I just finished my session, Marketing For Entrepreneurs And Small Business, at the CMA 2005 National Convention And Trade Show. I covered online marketing as well as the art of networking and how to create an elevator pitch (also known as the 30-second-commercial). It was a great morning and I thoroughly enjoyed presenting alongside Alan Flint, Vice President, Membership, Canadian Marketing Association and John Swettenham, General Manager, Consumer and Small Business Marketing, Canada Post Corporation.
I would like to thank the many people who woke up early this morning for coming to this three-hour-plus session and I would especially like to thank the CMA (Canadian Marketing Association) for allowing me the honor of presenting.
Next up I got a chance to enjoy Ken Schafer‘s presentation, 30 Quick Wins For Any Website. Ken Schafer, who runs Schafer – The Internet Best Practices Company – has some great information for what it takes to make it online. We went for refreshments after his session and it’s always weird and fun to meet someone who has been running, in what seems like, a parallel career-cycle to mine.
He’s super-insightful and his new Blog, One Degree – The Place Where Canadian Online Marketing Professionals Gather, is picking up a lot of steam. I have agreed to become a Contributor to the One Degree Blog – so watch this space and One Degree for more as that develops.
Ken is also one of the original founders of AIMS Canada – Association for Internet Marketing and Sales as well as the driving force behind Sony Music Canada’s first online initiatives.
From there I had some meetings, attended the keynote address, Demographics, Life Cycles & Life Styles: Practical Strategies for Reaching Consumers Today and In The Future presented by David Baxter, Executive Director, Urban Futures Institute as well as Taking Care of Business: More than Just Bread And Butter presented by LuAn Mitchell-Halter, Canada’s Number One Female Entrepreneur.
I then did a quick walk-through of the very sold-out trade show and then made a b-line for the airport.
It looks like the next two days will be amazing for the CMA 2005 National Convention And Trade Show. If you are in the Toronto area, I would highly recommend you drop by.