By Abe Peck, Director of Business-To-Business Communications, Professor Emeritus in Services, Medill School at Northwestern
Marion Minor, owner and CEO of EPG Specialty Media, recently became the latest McAllister Top Manager to discuss trends in B2B/information services at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC). The Top Manager award, and a parallel Top Editor award, is awarded in consultation with Connectiv, the school and the McAllister family.
During her three-day residency across two campuses, Minor customized her presentation, “How B2B Media Continues to Evolve: And the Business and Career Opportunities it Presents,” for graduate and undergraduate students interested in business reporting, cross-platform content, science writing, and IMC media foundations and allocation. To further synch with the classes, her presentations were augmented by insights from EPG’s SVP Market Development Joanne Juda-Prainito and Sportsfield Management Associate Publisher/Editorial Brand Director John Kmitta.
“Marion did an impressive job of outlining where B2B and her company are going,” said Abe Peck, Medill’s director of business to business communication (Peck also is executive editor of Autonomous Media’s Inside Unmanned Systems and Inside GNSS). “Her customized presentations mirrored the ever-more-precise audiences B2B targets today. Her colleagues’ expertise fleshed out the various ways B2B can serve readers and customers, and provide rewarding careers. And her visit was marked by unfailing good humor.”
Minor also met with deans and faculty involved in both research and practice, including Ed Malthouse of the Spiegel Research Center, who works with large data sets of consumer information to help managers make marketing decisions. She visited The Garage, an entrepreneurial space for Northwestern students, and the Global Hub, the new flagship building of the Kellogg School of Management. A celebratory dinner held in her honor was attended by, among others, Ed Gillette, CEO of Scranton Gillette Communications, and Greg Watt, president/CEO of Watt Global Media.
“I was very impressed with the caliber of the students and the curriculum, not to mention the all-star professors,” Minor commented after her visit. “I hope in a small way that I as the Connectiv representative had some influence on how these future content creators [editors] and marketers interact with B2B as they proceed with their careers.”
The next McAllister Top Manager will be announced at the Connectiv Executive Summit, May 13 in New Orleans. Eliza Strickland, senior editor of IEEE Spectrum, has agreed to serve as the next McAllister Top Editor.
