Recently I made my return to the squash court for the first time in five years since a disruptive knee injury. Though not cleared to play, I’ve decided to take some tuneup lessons before participating in a winter house league.
What does squash or my wonky knee have to do with the Canadian Sponsorship Forum Xperience (CSFX16)? A lot.
For CSFX16, presented by T1 and hosted by the NBA, we have decided to forgo our annual approach of programming the event to an overall conference theme, but rather feature a unique daily focus. Each day of our event February 11, 12, and 13, 2016 at the Delta Toronto will effectively be a mini-conference unto itself. We took this approach, knowing that sometimes it’s difficult to commit the time to attend a multi-day event. For those who are attending the entire show, I’m hopeful the variety will spice things up for your Xperience.
Now back to squash. Day 1 of CSFX (February 11) is Strategy Day, and my new squash pro quickly reminded me of the value of strategy. In assessing my game he told me essentially that my power was useless without strategy. In his words, Squash is like Chess. You need to play under control and get your opponent off-balance, attacking them all over the court. Most importantly he said you need to finish every shot or chess move, before moving onto the next.
That’s sage advice because finishing what you start is a savvy strategy whether you’re on the court or planning a marketing campaign.
If you’re looking for similar advice I can send you to my squash pro or you can take a look at our speaker lineup for Strategy Day at CSFX16. It’s packed with speakers and content that will equip you with new insights, data, and key learnings to help you shape your program strategies for a long time to come.
The day will feature speakers from DAVIDsTEA, Wrigley, CIBC, and the Canadian Olympic Committee. You’re going to hear a lot about transformation in big organizations. How a brand evolves a twenty-year-old partnership, in an era where it seems three years is the unofficial shelf life for partnerships in too many executives’ minds. You’re going to hear how a major property has obliterated international standards and set a new bar in national partnership revenue, activation, and integration. You’re going to understand how a multinational has been able to align disparate internal departments, procurement and marketing, to create a powerful and thoughtful approach to sponsorship. Every brand is chasing millenials and you have a chance to engage with some great marketers, including the one beer brand that has really shone at cracking the code and experiencing how they did it.
Many of our Day 1 speakers I know personally. If you haven’t met Kristina Schaefer, this is your opportunity to hear from a woman who has literally hopped the globe helping the biggest of brands navigate the biggest of properties. I have only met Visa’s Zaileen Janmohamed once, but am thrilled she is willing to make the trek from San Fransisco to Toronto because her expertise in Sponsorship Intelligence is quite unique on the continent. I get to work daily with the marketing team headed up by Rachel MacQueen from AIR MILES and am excited you will get to see their unique take on building brand love.
Our friends at the NBA are delivering us an All-Star speaker in Emilio Collins, their EVP of Global Marketing Partnerships. If you think you’ve got a busy development job, try overseeing the NBA, WNBA, USA Basketball, the D-league and all its teams and all its partners. Whew. I’m honoured Emilio even has time to sit with us during his crazy All-Star Week schedule.
No Strategy Day would be complete without data and insights. The Canadian Sponsorship Landscape Study will be presented for the ninth time, and our Most Valuable Property Study, done in conjunction with Ipsos, will appear for the fourth time. To cap the day will be IMI’s infamous Don Mayo, who could probably present for the entire day on his own, but in only an hour will certainly deliver a year’s worth of strategic gems from real life global case studies.
The last strategic challenge of the day will be some high-profile networking at the IMI International Happy Hour to wrap February 11th up. Start working on your best move now!