2025 Conference Schedule
Thursday, October 9, 2025
What’s New This Year?
We heard your feedback to offer more content, so we’ve delivered! This year, you’ll notice we have two tracks to choose from for some of the time slots. Unfortunately, that means you’ll hit a fork in the road and have to choose. Remedy this by bringing a buddy to divide-and-conquer, OR check out the digital content after the conference so you don’t miss a thing!
8:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.
Fuel for the Journey:
Caffeine, Sugar, and Big Intentions
Stop at the registration table to grab your name tag, Roadmap Conference materials, and a light breakfast!
9:00 a.m. - 9:40 a.m.
Opening Keynote:
From Boring to Bombshell:
Transform Your Marketing Plan From Predictable to Powerful
Your marketing plan doesn't have to be boring to be effective. In fact, the most successful campaigns start with rock-solid fundamentals that create the perfect foundation for breakthrough creativity.
Comms Guru Maggie Zeman reveals how to build marketing plans that do what most can't: align your team, inspire bold action, and deliver measurable results. You'll discover the strategic framework that turns conventional planning inside out while keeping the structure you need to execute flawlessly.
What You'll Learn:
Strategic Foundation Building: Master the fundamentals that make creative risks possible
Dynamic Planning Methods: Transform rigid templates into flexible roadmaps that adapt as opportunities arise
Team Alignment Tactics: Get everyone rowing in the same direction without stifling innovation
Creative Integration: Layer breakthrough thinking into structured processes that actually get implemented
Perfect For:
Marketing leaders managing lean teams who need maximum impact
Growing companies scaling their marketing without losing agility
Anyone tired of plans that look great on paper but fail in execution
Stop settling for marketing plans that end up forgotten in folders. Learn to build the strategic backbone that supports your most ambitious creative work—and watch your results soar.
The result? Plans that don't just organize your work—they amplify it.
9:50 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
Choose Your Own Adventure
Click Smart Not Scared: Smart AI Moves for Cyber-Aware Marketers
In today's rapidly evolving landscape, artificial intelligence (AI) has become integral to various industries, driving innovation and efficiency. However, as businesses adopt AI, safeguarding data becomes paramount.
In this session, we will explore the current state of AI, discuss how Coulee Tech's using AI, and provide insights for protecting your business's data in this AI-centric era.
Key Takeaways:
Current AI Landscape: Understand AI's role in modern business and associated risks.
Coulee Tech's AI Integration: Learn how we incorporate AI in our business.
Data Protection Strategies: Implement measures to secure data when adopting AI.
Supercharge Your Brand
Your brand is the heartbeat of how you show up in the world. In this session, you’ll uncover the true essence of your brand and learn how to amplify it with purpose and power. Whether you're growing a business or building your reputation, we'll explore how to align your messaging, presence, and content to create deeper connection and greater impact.
Through real-world examples and practical tools, you'll walk away ready to tell your story with confidence and stand out in a crowded market.
Key Takeaways:
Break through the noise with messaging that connects emotionally and authentically
Harness your brand voice to show up consistently and powerfully across every platform
Build trust and resonance by aligning your story with your values
Tap into your inner spark to fuel your brand with energy, clarity, and courage
11:00 a.m. - 11:40 a.m.
Choose Your Own Adventure
I’m Talking Here:
How to Communicate Your Ideas to Leadership
In this session, communication coach Jason Jones distills his Adaptive Conversations method to show you how to present ideas to senior leaders as peers, not petitioners—surfacing the business stakes they care about, framing proposals in their language, and guiding the dialogue so they see marketing opportunities the way you do. You’ll leave with a concise messaging template and follow-up rhythm that transform executive head-nods into green-lit action.
Not Sucking on Social Media: A Case Study
Has your social media turned you into a robot? As obnoxious as a world of hashtags, hot takes, and humblebrags can be, standing out on social media—without going off-brand or overboard or letting AI turn you into robot—is more important than ever.
This fast-paced, smartly irreverent session unpacks the biggest missteps people and organizations make online—and how to avoid them. From tone-deaf posts and generic replies to inconsistency and crisis flubs, you'll learn how to craft an authentic, engaging presence that builds trust, boosts visibility, and doesn’t make people hit unfollow, all without having to be a full-on influencer.
12:00 p.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Lunch Pit Stop
As professionals in marketing, communications, and creative fields we know that talking to people is a must, especially if you’re also in a sales role. Knowing how to start up conversations with strangers is a skill that can be developed.
During lunch, sit with someone you’ve just met. Here are a few conversation starters if you’re struggling to find something to talk about:
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Listen first, and then come up with some follow up questions. Need some help? Here are a couple:
What was your favorite part?
What really challenged you?
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Listen first, and then come up with some follow up questions. Need some help? Here are a couple:
How will you go about doing that?
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Listen first, and then come up with follow up questions. Need help? Here are a couple:
What was that like?
How do you do that?
Where are your favorite places to do that?
12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Detour!
The Power of a Bad Idea
Harness the power of negative thinking to improve your marketing approach.
You'll learn the step-by-step process to empower your inner naysayer to (paradoxically) improve your product or service. You might not think it's possible to make things better by making them worse, but give me 75 minutes and I'll show you how. (And don't worry. You will have a BLAST doing it!) It's interactive, fun, and even involves using AI to help write a commercial.
2:30 p.m. - 3:10 p.m.
Choose Your Own Adventure
Mom + Dad Are Fighting: Exploring Sales and Service Marketing Synergies
As the lines between sales and service continue to blur, there are immense opportunities to create a seamless and impactful client experience that drives acquisition and retention.
This presentation will dive into the importance of aligning these two critical areas of marketing and how doing so can lead to measurable success in your businesses.
Coming out of this session, you’ll be better equipped to align sales and service—diagnose gaps, launch quick-win fixes, modernize your CRM for seamless data flow, and hold monthly reviews to refine results. You’ll leave with a simple, repeatable roadmap that fuels growth and elevates the customer experience.
Think Like Your Audience: Keeping It Real in the Age of AI
In this session, we’ll shift into your audience’s point of view, unpack why certain content resonates, and help you decide when it makes sense to use AI, and when your own voice should steer the message. You’ll leave knowing how to spot the right moments to deploy AI and keep every page or post firmly focused on what your visitors need next.
3:20 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Panel Discussion + Q&A: Your 2026 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.
Beer ‘N Curds
A Truly Midwestern Happy Hour
Stick around for a live podcast episode with a local business!
We’ll open up the bar and bring in some snacks. Hang out, wind down, and reflect on the day over a local brew, cocktail, or mocktail.
BONUS: We’ll be recording a podcast episode with a local business during happy hour, so stick around to get behind-the-scenes of podcast production, and be part of the magic!