common theme throughout the conference and think it would be awesome to learn a bit more about how to bring your teams / leadership teams / entire business on the journey and get them to buy into the strategy.
A little more on professional/career development insights from senior leaders - including advice, tips and tricks.
Transforming your self, team structures and team capability

Sales, Marketing and Stakeholder Alignment

the alignment with sales and how to ensure the effective mgt & conversion of leads through the funnel to improve outcomes (sales)
lead management - more practical example of the end to end process,
I would like to hear from people who work in an organisation that doesn't have separate sales and marketing functions.
Sales / Marketing alignment
Sales & Marketing alignment
The positive impact on sales and marketing alignment 'smarketing'
Marketing and sales alignment
Non-marketers. What does a CEO want to see? Have a panel of people who included non-marketing folks to share their perspectives.
It would also be great to hear from senior people out of marketing, ie sales or CEO to help us view the world from their perspective
Engaging Internal stakeholders with external messaging
More about internal engagement of teams (practically). This was a very common theme throughout the conference and think it would be awesome to learn a bit more about how to bring your teams / leadership teams / entire business on the journey and get them to buy into the strategy.

Social Media

Social media
More on social media's role in Marketing
Social selling,
How to build successful social media campaigns in a B2B context
Finding the right social channels for your B2B
Social Media in a B2B marketplace
B2B marketing through PPC channels
A keynote from Linked in - what new features are coming, how to build brand credibility and authenticity on this channel.
Social selling,
LinkedIn - There was no industry thought leadership and to upskill the audience on trends and skills

Brand & Creativity

Brand
More on brand
Creative marketing
AI in creativity
More AI coming into the creative landscape,
Building Brands,
Would be good to hear something new. New channels new creative

Events

Idea sharing on how to make engaging events with leads that convert.
I work in events so I'd like to see more targeted content here but I understand I'm the minority.
Concentrate more emphasis on events, data collection at business events, and how we can nurture them. It came out as yes, we do events (with little regard for the work that goes into it). However, no understanding of how these are planned. The relation on how to create a B2B event calendar.
Finding balance between digital and in-person
Traditional versus digital and emerging marketing channels
B2B - event best practise
Further, having a talk track purely on events and events of the future / best practices / AI / etc would be great.

ESG

esg
Love to hear more about sustainability. I’m heading down a track of leveraging advances in that space to compete for customer value as alternative proposition to product/ service / price
ESG
ECO marketing & ESG
ESG - more around what can be done and pathways towards it - what impact is can have in winning new business and brand ID
ESG I think is a big one
...and something on Sustainability

Focus on Asia and Global Marketing

Asia - Global
Differences in marketing nuances across APAC region/english speaking countries and tips for non-english
How to navigate marketing strategies for global companies ie companies with locations in multiple countries and the solutions to overcome common global hurdles… diff markets = diff strategies- how do you create strategies to address each region in an efficient way.
Embarking on global markets - what you need to know

Customer Marketing & Customer Lifecycle Marketing

Customer Marketing
More customer-driven strategies, programs, best practices and how that's tied to impact, revenue, advocacy.
Customer marketing, growing lifetime value, understanding customer buying cycles and how to measure campaigns against them.
More on customer marketing and selling to exec team
Voice of the Customer integrated strategy

Bid & Tender

More long term tender based industry discussions
We work in a tender/bid environment, so a few more sessions that are relevant to that space

Content Marketing

Large Consultancies (Bain, McKinsey) on Thought Leadership and Content Led Marketing Strategies.
the role of Thought Leadership in the Marketing Mix

Partner/Channel Marketing

More channel marketing content if possible.
More for Channel marketing - but WITH or THROUGH partner marketing. The Veeam case studies this year were enablement programs not demand generation as far as I could tell.
A Channel Stream would be interesting to have as a focus.

Agency Focus

Back to Basics - The importance of having a plan, writing a great brief, running post campaign reviews
In-house/ out-house working with agencies, internal resource and freelancers

Project management in marketing

tips from markers on how they project manage

E-commerce

channels that provided maximum return

Industry focus

There is the new B2B/B2B2C/B2C - would love to hear more on the top of the B2B2C as many financial organisations are heading this way. How do they manage this? What are some of the hurdles?
I may be bias - but being able to spending more time in industry sessions would be a highlight and the ability to discuss key challenges within those industries.
more from Energy/renewables, healthcare and edtech

NEW in 2024 – in response to your comments we’re adding/changing

We aim to incorporate all of the above into this year's program including:

NEW: Focus on How To’s / Teach me how – practical learning. Small group deep dives/roundtables – More sessions will be dedicated to round-table discussions. Pick your topic, pick your table (pre-registration for these will be essential)
NEW: All speakers must read the above feedback and have to provide practical examples on their “How” and provide three take-aways for you to take back and implement into your organisation
NEW: SMB Marketing dedicated track: Doing more with smaller teams and budgets
NEW: Stronger focus on speakers from non-tech companies such as Manufacturing, Telco, Health, financial services and IT in professional services
NEW: Day Three Workshop on AI & its implications for marketing leaders

Did we miss anything?

We’ll do all we can to accommodate your wishes for the 2024 conference program. Please email info@b2bmarketingleaders.com.au if you want to add anything.

Call for sponsors and sponsored workshop leaders!

If you’d like to be involved as a sponsor and meet 600 B2B marketing leaders please contact kristy.kelly@b2bmarketingleaders.com.au or download the partnership prospectus here.

Registration for 2024 is open!

Book before 15 December and save up to $1119 per person.

> Register now

Looking forward to seeing you again in Sydney in May 2024!

Kind regards,
Emma Roborgh
Founder and CEO
9th annual B2B Marketing Leaders APAC 2024 | 8-9 May | Sydney