BMA Monthly Luncheon Seminar

featuring

Heather Clancy CRN

Maria Wynne Microsoft's Enterprise Sector

Randy Schilling Quilogy

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Union League Club | 11 a.m. - 1:45 p.m.
"The Power of Partner Ecosystems:
What's Hot and What's Not"

In today's competitive, multilayered marketplace, should you go it alone or partner up? Can you create a successful channel partner ecosystem like eBay, HP or Microsoft? What are the benefits? What are the risks? How much does it cost? How much can you gain?

If you choose the alliance model, how do you avoid being used? How do you know your marketing marriage is working? Are there guidelines for optimal channel marketing relationships?

Those are just some of the questions our expert panel of channel marketers will answer when the Business Marketing Association convenes on Thursday, Feb. 17, at the Union League Club for its monthly luncheon seminar. This month's topic is "The Power of Partner Ecosystems: What's Hot and What's Not."

Headlining the panel and serving as "channel marketing marriage counselor" is Heather Clancy, editor of CRN. In her 15-plus years as a writer and editor covering technology and marketing, Clancy has seen marketing marriages soar and sour. She'll offer a set of "Tales From the Front" and a suite of guidelines she's gleaned for assuring that a channel partnership is a real "win-win" for both parties. She'll also describe the telltale signals that suggest a channel partnership might be in trouble and heading for the rocks.

Joining Clancy on the podium will be Maria Wynne, business marketing officer for Microsoft's Enterprise Sector here in the Midwest. A clear leader in channel marketing, Microsoft is extraordinarily alliance-friendly. When Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer visited Chicago recently, he said Microsoft has 300 people here and 2,400 business partners in the Midwest. He described relationships with goliaths like Motorola and emerging organizations like Click Commerce. Wynne is in the thick of these important efforts.

Wynne will address the size and shape of Microsoft's marketing efforts in the Central region. She'll talk about how Microsoft works with partners and how Microsoft helps its partners build their own independent brands while fostering loyalty for Microsoft's products. She'll also describe how Microsoft works to mitigate tension from the inevitable conflicts that emerge in partnerships.

Adding spice to this conversation will be Randy Schilling, president and CEO of Quilogy, a leading regional systems integrator and Microsoft Gold-Certified Partner. Quilogy has offices in six Microsoft districts as well as a constellation of partnerships with the Microsoft product development and marketing teams in Redmond, Wash. Through its symbiotic partnership with Microsoft, Quilogy has established itself as an industry leader in delivering emerging-technology solutions to clients in the health care, manufacturing, services and public-sector verticals. The result is a complex business partnership that benefits Microsoft in the early adoption of emerging technologies, and Quilogy as it seeks to grow its client base, revenues and margins.

The program will be co-sponsored by the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals' Chicago/Midwest Chapter.

HOW TO REGISTER

Register and pay online by clicking here or by contacting Paul Lesher at 312-943-8040 or info@bmachicago.org.

Date	Thursday, Feb. 17
Where	Union League Club of Chicago 65 W. Jackson Blvd.
When	11 a.m. to noon, Networking Hour Noon to 1:45 p.m., Luncheon Seminar/Q&A
Cost	$45 for BMA members and guests $65 for nonmembers
Note	Business attire required (e.g., no jeans)

Heather Clancy

CRN Editor Heather Clancy is responsible for building new coverage areas in emerging technologies, extending the newsweekly's reach through special reports such as The Annual Top 25 Executives List and The CRN Hall of Fame, exploring conference opportunities that advocate the IT distribution channel, and building relationships with new readership constituencies.

Clancy has been covering the technology industry for more than 15 years. Industry executives she has interviewed recently include Hewlett-Packard Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina and Cisco Systems President and CEO John Chambers. She has been recognized more than once as a top media influencer for high-tech trade publications and has won writing awards for her weekly opinion column. Clancy began her journalism career on the New York financial desk at United Press International and is a frequent speaker, panelist and moderator. She has also made appearances on CNN, CNBC and was previously a host of "Techknowledge," a business technology TV program.

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Maria Wynne

Maria Wynne is business marketing officer for Microsoft's Enterprise Sector, Midwest. She is responsible for P&L performance of all lines of business and works in conjunction with the sales organization and Microsoft's partners. In this capacity, she is responsible for the execution of strategies that will deliver value to customers and drive revenue across the Midwest Enterprise Sector, which comprises Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

Wynne is a sales and marketing professional with experience in the fields of electronic document management, telecommunications, printing and Internet business development. During her career, Wynne has distinguished herself as a leader of high-performing sales organizations in vice president and general management assignments. As a marketer she is known for having brought creative innovation to such leading companies as Xerox Corp., Ameritech (now known as SBC) and Moore Corp.

She is a graduate of North Central College in Naperville, Ill., and earned her MBA from Northern Illinois University. A Californian by birth, Wynne was raised in Latin America, where her family originates. She is active in the community and is a member of the board of trustees of The Goodman Theatre in Chicago.

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Randy Schilling

Randy Schilling is president, CEO and founder of Quilogy, headquartered in St. Charles, Mo. Schilling founded Quilogy in 1992 under the name Solutech Inc. with a personal investment of $5,000. Under Schilling's leadership, the company has grown to 14 U.S. offices focused on health care, manufacturing services and public-sector clients. Quilogy is a project-centric, regional systems integrator whose mission is to empower clients to solve complex business problems through the innovative use of emerging technologies and outsourcing solutions.

Prior to founding Quilogy, Schilling spent two years in the St. Louis office of the management consulting firm Grant Thornton as a senior IT consultant, expanding Grant Thornton's services to include client-server consulting and technical training. His experience there helped him develop the vision for the company that became Quilogy.

Schilling earned a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Missouri in Columbia in 1985 and an MBA from the University of Illinois in Springfield in 1989.

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February Breakfast Roundtable

"The Art of Email 2005: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities in B-to-B"

Ready or not, 2005 is here! What are the must-know trends in order to remain, or to become, a successful email marketer? What changes should you begin preparing for now?

Flexible mailing frequency, event-driven messages and the growing importance of the "from" line are among the trends in email marketing of which practitioners should be aware. Above all, in 2005 we will see the final and well-deserved demise of batch-and-blast e-mailing, and to some extent a move away from large-batch segmentation.

Come to this unique session at an interesting venue, the Aldo Castillo Gallery, 233 W. Huron, Chicago, on Tuesday, Feb. 15, from 8 to 10 a.m. BMAIL sponsor ExactTarget will provide an overview of metrics culled from more than 2,000 email campaigns launched in 2004 and deliverability issues of particular importance to b-to-b marketers. We'll discuss future trends as well as solutions and best practices for using email effectively today. Attendees are encouraged to send a sample email to Frieda Hernandez prior to the session, and whitepapers will be available for distribution.

Cost is $15 per person. Register online or call Paul Lesher, BMA executive director, at 312-943-8040. Roundtables are for BMA members only, but guests may register and attend on a onetime trial basis.

Date	Tuesday, Feb. 15
Where	The Aldo Castillo Gallery, 233 W. Huron
When	8 to 10 a.m.
Cost	$15 per person
Note	Business attire required (e.g., no jeans)

Coming Up

Beginning in March, BMA will launch a Breakfast Roundtable Series on Search Engine Marketing.

The first session, "Types of Search Marketing: What Matters Most to the B2B Marketer," will be held March 9 at Smurfit-Stone Container Corp., 150 N. Michigan. This first session will include an in-depth analysis and a side-by-side comparison of the different types of search-engine marketing available to the b-to-b marketer (such as paid search, SEO, local, contextual, shopping comparison, etc.). Analysis will include what the search types are, how they work and how they are all related and/or different from one another.

Session two, "Search Marketing Technology Tools and Metrics That Matter," will be held April 13 at Resolution Media, 325 W. Huron. This session will help the search-engine marketer understand which search technologies are available, how they are used to attack and understand the metrics behind search marketing campaigns, as well as how the technologies (through tools like automated bid management, ROI tracking and competitive bid gathering) can maximize the return on search investment.

The third session, "Strategies, Tips and Best Practices for Achieving Search Marketing Success," will be held May 11, again at Resolution Media. This final session will dive deep beneath the surface of search-engine marketing to uncover a variety of strategies that can be deployed to reach financial success. Topics will include: integration of marketing strategy, the SEO and PPC balance, test and rollout plans, lead generation vs. sales, supporting your event marketing and much more.

January Luncheon Seminar Report

Advance Preparations Enable Quick Responses
By Michele White, principal, Work In Motion

Talk. Talk! Say something. And say it sooner rather than later.

That's the advice of the three "archetypes" that BMA board member and panel moderator Michael Krauss recruited for the BMA Chicago January luncheon, "How to Succeed in a Communications Crisis From Three Perspectives: The Client, the Advisor, the Media."

Krauss, who is managing principal of the Market Strategy Group and a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, began the discussion by asking the panelists what they do "when the phone rings."

Representing the client side, Don Kirchoffner, vice president of corporate communications at Exelon Corporation, says he tells the truth and fast. He stressed "speed over everything, even accuracy." He has templates, processes and procedures in place so he can respond when the tempo increases. "I want to set the agenda," he explained.

As the business editor of the Chicago Sun-Times, Dan Miller said his concern is getting access to the sources. If a company facing a crisis doesn't provide access to sources, "junk science" will fill the resulting void. The public wants to know and the media need to respond with whatever information is available.

While people in an organization that's in a communications crisis often rally around a shared goal—namely, "make it stop"—that's not productive. Karen Doyne, managing director of crisis and issues management at Burson-Marsteller, explained that people need to be prepared to be able to say: "Here's what we know, here's what we don't know and here's how we feel about it."

Kirchoffner described several situations in which saying, "We screwed up and it won't happen again," was what helped Exelon keep its good name. The ability and willingness to say "we messed up" requires working closely with the law department.

While the lawyers' goal, universally, is to say as little as possible, Doyne emphasized that, "bottom line—there is always something you can say." You aren't necessarily saying you are liable.

A situation becomes a crisis when events start moving faster than you can keep up with them and the organization loses control of its own destiny. Unfortunately, because of the adrenaline required, companies often reward crisis management over the comparatively dull routine of day-to-day issues management. But it's the advance planning in procedures, messages and protocol that allows organizations to talk and talk fast when a crisis occurs. So, prepare!

2004-05 Board of Directors