Conference Agenda

B2B MASTERS ACADEMY with Google

B2B Masters Academy marks the official kick-off of ANA B2B MASTERS WEEK.
The Google Academy is available exclusively to ANA client‑side members who are Brand Manager-level and above and registered for the Masters of B2B Marketing Conference.

Academy attendance is limited to 50–100 participants. ANA reserves the right to decline registrations that do not meet eligibility requirements. Click here to add your name to the list for this event, and the team will let you know if you have been approved.

GOOGLE INTERACTIVE WORKSHOP: POWERING HUMAN INNOVATION WITH AI
Technology hasn't replaced the need for human connection in B2B. Together, they have created the ultimate competitive advantage.
This interactive session reveals how AI enables more human, high-value interactions throughout the buyer journey.

In 2025, Google delivered a decade's worth of innovation in one year - and these advancements are already transforming the ecosystem for brand discovery and customer engagement. To help you build a playbook that matches the new buyer journey, we are gathering Google's front-line leaders to share a bold vision for a better B2B landscape. Through a mix of provocative insights and guided, hands-on experimentation, you will learn to integrate AI into your strategy. Step into the future of B2B and leave with the confidence to align your team, your technology, and your vision.

Participants will:

• Learn how AI is reshaping the B2B buyer journey, enabling more human connections and transforming your path to growth
• Receive practical guidance and considerations for integrating AI into your B2B marketing strategy
• Have the opportunity for hands-on exploration of the latest AI tools from Google and Gemini
• Leave with real-world applications ready now, so you can start advancing today

The event will include a networking reception

Antonia Prieto

Industry Director, B2B Retail Google

B2B MASTERS ACADEMY with PwC

The PwC Academy is available exclusively to ANA client‑side members who are Marketing Director-level and above and registered for the Masters of B2B Marketing Conference.

Academy attendance is limited to 50–100 participants. ANA reserves the right to decline registrations that do not meet eligibility requirements. Click here to add your name to the list for this event, and the team will let you know if you have been approved.

THE RISE OF THE AGENTIC MARKETER
AI is reshaping the marketing function, creating a new operating era defined by intelligent systems, faster decisions, and redesigned workflows. This workshop helps industry leaders turn those new capabilities into business results.

Participants can learn how to:

• Turn fragmented marketing data into decision-ready intelligence
• Embed AI into content, campaign, and go-to-market workflows
• Balance automation with human judgment, creativity, and brand integrity
• Prioritize use cases that may create efficiency, growth, and strategic advantage
• Build an actionable roadmap for AI adoption, governance, and scale

Outcome:
A practical roadmap to help marketing industry leaders operationalize AI with confidence, align teams around high-value use cases, and deliver near-term impact with a foundation for long-term transformation.

B2B MASTERS ACADEMY with Demandbase

The Demandbase Academy is available exclusively to ANA client‑side members who are Brand Manager-level and above and registered for the Masters of B2B Marketing Conference.

Academy attendance is limited to 50–100 participants. ANA reserves the right to decline registrations that do not meet eligibility requirements. Click here to add your name to the list for this event, and the team will let you know if you have been approved.

EARN YOUR AI IN ABM ESSENTIALS CERTIFICATION FROM DEMANDBASE

AI is no longer a "nice to have" in account-based marketing - AI is redefining how organizations go to market right now.

The AI in ABM Essentials Certification is a research-backed, structured learning experience designed to give marketers real, applicable AI skills for modernizing their go-to-market strategies. This is not a product course.

This certification course will help you:

• Understand where AI meaningfully improves ABM execution, where it's being overused, and how to avoid common pitfalls to AI adoption
• Identify the organizational, data, and operating prerequisites required for AI to deliver value
• Build realistic expectations around impact, measurement, and maturity

Why get certified?

Actionable insights:

• Learn from real-world case studies and exercises you can apply immediately.
• Boost your career: Demonstrate your AI expertise to peers and leadership with a globally recognized certification.
• Future-proof your strategy: Equip your organization with the AI skills needed to stay ahead in B2B marketing.

Get certified now and be part of the elite group shaping the future of GTM.

Stephanie McArthur

Sr. Principal, GTM & ABX Expert Demandbase

SETTING THE STANDARD FOR MODERN B2B MARKETING MASTERY

Join us for a fast‑paced B2B Committee meeting exploring how today's leading marketers are responding to seismic shifts in AI, brand, and buyer behavior. From the rise of the agentic marketer to new research on buyer journeys and brand confidence, this session blends insight, frameworks, and peer discussion—culminating in leadership roundtables focused on turning marketing into a measurable growth engine. Review the full agenda.

Please note that lunch will be served directly following the meeting.Join us for a fast‑paced B2B Committee meeting exploring how today's leading marketers are responding to seismic shifts in AI, brand, and buyer behavior. From the rise of the agentic marketer to new research on buyer journeys and brand confidence, this session blends insight, frameworks, and peer discussion—culminating in leadership roundtables focused on turning marketing into a measurable growth engine. Review the full agenda.

Please note that lunch will be served directly following the meeting.

Co-Hosts: Kira O’Sullivan

Vice President of Marketing Proshares B2B Committee Co-Chair

B2B DATA & ANALYTICS: WHAT MARKETERS ARE NAVIGATING NOW ROUNDTABLE

This in-person, small-group session brings B2B marketers together for a focused and practical discussion on the data and analytics challenges shaping B2B growth today. Designed to balance open peer exchange with tangible learning, the session offers insights and frameworks that participants can take back and apply within their organizations immediately.

The conversation will explore the growing complexity of modern B2B buying groups, where decisions involve multiple stakeholders and traditional lead- or account-centric models often fall short. Participants will examine common data, measurement, and activation hurdles—and how more advanced, intent-driven approaches are helping teams improve alignment, efficiency, and outcomes.

Attendees will walk away with a clearer perspective on how to better identify and engage real buying groups, unify signals across data sources, and support stronger decision-making across the customer journey. The format is intentionally interactive and personal, creating space for thoughtful dialogue, shared learning, and practical takeaways grounded in day-to-day B2B marketing realities.

Archana Basarur

Senior Vice President, Marketing Analytics U.S. Bank

OPENING REMARKS

David Blackburn

Senior Vice President, B2B Marketing Practice ANA

HUMANIZING B2B BRANDS

In this opening keynote, Dean Aragon challenges B2B leaders to rethink the true drivers of enterprise value. In an environment defined by volatility, complexity, and relentless performance scrutiny, the strongest brands are strategic advantages. They reduce perceived risk, strengthen pricing power, accelerate deal velocity, and expand long-term customer value. Yet too often, brand is discussed in terms of awareness instead of growth.

Drawing on his experience leading a global enterprise brand, he will connect brand strength directly to business performance. He will explore how belief inside an organization (alignment between marketing, finance, and executive leadership) translates into measurable impact outside it. This session sets the tone for the week: B2B marketing is an economic engine. And brand, when built and stewarded correctly, is one of the most powerful growth levers a CMO controls.

Dean Aragon

Chairman of the ANA Board

WELCOME REMARKS

Hayley Romer

Managing Director, U.S. Advertising Sales Bloomberg Media

THE VALUE OF B2B BRANDS. PROVEN.

If brand is one of the most valuable assets a company owns, it should be measured with the same discipline as any other driver of enterprise performance.

In this session, Haigh presents the world's Highest Value B2B Brand Report and launches the ANA 2026 Brand Valuation Tool, an exclusive tool is available to ANA client-side members only. Designed to connect the dots between marketing and finance, this is an essential tool for CMOs to share with CFOs. The session will demonstrate how brand value connects to business growth over time, supported by client examples and longitudinal case discussions. He outlines how the valuation approach works at a high level and how ANA members can engage with the offering.

For leaders under pressure to prove impact, this session focuses on bringing financial clarity to brand performance.

Key takeaways:

• Learn how brand valuation can be used to demonstrate impact on business growth over time.
• Understand how to use brand value data in conversations with CFOs.
• Explore how ANA members can access and apply the brand valuation tool within their organizations.

David Haigh

Founder and Chief Executive Officer Brand Finance

BUILT TO LAST. BUILT TO LEAD. HOW DO YOU GROW AND STRENGTHEN ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST VALUABLE BRANDS IN THE AI ERA?

In this session, Juliet Randall shares how SAP Marketing drives a scalable growth engine while reinforcing a brand promise that entire industries rely on—even as the rules of engagement rapidly evolve. She unpacks how clear positioning, tight organizational alignment, and earned customer confidence translate into sustained market impact. The brands that endure don't just adapt—they show up with consistency, clarity, and proof at every touchpoint.

Now, the stakes are higher. With AI as a new force in the buying process, the bar has been raised. This isn't about doing more. It's about doing what matters—better.

You'll leave with:

• How marketing accelerates strategic growth by embedding AI where it drives decisions—across the customer journey
• What high-performing organizations do differently to align teams, markets, and channels around what truly matters
• Why clarity, distinctiveness, and proof—not volume—determine whether you show up, stand out, and win

Juliet Randall

Chief Marketing Officer SAP Americas

HOW TRUST AND HUMANS POWER B2B BRAND VALUE

In complex, high-stakes industries, brand is more than awareness, it is about earning the trust that allows innovation to be adopted. In this Masters of B2B Marketing session, Melissa Washko of GE Aerospace shares how one of the world's most valuable B2B brands builds "permission to innovate" by combining human-centered storytelling with engineering excellence. Grounded in real transformation, this session reframes brand as the force that turns breakthrough ideas into market reality and long-term value.

You will learn:

• Why trust and human connection are the foundation of B2B brand value
• How emotion and innovation work together to drive adoption and relevance
• How leading brands translate innovation into sustained enterprise growth

Melissa Washko

Chief Brand Officer GE Aerospace

WHEN BRAND TRUST IS THE REAL CURRENCY

Greg Boosin has helped fuel brands at two very different institutions: Mastercard, where trust is embedded in a global icon, and Equitable, where trust is earned through the rigor of operating in one of the most scrutinized industries.

In this session, he explores what changes when brand isn't only about preference, but about helping customers make confident decisions in complex financial contexts. As buying groups grow more cautious and accountability rises, trust operates as a strategic system, built on clear disclosures, consistent delivery, and proven strength. Greg will share how leading brands build confidence when the stakes are real. You'll walk away with:

• A practical model for turning brand into a trust and risk management engine
• Signals that build credibility in regulated, high stakes markets
• Language to position brand internally as a strategic trust asset, not just a creative exercise

Greg Boosin

Chief Marketing Officer Equitable

MAKING B2B MARKETING FEEL HUMAN AGAIN

Most B2B marketing still sounds like it was written for a spec sheet, not for the people making high-stakes decisions. In this session, Bloomberg Media shares how to shift from information-heavy messaging to stories that reflect how buying groups actually think, feel, and decide. Using their proprietary research and case studies, they break down what makes content connect and move markets.

You'll walk away with:

• A clear way to make your brand more relatable without losing credibility
• How to earn confidence in complex, risk-sensitive decisions
• Practical ways to create content that sticks and drives action

Michelle Lynn

Global Head of Data Science & Insights Bloomberg Media

THE MOST MISUNDERSTOOD LEVER IN MODERN MEDIA STRATEGY

Marketers invest heavily in performance media, demand generation and martech stacks, yet often overlook one of the most powerful multipliers within the media ecosystem: public relations. Too frequently treated as a press release engine or crisis-only function, PR plays a distinct and strategic role in shaping credibility, authority and sustained visibility. When integrated effectively, earned media doesn't compete with paid and owned efforts, it strengthens them.

Featuring the Arthritis Foundation, this session demonstrates how strategic PR amplifies broader marketing investments by shaping perception, reinforcing mission authority and building durable relevance across audiences. Rather than driving one-time awareness spikes, PR helped establish a consistent, trusted presence that fueled engagement over time.

You will leave with a framework for activating PR as a strategic pillar within modern media planning, one that enhances, rather than replaces, other growth-driving disciplines.

Sabrina Sexton

Chief Marketing Officer Arthritis Foundation

CLOSING REMARKS

Hayley Romer

Managing Director, US Advertising Sales Bloomberg Media

MARKETING ROUNDTABLE MEET-UPS

Conference attendees have the option to join a themed table and have breakfast with peers knowledgeable about and interested in a similar topic, starting at 7:30am. Join us for facilitated breakfast discussions for the ABCS of B2B Marketing.

We're offering themed and hosted breakfast discussions on topics including:
Account-Based Marketing

• B2B
• B2B Data
• Customer Experience
• Channel Ecosystem

Conference attendees will have the option to join a themed table and have breakfast with peers knowledgeable about and interested a similar topic from 7:30am-8am. It will be very informal and allow attendees to connect with other marketers in similar roles. To join a table, simply look towards the front of the breakfast room for the tabletop sign with the breakfast theme you'd like to attend. No need to register in advance, however availability is on a first come basis.

STOP TALKING TO SALES: THE NEW RULEBOOK FOR B2B ALIGNMENT

Most teams don't fail at strategy, they fail at operational alignment. When sales can't see the value marketing brings, the issue is often less about the message and more about who delivers it. In this session, we'll explore why traditional marketing to sales loops fail, what true enterprise alignment actually requires, and how a shift in communication can change everything.

Steve Zucker

Marketing Director monday.com

WELCOME REMARKS

Al Torres

SVP Demandbase Ads Demandbase

OPENING REMARKS

Bob Liodice

Chief Executive Officer ANA

HOUSEKEEPING REMARKS

Co-Hosts: Lisa Maxwell

Vice President, B2B Marketing for Digital Partnerships Mastercard

APPLE: MASTERING BRAND EXPERIENCE AS A GROWTH DRIVER

From the iPhone launches to the Apple Store and Genius Bar, Johnson and Oehl helped build one of the world's most admired brand experiences and turned it into a powerful growth engine. In this panel discussion, they reveal the principles behind Apple's human-centered, friction-free experiences and show how those same disciplines can transform complex B2B journeys across digital, physical, and service touchpoints. You'll learn how to move beyond campaigns to orchestrate an end to end brand experience that drives revenue, loyalty, and pricing power in B2B markets, including:

• How to translate iconic B2C experience principles (clarity of purpose, simplicity, and emotional resonance) into B2B environments without losing the rigor of enterprise buying cycles and committees.
• How to design "Genius Bar–style" service moments inside B2B journeys (onsite, in app, or virtually) that increase trust, accelerate decision-making, and expand account value.
• How to reframe marketing's role from communications to orchestrating end-to-end brand experience, with practical examples of metrics, governance, and cross-functional ways of working.

Moderator: Dagmara Szulce

Executive Vice President ANA

HOW AI IS MAKING US BETTER HUMANS: TURNING SYNTHETIC PERSONAS INTO B2B GROWTH

Most B2B marketers use data to decide who to target, then abandon it when deciding what to say. That gap is where performance is lost. This session shows how to carry real customer intelligence into the creative moment using synthetic personas and embedded research tools. Teams can pressure-test messaging, tone and design before launch, understanding not just what works but why. The outcome is more relevant, human experiences that drive stronger engagement, sharper decisions and measurable B2B growth. Hear how Code and Theory is teaching B2B marketers how to learn before they launch.

Rachel Thornton

Chief Marketing Officer Adobe

HUMAN-LED AI: A NEW MANDATE FOR B2B BRAND LEADERS

AI is rewriting how brands are discovered, evaluated, and trusted.

In this session, Jennifer Chase shares how modern B2B brand leadership evolves when buyers, agents, and marketers are all using AI. She will explore how SAS is adapting strategy and measurement to remain relevant while serving as a trusted advisor in a rapidly shifting environment. This is where agility meets accountability. You'll leave with:

• A clearer approach to modernizing brand strategy in an AI-driven market
• Insight into evolving discoverability and measurement
• Practical ways to balance speed with long-term brand trust

Jennifer Chase

Chief Marketing Officer SAS Institute

DIRECT MAIL REIMAGINED: HIGH-PERFORMANCE B2B INSIGHTS FROM USPS

In this session, we will break down fresh direct mail insights and exclusive USPS campaign results that show direct mail effectiveness in an omnichannel campaign. See how USPS B2B campaigns amplified results with physical touchpoints to cut through the digital noise, accelerate the sales pipeline, and drive measurable revenue growth.

Key Takeaways

• New insights and research on direct mail
• Review exclusive USPS data and metrics that show direct mail's impact on conversion and response rates in B2B.
• Discover how to seamlessly pair physical mail with digital campaigns to boost overall multi-channel performance.

Eddie Alvarran

Manager, Customer Marketing USPS

BUYABILITY IN THE BOARD ROOM - PROVING YOUR TEAM'S VALUE TO THE C-SUITE

You may have a great product or service, and even a well-known brand. But do you really have what it takes to actually get bought in your hypercompetitive B2B category? Buyability: The Future of B2B Marketing Success is a breakthrough mental model based on new research from LinkedIn to understand the real drivers of B2B buying and unlock new opportunities across this $19 trillion purchasing category. In their inimitable way, Jann Schwarz will share how B2B buying decisions are deeply influenced by culture, relationships and organizational dynamics – factors that give expanding B2B buying groups the collective confidence to buy.

Jann Schwarz

Senior Director of Marketplace Innovation LinkedIn

RISING ABOVE THE SEA OF SAMENESS

Three months before launch, Prudential killed a campaign they loved. Why? Because in institutional finance, looking like everyone else is fatal.

In this candid session, Prudential's Richard Parkinson pulls back the curtain on the new Prudential Global Investment Management (PGIM) B2B campaign built from global insight, deep advisor research, and a deliberate push to defy category conventions. When competitors launched near-identical creative, they scrapped execution, kept the strategy, and doubled down on differentiation.

This is the real story of brand under pressure. You'll walk away with:

• A framework for closing consideration gaps when spend is not the issue
• A playbook for persuading CEOs and CFOs using competitive reality
• A practical model for pivoting creative without losing strategic conviction

Richard Parkinson

Chief Brand and Marketing Officer Prudential Financial

FROM BRAND TO DEMAND: HOW ZOOM UNLOCKED THE HIDDEN B2B JOURNEY

The traditional B2B marketing playbook—hyper-focusing on a single primary decision-maker—is officially broken. Today, a staggering 83% of B2B decision-makers conduct self-guided research before they ever speak to sales, and more than 40% of enterprise deals stall completely due to internal misalignment driven by "hidden buyers". If your marketing strategy is only optimizing for the people who click your ads, you are completely missing the silent influencers who actually drive consensus.

In this highly actionable, practitioner-led session, Zoom's Head of Media, Whitney Magnuson, pulls back the curtain on "Zoom Ahead"—the company's largest campaign moment ever. Discover how Zoom boldly expanded its targeting beyond the IT department to capture the entire buying group, taking creative risks—including a mainstream TV spot with comedian Bowen Yang—to influence end-users. More importantly, you will learn the exact mechanics of how Zoom translated that massive upper-funnel brand momentum directly into targeted pipeline demand. Joined by Demandbase's Senior Vice President of Advertising Platform, Al Torres, this session will reveal how Zoom partnered with Demandbase to fundamentally transform its marketing governance. Hear firsthand how Zoom successfully abandoned outdated metrics like the click-through rate to embrace outcome-based optimization using Demandbase's A.I. features like JourneyIQ.

Al Torres

Senior Vice President, Advertising Platform Demandbase

LUNCH SESSION: B2B MEDIA SUCCESS: ACCESS, ATTENTION, & ATTRIBUTION Presented by CAPTIVATE & WALK-IN MEDIA

Explore how Captivate is redefining B2B media by connecting brands with high-value decision-makers in moments of peak attention. Through strategic integration, proprietary insights, and real campaign performance, this session demonstrates how to drive measurable impact across the modern media mix. Discover how premium environments translate attention into action.

Eric van den Heuvel

Managing Director, Media Walk-In Media

BRAND: B2B’s NEW STRATEGIC PILLAR

Without question, brand is in vogue across B2B – with momentum continuing to build. Yet only very rarely is brand elevated to the level of corporate strategic pillar. This is exactly what commercial real estate powerhouse JLL did with the launch of its Strategy 2030 five-year enterprise-wide plan to drive profitable growth, drive toward category leadership, create value for stakeholders and shareholders, and augment its differentiation. At this session, you’ll discover how JLL’s CEO, CMO, and board lifted brand to a place of pivotal importance — a key corporate asset tied to its growth strategy. At a time when differentiation is hard and trust is currency, discover why every B2B enterprise should follow suit.

Siddharth Taparia

Chief Marketing Officer JLL

STRONGER TOGETHER: TURNING SMBS’ SHARED STRUGGLE INTO SHARED GROWTH

Most SMB marketing still focuses on the mechanics of the funnel: campaigns, messaging, and conversion. But in a time of strategic friction and fragmented markets, growth and enterprise advantage may come from a different place: how effectively you help your customers succeed. Emily Ketchen, SVP and CMO of Lenovo’s Intelligent Devices Group and International Markets, shares how Lenovo is evolving its approach through “Backing Every Business,” moving from transactional marketing to a global platform built on partnership, community, and shared value. This session will outline how to turn customers into collaborators, build trust through real and authentic storytelling, and create B2B platforms that deliver long-term impact and resilience—not just short-term results.

Emily Ketchen

SVP and CMO, Intelligent Devices Group and International Markets Lenovo

SILENCE TO SYMPHONY

In this session, Bader Rutter and Courage+, Wisconsin’s first licensed provider of LGBTQ+ youth housing, will share how Bader Rutter applied its Mental Equity^™ approach to help Courage+ overcome overwhelming odds to achieve unprecedented B2B growth. They’ll show how — despite the challenges, including a massive decline in corporate support at the national level — they created powerful market momentum on a minimal budget. They’ll break down the fundamental aspects of Bader Rutter’s Mental Equity approach and how they shifted Courage+ from a demand-based marketing organization that toiled on minimal gains and relative silence to one with national reach and a symphony of support. It’s a powerful story that will leave you both inspired and with practical takeaways for your own B2B marketing challenges.

Ned Brown

Chief Creative Officer Bader Rutter

WHEN BRAND PROMISES PERFORMANCE

Health insurance is one of America's least trusted categories: only 54% of customers trust their insurer (Forrester, 2025). While most brands respond with more plans and premium charts, Kaiser Permanente took a different path. As a challenger to traditional insurers, KP built a new brand platform around a simple idea: Promises. In this session, KP's Eva Heath and Park & Battery leaders Ted Kohnen and Michael Ruby reveal how the national B2B campaign "Keeping Promises" shifted the narrative from policy-speak to proof, showcasing real outcomes and accountability. The campaign lifted top of mind awareness 94%, maintained leads with less media spend, and unified teams around a single growth story.

Audience Takeaways:

• Understand why brand is the most powerful driver of demand efficiency and how a clear platform can make every media dollar work harder.
• Learn how to build a brand platform that becomes the operating system for growth, aligning sales, media, content, and demand generation around one idea.
• Walk away with a practical framework for turning brand into performance, using creativity, proof, and operational truth to multiply both awareness and demand

Eva Heath

Vice President, Commercial Group Growth and Retention Marketing Kaiser Permanente

ANNOUNCING THE BUYER GROUP INDEX: HOW LEADING COMPANIES ARE ORCHESTRATING BUYER GROUPS IN AN AGE OF COMPLEXITY

New research commissioned by the ANA and Pretzl, in collaboration with research expert NewtonX, reveals how B2B buying has fundamentally changed—and what the world's most effective commercial organizations are doing to stay ahead. Drawing on global research and real world examples, this session introduces a new important index (Buyer group Index) and breaks down the best practices that consistently accelerate revenue, speed to market, and overall GTM confidence.

Our new industry benchmark index will be announced, depicting the current state of maturity and effectiveness against best practices. This index will be frequently updated and reported at future ANA events and publications. Attendees will take away a set of practical principles they can apply immediately to improve their own buyer journeys, via their own personalized Buyer Group Index.

The session is co presented with Nalina Athyantha, SVP at ServiceNow, who will share firsthand lessons from transforming their own buyer journey at scale. She will provide inspiration and real-world proof as a senior marketing executive who has led this transformation at scale.

Nalina Athyantha

Senior Vice President ServiceNow

CONFIDENT MARKETER. CONFIDENT BRAND.

In this session you'll learn how to elevate your B2B brand from a line item to a strategic enterprise asset. In partnership with NewtonX, the ANA unveils the findings of the next phase of the Confident B2B Marketer research and uncovers how building measurable brand confidence is critical for marketers who need to win trust from ever-growing decision committees and stakeholders. You will learn the structural drivers and subtle signals that create or destroy confidence, which metrics to track (and which to stop tracking), and how to set an approved bar for brand investment. You'll walk away with practical frameworks for leveraging AI and martech to influence buyer perception, demonstrate ROI, and secure budget.

Sonia David

Vice President, B2B Marketing Practice ANA

CLOSING REMARKS

Co-Hosts: Lisa Maxwell

Vice President, B2B Marketing for Digital Partnerships Mastercard

2026 B2 AWARDS RECEPTION Presented by Walker Sands

B2 AWARDS GALA presented by Quantcast 

Join your hosts for this year's B2 Awards Gala – Defining B2B Marketing Mastery. Experience the event recognizing and celebrating the best in B2B marketing and communications. Judged by industry marketing leaders and Client-Side Top Jury members, the B2 Awards provide a platform for showcasing cutting-edge strategies, creative execution, and measurable success, helping elevate the standards of business marketing globally.

Opening Remarks: Quantcast, sponsor of the B2 Awards Gala and Dinner

MARKETING ROUNDTABLE MEET-UPS

We're offering themed and hosted breakfast discussions on topics including:

• Account-Based Marketing
• B2B
• B2B Data
• Customer Experience
• Channel Ecosystem

Conference attendees will have the option to join a themed table and have breakfast with peers knowledgeable about and interested a similar topic from 7:30am-8am. It will be very informal and allow attendees to connect with other marketers in similar roles. To join a table, simply look towards the front of the breakfast room for the tabletop sign with the breakfast theme you'd like to attend. No need to register in advance, however availability is on a first come basis.

BREAKFAST SESSION: THE DAVID CODE- HOW OUTSPENT B2B BRANDS CAN OUTTHINK, OUTFEEL, AND OUTPERFORM GOLIATHS

Most B2B marketers are outspent, out-shared-of-voice, and fighting battles that feel unfair from the start. In this session, we reveal the David Code — a proven playbook for how outspent brands can outsmart Goliaths through sharper strategy, braver creativity, and media that punches way above its weight. Featuring the Effie Award-winning Okta "It's Possible" campaign: how a brand outspent 29:1 by Microsoft became #1 in unaided identity awareness.

Anca Rhone

Group Strategy Director The MX Group

HOUSEKEEPING REMARKS

Sonia David

Vice President, B2B Marketing Practice ANA

AI IN 2026: STRATEGY, AGENTS, AND THE ARCHITECTURE OF TRUST

An executive briefing on the state of AI, agentic systems, and what marketers need to know right now. Shelly Palmer breaks down the path from today's tools to tomorrow's autonomous workflows, covering how agents actually work, why governance matters more than automation, and how the shift from SEO to answer engines is rewriting the rules of brand visibility. Practical, and hype-free.

Shelly Palmer

Chief Executive Officer The Palmer Group

SEPARATING SIGNAL FROM NOISE IN THE AI SEARCH

Stop defending legacy metrics and start proving your relevance. In this session, we explore how to navigate an evolving landscape where consumer behavior is shifting from a keyword-driven world to a semantic search-driven world.

We'll dive into how historical KPIs and measurement approaches must adapt, moving the conversation from "tracking clicks" to "evaluating intent" through sophisticated new frameworks. You'll learn how to separate signal from noise by deploying recommendations on how to evaluate success in an era where AI-driven synthesis is the new standard.

Join us to learn how to ensure every search interaction is tracked—not just as a rank, but as a primary driver of sustainable, profitable growth in the AI Search era.

Suraj Rajdev

Head of Data, Analytics & Measurement Google

DON’T BOX ME IN: AUTONOMOUS, GOAL-FIRST MARKETING IN A CHANNEL-OBSESSED WORLD

Marketing has a channel obsession problem. TV is for brand, display is for performance, and search is for conversion. But customers do not think in channels, and the best marketing strategies don’t either.

This session makes the case for goal-first advertising, where audience intelligence and autonomous AI decide where and when your message appears, not legacy planning conventions or channel assumptions.

If your media plan reflects how channels used to work more than how your customers actually behave, this one is for you.

Daniel Lee

Vice President, Product Management Quantcast

SYNTHETIC BUYING GROUPS

This session will walk through how JP Morgan Payments adopted a Category Entry Point (CEP) led approach to brand strategy, using synthetic research powered by AI to identify the buying situations that matter most in B2B payments. We'll cover the strategic thinking behind the pivot from product-led messaging to need-state-driven campaigns, how synthetic personas and CEP research informed creative development, and what the team learned bringing this work to market across a complex global organization. The presentation will speak to the broader opportunity for B2B marketers to apply behavioral science frameworks with the help of AI-powered research tools.

Karina Vivas

Executive Director, Global Brand, Creative, and Editorial Payments JP Morgan Chase

MASTERCLASS: FROM MARTECH CHAOS TO B2B GROWTH ENGINE

B2B CMOs face mounting pressure to turn complex martech stacks, long buying cycles, and buying groups into measurable growth. In this session, the ANA and McKinsey unveil the new B2B Martech Playbook, built from fresh global survey insights with CMOs and their teams. You’ll learn what high-performing B2B organizations do differently: how they align CMOs and N-1 leaders, connect martech to sales and pipeline, and use data and AI to orchestrate account-based journeys that actually convert. Walk away with practical plays you can apply immediately to sharpen your martech strategy and elevate marketing’s impact on revenue.

Dean Aragon

Chairman of the ANA Board

MASTERING PURCHASE INTENT FOR B2B BUYING GROUPS

Enterprise B2B marketing has invested heavily in account based marketing, intent data, personalization, and AI driven optimization. Yet many organizations continue to face stalled deals, longer sales cycles, friction between sales and marketing, and difficulty proving marketing's business impact. The issue is not a lack of data or tools, but a lack of clarity around who actually influences and authorizes B2B purchase decisions.

This session reframes the challenge by focusing on the B2B buying group—role based stakeholders who collectively advance, delay, or veto decisions. Buying groups are dynamic, uneven in influence, and rarely visible in full. When they are misunderstood or ignored, alignment breaks down and revenue risk increases, even in mature ABM and intent driven organizations.

The session introduces a new ANA led operational model designed to make buying groups visible, mappable, and measurable. Using all party data to identify likely members, assess roles, influence, and purchase intent, the model enables coordinated action across brand, ABM, and sales. Rather than replacing existing systems, it aligns them around how B2B buying decisions are actually made, offering leaders a clearer path through the complexity and risk that define modern B2B buying.

Archana Basarur

Senior Vice President, Marketing Analytics U.S. Bank

MASTERCLASS: BEHIND THE PROMPT – HOW AI VISIBILITY IS REWRITING THE RULES OF SEARCH

AI is the new shelf, and for B2B, it is moving faster than most marketing organizations realize. Buyers are running discovery, vendor shortlisting, and category education inside ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and AI-powered search before a single form is filled. This session unpacks what is actually happening inside large language models when a B2B buyer asks for a recommendation, what separates the brands winning AI visibility from those quietly losing share, and the organizational moves CMOs need to make in the next two quarters. We will close with a candid fireside on budgets, measurement, and the AI advertising era now forming inside ChatGPT and Google.

Jon Werther

Head of US Business Brandlight Inc.

CLOSING REMARKS

Sonia David

Vice President, B2B Marketing Practice ANA