2024 NIMN Marketing Conference: Enang Promises To Document Strides Achieved, Uyo To Host 2025 Event
In an industry where book-writing by sectoral leaders and marketing Directors is not a common occurrence, the president of The National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria (NIMN), Idorenyen Enang has blazed the trail with the promise to document the giant strides achieved during his tenure to help future leaders of the body use it as a benchmark to consolidate on all that have been achieved so far.
Enang said this in his welcome address at the NIMN 2024 Annual Marketing Conference held on 20-22 June 2024 at Ibadan.
The NIMN President also mentioned the strategic partnerships with institutions like Lagos Business School (LBS) on capacity building that will increasingly enhance businesses and economic growth, as well as preliminary arrangements with corporate bodies like Nestle to promote internships and sabbaticals for marketers in academic circles. The NIMN president, however, noted with regret that even with the efforts made by the institute, student members and others in the academia have not shown the expected seriousness and passion to exploit these opportunities created.
He subsequently pointed out to all attendees that the fast-moving NIMN train has left the station so any laggard marketing professional risks being left behind if they fail to hop in on time.
Speaking on the next NIMN Annual Conference, the president announced that the event would be hosted in Uyo, Akwa Ibom in 2025. He acknowledged that he had earlier announced last year in Abuja that Uyo would host the conference this year but the reason the council picked Ibadan this year was because of the current economic recession.
Pointing out that nobody can make it in any profession without marketing, the President hinted that plans are in the pipeline to create a one-week marketing conference.
His words, ‘ In my heart and my mind, I am looking forward to that day when we will have a marketing week, one day will be for a group led the academics, one day will be for those in experiential, one day will be for those in strategy because marketing is business and business is marketing.
‘So when you don’t understand the profession you belong in, you treat it with contempt and that is what we want to change.
‘This year, it is a different scope within the same spirit of what we had in Abuja. On this first day we are having a symposium that will unleash our academic community to impact us within the context of the theme and set this stage, not just for the induction but the next day of the conference, and then the financial members will close the last day of the conference; that is the spirit and the letter behind it and that is what the honorable council have thought through’
Two marketing egg-heads, Prof. Justitia Nnabuko from, the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, and Prof. Uchenna Uzo, from Pan Atlantic University (LBS) were the keynote speaker at the NIMN 2024 Annual Marketing Conference.
They dissected the theme, ‘Empowering Nigerian Brands: Leveraging Local Content for Global Success’ in their various keynote addresses. It was followed by a panel discussion handled by selected marketing experts.
New associate members also had their Induction at the Ibadan 2024 Marketing Conference.