12 Gartner Marketing Symposium Sessions for Data-Driven Marketers

The annual Gartner Marketing Symposium is right around the corner, and we’re gearing up for three days of innovating, learning, and networking with marketing and technology leaders from all over. This year, the Symposium takes place from April 29 to May 1 in San Diego, attracting more than 1,500 attendees and 40+ exhibitors to its 100+ interactive sessions, workshops, and meetups.

We took a look at the 2019 Gartner Marketing Symposium agenda and put together the following list of sessions we think data-driven marketers should attend. If you’re curious how to use smart consumer data to map the B2B buying journey, get started with multichannel marketing, or influence consumer behavior with personalized messaging, check out these 12 can’t-miss opportunities at the 2019 Gartner Marketing Symposium in San Diego.

If you are looking for the best spots to see outside of the symposium, check out our list of 10 beautiful views.

1. Mapping the B2B Buying Journey

   SUNDAY | 1–2:30 p.m.
   Led by Alex De Fursac Gash, “Mapping the B2B Buying Journey” is an interactive session that will leave you with the knowledge, frameworks, and direction necessary to complete your customer journey map. You’ll also learn how to identify how and where you can apply prescriptive advice and practical support to address common purchasing barriers.

2. The Future of Multichannel Marketing Is…You

   MONDAY | 10:15–11 a.m.
   Noah Elkin shares the secret ingredient to a successful, multichannel marketing strategy: You. Your individual behavior, preferences, and needs help you understand customers wherever they are on their journey. In this session, you’ll learn how to tap into those insights to inform your approach. You’ll also learn the status of insight-driven, multichannel engagement among marketers, as well as how to use your customer data platform (CDP) to activate customer data.

3. They’re Alive! How Consumer Values Bring Customer Data to Life

   MONDAY | 11:15am–12 p.m.
   Customer data without context is difficult—dare we say impossible—to interpret. In this session, Rebecca Kolls will explore what matters most to consumers in the U.S., why consumer values matter, and how understanding consumer values can lead to smarter business decisions.

4. Meetup: Deriving Customer Insight from Data

   MONDAY | 2:15–3 p.m.
   Meetups at the Gartner Marketing Symposium are a chance to network with your peers, develop new relationships, and gain new perspectives. At “Deriving Customer Insight from Data,” you’ll talk about the challenges your team faces within your organization, and share your experience using certain technologies and business practices to get more value from your data.

5. Guest Keynote: Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior

   MONDAY | 4:30–5:30 p.m.
   Dr. Jonah Berger is a professor at the Wharton School of Business. In his keynote presentation, he’ll discuss the subtle influences that drive consumer decisions—from what we buy, to what we eat, to what we wear and the careers we choose. Geared toward HR, sales, and leadership teams, Dr. Berger’s talk will integrate business, psychology, and social science research to help you transform the way you see and interact with your audience.

6. The Truth About Enterprise Marketing Personalization

   MONDAY | 6:30–6:50 p.m.
   Treasure Data Marketing Director Erik Archer Smith is leading “The Truth About Enterprise Marketing Personalization.” He’ll share new research about how enterprises prioritize, budget, and use personalization. He’ll also look at the key challenges to personalization and how a customer data platform (CDP) can maximize personalization results on the channels that matter most to your audience and to your business.

7. 20/20: Up Close and Personal: Winning Strategies, Tactics and Tools for Personalization

   TUESDAY | 8:30–9:15 a.m.
   This co-led session explores how marketers can employ personalization to achieve relevance—without being creepy. Gartner’s Jennifer Polk and McDonald’s Corporate Vice President of Global Media, Bob Rupczynski, share how to use customer insight to build your personalization strategy, scale personalization to yield results with customers, and build a martech stack to execute personalization at scale.

8. Building Your CDP—Customer Data Proficiency

   TUESDAY | 8:30–9:15 a.m.
   You know the power of a strong customer data platform. But even the best platforms can’t deliver ROI without smart strategies and talented people behind the scenes. In “Building Your Customer Data Proficiency,” Benjamin Bloom breaks down how to establish the value of unified customer data (and its limitations), how to re-evaluate your martech stack, and how to increase your team’s customer data proficiency with ease.

9. Meetup: The Martech Stack

   TUESDAY | 10:30–11:15 a.m.
   How do you use martech to meet your organization’s goals? Who in your organization do you need to influence to help achieve those goals? Discuss all-things marketing technology and how to align your martech vision and roadmap with your company’s key objectives for optimal marketing success at Tuesday’s meetup.

10. Understanding Consumer Privacy Demands in the Era of Big Data

    TUESDAY | 11:30–12:15 p.m.
    Savvy marketers address privacy concerns before they become an issue, and in this session, Andrew Marder teaches you how. Learn how to distinguish between privacy and safety, act transparently to build impactful communications with consumers, and how best-in-class organizations maintain consumer trust by effectively managing data.

11. Meetup: Customer Data Platforms

    TUESDAY | 11:30–12:15 p.m.
    Unsurprisingly, we’re looking forward to the “Customer Data Platforms” meetup on Tuesday, where we’ll discuss the rapidly evolving landscape of customer data platform solutions and vendors. Join your peers to exchange resource strategies as well as current and future partnerships.

12. Leveraging First- and Third-Party Data to Avoid Digital Pitfalls

    WEDNESDAY | 10:15–11 a.m.
    What makes a marketing data master? How can marketers measure the ROI of data? On the final day of the Symposium, Michael Froggatt answers these questions while sharing how marketers can take an objective-based approach to the collection and use of first- and third-party customer data. He’ll also share how best-in-class organizations have mastered mapping consumer data to maximum effect, and how your organization can do the same.

See you in San Diego!

The countdown is on. Join Treasure Data (Gartner Marketing Symposium) and more than 40 other exhibitors at the 2019 Gartner Marketing Symposium in San Diego. We’ll be there to learn, network, and share our enterprise Customer Data Platform solution with marketers like you.

And when we are not at the symposium, we’ll be taking in San Diego’s gorgeous views.

Learn more about Gartner CDP research here.