Conversations on Social Marketing

As I mentioned in my last post, there are a number of issues I believe are facing social marketing that a larger group of social marketers should be talking about [I'll talk about challenges later]. Among these are how to build capacity for social marketing within NGOs where external resources (accredited training programs and access to 'paratrooper consultants' - you know, the ones that drop in and fly out) are almost nonexistent or very limited; how to use the insights of brands for behavior change; moving further up the value chain to talk about moving markets to help the poor and not just dipping into 'upstream' and 'downstream;' and using distribution and merchandising strategies to create access and more opportunities to practice healthy behaviors and use health products and services.

So PSI and the GWU Department of Prevention and Community Health are sponsoring a 2 day series of afternoon conversations on these and related issues. The sessions are scheduled so that those of you (friends and colleagues too) who are in DC for the APHA meeting can also take advantage of some concentrated time to focus on health communication and social marketing. The idea is to have noted speakers on each of these topics begin each 90 minute session and then open up the forum for a larger dialog with you - the people formerly known as the audience. The details follow.

Please join us for Conversations on Social Marketing, a two-part forum sponsored by PSI in collaboration with the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services.

This event will be held on Monday, November 5, 2007 and Tuesday, November 6, 2007 from 1:00 to 5:00pm at the Jack Morton Auditorium, 805 21st Street, NW, Washington, DC 20052 (Foggy Bottom-GWU metro). Registration on both days begins at 12:30pm.

Space is limited. Please register by October 26 by sending an email to mlcurie@psi.org and let us know which day(s) you are registering for.

What is Conversations on Social Marketing? It is a two-part forum offering four presentations highlighting evidence-based best practices and state-of-the-art approaches that can be applied to social marketing projects in order to enhance their planning and implementation and further their impact.

The presentations will be followed by a conversation with Craig Lefebvre, PSI's Chief Technical Officer including questions/comments from the audience.

On November 5, the first forum will feature Katya Andresen, Vice President for Marketing, Network for Good and author of the book, Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causes, on the essential components of social marketing for nonprofit organizations; and Dr. Doug Evans, Vice President for Public Health and Environment at RTI International, on the application of brands to public health behaviors.

The second forum on November 6, will feature Richard Pollard, consultant and specialist in the Total Market Approach to social marketing management, and creator of the Constraints Resolution Model for BCC program on the Total Market Approach;  and Gregory Cowal, founding member of Global Marketing Services and President of Grupo Sur Promociones on High Frequency Stores Strategies.