One of the highlights of attending B2B Summit North America each year is getting to talk with Forrester clients and other marketing, sales, product, and customer success professionals. What I love most, though, is when I see people’s faces light up as a presenter describes a familiar challenge or a peer explains how they transformed their function to achieve game-changing results. There’s a palpable sense of energy and camaraderie. As one attendee put it, “Everyone is motivated to learn. There are many types of companies here, but we’re all trying to solve a lot of the same things and understand our buyers better.”
To better understand what makes B2B Summit so special, we asked some past B2B Summit attendees what they have valued most about the event. Here are some of the recurring themes we heard.
Industry-Leading Content
“I have attended many marketing conferences, and Forrester’s B2B Summit is really a step above,” says attendee Jodi Lebow, vice president of the global demand center at Hexagon, an industrial technology company. “The content is at a higher level.”
The content at our sessions and keynotes receives consistently high marks in the surveys we administer throughout the event. The concepts introduced, such as the importance of buying groups, inspire new ways of working. “I was fortunate to have attended last year’s event with a team of several colleagues, and we were able to real-time brainstorm how we can apply the lessons to our work,” says a vice president of marketing at an automotive goods company who has attended the event for the past several years. “The topics we heard were catalysts for us to have follow-up calls with analysts and dig deeper on several areas.”
Unparalleled Networking Opportunities
B2B Summit attendees tell us that they look forward to connecting with peers and gaining new perspectives. “I enjoy having the opportunities to meet with senior leaders from other companies who are facing challenges similar to mine,” says David Hamilton, CMO at SAP Concur. The event is also a place to rekindle connections made in previous years, notes Nikki Candito, vice president of integrated marketing at Anteriad: “I see some of my favorite people here every year.”
Much of the networking happens at the B2B Summit Marketplace, a vendor showcase “that is second-to-none in getting me access to companies providing marketing technology solutions,” SAP Concur’s Hamilton says. He adds that he appreciates having one place to meet with vendors with which he already has long-standing relationships.
Learning By Example
Case studies held throughout B2B Summit provide a deep dive into how companies worked through a particular problem to realize results. Past attendees tell us that they appreciate the real-world examples and actionable steps to apply the learnings to their own processes.
Attendees also find inspiration in our B2B Awards sessions, which spotlight how companies have aligned their marketing, sales, customer, and product functions or transformed a specific function to improve performance. “I learn a tremendous amount from the ROI Honors winners in seeing how other companies have implemented concepts,” says the marketing vice president at the automotive goods firm. “I find it invaluable to see their results and also learn what went well, what didn’t, and what they learned along the way. I always take this learning back to my organization.”
Watch this space for our announcement of this year’s B2B ROI Honors and B2B Programs Of The Year Award winners in February.
Dedicated Time With Analysts
One-on-one sessions with analysts — private, 20-minute onsite sessions with our experts — continually rank among the most valued aspects of B2B Summit. But that’s just one of the ways for attendees to ask analysts questions and get tailored advice. The analyst-led roundtables and small workshops also give attendees plenty of opportunities to dig into their thorniest challenges with analysts.
This year’s Summit will include a host of new analyst-facilitated roundtables and analyst-led workshops to accelerate more formalized networking and idea sharing. They will also allow attendees to begin applying Summit learnings to their challenges even before they return home.
An Invigorated Sense Of Mission
There’s an undeniable charge to the air throughout B2B Summit as it uniquely brings together the entire go-to-market team of marketing, sales, customer, and product leaders. Attendees leave feeling energized, aligned, and empowered to tackle their challenges and innovate, as they know they’ve acquired tools that will equip them to ignite meaningful change.
“This whole event not only brought new ideas, but it really remotivated me to get out in front of things that I’ve been thinking about and gave me ideas on how other people are doing it,” says Jennifer Pesci-Kelly, senior director of institutional marketing at Cengage. “I would recommend B2B Summit to all other marketers.”
Ready to gain insights, tools, and connections that elevate your game? Learn more about B2B Summit North America and register.
