The State of the Art...& Science of IMC at the 2015 Racom IMC Roundtable

Jay Porter, President of Edelman Chicago (far right) with Loyola Attendees of the Racom IMC Roundtable

Marketing faculty and practitioners from the Midwest gathered on May 7-8  at Edelman Chicago Headquarters, for the 13th Annual Racom IMC Roundtable. Steve Kelly, DePaul University, and Susan Jones, Ferris State University have co-directed the event with the support of Rich Hagle of Racom Communications for the past 13 years.  Every year, a topic in Integrated Marketing Communications is highlighted and this year the theme was “The State of the Art… & Science of IMC” where analytics meets creative.

The first day of the program allowed faculty to present original research to their peers. Faculty presentations included:

• Leila Samii, Aurora University
  
• Kasia Firlej, Purdue University, Calumet
  
• Debra Zahay-Blatz, St. Edward University
  
• Jan Owens, Carthage College
  
• Susan Jones, Ferris State University
  
• Don Schultz, Martin Block & Vijay Viswanathan , Northwestern University
  

Following faculty presentations on Thursday, the group adjourned to the MidAmerica Club on the 80th floor of the Aon center for the keynote dinner and presentation. Jay Porter, President of Edelman Chicago, spoke to the group about the state of communications and how Edelman is approaching the digital world with a more integrated approach.  It was a real privilege for the faculty to not only hear from Mr. Porter, but enjoy his company at dinner and cocktail hour in this intimate setting.

The second day of the program, also held at Edelman Chicago Headquarters featured Practitioner presentations.

• Jean McLaren | Behavioral Economics & Social Media President & CMO at MARC USA 
  
• Rahim Poonja | Developing Digital Apps for Commerce (Relay) Head of Strategy, Business Development & Marketing for Local Commerce at Sears Holdings 
  
• Jennifer Chiang | SVP, Director, Strategic Planning at FCB
  
• Jeremy Gold | Programmatic Buying Sr. Director, Audience Sales at Yahoo! 
  
• LUNCH & NETWORKING (Sponsored by Shapiro+Raj) 
  
• Scott Jones | Finding Your Target Audience with Programmatic Senior Product Manager at Maxpoint 
  
• Mark Tack| Mobile wallets will become marketing platforms Vice President, Marketing at Vibes 
  

Hearing presentations from top agencies and brands about a range of analytical and creative topics gave faculty ideas about topics they can bring back to the classroom.

For more information on the program and to read the speakers’ bios, visit here.

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