Future Proof 2025 was the first financial services conference I attended where I wasn’t attending as a sponsor. Instead, I’m seeking a new career opportunity. Different objective. Different pitch. Different value proposition.

Co-marketing, also called partnership marketing, is often pitched to product issuers as an incentive by service providers like index providers, listings venues, or data providers. The offerings can vary dramatically from provider to provider.

Conferences can be a strategic pillar of your business plan. But it’s important that each of the attendees knows their roles for the event and the definition of “success” for both themselves, and for the organization.

Whether it’s content development, an integrated campaign, or an event activation, marketers come to the table looking for consensus on targets, goals, KPIs, formats, etc. This primer will help non-marketers understand the strategic thinking behind those questions to improve collaboration and outcomes.

A simple way to organize basic marketing campaigns.

It’s easy to view the cookie program as just another fundraiser, but it functions more like an early-stage business lab. Goal setting, resource allocation, pricing conversations, customer engagement, and team dynamics all come into play. These are foundational skills that show up later in classrooms, careers, and leadership roles.

As a marketer I hear it all the time.



We’re discussing new content ideas with business partners and subject matter experts, and I ask a simple question: “who is this content primarily intended for?”



Then comes the dreaded answer: “everyone.”



Because the simple truth is that when you try to aim for everything, you’re unlikely to hit anything. (See my full marketing archery analogy.)



Different audiences have different baseline knowledge, different pain points, and use different vocabul

Last month I sat in a ballroom at San Diego Comic-Con for a panel featuring Dean Devlin, the producer of movies like Independence Day and Stargate and TV shows like Leverage and The Librarians. He was asked how the writing team of The Librarians, a show about recovering mysterious artifacts, decides which mythical objects or tales to feature in each episode. He explained that they have a bulletin board full of objects and their backstories. But the episodes are driven by the characters – where