Building Authentic Connections in Unpredictable Times
New York Conversation & Cocktails
September 28, 2022 | 6pm ET
Convene | 237 Park Avenue
Midtown East (Park Ave. between 45th St. & 46th St.)
We live in a world that is more unpredictable than at any time in recent memory. With so much on consumers’ minds, they are questioning and challenging brands in new ways. And more than ever, leaders must decide when and how their brands should respond to pivotal moments in our rapidly evolving world.
Brand Authenticity means showing consumers who your brand is, what it stands for and the role it can play in their lives. Consumer connections built on authenticity position your brand to succeed—whatever the future may bring.
Our panel of experts discussed how Brand Authenticity should be woven into your brand’s decision-making process to build stronger connections with consumers.
Watch our highlight video!
Panel Speakers
Miya Gray, Pfizer
Vice President, Customer Experience & Engagement
Miya Gray is a results-driven and customer-focused executive leader who brings 20 years of experience in customer experience and engagement, and healthcare and medical technology. Serving as both a strategic and operational leader, Miya has successfully led teams in organizations throughout the healthcare ecosystem.
Miya currently serves as the Vice President of Customer Experience and Engagement (CX&E) at Pfizer. In this role, Miya and her CX&E team partner across Pfizer to design and deliver meaningful experiences, leveraging core capabilities of research and insights,
customer experience strategy, human-centered design, experience measurement, and enabling adoption of innovative digital capabilities. Through cross-functional collaboration, Miya seeks to create the next generation of integrated experiences for patients, healthcare providers, partners, and Pfizer colleagues.
Alonzo Page, Peloton
Head of Global Consumer Strategy & Insights
Alonzo Page is passionate about consumer products at the intersection of technology and culture. Currently, he is the Head of Global Consumer Strategy at Peloton. A former consultant at Bain & Company, Alonzo is a results-oriented strategy executive with demonstrated success building dynamic teams and leading consumer-centric strategies for category-defining products.
Nicole Portwood, Entrepreneur
Former Chief Brand Officer at Live Nation, Chief Marketing Officer at Tito’s, VP Marketing at PepsiCo
Nicole has recently returned to her career-long love affair with distilled spirits by joining a group of entrepreneurs to launch a new-to-world brand. Before this new adventure, Nicole served as Chief Brand Officer at Live Nation Entertainment, where she was responsible for the overall development of the master brand across the channels & divisions where the company connects with fans worldwide, while continuing to expand the Live Nation product offering for both artists and fans. Prior to Live Nation, she was at PepsiCo where she served as Vice President of Marketing for Mountain Dew and the flavored soft drink portfolio.
Before PepsiCo, Nicole served as the Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Tito’s Handmade Vodka for nine years, building the marketing capabilities along with the brand, for which she was recognized as AdAge’s Marketer of the Year for 2017. Her early career spanned many brands in the spirits space and time at agencies across the spectrum from boutique to global powerhouses. Over the years, Portwood has honed a fan-centric marketing model and is also an entrepreneur in her own right, creating and then selling a thriving pizza restaurant on Austin’s 6th Street.
Jesse Epstein, HawkPartners
Partner
Jesse Epstein works closely with clients to answer your most pressing questions and develop marketing strategies using research-based insights to understand the landscape. His experience ranges across industries, geographies, company size and methodology, including qualitative and quantitative research, corporate marketing, business development and workshops and presentations on various topics.
Jesse has worked with exciting global brands, including helping independent vodka brands understand how to build cult followings, assisting online travel agencies to design loyalty programs, aiding one of the world’s largest consumer goods companies to better spend their advertising dollars and helping a global pharmaceutical firm to realize how tomorrow’s doctors will use mobile devices. He is truly passionate about understanding what builds strong bonds between brands and consumers, transcending the relations from customer to partner.