Editor’s Note: See Questex CEO Paul Miller and Group President John Siefert talking about creating a new chapter for events and digital at the 2019 Business Information & Media Summit, Nov. 12 in Hollywood, FL.

At the recent ASAE 2018 Great Ideas Conference, Michael Cavanaugh, CEO of the American Animal Hospital Association, and his co-presenter Sarah Michel of Velvet Chainsaw Consulting, discussed the work they've been doing to reinvent AAHA's annual conference.

Customer experience is certainly not a new thing. Back in 1997, Steve Jobs said this to a large audience:

“My job is making sure the customer is at the heart of everything we’re doing across all our initiatives,” Robyn Duda, VP of brand strategy & experience design for event-giant UBM, told us Monday on Day 1 of SIIA’s Business Information & Media Summit (BIMS) here in warm and friendly Fort Lauderdale, where winds of change swirled outside and in. That means focusing on instant gratification, Duda said. “It’s the biggest disruptor we have in business now, especially in B2B.” After describing her own such coming-out party with House of Cards—“The next one starts automatically in 20 seconds! I watched every episode in a week.”—Duda said, “that’s the expectation of society now. ‘I want it now. I can do it now. I can watch it now. I can eat it now.’ That has been B2C but it has transformed to the B2B side too now.” In this cruise-ship driven locale, a few themes clearly floated to ...

Connectiv’s Executive Summit (May 3-May 4 in Chicago) will dive into the new B2B media customer experience, featuring perspectives from a cross-section of digital content experts (Joe Territo, recent chief content officer of Penton and David Longobardi, chief content officer and executive vice president at Source Media), executives (Meg Hargraves, COO and senior vice president at CQ Roll Call) and events (Dan Hoffend, president of FreemanXP).

A T.S. Eliot quote in a business story will usually capture my attention. Thus, an article titled 7 Keys to Customer Experience Happiness by Simon Fraser—senior director of customer success, EMEA—caught my eye. "T.S. Eliot wrote 'the journey not the arrival matters,' and this is as true in [the customer experience] as it is often in life," he wrote. "Think about the thrill of anticipation in planning a holiday, for example."

Today the SSD community gathered to discover how to build a desired customer experience. While many companies have taken steps to define a remarkable and differentiated journey for their customers, significant gaps often exist between the “as-is” and “to-be” experience.  John Zuk, a Principal with Waterstone Management Group, discussed some of the pitfalls that companies face when building the structure and capabilities needed to deliver their desired customer experience as well as accelerators that can help deliver results more quickly.

SIIA’s Executive Spotlight Series provides a look into some of the most successful executives in our industry. Hear how many of them got to where they are today, what is shaping their businesses and the industry today, and special advice they would give to others trying to grow a successful company. I recently sat down with Dhaval Moogimane, Partner at Waterstone Management Group. Dhaval brings over 18 years of business management and consulting experience that blends business strategy development, operations, and IT. Rajiv spent 10 years with PwC and KPMG (now BearingPoint) in senior practice management roles. Prior He brings in-depth expertise in the enterprise software, information services, technology device, and professional services industry. He specializes in helping technology companies capitalize on emerging trends, drive growth, and transform from a product-led to solutions-centric business. View the full interview in its entirety below.