How does your marketing department measure success? Which metrics are the most important indicators of if you're optimally serving your business? How were these KPIs selected? And are they still relevant to your business objectives?

If questions like these keep you up at night, the TAO Marketing Committee has wrangled up the top tech marketing minds in Portland to discuss how their departmental KPIs feed their organizational objectives. They'll recommend strategies on KPI selection and give in-the-field testimonials of their successes and failures. Questions are encouraged so come prepared!

Panel:

Chris Fisher, Senior Director of Marketing at Tripwire Chris comes to the TAO panel through Tripwire, a cybersecurity company located in downtown Portland. He is an accomplished marketing leader who thinks creatively and analytically to drive growth. His focus on data-driven marketing that delivers measurable outcomes fuels online marketing strategies to build brands and maximize user experience. He comes to Tripwire after decades with Tektronix and PacifiCorp focused on demand generation, brand awareness, and content strategy.

Hillary Ervin, Director of Demand Generation at Navex Global Hillary comes to the TAO panel through Navex Global, a compliance software leader in Lake Oswego. She is a successful thought leader in all aspects of demand generation. In the digital sector, she blends her experience in lead generation and demand generation to fuel corporate growth and brand awareness. Her decorated history at Tripwire resulted in rapid international market growth and she is an influential part of the Oregon marketing community.

Ken Anderson - VP of Marketing at Smarsh Ken comes to the TAO panel through Smarsh, a Portland firm delivering cloud-based archiving solutions for the enterprise. He is responsible for the implementation and execution of strategies surrounding a wide range of areas, including product marketing, sales enablement, demand generation, analyst relations, corporate communications, and web + social media programs. His past with in professional sports will lend an extra dimension to this panel and we will all benefit from his tech marketing insight.

Kathy Stromberg - VP of Marketing at Webtrends Kathy comes to the TAO panel via Webtrends, a Portland-based company offering web analytics, measurement, testing, and more. She is a passionate tech marketing executive with proven track record of success. Her career has been built on business growth, driving down costs, and improving critical processes to deliver competitive market positions. Whether at Webtrends, PECI, or HP, Kathy's passion about measurable marketing makes her a perfect fit for this panel.

Moderator:

Dan Cacacungan, Senior Director of Strategy and Planning at Babcock & Jenkins As a strategic thinker for businesses of all sizes, Dan believes that the best brands are built on a common understanding and common cause shared by businesses and their customers. Wielding that belief, he has helped icons like NASDAQ, Intel, Sony and Nordstrom move from marketing to their audiences, to relating to them at every stage of the brand experience. His wealth and diversity of industry experience make him a perfect moderator for this TAO event.

Details: Date: Wednesday, Feburary 17th, 2016 Time: 6:00-8:00 PM Location: Simple, 926 NW 13th Ave, Portland, OR 97209 Price: Members $25 | Nonmembers $45

Come check out this free talk designed to introduce you to branding and give you some tools you can put to use immediately! Complimentary pizza and beverages provided too!

Are you interested in increasing the ROI of your marketing efforts? Understanding your brand and communicating it effectively is a key contributor in growing sales! Join Senior Marketing Strategist, Alicia Nagel, in this talk to discover how becoming more aware of your company’s brand can help you build strong relationships with customers. Attendees will leave with tactics to gain a better understanding of their users, brand personality, brand “touchpoints”, and how using brand strategy can increase the effectiveness of marketing efforts. Presentation will be followed by a brief Q&A.

Event on GRAYBOX Website: http://www.grayboxpdx.com/events/all/who-gives-a-brand

RSVP Link on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/who-gives-a-brand-lunch-learn-tickets-34577866329

ABOUT GRAYBOX GRAYBOX is a digital consulting firm that helps you solve technical challenges, reach your audience and optimize your operations with elegance, utility and expertise. We're your partners to success in a digital-first world — we help you captivate your customers online with measurable results.

ABOUT ALICIA NAGEL Alicia has almost 10 years experience in creative leadership and brand strategy, with a background in design and advertising. Prior to working at GRAYBOX, she ran a branding and design consultancy where she worked with executive-level staff in marketing and web development agencies and directly with clients to produce brand strategy, lead creative teams, and produce cross-channel marketing campaigns.

Alicia has extensive experience using research to inspire and guide content and design across multidisciplinary creative teams. She is experienced at conducting and applying a variety of primary and secondary research methods to inform integrated creative campaigns including focus groups, field observation, brainstorming sessions, market research, and online activity observation. These insights then get developed into personas for target audience segments to help teams and clients envision who they’re speaking to.

Alicia enjoys giving back to the community by taking on pro bono work for nonprofits and leading branding workshops to help the entrepreneurial community. She has been asked to speak by organizations such as USC, Etsy, Anvil Media, and PSU. Nonprofit work has included content writing for AIGA, as well as brand strategy and design for several nonprofits such as Portland City Club, Fashion Collective Portland, and June Key Delta Community Center in North Portland.

Maria Crawford, Director of Digital Marketing and Marketing Operations At TripWire, will discuss how to prove digital channel success by using “campaign to cash” reporting to make data-based decisions.

Showing marketing effectiveness is key to impacting revenues and the proverbial sales funnel to help drive conversion rates in addition to other elements as well. The discussion will include how to build out your marketing technology stack and creating an analytics reporting infrastructure that will allow you to prove marketing success.

Do you have a documented content marketing strategy for 2018? Do you know the metrics your boss cares about? Do you plan on hiring a freelancer, or get hired as a freelancer in 2018?

Tackle these questions and more at the Content Marketing Unconference on Saturday, Jan. 13, at NedSpace in downtown Portland.

Why attend? This is your chance to learn from others, seek out answers to your questions Build a collaborative network, establish partnerships, and be in a community Open your awareness to new ideas for yourself or your business

How Does It Work? We kick off with informal networking, opening remarks, outline the process, then dive into building the day's agenda around your needs, interests, and areas of expertise. The sessions will be 45-minutes.

The Agenda 9-9:30 Arrive, get coffee and a donut, settle in, meet someone 9:30-10 Overview and group agenda setting 10-10:45 Session 1 10:45-11:30 Session 2 11:30-12:15 Session 3 12:15-1 LUNCH (provided) 1-1:45 Session 4 1:45-2:30 Session 5 2:30-3 Closing remarks

You choose the session topics. Here are a few to consider: -Content Strategy -Content Production Workflow -Metrics Your Boss Cares About -Launching a campaign -Buyer Personas -Content Audit -Mapping Your Customer Journey -Hiring a Freelancer -Content Marketing & SEO

Who should attend? If you took the time to read through all of this, then YOU! The event is open to anyone with an interest in the topic.