AGENDA

Effective Marketing Strategies for a Down Economy – A Roundtable/Panel Discussion

Location:

February 19, 2009 at 8am at 1290 Ave of the Americas 6th Floor – the NYC Microsoft office.

Panel Participants:

Eric Rabinowitz – Nurture Institute
The Nurture Institute™ (www.nurtureinstitute.com) is the premier channel marketing and customer relationship marketing company specializing in small and mid-market clients. With plenty of proven direct marketing tools to share, your business can’t afford to miss out on our innovative customer relationship marketing solutions.

Karl Joseph Ufert – Mitra Creative
Mitra Creative (www.biztech.mitracreative.com | www.mitracreative.com) is a New York-based marketing communications and interactive design agency focused on providing solutions to IT business consultancies, VARs, software design and integration companies, and technology manufacturers and distributors. Led by Karl Ufert (formerly Sr. Director of Marketing for AMC Computer Corp.), and Creative Director, Vincent Wang, the company produces forward-thinking Websites and Web 2.0/3.0 and social media platforms, other interactive communications and digital video presentations—all leveraging decades of experience in bringing value to the IT Channel.

Tim Freestone & Dean Maire – enter.marketing
enter:marketing (www.entermarketing.com) is a managed marketing services company that supports the marketing initiatives of Value Added Resellers and Manufacturers in the Information Technology industry.  We execute unique, industry leading programs and approach demand generation as a process, rather than a project – a process that manages and cultivates opportunities from the stage of identifying interest to Return on Investment (ROI).

Howard M. Cohen – HMC Corporate Copywriting & Consulting
IT Channel veteran Howard M. Cohen (www.howardmcohen.com) brings his experience, his expertise, and his tremendous network of friends and resources to every project.  Compelling content is the key to sales & marketing success and Howard’s strong, persuasive writing style translates even the most technical concepts into readily readable copy that your business clients will understand and appreciate.  From white papers to case studies to proposals to web content and much more Howard will most effectively convey your message to your audience.

This roundtable/panel discussion will feature channel-dedicated marketing experts included Nurture Institute, Mitra Creative, HMC Corporate Copywriting & Consulting, and others.  We’ll talk about more effective ways to reach, penetrate, and win business from companies facing today’s economic climate.  Learn what IS working in the channel.

Skills Exchange:

Long overdue, this session offers all attendees the opportunity to tell everyone else about their special, unique, and well-differentiated services and how all of us can make money selling them to our customers.  Looking for new services to sell to your existing account base?  Here’s the place to find them.

Hoping that the many of you who were able to make our New Year Celebration had a great time I look forward to getting back to business with more topical, pertinent, timely, high-value content.  This meeting promises to be a great kickoff to what promises to be a challenging year!

PLEASE RSVP via Reply to Howard M. Cohen (hmc@howardmcohen.com) IMMEDIATELY so we get you on the building security list.  I look forward to seeing you there.

Howard M. Cohen
NYC IAMCP Chapter President
US IAMCP Communications Chair
Corporate & Commercial Copywriting
Web Content – Proposal Development
Business Development and Marketing
15 Spector Lane – Plainview NY 11803
516.965.6431
mailto: hmc@howardmcohen.com

Learn more about my writing at www.howardmcohen.com

I have worked in the High Tech industry for more than a decade in marketing, communications, consulting and business development roles. The most consistent trend that I’ve observed while serving in these positions is the shift in the reseller and integrator environments, in terms of brand equity, mission and sales focus, to the IT business solution.

In the new millennium, small, medium and large business enterprises have de-emphasized the value of purchasing technologies as commodities. Today, vertical end-users and CFO’s are more often final arbiters on technology purchases, forcing reseller channels to retrench their client outreach. This puts critical business issues (CBIs) at the forefront instead of bits, bytes and service cost reductions alone. Solving real business problems, in terms of how a client raises their shareholder value, how they interface with their customers, how they comply with regulations, how they reduce real estate burden costs by virtualizing technologies, etc., gets the power-sponsor to respond and sign a deal.

My current firm, Mitra Creative, supports the marketing needs of a number of reseller, integrator and custom software development company clients. We are building new branding, communications, salesforce automation and digital/print advertising and promotional solutions every day that respond to the needs of high tech companies to sell to business end-users. We will delineate these trends and some of the solutions that Mitra Creative and others have devised to respond to the current requirements of tech marketing and business development in coming entries. Stay tuned!