Overview: BRITE '08 conference and CMO summit

On February 7-8, 2008, the Center on Global Brand Leadership at Columbia Business School hosted the BRITE ’08 conference and CMO Summit on branding, innovation, and technology at Columbia University in New York City.

BRITE ’08 brought together big thinkers from business, technology, media, and marketing to discuss how technology and innovation are transforming the ways that companies build and sustain great brands.

The CMO summit gathered together a small group of senior marketers for a series of roundtable discussions, group exercises, and peer-to-peer discussions of the key challenges for innovation and brand building in their organizations today. The BRITE '08 conference day hosted a large audience for: keynotes and panels featuring leading companies and case studies; hands-on demo’s of emerging technologies; jury and audience awards for Big Thinker of the year; and new research on topics such as social networking, customer-innovation, and online ad effectiveness. Live blogging, videocasts, and Twitter feeds extended the discussion at BRITE to an even broader audience worldwide.

The BRITE Jury Award for Big Thinker was presented by Prof. Bernd H. Schmitt to Marty Homlish, Global Chief Marketing Officer, SAP, for his achievements in brand building at Sony and SAP, and his sustained leadership in aligning the organizational culture of SAP with its brand promise.

Nominations for the BRITE Audience Award were made online leading up to the event.  Eight finalists were advocated for by different members of the audience, culminating in a real-time vote by conference attendees. The audience winner for big thinking in 2007 was Nintendo’s Wii, recognized for its innovation in user interface, marketing across segments, and nurturing a gaming community.

Two hundred attendees of BRITE ’08 came from a diverse range of businesses: