Be in the Room Where Marketing Happens in Atlanta

On July 1, 2026, I began my term as president of AMA Atlanta with one clear goal: to help make AMA Atlanta the room where marketing happens in Atlanta. More than that, I want this to be the year Atlanta marketers reinvent themselves together.

That idea has been on my mind for months because it captures what I believe this organization can be at its best. AMA Atlanta can be more than a calendar of events, a membership organization, or a professional association. It can be the place where Atlanta’s marketing community comes together with more consistency, more intention, and more impact.

That matters because marketing is changing quickly. New tools, shifting expectations, tighter budgets, evolving customer behavior, and new ways of working are forcing marketers at every level to rethink how they lead, learn, create, connect, and grow. Reinvention is no longer something that happens every few years. It is becoming part of the work itself.

Atlanta has an extraordinary marketing ecosystem. We have global brands, growing companies, ambitious agencies, independent consultants, platforms, creators, academics, students, and emerging leaders all doing meaningful work. Too often, those groups operate in separate pockets. Brand leaders are in one room. Agencies are in another. Students are trying to figure out how to break in. Senior executives may know each other, while younger marketers may not know where to start.

AMA Atlanta has an opportunity to bring more of those people into the same room, with purpose. And when the right people are in the same room, reinvention becomes less lonely, more practical, and far more powerful.

For roughly 15 years, AMA Atlanta has been one of the places where I have seen that kind of connection happen. It has been a thread through my career, a place where I have met friends, clients, collaborators, mentors, and champions. Founding Setup deepened that belief. My work has centered on connecting marketers, agencies, and companies in more meaningful ways. Setup connects brands and agencies. AMA Atlanta has the opportunity to connect an entire marketing ecosystem.

That is why this year matters to me.

We saw a glimpse of what is possible with the first Atlanta Integrated Marketing Summit. AIMS started with a simple idea: bring senior marketers, agency leaders, and marketing partners into one room for a more useful conversation about where the industry is going. Watching that room come together reinforced something I already believed: Atlanta does not lack marketing talent, leadership, or ambition. Sometimes we just need better ways to bring people together.

My hope is that AMA Atlanta becomes the hub for marketing in Atlanta. Not in a self-important way. In a useful way. In a way that makes people say, “That is where I go to learn what is happening. That is where I meet people I would not have met otherwise. That is where I sharpen my thinking. That is where I find opportunities. That is where I can contribute. That is where I reinvent myself alongside other people who are doing the same.”

To help us get there, I am focusing my presidency around four priorities:

1. Build a more inclusive room

AMA Atlanta should be a place for the full marketing community: brand-side marketers, agencies, independents, platforms, academics, students, creators, and service providers. Reinvention requires a wider range of perspectives, not the same conversations with the same people. Inclusion is not just about who gets invited. It is about who feels welcome upon arrival, who feels comfortable joining the conversation, and who sees a future for themselves in the room.

2. Create a rhythm people can count on.

Marketers are busy. Everyone is stretched. If someone leaves their desk, fights traffic, pays for a ticket, and gives us their time, the experience needs to matter. I want AMA Atlanta to have a predictable cadence of programming that feels current, thoughtful, and worth showing up for. The goal is not just to talk about change. It is to help people adapt to it.

3. Bring more top Atlanta brands into the community. 

This is not about making AMA Atlanta feel exclusive. It is the opposite. When more major brands participate as speakers, sponsors, hosts, mentors, group members, and active contributors, the whole ecosystem benefits. The programming gets stronger. Students get more access. Members get more value. Agencies and partners get more meaningful connection points. Everyone gets a clearer view of how marketing is evolving inside the companies shaping our city.

4. Give back with more intention. 

Students and emerging marketers need more than encouragement. They need access, mentorship, scholarships, introductions, internships, career guidance, and people who are willing to open doors. AMA Atlanta can be a bridge between students and the profession. We can help people see a future in marketing before they have their own network.

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That last point matters deeply to me because I know how much a single introduction can change a person’s trajectory. I have built much of my career around connecting people, and I have seen again and again that opportunity often starts with someone saying, “You should meet.”

AMA Atlanta can be that connector at scale.

It can connect a student to a mentor. A young marketer to a first opportunity. A brand leader to a peer. A company to a speaker. A volunteer to a leadership path. A sponsor to a mission that matters. A person new to Atlanta to a community that makes the city feel like home. It can also connect marketers to the ideas, people, and confidence they need to reinvent what comes next for themselves.

Of course, none of this happens because one person has a vision. It happens because a board, volunteers, members, sponsors, partners, past presidents, and the broader community decide to build it together. My job is not to be the center of it. My job is to help set the direction, remove obstacles, keep people connected, and ensure the energy translates into action.

I also want to honor the leaders who came before me. No one really owns a role like this. You hold it for a season. You try to leave the organization stronger than you found it. Then you pass it to the next person. I am grateful to the past presidents, board members, volunteers, sponsors, and community leaders who built the foundation I now get to stand on.

After roughly 15 years with AMA Atlanta, I have received far more from this community than I could ever give back in one presidential term. But I am going to try. I want this year to feel focused, warm, ambitious, and deeply useful to the larger marketing community in Atlanta.

We are not just trying to grow an organization. We are trying to strengthen a community. When marketers are more connected, the work gets better. Careers grow. Companies benefit. Students find paths. Agencies and brands form better partnerships. People feel less isolated. Atlanta becomes more visible as the marketing powerhouse it already is.

And this year, I want AMA Atlanta to help marketers do something even bigger: reinvent themselves in the company of a community that believes in their next chapter.

If you are a marketer, agency leader, student, sponsor, speaker, mentor, volunteer, or brand leader in Atlanta, this is the year to get involved. Attend an event. Bring someone with you. Raise your hand to volunteer. Sponsor something meaningful. Mentor someone coming up behind you. Come ready to learn, contribute, and rethink what is possible. Help us build the room where marketing happens in Atlanta.

I believe in this organization.

I believe in Atlanta.

I believe in the people who make up this marketing community.

It is now my honor to help lead AMA Atlanta into its next chapter.

Let’s be in the room where marketing happens in Atlanta. And let’s make this the year Atlanta marketers reinvent themselves together.

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This blog was written by Joe Koufman, Founder + CEO of Setup. Joe is the connector behind Setup. He leads the company’s vision, relationships, and broader marketing community strategy, helping brands find better-fit agency partners and cut through the noise of the agency search process. With decades of business development and marketing leadership experience across small, independent, and holding-company agency environments, Joe believes better marketing relationships start with better connections. He is also the author of The Connector’s Compass.