It will soon be 10 years since I joined the Club de Dirigentes de Marketing de Madrid (Madrid Marketing Executives Club), now called the Asociación de Marketing de España (Spanish Marketing Association).
Marketing is a discipline I have been hooked on since I discovered it at university, back in 1990. Phew, how long ago that was!
After finishing my Master’s in Marketing in Madrid, one of my lecturers took me along as his guest to one of the Club’s events. It was a presentation by PricewaterhouseCoopers on CRM.
At the end I met the Association’s manager, Marisa Alvarez, its heart and soul, and other interesting professionals. One of them was introduced to me as José Luis de Miele. I greeted him: hi, how are you, do you work in marketing too? He said yes. To my surprise, a few days later I found out that he was the General Manager and CEO.
Incidentally, a few years later he became President of the Association and encouraged me to join the board, which I still belong to.
That is the essence of this association: you deal with your fellow professionals as equals, in an atmosphere that is always very friendly.
It is an association that has been going strong for more than 45 years and is very active, holding monthly lunch debates with top-level figures to discuss current issues, as well as professional workshops, courses, seminars and its flagship event, “La noche del Marketing” (Marketing Night), organised by Más cuota.
It used to be called the Alpha Awards for Excellence in Marketing, but in 2009 it was given a new approach that turned out to be a huge success.
At this event you really could network with the best marketing executives in the country, and that is no exaggeration, since the winning companies that year were Coca-Cola, Audi, Ikea, Metro de Madrid, Mutua Madrileña, Atrápalo and Nespresso.
Awards also went to Ignacio Sala, Marketing Director of Atrápalo, as best marketing director of the year, and to Marcos de Quinto, President of Coca-Cola, for his professional career and for championing the profession.
The jury was also first-rate, with executives from Instituto de Empresa, Telefónica, El Corte Inglés, Esic, Banesto, ICEX, Media Edge:cia, Campofrío, Repsol and others.
So on 21 May 2009, more than 400 marketing professionals gathered at gate 52 of the Santiago Bernabéu stadium for such an interesting occasion, to hear the winning cases and, as the grand finale, enjoy a cocktail party on the pitch.
Cocktail party on the Bernabéu pitch
The Association has not been left behind either and has created a community on XING to keep in touch with its members and people interested in marketing, and to keep spreading and debating the main areas of marketing. I invite you to join the Marketing Professionals Community.
So now you know: if you live and breathe marketing, this is your meeting point.
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