The Room Brand Summit
September 18 – 20, 2024
Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth
Montreal, QC
Humanity First.
Marketing Second.
Substance
We believe professional development goes hand-in-hand with personal growth.
Conversations
We believe people learn through group discussions, not talking heads.
Experiences
We believe visiting a city shouldn't mean sitting in a conference room.
Marketers
We believe in you.
This is not a marketing event
We are bringing senior executives together to discuss the ideas, causes, and challenges they care about most: making an impact, growing companies, and celebrating humanity.
As a participant you will be one of a curated group of 150 senior leaders. You will be inspired, challenged, and better prepared to confront everyday obstacles in our organizations and industries. Through marketer-led workshops and adventures in Montreal, you will forge relationships that will strengthen your support network beyond this week.
Who Should Attend
The Summit is free for qualified senior brand executives. To be a participant we ask that you come prepared to be an active contributor and stay for the entire event. You won’t want to miss this!
Last Year's Schedule
Arrival
Happy Hour & Light Food
Dinner
Mind Body Yoga (Optional)
Breakfast
General Session
Telling The Tale Of Potential You Want Them To Tell
Join Joanna Bloor, the force behind "Tales of Potential," as she unveils the hidden power dynamics that shape your professional destiny. In this eye-opening discovery session, Joanna challenges you to think about the "conversations in the room you're not in." But that's not all—brace yourself for an extraordinary revelation: discover how unleashing your wildest ambitions can ignite a tsunami of generosity, leaving an indelible mark on the world. Seize this opportunity to rewrite your future and create a world worthy of your dreams.
You Are Going to Live to Be 100, Now What?
The major social movement of our lives is the New Longevity. If you are in midlife and healthy, you may live to be 100 or older. This massive change in humankind will have profound implications for work, life, love and family relationships. Are you ready for what it will mean for you? Michael Clinton. Author of ROAR into the second half of life and CEO and founder of ROAR forward will lead a discussion on the topic
Demystify the Boardroom
Join us for an engaging session to demystify the boardroom and board service. In 45 minutes you will learn about obtaining a board seat and what to expect once landed. We'll share the path to the boardroom, translating your operating experience to oversight, and what characteristics are most valuable once you are in the room, with time for discussion.
Lunch
Roundtable Discussions
How Ad/Mar-Tech Fits In A (Return To) Traditional Marketing
The Privacy-First era, ushered in by cookie-less browsing and stringent California legislation, is fundamentally reshaping the advertising industry. Our companies must maintain personalization without breaching consumer trust. Additionally, contextual advertising (and the value of premium content) is back on the front burner. In this session, we will get candid about what technologies you will need to bring to bear as you map and enhance your consumer’s journey.
The Marriage of Art and Commerce
AKA What is actually working in marketing today? Modern marketing fuses artistry and analytics. Data provides actionable insights, informing targeted, personalized campaigns, while creativity ensures emotional resonance…but great brands are not built on data strategies. How do you ensure art comes into play for the customer? What does this mean for creative development? Authenticity & reputation (eg Target’s recent). Brand vs Performance? How do you change the world?
Hall Winery Dinner & Activities
After Hours (Optional)
Guided Vineyard Hike (Optional)
Breakfast
Workshops
Leading Differently: The Unique Strengths of Women in Leadership
Let’s explore the distinctive leadership styles of women and how they shape organizations. We will share specific stories about how we foster more candid, collaborative, and emotionally intelligent teams. How do women-led teams fare as measured through business outcomes?
Managing the C-Suite
Managing the C-Suite illuminates the nuances of women navigating executive roles. We’ll discuss effective strategies for fostering resilience, and cultivating influence inside boardrooms. Let’s explore challenges faced by women leaders and learn to harness unique strengths for effective leadership. A special emphasis will be placed on how women can be their authentic selves while occupying positions of power and seniority.
The New Glass Ceiling: Ageism Against Women in the Workplace
The New Glass Ceiling: Ageism Against Women in the Workplace unearths the unseen bias of ageism affecting women in professional environments. We will gain insights into recognizing and combating this subtle form of discrimination, ensuring a more inclusive and respectful workplace. More importantly, we’ll devise strategies that help our attendees navigate ageism. This issue impacts more senior contributors as well as the younger, highly capable members of our group.
Culture Club: How Female Leaders Foster a Truly Diverse Culture
Culture Club: How Female Leaders Foster a Truly Diverse Culture contemplates how women in leadership positions influence and nurture diverse organizational cultures. How important is empathy to diversity and inclusivity? Has hybrid work hurt or helped this movement? We will share actionable strategies for fostering and promoting equitable opportunities. Let’s open up about where these initiatives are working and not working within our organizations.
Confronting 'Having It All': A Deeper Look at Mental Fatigue
Confronting 'Having It All': A Deeper Look at Mental Fatigue dissects the cultural myth of 'having it all' and its subsequent mental strain. We are mothers, daughters, partners and executives. We’re heads of marketing and CEO/COO of our houses. Let’s share tips and strategies to survive and thrive in this world.
Workshops
The Art of Mentoring and Being Mentored
We’ll discuss how to find and maintain mentor relationships, how to be a mentor to others, and how to have hard conversations to facilitate progress.
Staying Ahead of the Curve in an Ever-Changing Industry
Staying Ahead of the Curve in an Ever-changing Industry: being a media, marketing or data expert - or all of the above - when the landscape is constantly shifting is a particularly hard role, and one that we tend to put on the back burner to focus on the rest of our tasks at work. How do we stay up to speed on our consumers’ needs and implement innovation to solve those needs better than our competitors?
What’s Your Career Roadmap?: Navigating your career with Purpose, Grace and Ambition
What’s Your Career Roadmap?: Navigating your career with purpose, grace and ambition will facilitate a conversation about career pathing and how to move from step to step over time to build a career you love. We will touch on what it means to have a purposeful career and how to continue to pivot to stay true to what you’re really driving towards.
When the Going Gets Tough: How to lead in times of constraint
When the Going Gets Tough: How to lead in times of constraint, whether we’re facing budget cuts, layoffs, tough conversations, lack of motivation… or all of the above.
Town Hall & Lunch
Our final session aspires to be action oriented: let’s synthesize the Summit’s discussions into a set of principles that are actionable. What will we do differently? What are key tenants we want to push forward? Dinner by dinner, month by month, and summit by summit we have an agenda to advance. Let’s codify at our Town Hall.
Airport Shuttles
Last Year's Discussion Leaders
Abhi Vyas
Verizon Wireless
Adam Shlachter
Niantic
Allyson Dietz
TransUnion
Angela Gruszka
AERIN
Blake Holman
General Mills
Bunmi Familoni
Quip
Colleen Sherry
Edgewell Personal Care
David Zapata
Anheuser-Busch InBev
Dr. Lisa Neff
Professor
Dr. Marci Gleason
Professor
Duncan Houldsworth
Pursia
Geoff Matthews
Fetch Rewards
Georgia Cohen
Gen Z Student
Gizelle Hinson
The Mindful Institute
Ian Mundorff
HP
Jeanne Fu
M&T Bank
Jeff LIn
Sweetgreen
Jeremy Parker
Dell
Joe Kotz
Videoamp
Joshua Naffman
Diageo
Laurel Van Tassel
Anheuser-Busch InBev
Lora Feinman
Seedtag
Lou Alaimo
Pim Brands
Meghan Reynolds
Oura
Rachel Goldflam
Veronica Beard
Sabrina Sirhal
Monster Energy
Sandra Moore
HanesBrands
Shiv Singh
Author, Advisor & Board Member