The National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria, NIMN is set to hold its Annual Marketing Conference and AGM on the 16th and 17th of June 2022. The event which will be a hybrid conference is themed: “Driving Business Sustainability in the Age of Data and Tech” and will be held at the prestigious Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.
President of the institute, Mr. Idorenyen Enang made this disclosure at a town hall meeting held virtually to intimate members of the achievements of the institute in the first quarter of the year 2022 as well as plans to foster inclusiveness and growth of the Institute.
According to him, the Institute has made tremendous progress in facilitating mutually beneficial relationships with other professional institutes which will be further aided by the recent signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, APCON.
He said: “The signing of the MOU between APCON and NIMN provides a great opportunity for us to have some form of cross-pollination, not just of membership but in terms of capabilities. As you all know, there is always that running battle between advertising and marketing. What I say to people is that marketing is business and business is marketing. All the various associations and specialist bodies we have whether as advertisers, advertising experiential marketing, media, etc., are strands of the big picture which is marketing. And so, we have actually started that opportunistic dimension and this is the first step”.
Commenting on the marketing conference and AGM billed to hold on the 16th and 17th respectively, he noted that preparations are in top gear adding that the newly inducted fellows of the institute will be formally introduced to members of the Institute at the event.
“At the annual marketing conference, we will present the fellows to you. We decided to change the modus operandi, not by absolute design but it was just as a way to create some form of newness in the way we go about things. What I mean is that all our inductions were done virtually including that of the fellows. That didn’t take an easy ride but every fellow that was inducted was excited about the fact that we had to not just hold the ceremony virtually, we threw in a different dimension where we will be visiting every fellow to decorate them in their places of abode or work. In June, they will all be presented to the August gathering of marketing professionals and the community at large as our fellows”, he said
On her part, Mrs. Chioma Afe, Chairman of the planning committee disclosed that the hybrid event is in line with the council’s mandate to encourage inclusivity.
“We are coming out of the two years of the pandemic; one where we were fully on lockdown and the other where we were partially (on lockdown). We recognize that there are still a lot of people working from home and we understand that there are people who are pan Nigeria, who will not be able to physically make it to the event in Lagos. So, we are planning and proposing a hybrid event with an online Livestream for participants to log in across the country”
“Mr. President has spoken around the focus of the Council in the next year which started last year, around inclusiveness and that inclusiveness for us means that we should be inclusive across various locations. We need to look at the segment of members and non-members, corporate partners, marketing associations and so we need to be inclusive in terms of age and sector” she added.
According to her, the event is designed to inspire disruptive and innovative ideas as intellectually sound professionals have been selected to lead the various speaking sessions of the event.
