Hi Everyone,
Well who would have thought that a volcano in Iceland would prevent me from speaking at two events in New York City next week.
Flights are delayed at least 4 days. I am stuck in Europe.
More precisely I am stuck in Florence with my sister, which admittedly, is not major suffering as far as travel disasters go.
But the bad news is that I will miss the opportunity to connect in person with two great groups of people.
1. CIO Magazine’s CIO Perspectives
I was going to talk about how CIO’s can increase their relevance and political power, by making changes to the way they engage their business counterparts.
IT can make great strides winning over the CFO and CEO by how they translate IT vocabulary, front-end their help desk and website, present their budget in terms the business wants them to spend money on, and how they get their team executing on the things that are most important to the business.
2. The CMO Club Summit
I was going to talk to CMO’s about how to avoid constantly explaining and defending marketing, and go on the offense to prove how marketing is driving key business agendas.
Marketing can step up strategically by getting their own organization more aligned and executing better, and by communicating about what marketing does in a way that is immediately relevant and valuable to the business stakeholders. Don’t educate about marketing, talk about what THEY want, and get the green light on your plan.
Apologies
So my apologies go out to both audiences and conference organizers. I enjoy these events most for the chance to learn from everyone else that is there.
I hope to participate next time!
And for everyone on the blog. I’ll be back next week with a real post when I can get better internet service that does not cost per minute!
Ciaò
Patty
PS. The photo is grainy because it was dusk (and taken with my phone), not because of volcanic ash! I loved this view of the Duomo lit up at dusk . (Viewed from the rooftop patio of the Grand Hotel Baglioni, while drinking champagne!)
