DMA Reshuffles Conference Line-Up
The Direct Marketing Association has made several changes to its 2005 conference line-up, including reformatting its Government Affairs Conference, eliminating net.marketing as a stand-alone event and canceling the Pharmaceutical Marketing Conference entirely.
The Government Affairs Conference will be replaced with “The DMA Issue Days,” a series of one-day forums in Washington, DC that will focus on a specific, emerging regulatory issue. Dates for the forums have not yet been decided. The annual legislative, regulatory and member reception will be hosted separately in conjunction with the DMA Board of Directors meeting in June.
“We believe this one-day guerilla conference format will be more effective and provide more value than reviewing several issues over the course of a multi-day event,” said John A. Greco Jr., DMA president and CEO, in a statement. “By focusing on one issue at a time, when that issue is the most pressing, we can provide a more intensive examination of the challenges being presented.”
Net.marketing’s interactive marketing and technology content will be presented through increased programming at other DMA events such as the Catalog Conference and DM Days New York, according to the association. An interactive marketing pavilion will also be featured at the next DMA Annual Conference in Atlanta next October.
Greco noted that after careful consideration, the DMA decided to hold off on conferences specifically for the pharmaceutical industry. Marketers in that niche might be better served by attending one of the larger DMA conferences, where “they can take advantage of a broader curriculum,” he said.
