Top international ad man heads speaker line up at IMC Joburg

Nowadays, everyone’s trying to sell something, even if it’s only ourselves. That also means we all fall into that dirtiest of categories “marketer”. Very few us have traditional training in the field though, so it pays to get all the help we can.

Enter the fourth Integrated Marketing Communications Conference (IMC).

The conference, set to take place on 15-16 October, will be headlined by international speaker Joshua-Michéle Ross of Fleishman Hillard Europe. The ad man currently runs the global digital account for Philips on behalf of OneVoice (a joint partnership between Ketchum Pleon and Fleishman Hillard) and is Director of Digital Strategy for Europe, Middle East and Africa with Fleishman Hillard. With over 15 years of experience developing and executing digital strategies for leading brands, his current objective is to help brands adapt to an era defined by social networks.

Ross has also previously been a guest lecturer at Harvard University as well as a regular columnist in Forbes.com and blogger on O’Reilly Radar.

Conference organisers Living Your Brand say there will also be a number of high profile South African speakers at the event, including Abey Mokgwatsane (CEO of Ogilvy South Africa), Andrea Quaye (GM of Carling Black Label), Mike Joubert (Founder of BrandsRock), Melissa Attree (Business Developer at Cerebra), Melanie Minnaar (Managing Director of Halo), and a dual presentation by Mike Silver (CEO of Stretch Experiential) and Suhayl Limbada (Senior Brand Manager of Gum at Kraft Foods).

Each speaker will reportedly share their most successful industry experiences, highlighting positive trends as well as advise on practical tools to improve communication tactics. Delegates will also be given the opportunity to direct a scope of questions to the speakers prior to the conference via Twitter.

According to Living Your Brand managing director Daniel Marcus: “As an all-round, one-stop shop for all marketing minds, the IMC Conference is set to surpass all expectations in becoming the Communication Conference of the year. Delegates can look forward to fresh and exciting content from leading industry speakers and network with like-minded peers. If you’re in the marketing and communication field, the IMC Conference has to be on your calendar.”