AMA Las Vegas and Phoenix Leaders Share Chapter Updates and B2B Expo Takeaways

At a B2B Expo, Franisha Hayes, president of the American Marketing Association (AMA) Las Vegas chapter and director of marketing at KMJ Vegas, discusses shaking up a 90-year luncheon-focused chapter by adding evening “fireside chats” centered on personal growth, while continuing monthly luncheons on topics like short-form video and upcoming influencer podcasting. AMA Las Vegas also introduced “play mixers,” including a game-night event. Franisha highlights seeing a booth focused on AI-driven workflows and notes she’ll join an American Advertising Federation panel on how AI is changing creative workflows. She advises that all marketing channels matter but should be used within reason, emphasizing that audiences aren’t always on social and that traditional and in-person networking remain important. The host shares similar changes at AMA Phoenix, including more in-person panels, community partnerships, and evolving board leadership.

00:00 Meet Franisha Hayes
00:48 AMA Vegas Shakeup
01:20 Fireside Chats and Mixers
03:02 Leading Through Change
04:00 Expo Find AI Workflows
05:25 Marketing Advice All Channels
07:05 In Person Connection Matters
08:14 AMA Phoenix Updates
09:46 Phoenix Visit and Wrap

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AI for Small Business: Policies, Training, and ROI-Driven Automation

In this podcast episode, Barry introduces his full-service digital marketing agency and AI-focused consultancy, drawing on a background that includes a film degree, about 20 years at IBM as a product manager, and business consulting. He recaps his expo session on ChatGPT and AI for small business owners, emphasizing why businesses should care about AI and warning that employees may already be using it without guardrails, creating risk around PII and proprietary data; he offers a free internal AI usage policy template. Barry explains “AI-enabled” as using AI to improve daily work, sharing a workflow using Read.ai transcripts and ChatGPT as a sales coach and to generate meeting decks, while keeping humans in the loop. He outlines his methodology: baseline assessment, customized training, mapping tasks step-by-step, identifying automation opportunities, selecting off-the-shelf vs custom tools, and estimating ROI, plus establishing an internal AI council for ongoing strategy, adoption, customer communication, and talent attraction. He closes by urging businesses to use AI not only for cost savings but also to create new revenue-generating offerings from customer data insights.

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Ellen Robinson on Bespoke Executive Coaching and Closing Stress Cycles to Prevent Burnout

At the B2B Expo, executive coach Ellen Robinson of Robinson Coaching Group describes her 15 years of bespoke leadership and team development work, grounded in adult development theory to assess where clients are and tailor frameworks to their maturity and leadership readiness. She explains that beyond learning skills, leaders must address what holds them back and avoid being limited by strengths. For her 25-minute expo talk, Robinson focuses on burnout, noting common leadership fixes like delegation, prioritization, and clearer communication, but emphasizing the need to close stress cycles to prevent chronic cortisol buildup. She shares using brief moments of creativity without purpose or outcome to express oneself and regain perspective. Robinson recounts her high-stress background at Frito-Lay, Pepsi, managing the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche business operations, and a SaaS startup that led to burnout, prompting her transition into credentialed coaching.

00:00 Meet Ellen Robinson
00:51 Bespoke Coaching Approach
01:10 Adult Development Framework
02:29 Burnout Talk Preview
03:32 Closing Stress Cycles
05:20 Expo Impressions
06:22 From Pepsi to Sports
07:04 Burnout to Coaching Pivot
07:46 Curator of Growth
10:01 Wrap Up and Thanks

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B2B Expo Marketing Advice: Prioritize, Take Action, and Don’t Rely on Social Media Alone (with Dave Chire, Constant Contact)

At the B2B Expo, Meredith interviews Dave Chire, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact and host of the Be A Marketer podcast, about what small businesses are struggling with in marketing. Dave says many feel overwhelmed by noise and pressure to be everywhere, so he encourages prioritizing based on business goals, ignoring cookie-cutter advice, and scheduling non-negotiable time—even 15 minutes a day—to take imperfect but consistent action. He emphasizes momentum, repeating core messages with clarity, and staying consistent because audiences aren’t thinking about your business as much as you are. Dave shares how he uses AI daily to repurpose transcripts and ideas into posts and blogs. His key takeaway: don’t expect social media to do it all; real progress comes from follow-up, one-to-one conversations, and intentionally guiding engagement to next steps.

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At the B2B Expo, career B2B marketer Alex Outwater (formerly at IBM and ADP) shares how he’s bringing enterprise storytelling and product-launch experience to smaller companies trying to break through the noise. He emphasizes that many marketing fundamentals don’t change with scale: clarify your story, differentiation, competitors, and especially the real competitor—status quo—since much B2B buying is emotionally driven by trust, confidence, and empathy. Outwater discusses tailoring one core story for different roles on buying committees and how “jobs to be done” varies across stakeholders like users and finance. He urges attendees not to get distracted by “AI-washing,” to ask tough questions, review contracts and risks, and start with simple AI use cases like content and basic automation—only after ensuring strong, clean data foundations.

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