Photo (above): Vernon Ross facilitates interview with Christina Costello, Chief of Staff and Director of Strategy of Anheuser-Busch
The Midwest Digital Marketing Conference goes virtual April 26-29, 2021
The concept of a conference dedicated to the State of Digital Media Marketing was born at the campus of the University of Missouri – St. Louis in 2013 under the leadership of Perry Drake PhD. That first event featured prominent speakers (mostly via Google Hangouts) at the J.C. Penney Conference Center at UMSL. The conference grew to a full-day event. The exhibit hall and keynote were packed in just two years. The event took over St. Louis Union Station almost doubling capacity/attendance. The event grew as it became a regional event, rebranded - The Midwest Digital Marketing Conference or MDMC.
MDMC is now the largest digital marketing conference in the Midwest. Attendance records of nearly 2,000 have come to see speakers including the likes of BuzzFeed, Pandora, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Refinery29, Pinterest, GoDaddy, Under Armour, LinkedIn, HubSpot, Google, Yahoo and Nielsen. MDMC features sessions across tracks such as: Data, Digital, Social Media, Creative, E-commerce, Innovation, Academic/Student, Tech and Entrepreneurial.
The Global Pandemic forced MDMC to pivot a bit from its plans in April 2020 and in 2021 but managed to rise to the challenges. The MDMC mission to engage, inform and expand conversation, access the latest trends, and facilitate opportunities in digital and social media marketing/communications via top tier marketing practitioners and academics continues. MDMC is inclusive and equitable at its core. As a production of a public university, it is an opportunity to anyone seeking knowledge. 100% of all net proceeds from MDMC go back to the university in the form such as marketing scholarships, faculty research support, and software. I was honored to be among VIP guests on April 27 at Outreach Studios where Vernon Ross facilitated video Q&A with Anheuser-Busch strategy lead and a peak behind the scene at The St. Louis Aquarium. The MDMC franchise lives on.
