Better business development in CEE
In November 2003, the CEE centre of the PM Forum welcomed more than 60 professionals from eight different countries, to its first annual CEE Regional Summit. Jeffrey Forbes, CEE Founder and Regional Chairman, reports on this milestone event.
In 1998 the PM Forum held its first meeting in Prague. Six years later we had our first conference. In between these two milestone events, the PM Forum in Prague grew to become the PM Forum in CEE, which is now the oldest, largest and fastest growing PM Forum centre on the continent. So in some ways, this first CEE Regional Summit capped a certain achievement. And in other ways, it was like starting all over again.
Judging from the feedback of those who attended - which was overwhelmingly positive - our first step was a good one. And our success was based on the simple rule that in order to get what you want, you must first decide what it is. And what our members in CEE wanted, was an event which could:
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Raise the profile of marketing professional services in the region.
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Bring together professional marketers to meet colleagues and peers.
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Inspire them with award winning professionals who have risen to the top in their firm.
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Educate them not only through ideas from speakers, but also through the conversations that they will have during the day.
But it's the feedback from the attendees which captures the essence of the event:
"The Summit was an excellent opportunity to meet other professional marketers and get some really valuable ideas and tips that I will definitely use in my work. It was also a very nice atmosphere with excellent organization. Such events are the source of inspiration and this Summit in Prague definitely served this role for me."
Patryk Zamorski, PR & Marketing Manager (Tax & Legal), Deloitte, Poland
"The place and the people were both great. I appreciated the good timing of the presentations and the beautiful evening before the Summit. I'm looking forward to meeting all the professionals again in Warsaw next year. The PM Forum CEE Regional Summit is a nice way to meet knowledgeable and experienced professional marketers in person."
Alena Vranova, Business Development Executive, Portfolio Alfa, Czech Republic
"This pioneering event for professional services marketers in the CEE region provided an excellent platform to meet face-to-face with other counterparts in the region and exchange best practices. Nowadays, when managing partners and marketing professionals are required to closely cooperate in order to address a number of internal and external communication issues, it was a very helpful idea to have MPs on the panel and let them share their views on selected topics with professional marketers."
Marek Geso, Country Marketing Lead, Accenture, Slovakia
"We got to meet interesting people concerned with similar problems. Most professional marketers do not benefit from working in a team; often we are alone in our practice. The PM Forum Summit gave us a chance to share ideas and made us understand our role compared with others. As a result, I now have more contacts that I can go to for advice on difficulties that I am usually debating with only myself."
Helene Hamel, Marketing Director, Deloitte, Romania
"The Summit was useful in creating a platform for an international gathering of people working in the same - otherwise isolated - area of business, in such countries in Europe that do not yet fully understand the significance of this profession. The presentation topics were representative of the main issues that professional marketers need to face up to. Although they did not aim to cover certain areas of sensitivity where little experience and resistance to talking in public were rightly seen as preventing real discussions (even though the Rainmaker's Roundtable Discussion aimed at making up for these)."
Mihaly Varga, Business Development Director, Clifford Chance, Hungary
For details on the 2004 summit in Warsaw
go to: www.pmforum-cee.net/ CEERegionalSummit.asp
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