"It's hard to believe when we started this in 2011, we were hoping for 100 to 150 people to come to Cleveland around this thing called 'content marketing.' We had over 600 people show up, and were like, 'This is actually a thing,'" marveled Joe Pulizzi, CMWorld founder. Watch video
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The annual Content Marketing World conference returned to Cleveland's Huntington Convention Center on Tuesday, with a Star Wars' "Content Strikes Back" theme intended to drum up enthusiasm for Thursday's keynote speaker, actor Mark Hamill of "Luke Skywalker" fame.
#CMWorld 2016, billed as the largest in-person content marketing gathering of its kind, is already on pace to exceed last year's attendance figures. Registration hit 3,500 last week, and is expected to be 10 percent over last year, although figures won't be finalized until after the conference wraps up on Friday.
Produced and hosted by the Content Marketing Institute, CMWorld teaches brands how to attract and retain customers through multi-channel, multi-platform storytelling.
"It's hard to believe when we started this in 2011, we were hoping for 100 to 150 people to come to Cleveland around this thing called 'content marketing.' We had over 600 people show up, and were like, 'This is actually a thing,'" marveled Joe Pulizzi, the self-proclaimed "godfather of content marketing" who co-founded the Content Marketing Institute in 2007 with his wife, Pam Kozelka. "The industry is growing. It's amazing. This year, I think we have over 40 of the Fortune 100 companies here."
Some of the highlights as of Tuesday afternoon include:
1.) Attendees flew in from 60 foreign countries, including delegations from Germany, Australia, and Japan.
2.) One-third of attendees registered for CMWorld after Cleveland hosted the Republican National Convention in late July.
3.) Online registration is closed, but CMWorld is still accepting walk-up registrations through Thursday. Rates range from $1,495 for the main conference today and Thursday, to $2,495 for the all-access pass.
One-day admission to the Expo Hall, which includes continental breakfast items and a boxed lunch, costs $275, but doesn't include any keynote addresses, general sessions, breakout sessions, or offsite evening events.
4.) Of the 200-plus speakers presenting more than 80 workshops and sessions, about 70 percent of them are new to this year's CMWorld. "We're committed to bringing in new voices and new ideas each year," explained Amanda Subler, public relations and video consultant for Content Marketing World and the Content Marketing Institute.
5.) This year's event also includes the largest-ever lineup of Cleveland-area speakers, panels and participants, as well as those who grew up in the Cleveland area.
First-time local speakers include: Laura Cameron, vice president of digital marketing at KeyBank; Shon Christy, president of Focal Point Social Media; Jeff Leo Hermann, chief strategy officer for Fathom; Michelle Park Lazette, a writer for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland; Raphael Rivilla, vice president, media and connections planning, for Marcus Thomas LLC; Christine Woodhouse, marketing communications manager for Eaton; and Cleveland native Jillian Hilliard, director of brand marketing for small appliances at Electrolux.
In addition, Cleveland-based KeyBank, Sherwin-Williams, GE Lighting, and Moen all brought teams of employees here to learn content marketing techniques from the pros.
6.) Not only does CMWorld celebrate all things orange, its attendees also come unapologetically decked out in orange, from nail polish to pocket squares to CMI staff members' fluorescent orange shirts.
Monina Wagner, social media community manager for the Content Marketing Institute and CMWorld, created commemorative buttons to recognize those in the "Orange Pants Society."
7.) Mark Hamill is the latest of several popular television and film stars who have spoken at Content Marketing World, including William Shatner (2013), Kevin Spacey (2014), John Cleese (2015), and Nick Offerman (2015).
8.) Although all but one of the last five Content Marketing World conferences have been in Cleveland, there's no guarantee it will always stay in Northeast Ohio.
That's because Joe Pulizzi's Content Marketing Institute was acquired by UBM plc, a London-based global organizer of business-to-business events and marketing services, for $17.6 million plus performance bonuses, on June 1.
UBM plc is committed to keeping CMWorld in Cleveland through September 2017, but there are no signed agreements beyond that.
9.) This year, two of Pulizzi's fans from the Netherlands, Bert van Loon and A.J. Huisman of Content Marketing Fast Forward in Europe brought him a custom-designed orange bicycle "to cross the grounds of the sizable conference faster."
They mailed it half-assembled to Joseph Kalinowski, CMWorld's creative director, in Lakewood, and asked him to bring the finished bike to the convention center on Tuesday as a surprise for Pulizzi. "It's like a true Amsterdam bike, with space to put baskets in the front and back," he said.
"We're long-time promoters of CMI and CMWorld, and we thought he might need this," to travel around the 225,000-square-foot convention center, van Loon said.
"Orange is a royal color in the Netherlands," he added.
