Recent CMO CLUB Dinner Recaps - It's All about ROI, Web 2.0, and Good People

November was a busy month for The CMO CLUB with dinners in Palo Alto, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston and NYC area. Over 75 CMOs attended the dinners. Below are photos from the NYC area dinner, hosted by CMO Tom Glick of the NJ Nets (that is not Jason Kidd in the Kidd jersey by EVP Sales and Marketing for Trend Micro, Brian Harmon) plus a photo from the Boston area dinner.

After attending all the dinners, three key priorities are on the minds of CMOs in the group:

1) Marketing ROI - What are the right metrics to not only calculate ROI of marketing's activities, but more importantly how to leverage these metrics to drive changes in the business and more focus on winning vs. fear of losing.

2) Acquiring and Retaining good people - It's all about the quality of your organizations. Great discussions on what to look for, hiring approaches, and most importantly, how to keep good people in this hot market.

3) The CMO and Web 2.0 - A big concern for many CMOs at the dinners. How to leverage within a broader integrated marketing mix and who are the experts to tap into for help.

Each of these issues will be discussed in upcoming blog entries from the group so stay tuned.

We are set for upcoming CMO CLUB dinners in January and Early February (all starting at 6 pm).

January 7th - Our First CMO CLUB dinner in Chicago at Coco Pazzo
300 W Hubbard St., Chicago, IL 60610, Phone: (312) 836-0900.

January 8th - CMO CLUB dinner in NYC/NJ area at the Liberty Science Center hosted by CMO Mark Mattia to discuss "Leveraging my M&M/Mars experience with a Not fo Profit company and the importance of Marketing ROI".

January 15th - CMO CLUB dinner in Boston - Please note the date change from January 14th to January 15th. Location to be finalized shortly.

January 21st - CMO CLUB dinner in Los Angeles at Napa Valley Grille,
1100 Glendon Avenue, Suite 100, Los Angeles, CA 90024, 310.824.3322

January 22nd - CMO CLUB dinner in Palo Alto (SF Area ) at MacArthur Park, 27 University Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94301, Telephone: (650) 321-9990

January 23rd - CMO CLUB dinner in Seattle at Wild Ginger Restaurant,
1401 Third Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101, (206) 623-4450

February 11th - Our First CMO CLUB dinner in Minneapolis location TBD.

Please RSVP to me at krainikp@yahoo.com or 908.342.1632 as soon as you can as the growth of the group has resulted in space limitations for the first time at a few of the dinners. Speakers and a restaurants for Minneapolis and Boston will be finalized shortly so check back for updated details.

Save the Date for our first CMO CLUB event set for May 12-14, 2008 in NYC. More details to follow shortly on the agenda, speakers, and how to sign up.

As always please the word to other CMOs you know and I look forward to see many of you at the next round of dinners.