The roundtable discussions were a new feature for MDMC in 2025. This one, titled “#NoFilter: Real Talk with B2B Marketers” was hosted by Acumen Studio President John Bracamontes (at podium). (Photo by Derik Holtmann)

The key to developing a winning marketing strategy is understanding what the customer needs and wants, then finding a way to deliver. The same principle holds true for a marketing event, which is why the 13th annual Midwest Digital Marketing Conference had a bit of a different feel in 2025.

“We assessed last year pretty heavily, tried to understand what was and wasn’t working,” said MDMC founder Perry Drake, the chair of the University of Missouri–St. Louis‘s Department of Marketing and Entrepreneurship. “We listened to comments and feedback, as we always do, with our survey after the event. We heard that people wanted more of the higher, elevated sessions, as opposed to introductory sessions, so we tried to make all our sessions intermediate to advanced, as much as we can control that.”

The changes were a rousing success, as evidenced by the nearly 700 attendees – topping last year’s total by more than 100 people – and the entertaining one-hour roundtables and interactive two-hour Masterclass discussions held across the UMSL campus. Sessions were held at the Millennium Student Center’s Century Rooms and in Anheuser-Busch Hall on Tuesday and at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center on Wednesday.

One of the challenges leading up to the two-day conference was finding out which sessions participants would sign up for. Initially, Drake said, the plans called for the individual Century Rooms in the MSC to each host separate roundtables. It didn’t take long for Drake and his committee – Executive Director Mindy Choo, Production Director Thomas O’Connell, Senior Consultant Lisa Grimm and UMSL students Katie Basler, Cristina Fernandez and Clayton Bruce (Drake’s dog, Peanut, was the official mascot) – to adjust those plans.

“Those roundtables filled up really fast and we had to expand,” Drake said. “Everybody wanted to go to some of these sessions, so we just combined the rooms and have about 170 seats in there. Same thing with the Masterclasses.”

John Weller, a senior digital strategist at SteadyRain, moderated one of the Tuesday roundtables, along with three of his colleagues from the St. Louis-based digital strategy firm: Kirstie Bischoff, senior director of digital marketing; David Logger, digital marketing strategist; and Tom Kasperski, senior digital strategist.

The team from SteadyRain hosted a roundtable with a robust conversation about how AI impacts potential digital solutions for businesses. John Weller served as moderator for the discussion, which included informed and insightful questions from audience members. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)

“I thought it was fantastic,” Weller said. “It was a very engaged audience. They were interested in the content, very participatory. I think that’s a credit to MDMC and what they’ve built with this conference, that people know it’s a place that they can come and learn and leave after two days having improved their skills or gained knowledge they didn’t previously have. It really fulfills on the promise of the conference.

“To have a full room, it’s really fun as a speaker, but it makes it good as an attendee as well, because you see your fellow professionals as invested in it as you are.”

This year’s MDMC featured more than 60 speakers, and most everyone, Drake said, touched on artificial intelligence and how it is dramatically changing the world of marketing.

In the SteadyRain roundtable, the topic generated lots of conversation, both from the panelists and the participants in the packed room. One aspect was how AI was influencing – and in many cases, replacing – more traditional search results, and the importance of understanding how that impacts how marketing professionals do their jobs.

“You don’t want to start thinking about AI as this magical light switch because it’s not that,” Logger said. “I’m going to say Kirstie’s favorite line: Keyword rankings don’t matter anymore. We have to think about it in a way that content matters. It has to be real. You can’t fake this. There’s no shortcut. We have to just make real content.”

In his Masterclass session, Mike Spakowski of Atomicdust explored how creative types can find their roles in the ever-changing world of new technologies and shifting mindsets. (Photo by Ryan Fagan)

In his Masterclass, titled “Today’s Creative Briefs are Tomorrow’s AI Prompts (and Other Things That Keep Me Up At Night),” Mike Spakowski of Atomicdust explored how creative types can find their roles in the ever-changing world of new technologies and shifting mindsets. One of the questions he asked the audience was simply, “Do you consider using AI cheating?”

That question prompted a lively discussion, with opinions on both sides of the debate. Spakowski pointed out that history has a way of repeating itself, though it takes different forms. One audience member mentioned that, once upon a time, calculators were considered cheating, which reinforced Spakowski’s earlier point.

“Technology is just a way to make what we already do easier,” he said. “A long time ago, somebody made the wheel, and it wasn’t just because they were trying to patent something themselves. They were just like, ‘I’m sick of dragging this stuff.’”

One thing that makes MDMC so effective is the buy-in from not just the attendees, but the speakers themselves. Weller noted that, before and after SteadyRain’s roundtable presentation, he and his colleagues were attending sessions and learning just like everyone else.

“In a broader kind of corporate citizen way, being here is important because this is another way that we can elevate and bring attention to St. Louis,” he said. “There’s a lot of talent in this city, a lot of major businesses and industries, and I think it’s important for a city to have a marquee event to highlight the strengths of its industry. MDMC definitely does that.”

With the attendance jumping up this year, Drake is excited about the future of the event. Originally held on campus for the first three years (2013-15), the conference moved to Union Station, with a peak of nearly 2,000 attendees and 125 speakers. The COVID-19 pandemic brought that momentum to a screeching halt, though.

“I’m feeling confident,” Drake said. “Post-COVID has just been so hard to gauge for projections of the event, but I think this year helped us see where we’re going and how some of our changes have benefited that trajectory.”