Great marketing starts with great leadership. The Leadership & Culture track at B2BMX 2026, powered by Advertising Week, focuses on how marketing leaders are rethinking how teams work, grow, and innovate.
Learn from top marketing leaders who are transforming their teams and organizations. Discover how to foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and growth. This track is your guide to becoming a more effective leader.
Whether you’re a seasoned executive or an aspiring leader, this track offers valuable insights and inspiration. Walk away with the tools and strategies to lead your team to success. These sessions will explore how culture drives success and how to build organizations ready for what’s next.
Following is a look at the Leadership & Culture track breakout sessions set for B2BMX this year.
Monday Session:
Session Title: The Modern CMO’s Playbook: Bridging the Gap between CMO and Company
Speaker: Ricky Abbott serves as President for Transmission Agency. With over 20 years of consulting experience with companies of all sizes and industry verticals, Ricky is an authority on B2B marketing. Whether it’s brand, demand, sales enablement, or ABM, Ricky has helped clients transform their Sales and Marketing operations through pioneering, customer-first programs designed to drive growth.
May Petry is the Chief Marketing Officer at MongoDB, leading global marketing to drive revenue, expand market leadership, and position MongoDB as a leading unified database platform built to power the next generation of applications. Since joining in 2022, she’s significantly influenced customer engagement by scaling its self-serve business, establishing global revenue marketing, and strengthening execution across digital, product-led, and enterprise sales motions.
Description: This candid session from the world’s brightest CMOs and C-suite execs will discuss how today’s CMO’s adapt to business in the contemporary landscape. We’ll outline what the modern CMO needs to be in order to align to their business, share tried-and-true strategies, and unpack how both current and aspiring CMO’s can build and bolster their playbooks to maintain agility and adaptability.
Session Title: How to Minimize Risk & Avoid Getting Burned by Lead Gen Vendors
Speaker: Uky Chong is the Founder and CEO of ToXPAND, a B2B demand generation company built on transparency and accountability. He has scaled multiple companies to multi-million-dollar growth, led U.S. market expansions, raised $18.5M in venture funding, and supported a £25.5M MBO. At ToXPAND, Uky is redefining pipeline growth through first-party, AI-powered demand programs that deliver measurable results without black-box tactics.
Description: A practical, strategic playbook for reducing risk in your demand engine prioritizing data-driven strategy on how to evaluate, audit, and hold your lead generation partners accountable. You’ll learn the 10 questions that expose sourcing risks, compliance gaps, and black-box tactics—so your team can protect budget, pipeline, and brand reputation, by ensuring your team gets real visibility into whether your vendors are truly first-party, leveraging 3rd party networks, and compliant.
WEDNESDAY SESSION
Session Title: From Cringe to Credibility: How We Built a Social Selling Program That Actually Drives Revenue
Speakers: Sarah Icely Hill, SVP, Growth BrandActive didn’t come up through a traditional growth path and that’s part of what makes her approach different. Jill has helped shape how they think about growth at BrandActive, not just in terms of marketing and business development, but in how we connect across functions, scale what works, and build trust at every touchpoint.
In March 2020, Darren McKee, Founder of Darren McKee Co., had almost no presence on LinkedIn. A global pandemic changed the world, so he started writing—and didn’t stop for 1,679 days (and counting). That consistency transformed his LinkedIn journey, growing to more than 65 million people engaging with his content and in just three years, it helped hom 6x my annual income.
Description: This session shares the story of how BrandActive, a niche consultancy with a long sales cycle and complex services, launched and scaled a social selling (or employee generated content) program that now drives over 50% of new logo outbound meetings.
You’ll hear what it took to get a cross-functional team posting consistently (even when it felt uncomfortable), how we created internal systems that supported authentic, low-lift content, and what we learned from a year of testing, iterating, and tracking results. No hacks, no influencer jargon, just a grounded, practical roadmap for building social credibility that converts.
Learning objectives:
- Understand how to design a sustainable social selling program with shared accountability across teams
- Learn how to support contributors who aren’t “natural” content creators (and don’t want to be)
- Get a look at the systems we built to reduce lift, create consistency, and track results
- Learn how to align personal and brand voice without sacrificing authenticity
- Leave with practical prompts, calendar tips, and social habits to try immediately
With buyer behaviors changing and outbound strategies under pressure, showing up on platforms like LinkedIn isn’t just optional, it’s the new baseline. But it only works if the strategy is structured, the team is engaged, and the content is consistent. This isn’t a story about influencers. It’s a story about cross-functional professionals who found their voice, built credibility, and helped drive growth – one post, comment, and connection at a time.
Tracks
The core of B2BMX has always been its content, and for 2026, we have reimagined our track format to align perfectly with the modern marketer’s mandate. Here are the six other distinct tracks to help you navigate the experience and find the exact solutions you need.
Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is no longer a buzzword; it is a business imperative. This track goes beyond the basics to explore how leading B2B brands are using AI to improve productivity, personalize experiences at scale, and uncover insights that drive smarter decisions. You will see firsthand how AI is reshaping the way marketers work.
GTM Strategy & Advanced ABM. Rethink your go-to-market strategy. Learn how the best teams are breaking down silos between sales, marketing, and customer success to create connected programs that build pipeline and deliver measurable growth.
Content, Creative & Storytelling. In a crowded digital world, how do you stand out? Discover how to build a content strategy that balances creativity with performance, ensuring your brand’s voice connects with audiences across every channel.
Customer Experience & Personalization. This track focuses on the “how”—how to deliver seamless, relevant experiences from the first touch to long-term loyalty. Learn how data and automation come together to create personalized journeys that actually resonate with buyers.
Measurement & Data. Prove your impact. Gain ideas for building better data foundations, improving attribution models, and using insights to not just report on the business, but to grow it.
MarTech & Integration. MarTech continues to evolve at breakneck speed. These sessions explore the latest technologies redefining automation, integration, and performance, helping you optimize your stack for maximum efficiency.
Unparalleled Networking and Actionable Insights
What truly sets B2BMX apart is the community. This event brings together a highly curated collective of influential professionals, including CMOs, VPs, and Directors from leading global B2B organizations.
With an All-Access Pass, you aren’t just an attendee; you are part of the conversation. You will have access to:
- 4 Keynotes Featuring Industry Trailblazers: Start each day with high-level inspiration from visionaries redefining the industry.
- Hands-On Workshops: engage in small-group skill-building sessions to master specific tactics in areas like RevOps and AI integration.
- Full Marketplace Access: Explore the exhibition floor to discover the innovative tools and strategic partners that can accelerate your revenue engine.
The networking receptions are designed to be fun and collaborative, allowing you to mix and mingle with hundreds of top-tier peers. These aren’t just business card exchanges; they are opportunities to find mentors, partners, and future collaborators who face the same challenges you do.
The future of B2B marketing is here, and it is happening in California. Do not miss this essential opportunity to future-proof your revenue engine. B2BMX 2026 is more than a conference; it is an investment in your professional future.
Registration is now open. Join us in Carlsbad this March and get ready to transform your marketing strategy. Register for B2BMX 2026 Now
