What Happens When You Bring 50 Seasoned B2B Marketers Under One Roof

The end of the year for most marketing leaders at B2B SaaS companies typically means kick-starting planning for the coming year. How will you effectively leverage your budgets to hit even higher lead goals; build, manage, and scale your team; and conquer the segments you plan to target through the appropriate conversion points for your prospects, customers, and users?
To assist the companies in our portfolio with this planning process, OpenView Labs focused our most recent quarterly workshop on marketing leadership and strategy. In early November, we invited the heads of marketing in our portfolio, along with their peers from the broader B2B SaaS community outside of our portfolio, to our office in Boston for a day-and-a-half workshop covering high-priority marketing topics for expansion-stage companies as they plan for 2015.
Speakers and topics included:

Day 1: Seasoned B2B Marketing Experts and Tips for Your Next Board Meeting

Jeff Whatcott, CEO and Co-Founder at HatchLearn, former CMO at Brightcove, VP Marketing at Acquia, VP Marketing at Adobe
Topic: Scaling a Marketing Team: Lessons from 2 to 40

 

Jeanne Hopkins, SVP & CMO at Continuum Managed IT Services, former EVP & CMO at SmartBear, VP Marketing at HubSpot
Topic: Transforming Your Marketing Mindset

 
 

Dan Slagen, CMO Hourly Nerd, former SVP at Marketing Nanigans, Head of Global Marketing Relations at HubSpot
Topic: Become an Industry-Leading Marketing Team in 12 Months or Less

 
 

Brian Kardon, CMO Lattice Engines, former CMO at Eloqua, CMO at Forrester Research
Topic: Predict Your Next Customer: How Marketers Are Using Account Level Buying Signals to Find the Best Leads

 
 

Jesse Noyes, Senior Director Content Marketing at Kapost, former Managing Editor at Eloqua
Topic: The Rise of Content Marketing Operations
 

 
 
In addition, two members of the OpenView investment team — Blake Bartlett and Mackey Craven — shared their tips on how CMOs can impress board members with their presentation on Anxiety Free Board Meetings: What The Board Wants to Hear From Marketing.


Day 1 wound down with a Portfolio Roundtable and Open Discussion led by Aaron Dun, CMO at Intronis (left) and Andy Jolls, CMO at uSamp (right).

Day 2: Hands-on with SiriusDecisions

Day 2 consisted of hands-on sessions where Heather Loisel, CMO-in-Residence at SiriusDecisions, assisted portfolio companies with implementing frameworks for assessing demand type, conducting marketing planning around campaign themes (not tactics), and how to structure marketing budgets depending on growth stage.
Throughout the workshop, the presenters were top-notch. But when you bring together 50 B2B marketers in the same room, they’re also going to want to network. We made sure to give plenty of time for Q&A during each presenter-led session, a roundtable discussion led by the portfolio at the end of day one, and plenty of time for networking outside of the structured time. The ideas and connections that come out of workshops like these make them can’t-miss events.

Bonus Insights from the Presenters

Couldn’t make it to the workshop? Over the coming weeks you’ll be able to find breakdowns of each session, photos, and videos on the OpenView Labs site. Here are a few examples with more to come:

• Board Meeting Best Practices for CMOs featuring Brian Kardon
• Success Secrets for Incoming CMOs featuring Jeanne Hopkins
• The Biggest Content Marketing Misconception Holding You Back featuring Jesse Noyes
• 12 Rules to Mastering the Art of C0-Marketing featuring Dan Slagen