June 2008

It has been a wonderful year serving as the president of the BMA/Chicago chapter. Thank you for the opportunity and, most of all, for the tremendous support and terrific ideas.

This past year has been successful in terms of the caliber of speakers we have recruited for our MarketingMasters luncheon seminars. It has been an eclectic, intriguing and, above all, inspirational group of individuals that included Olympics 2016 marketing consultants Mark Mitten and Gordon Kane; Ron Ricci, vice president of corporate positioning at Cisco Systems, Inc.; Tom Insprucker, head of marketing operations at Schneider Electric USA; Patti Temple Rocks, vice president of global public affairs at The Dow Chemical Company; Eduardo Conrado, corporate vice president of global business and technology marketing and communications at Motorola, Inc.; Penry Price, vice president of advertising sales for North America at Google; and Richard Edelman, president and CEO of Edelman.

This year’s season of luncheons ended with a bang with Mark Gambill, chief marketing officer at CDW, who gave an excellent presentation on the new role of the CMO. Many thanks to Mark for concluding the program year with a memorable luncheon!

The guest speakers and panel members at our Breakfast RoundTables made this program season the most well-attended ever: Kevin Turner, president of Model Metrics; Tony Weisman, president of Digitas Chicago; Stephanie Kusibab, channel marketing manager for strategic accounts at GBC; Paul Rand, president and CEO, and Patrick Rooney, partner, at Zocalo Group, LLC; Gary A. Schuetz, executive director of Sweet Station, LLC; Sandy Bredine, associate director, marketing communications program, and Soni Simpson, professor, at IIT Stuart GSB; Michael Krauss, president of Market Strategy Group; Richard Norby, vice president of creative services at Live Marketing; Rich Hawkinson, executive vice president and co-founder of InXpo; Chris Metzger, national account director at Freeman; Jim McElherne, senior account executive for exhibits and design at GES Exposition Services; and Tom Yorton, president and chief operating officer of Second City.

Also contributing to the chapter’s growth were our 2007-2008 sponsors: Getty Images, Paladin, The Wall Street Journal, Aquent, BusinessWeek and Schneider Electric USA/Square D. In-kind sponsors were ExactTarget, Source4 and Sound Investment. We thank these great organizations for their continued support of BMA/Chicago.

Membership remains strong with more than 500 members, and Chicago is the largest, most active chapter in the BMA network.

These achievements could not have come to fruition without the exceptional contribution of this year’s board of directors, committee chairs and all the members who volunteered to help out with the luncheons, the upcoming Biz Bash and other events.

As I pass the baton on to the next group of board members, led by Gary Slack, chairman and chief experience officer at Slack Barshinger, and Suzanne Martin, senior director of global marketing at Motorola, I would like to thank the members for making it a great year to serve as your president.

As one of my last duties as president, I want to encourage you all to make sure to register this week for our 7th Annual “Party With a Purpose”—the Windy City Biz Bash. This event will take place on Thursday, June 5, at the Ivy Room at Tree Studios.

Be sure to take a sneak peek at some of the auction items that will be available here. Also, I would like to thank our sponsors for this event—our gold sponsors CareerBuilder.com and Microsoft, silver sponsor Google, and in-kind sponsors HSR Business-to-Business and Source4.

To register for this event, go here.

Another great event that culminated in a fantastic ceremony was the recent 25th annual Tower Awards. I would like to congratulate all the winners and thank our wonderful sponsors, Aquent Marketing Staffing and Getty Images, for making this another night to remember. Also, a special thanks to Rick Kean, managing director of the Business Marketing Institute and our emcee for the night.

For a full list of winners, please go here.

Other BMA award honorees I would like to recognize are the recipients of the BMA 2007-2008 chapter awards. Awards were presented at the May 15 MarketingMasters luncheon seminar. Congratulations to our Member of the Year, Karen Pittenger from Black Olive Company; New Members of the Year, Helena Stelnick of Stelnicki Partners and Gordon Kane of Victory Sports Marketing; and our Board Member of the Year, Linda Meenan of Wildman Harrold.

Also presented at the May luncheon was the BMA/Chicago chapter’s highest honor, the Proud Award, which went to Gordon Hochhalter of Mobium. Congratulations to all!

And there is plenty to look forward to in the fall! The kickoff-luncheon for our 2008-2009 season promises to be inspirational! On Friday, September 5, Rick Burton, the chief marketing officer of the United States Olympic Committee, will be the keynote speaker. With Chicago pursuing the privilege of hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics, Rick’s presence is a real honor for BMA. Go here for more information and to register.

If you are not already a member of BMA, please consider joining today. You can join or register for BMA programs through the BMA Web site .

BMA members get the exclusive ability to download the PowerPoint deck and/or an audiocast from our monthly luncheon seminars in the first BMAIL of the following month.

Other exclusive members-only benefits include:

• The BMA/Chicago Directory
• Publications and white papers from the national BMA
• Eligibility for professional Marketing Skills Certification
• Member rates for guests joining you at BMA events
• Free postings to BMA/Chicago CareerLink listings 

All the best,