Marta Macke, Founder & CEO Shortlist Consulting & CMO Summit by Shortlist was interviewed by Piotr Ruszak, Chief Communications Officer Publicis Groupe Polska.
Piotr Ruszak: The next CMO Summit by Shortlist will take place tomorrow. How many marketers and from how many companies have announced their participation?
Marta Macke: About 300 CMOs from over 100 different organizations have announced their participation in the 5th edition of CMO Summit by Shortlist, a conference addressed to marketing top managers. How many people will ultimately attend the event remains to be seen tomorrow. I know from experience, and this is the 10th conference organized by Shortlist Consulting, that participants register until the last minute. Therefore, registration at cmosummit.pl is still open and new participants appear all the time.
PR: For the first time, the event will have held on a regional scale and is dedicated to CMOs from the entire Central and Eastern Europe. What motivated you to expand the conference to new markets?
MM: The decision to organize CMO Summit CEE next to CMO Summit PL was primarily influenced by listening to the voices of our guests, i.e. marketing heads. Many organizations group the countries of our region into one cluster, strategic decisions are made regionally, and communication is international. Marketers working in the region are interested in learning more about trends in CEE & globally and want to share their experiences in this area. My several years of experience in the “regional” role was also important, as it allowed me to understand how important it is to enter other markets, share knowledge and experiences. The pandemic and the forced implementation of the CMO Summit by Shortlist in an on-line version naturally opened the way to an easily accessible conference for CMOs from the region. The boundaries are blurring, “Marketing without borders”, thanks to which we can connect with speakers from all over the world and invite guests, participants from many markets. Many participants form markets incl. from Russia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Estonia, but also CMO’s from Greece, Turkey and Switzerland working on the CEE markets already confirmed their e-presence in tomorrow’s conference.
PR: Exactly, “Marketing without borders” is the main topic of the conference. There is no doubt that the digitization processes in communication and sales that accelerated so much during the pandemic have made the differences between markets in the use of digital channels smaller and smaller, but do you think marketers have learned to use this potential?
MM: I think it depends on the organization and needs of a given brand or marketer. On the other hand, surely every marketing manager is interested in deepening the knowledge about trends, looking for inspiration that he can implement in his work and cascade in the team. That is why we always create the CMO Summit’s by Shortlist agenda in such a way that participants can meet and listen to inspiring speakers and find answers to the most current and important questions.
PR: A constant and very desirable point of the CMO Summit by Shortlist program is the presentation of an expert representing a large headhunting company, and this is also the case this time. Over the course of all editions, have you noticed constant elements that echo the insights of headhunters recruiting marketing top managers, or are there new insights that CMOs should pay attention to?
MM: The presence of an executive search expert is always an important element of the conference. Our speakers from the largest international headhunting companies share their expertise gained in numerous recruitments for managerial positions as well as experience and research on the development of competences and CMO position in the organization. They also talk about the expectations that the boards have for CMOs today. Invariably, in the statements of executive search experts, there is a need for constant development, tracking trends and innovations. CMOs today are more than ever business development experts, i.e. Chief Growth Officers, and not “only” marketing specialists. CMO Summit by Shortlist is a great platform for sharing both knowledge and business cases with CMOs.
PR: We can see that the largest industry conferences are slowly returning to the live meeting model, often supplemented by the possibility of online participation. Do you have the ambition to organize meetings for CMOs in Warsaw next year and do your conversations with them before this edition show that they feel the need to take part in such an event?
MM: Of course! The next edition of CMO Summit by Shortlist is scheduled for spring 2022, this stream will be addressed to CMOs interested in the Polish market (the regional edition will take place again in autumn). I do not want to reveal too much ;-), but we have already prepared a plan for this event, some of the lectures are already clarified, and we are going to organize the conference in a hybrid version (i.e. stationary and online). An important element of the previous editions of CMO Summit by Shortlist was networking, face to face meetings during which top marketing managers, advertisers could meet and exchange experiences. We miss the return to face-to-face meetings and we believe that it will be possible to return to this formula of CMO Summit by Shortlist.
PR: Thank you very much for the interview.
Publicis Groupe is a CMO Summit partner and you can still register for this event by clicking here.
