Marketers Galore at Summer Toast
Hundreds of marketers from across Denver came to City Park to meet, greet and visit the booths at the annual Summer Toast event. They came from law, graphics design, P.R., financial services, research, branding, Web design, engineering and marketing firms, plus hospitals, health insurance companies, banks and hotel marketers. Organizers estimated we got 700+ attendees.
I manned the PM Forum table and was the official Bavarian pretzel vendor. Because I was located across from the Coors beer truck, this proved to be a very popular item. Mark Beese, the Marketing Guy for Holland & Hart, loaned me his firm's toaster over, brought a microwave oven and kept me company. He's a heck of a great guy. I also gave away buglike visor clips that will hold your sunglasses safely on your cap visor or car sun visor.
People were snapped up the copies of the Summer issue of Professional Marketing magazine and wante to know all about the PM Forum. While the pretzels were warming up, I explained that we are unqiue because (a) we are interdiscriplinary, (b) aim our programming at the strategic level and (c) are a global organization. People liked the sound of that and I collected many business cards from marketers who wanted to start a local chapter. In North America, the PM Forum has chapters already in New York, Chicago and Toronto, with two more major cities to open chapters this fall.
As the full moon came up, we all packed up our tables and gear. I gained newfound respect for the people who exhibit on the trade show floors; it's hard work but totally worth it. Denver is a beautiful city, with sudden and frightening lightning storms, followed quickly by warm sunny skies. I'll be on a plane early tomorrlw, but I know I'll definitely be back.
