Marketing leaders from across Bristol met at Hays last week for the first of a series of forums organised by CIM’s South West Marketing Leaders (SWML) community.

CIM South West regional board member, Rupa Grewal, explains: “SWML is a community for all CIM Chartered Marketers, Fellows and marketing leaders across the South West, it is a partnership between CIM, Bristol Media and the University of West of England."

"Collectively, we  have joined  together to organise a range of opportunities for senior marketers to meet like-minded people, share strategic knowledge, debate key issues, learn from the  latest research, and position the marketing profession as a driver for growth."

"This first forum was sponsored by Hays and focused on the findings of their latest report ‘DNA of a Marketing Leader’. Hays interviewed over 370 leading marketers across the UK to find out what makes them tick and their route to leadership. Hays Marketing’s Managing Director, Clare Kemsley facilitated the debate which proved to be an insightful start to this series of senior roundtables.”

Rupa added: “The discussion showed that marketing has been at the forefront of instigating change and being the challenger of the status quo. But current and future trends show that it is going through step changes itself as a profession. The future will bring many developments that the profession needs to utilise as an opportunity to continue being a driver of growth. The roundtable discussed predictions that in the next five years marketing teams are set to merge with IT teams to grasp the marketplace challenges from the shifting landscapes of emergent technology and data.”

Photograph: Pictured (left) Rupa Grewal, Business Development Manager at Acuity Legal Limited and CIM SW regional board member and (right) Clare Kemsley, Managing Director, at Hays Marketing pictured at the  CIM SWML’s forum  on Wednesday 1 July.