AOP B2B Conference Morning Programme

Today’s AOP B2B Conference got off to a roaring start this morning with a packed out auditorium gathered in etc. Venues St. Paul’s. AOP Chairman, John Barnes, opened up the day’s programme with a guiding Welcome note urging agencies and media owners to focus on the user, rather than the technology. He told us that – whichever analyst you go on – print in B2B Media is down 7%-10%, and that we are now at a tipping point in B2B media, where the pace of digital adoption/revenue is significantly growing. B2B owners are in a strong position to take advantage of this, with good data, niche audiences, and a rich history of seeking out opportunities and taking advantage of them quickly. And so we begin… Chuck Richard, VP & Lead Analyst, Outsell, introduced the day's programme, giving us his ‘4 Quantum Laws of Media’. Incidentally, 5 special Outsell presentations directly from Chuck will be available to download from the AOP website after the event so stay tuned for those! The opening keynote panel gave a great cross section of leading brands in different sectors, and was made up of speakers from Microsoft, Siemens, HSBC, and Caterpillar. A full round-up of the content from today’s event will be going up on the site tomorrow but for now at least some key takeaways: Microsoft "Social media is transforming B2B into B2C - whomever it is you are talking to human beings."
Siemens – "'If you spend x you will get y content' is not the way we want to do business on content."
HSBC – "You can’t fake content."
Caterpillar – "Those that connect the dots between b2b marketing activities.. events, social, etc. will be the ones that succeed."  The wider debate centred around key themes facing the entire Media Industry right now in both the b2b and b2c sectors, including content creation, social media, mobile, and of course the ever interesting topic of conversation particularly in B2B: ROI. A final question was posed to the Speakers by our Panel Moderator, Michael Toedman as to what they saw as the future of B2B over the next 5 years, a theme we have been exporing in our Q&A interviews with speakers in the run up to the event. Data, stories, relevant content, and engaging social follow up were very much cited as the order of the day, and of course the idea that in many respects we just don’t know, so must stay on the curve and keep on top of emerging trends. Next up... Bruce Daisley, Director of Twitter in the UK...