Last week, I attended a marketing happy hour, hosted by MarketingProfs and Oracle/Eloqua.

After a fine glass of Oregon Pinot Noir, I had an epiphany. In spite of the hoopla around the benefits of content marketing and predictive analytics for today’s modern marketers, and Oracle/Eloqua’s steady stream of acquisitions, nothing replaces the power of the “human cloud.”

Targeted, thoughtful networking with live humans trumps technology….

In this 18 minute podcast, you will learn:

How marketing leaders can alleviate the dysfunction between their department, the sales team and the executive board
The new competencies marketing leaders must adopt
How organizations such as Infosys, MindJet, and Red Hat are overcoming challenges and thriving

Thanks to Rain Today’s Michelle Davidson for the podcast.

Share my latest research on 2013 CMO trends, success stories, and recommendations.

I’m pleased to showcase Bill Lee’s recent Harvard Business Review post on the power of building customer communities. Bill’s breakthrough ideas align with my previous posts on the power of spearheading customer advisory councils. Enjoy the post.

Lisa Nirell outlines trends to watch from “The Challenger Sale,” and what B2B marketers can apply from their research.

As the role of marketing continues to evolve at breakneck speed, here are four leadership constants to guide you.

Here is a guest post from my friend Charles Gold who has been a software marketing executive for nearly 20 years. He serves as CMO at Sonatype, where he has helped propel the company’s growth to category leadership. Charles believes passionately marketing is rapidly becoming *the* thing that distinguishes software market winners.

The four “Cs” shaping electrifying, modern marketing include: conscious content, CMO reporting cadence, courage, and culture.

Given the advances in marketing operations, web analytics, and B2B marketing and sales alignment, CMOs have few excuses to accept second-string status.

Eloqua’s much anticipated keynote speaker was Jeffrey Hayzlett, author of the new bestseller, Running the Gauntlet. Eloqua’s theme of “becoming a modern marketer” permeated the high-energy sessions, and Jeff’s was no exception.