Recalculating:
2026 Conference Schedule
Buckle up because we’re back for year 3! Marketing and communications work is based on a solid foundation, but as we all know the tools and channels keep evolving. Block off the day to learn how to get sh*t done from skilled, local professionals while connecting with those that want to keep growing their skills and rolodex of like-minded, hardworking peers.
8:00 a.m. - 8:55 a.m.
Fuel for the Journey:
Caffeine, Sugar, and Big Intentions
Stop at the registration table to grab your name tag & Roadmap Conference materials. Enjoy some breakfast bites while you get to know your fellow Midwest creative community!
9:00 a.m. - 9:40 a.m.
Opening Keynote
Foundations:
Know Your Starting Point
You can't recalculate a route until you know where you're standing. Your hosts set the foundation for the day: Lee on why buy-in is the ground everything else is built on, Erin on mapping the customer journey that should drive every decision, and Benny on the simple formula for getting started without getting stuck. Leave with your coordinates set — and a reason to stay for the turns ahead.
9:50 a.m. - 10:20 a.m.
Choose Your Own Adventure
How to Win New Business with LinkedIn
You want to grow your business.
But so many of your buyers and decision makers live isolated behind layers of executive assistants, busy schedules, and tight networks of trusted advisors.
So how do you and your team reach them beyond the occasional (and expensive) business conference or golf outing?
That's exactly why LinkedIn is such a useful tool.
This session is specifically for folks whose businesses depend on strong networks and referrals – and want more.
Key Takeaways:
How to know whether LinkedIn makes sense for your business (and what to expect).
The simple system you can use to find ideal clients and generate leads.
The common mistakes that will sink your LinkedIn efforts faster than an iceberg with the Titanic.
What Your Marketing Metrics Should Be Telling You
Most businesses are sitting on more marketing data than they know what to do with and still can't answer the question "is our marketing working?" The problem isn't the data. It's knowing which numbers belong where.
Erin breaks it down with a practical three-part framework: business metrics that belong in the leadership conversation, performance metrics that belong in the channels you're running, and the diagnostic signals that live in a marketer's professional judgment. Your metrics should be telling you something. This session makes sure they do.
Key Takeaways:
A framework for sorting any marketing metric into the right place at the right time.
A customer journey map that shows which metrics belong at which stage of the funnel, supporting revenue and customer growth.
A one-page tool for building a reporting habit that's clear, repeatable, and useful.
10:30 a.m. - 11:10 a.m.
Choose Your Own Adventure
How to Build an Influencer Strategy That Works
Influencer marketing is no longer just about finding someone with a following and paying for a post. The strongest programs start with a clear business goal, the right creator mix and a plan to turn content into measurable impact.
In this session, Catherine Bormann, Vice President at Double Forte, will share how brands can build influencer strategies that drive awareness, trust, traffic, content and real business results.
Key Takeaways:
Learn how to evaluate creators beyond follower count
Structure paid and unpaid partnerships
Maximize content usage and measure what actually matters
Working Session - Update Your Roadmap
Less sitting, more doing. In these hands-on working sessions, you take what you're hearing all day and put it to work on your own plan — pencil to paper (or laptop to lap), with facilitators and peers in the room to pressure-test your thinking. Come with a challenge; leave with a marked-up route for what's next.
11:20 a.m. - 11:50a.m.
Choose Your Own Adventure
Survival Handbook for the Robotic Takeover of SEO
This session will focus on the ever changing strategies of SEO, top of page mentality, your Google Ads presence and what else to prepare for as the ALgorithm changes to the AIgorithm.
With premiums being put on FAQS, blogs, meta descriptions and Google Business Profiles, this return to basics will prepare you for the future and give you quick actions and takeaways to embrace or recover from the change.
Video in Real Life: Storytelling Without the Hollywood Budget
Andrew Fefer, Four Peas Consulting
Everyone says you need video. Almost no one tells you how to actually get it made. Andrew pulls back the curtain on real-world video production:
the storytelling that makes it worth watching
how user-generated content fits in
what it's really like to work with a videographer from first call to final cut.
Leave knowing how to brief, budget, and ship video that earns its keep.
11:50 a.m. - 12:40 p.m.
Lunch Panel Discussion:
My Relationship with AI
When a new player comes to town in a big way, everyone deals with it differently. In this lunch panel discussion, you will hear about AI from the perspectives of a variety of creatives.
How are they using it or not using it in their workflows?
How has your approach to AI stayed the same or changed?
What clients are asking about usage of AI.
12:45 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Stretch Your Creative Muscles!
Build a Campaign Together
Let’s harness the creative power in the room to help the Chippewa Valley
This is where Roadmap stops talking and starts building. Teams roll up their sleeves to build a real campaign for a local nonprofit — planning, brainstorming, and producing a few deliverables on the spot. It's the day's ideas put to work in real time, with the goal of actually launching at least one campaign in the spring.
2:05p.m. - 2:35 p.m.
Choose Your Own Adventure
Local Famous: Influencers, PR, and Getting Noticed in Your Own Backyard
Not every business needs a national creator with a million followers. For local shops, service businesses, and community organizations, the people who actually move customers might be the micro-creator down the street, a trusted local reporter, or your own happy regulars.
Expect Chippewa Valley examples and do-this-Monday tactics for when your market is measured in miles, not millions.
Key Takeaways:
How small businesses and lean teams decide between influencer partnerships and good old-fashioned PR
Find creators who genuinely reach your community, and earn attention without a national-brand budget
Getting to Yes in a Culture of Yea, No, Yea
Most marketing and communications plans don't fail because they're bad ideas. They fail because the people who need to approve them don't understand them, don't see the value, or don't trust the path forward. If you've ever walked into a meeting excited about a campaign, initiative, budget request, or communications plan and walked out with a "let's think about it," this session is for you. We'll look at why leaders say no, what they're worried about, and how to frame your ideas in a way that earns confidence, not confusion.
Key Takeaways:
Connect your recommendations to business goals
Anticipate objections before they surface
Build support long before the final approval meeting.
We'll also cover what happens after you get the green light. The fastest way to lose support for your next great idea is to disappear until the project is over. You'll learn how to report progress, share results, communicate setbacks, and keep leaders informed in ways that build trust and make future approvals easier. Because getting to yes isn't a single meeting. It's a process of earning confidence before, during, and after the work gets done.
2:40 p.m. - 3:10 p.m.
Choose Your Own Adventure
Beyond the Open: Email that Moves People
Email is still one of the most valuable marketing tools we have, but getting someone to open your message is only half the battle. In this session, Amanda Anderson, Director of Marketing at Pablo Center at the Confluence, shares real examples and lessons learned about how her team uses email as part of a larger marketing strategy to drive ticket sales, memberships, donations, and audience engagement. You'll leave with ideas you can put to work in your very next campaign.
Key Takeaways:
Practical ways to write emails people actually want to read
Build a schedule you can realistically maintain, better understand your audience
Focus on the metrics that matter most
Working Session - Update Your Roadmap
Less sitting, more doing. In these hands-on working sessions, you take what you're hearing all day and put it to work on your own plan — pencil to paper (or laptop to lap), with facilitators and peers in the room to pressure-test your thinking. Come with a challenge; leave with a marked-up route for what's next.
3:20 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Panel Discussion + Q&A: Your 2027 Roadmap
Our event hosts will wrap up the day with a discussion of what we see for marketing in the year ahead. What should we focus on? Where do we need to be looking in order to stay competitive in a quickly changing market? We’ll be collecting questions throughout the day and will take some time during this session to answer as many as we can for everyone.
Beverages ‘N Curds
A Truly Midwestern Happy Hour
Unwind with friends new and old while comparing notes about what you learned from the day!
First drink is on us :)