Key insights to digital marketing CIM Future Marketers Conference on 26 March

The CIM Future Marketers Conference, an initiative of the Student Committee of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Sri Lanka Region, is scheduled to be held on 26 March 2013 at the Grand Ballroom of the Galadari Hotel, Colombo from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

This year’s student conference will bring together four renowned corporate leaders with impressive experience and inspiring stories to educate aspiring marketers on what digitisation is and how marketer’s should develop themselves to be successful in today’s fast paced world. The full day event will include speeches and presentations by esteemed leaders of the marketing community, followed by a question-and-answer session and panel discussion.

Madu Ratnayake, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Virtusa Corporation, Rohan Jayaweera, Country Consultant of Google Sri Lanka, Dr. Peter Lovelock, Director of TRPC Singapore and Wellington Perera, Director, Developer Platform Evangelism of Microsoft Sri Lanka, will be the speakers at the event.

Irfan Ahamed, Chief Marketing Officer of Digital Commerce Lanka, Lewie Diasz, Chief Manager, Consumer Finance of Nations Trust Bank and Senior Lecturer at Strategy College, Failan Saleem, General Manager BPO of Mobitel Sri Lanka and Director/Senior Lecturer at The Knowledge Factory, G.S. Sylvester, Marketing Director of Pan Audio and Senior Lecturer at the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing and Michael Ranasinghe, Director/Senior Lecturer at Synergy School of Marketing will be the panel.

Each speaker will take the audience through demanding topics.

Ratnayake will speak on ‘The effect on digitisation on an organisation’s ecosystem’. Jayaweera will speak on ‘Digitisation is not just Facebook or Twitter’ and provide the audience with an in depth understanding into social media. He will share real life examples of how various brands have used social media to contribute towards their achievements and downfalls.  

Lovelock will take the audience through his insights on ‘Change in consumer behaviour due to the use of digital media’ whilst depicting how consumer behaviour has changed over the years. Talking on a more in depth note, Wellington will take the audience through ‘Innovations and concepts within the digital space – their impact on a brand/organisation’ and share the top innovations and their impact on people’s day to day lives.

The conference will be taken up a notch with a panel discussion on ‘Digital marketing and its fit in the syllabus of CIM’, with an emphasis on how CIM as a qualification is adapting to emerging trends, and this one-on-one discussion will be moderated by Rohan Jayaweera.  

This is the second consecutive year that this conference will be taking place and is also one of the flagship events of CIM Sri Lanka Region. This initiative has positioned CIM Sri Lanka Region on the global map as the first and only region to organise an annual student conference for CIM, aiming CIM students. The CIM Sri Lanka Region also takes pride in uniquely positioning their Student Committee to be the first and only CIM Student Committee formed globally under the CIM umbrella, thus far.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) UK is the world’s largest professional body for marketing, represented locally by the CIM Sri Lanka Region. CIM Sri Lanka strives to support and elevate the marketing community of Sri Lanka through education, training and development, and to drive recognition of the profession.

The Student Committee of CIM Sri Lanka Region comprises 17 driven individuals who are students and practitioners of the marketing profession. Together, they have formulated and carried out successful events such as the CIM Centenary Walk and Food Fiesta, which brought together hundreds of marketing students and professionals to commemorate CIM’s 100th anniversary, the very first Future Marketer’s Conference in 2012 and CIM Bowl-Out, a post-exam bowling competition with big prizes.

Former Sri Lanka cricket captain Kumar Sangakkara, endorsing the CIM student conference, stated: “Technology keeps evolving and we all need to keep pace. While you and I may be forgiven for thinking that digital media is just Facebook or Twitter, we need to think again. Social media is just a fraction of what digital media is all about. I am no tech guru, but the expert speakers on board at CIM Futures Marketers Conference will reveal what digital media is all about and the impact it has on us. So I invite you all to join this forum to find out what digitisation is all about.”

Tickets for the Future Marketers Conference are selling at Rs. 3,500 with a special discounted price of Rs. 2,000 for CIM students. To purchase tickets, please visit the CIM Sri Lanka Regional Office at 20, Deal Place A, Colombo 3 or any accredited CIM study centre. For details and reservations, please contact Sukitha (Project Chair) on 0714238488, Shehara (Secretary, Student Committee) on 0777895957 or CIM Sri Lanka Region on 2564860.