It’s been a busy couple of weeks at Setup!

In addition to preparing for the upcoming Agency Shootout event with the Atlanta Hawks, we have been hard at work putting together another one of our quarterly breakfasts designed to help senior marketers and specialist agencies connect. 

Last Friday we hosted one of our ever-popular Marketers’ Breakfast events  at the lovely Empire State South. Like our past breakfasts intended to “make some sparks” between brand marketers and agencies, we wanted to provide our connections a chance to expand their network and learn from each other in a low-pressure and interactive networking environment. 

The coffee started flowing at 8:00 AM, as senior marketers from major brands such as Verifone, Coca-Cola, IHG, Accel-KKR, Char-Broil, and others started filing into our private event room.

Sometimes starting the conversation at networking events can be a challenge...

With that in mind, we helped facilitate that initial interaction by asking a simple question:

“What do you do outside of work that helps you think creatively?”

The answers were fantastic! Rosemary Griesmer, VP of Product Marketing for Elavon, taught us about her beekeeping hobby, while Kelly Deen, VP of Marketing for HauteHouse, communicated her passion for wine. Jeff Perkins, CMO of QASymphony, told us about his peloton hobby (which some of us didn’t even know was a thing).

But our events are more than just networking - they’re also about sharing knowledge and expertise! We invited our senior marketing guests to pose any burning questions they had for our specialist agency partners and their respective disciplines. Some examples include:

• What are some low-cost ways to re-engage with an influencer after the initial engagement?

• Which platform has the most coverage on mobile?

• What ad format is the most effective?

• Should brands curate their own influencer communities?

It was another successful Setup event for the books! We received wonderful feedback from our attendees:

• "10/10. Great networking, as always." - Kelly Deen, VP of Marketing - HauteHouse

• "Wonderful. Great environment for networking - made some very helpful connections!" - Rosemary Griesmer, VP of Product Marketing - Elavon

• "It was a casual atmosphere. I felt at ease talking to and meeting people. Setup makes connections easy." - Brian Rudolph, Global Digital Marketing Lead - Verifone

Special thanks to Empire State South for being such gracious hosts, as always. We love putting on these events and are always looking for talented senior brand marketers to add another voice to the discussion. Please contact us for an invite to the next one! We’d love to have you.

The first Agency Shootout brought to you by the Atlanta Hawks and Setup is happening August 17, 2016!