First look at the MarTech 2015 San Francisco agenda…

We’re about 95% complete with the agenda for the next MarTech, taking place in San Francisco this spring, March 31 – April 1. But I’m so excited about how this is shaping up, that I can’t wait any longer to give you a first look at the program.

First, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who responded to our call for speakers. We were blown away by the amazing suggestions that people contributed. It made it incredibly difficult to select the small subset we could fit into a two-day program. We could have easily filled a 5-day agenda, packed with top-notch sessions.

Building upon the themes from the first MarTech, we’re featuring a number of digital marketing and marketing technology leaders who have gone through the process of building out marketing technology capability in their organizations. These are real-world stories of the management of marketing technology, emphasizing people, processes, and organizational structure more than the technology itself.

But this time, we’re also digging deeper into the use of marketing technology to transform customer experience. We’ll feature experienced marketers and subject matter experts on applying marketing automation, web experience management, customer data platforms, and social selling technology to shape state-of-the-art customer journeys — but we’ll also look a little further down the road at how innovations around the Internet of Things are redefining storytelling and greatly expanding marketing’s reach.

Also, since we’ll be in the heart of the venture capital community, which has invested more than $21.8 billion into marketing technology into this sector, we’ll bring in several VC and M&A giants to candidly discuss the major bets that are being placed — and the hottest opportunities ahead.

Of course, as before, we’ll have a number of leading independent analysts — from Forrester, IDC, SiriusDecisions, Raab Associates, and CEB — share their insights on the technology landscape and the patterns of marketing technology management and strategy that they’re seeing across hundreds of organizations.

And we have an absolute killer keynote planned from John Maeda — design partner at KPCB, former president of the Rhode Island School of Design, former professor at MIT and head of research at the pioneering MIT Media Lab, the author of The Laws of Simplicity and Redesigning Leadership, champion of the STEM to STEAM movement, and an artist with work in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

He is an innovator who has blended computer science, art, design, and leadership — an inspiration for marketing technologists thriving at similar intersections — who’s shared his unique perspective with audiences at TED and the World Economic Forum. I am incredibly psyched to have him share his insights with us at MarTech.

We’ll have a lot more to share about these sessions soon — and a few more special guest additions to be announced — but for now, here’s a “sneak peek” of the program:

If this sounds like your kind of conference, I’d encourage you to register now. We’re still in the “alpha” rate period, so this is your chance to get your ticket at the lowest possible price. Since the last MarTech sold out, and we believe this one’s going to be even better, it’s a good idea to reserve your seat early. Hope to see you there!