6th CIM Sri Lanka Future Marketers’ Conference ‘Build Beyond Basics’ ends on a high note

The CIM Future Marketers’ Conference 2017 concluded recently with exceptional success. The conference was organised by the CIM Sri Lanka Student Committee and it was revolved around one of the hottest topics in the local context, ‘New Ventures’. The timely topic was selected through extensive and effective research and it was evident that the topic was covered in the most relevant varieties by the facilitators at the event. 

LAUGFS Holdings Founder W.K.H. Wegapitiya was the opening speaker for the conference. He began the conversation by talking about the importance of owning an idea, prior to execution. The importance of strategic thinking and mastering the doctrine seems to be one of the greatest life hacks he has mastered. 

Talking about the favourable ways of managing your stakeholders, and converting your opposers to your supporters, the legendary Tony Weerasinghe, Founder of Millenium IT, eChannelling and Ustocktrade, brought in a line of stories to showcase how he overcame some of the greatest challenges in establishing his ventures and how he had his eyes on the ultimate goal and made his venture one of the most competent establishments in the world, by having all hands on deck. 

Jeevan Gnanam explained how well he had managed his legacy by expanding it to the most prominent horizons of the industries he operates in and sharing his insights along with his knowledge brought the shade of capital to the context of marketing. 

All the facilitators made this conference a personal forum. They were able to connect to the audience with many of the participants questioning and inquiring to resolve their doubts. Triad Founder Varuni Amunugama Fernando shared her part of the story in becoming effective tracers to trail KPIs. She spoke about how Derana became one of the most authentic TV channels in the country by relating to the audience and how their success was measured by the influence they made as an entity. She ended saying success is not always measured, it is sometimes felt; her story captivated many people to go beyond the money and to support a cause. 

It was the last session that brought the added charm to the conference, when TAC Consultants Founder Tharindu Amarasekere brought enthusiasm and energy to the whole crowd. He spoke about one of the most sacred practices of marketing – how a marketer’s network becomes their net worth. With a lot of interactivity, he made participants jump out of their seats and dance as if it was a feast of celebration. He brought some case studies to enhance creativity while giving the ultimate message of synergising to expand. 

Success is one of the most subjective terms that one can find in any context. When one person defines it by the number of awards won, another would define it by the number of people who were influenced by a certain brand. The modern context of success is highly consumed to benchmark the next achievement of any activity. From the amount of revenue to the capacity that one can retain for stakeholders, success is merely subjective to you and any multi-billion dollar company. 

At the commencement of organising the Future Marketers’ Conference 2017, the CIM Student Committee endeavoured to remain loyal to their values, the value of knowledge and the correct use of it. Along with all the stakeholders, they found ways to exploit the limits to unearth the most sacred learnings of the spectrum of enterprise and its functions. Hence, the committee convened an esteemed set of successors of their own legacies to deconstruct their learnings to teach the young marketers of Sri Lanka how the big guns function on the world’s stage of business.

CIM Sri Lanka is the first International branch of CIM UK and is proud to claim the largest membership outside the UK. CIM Sri Lanka has always campaigned for high professional standards, greater recognition for the Profession and Marketing excellence in Sri Lanka through education, training and development.