• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, February 11, 2022

WFA (World Federation of Advertisers) Global Marketer Week will be one of the industry’s first high-level marketing events to return to a face-to-face format following the worst of the pandemic, with a 500-person conference in Athens this April. 

Global Marketer Week will be held between April 5 and April 8 and will include sessions on sustainability, creativity and marketing effectiveness. It will also feature WFA’s flagship event, the Global Marketer Conference, organized in collaboration with the Hellenic Advertisers Association (SDE) and streamed online for those unable to travel. 

The focus on sustainability dovetails with the first year anniversary of the WFA’s  Planet Pledge initiative, which now covers 25 global brand owners responsible for $43 billion in global ad spend. 

The Global Marketer Conference, which will take place on April 7, will feature presentations from industry luminaries that so far include:

• Conny Braams, WFA Deputy President & Chief Digital and Marketing Officer, Unilever;
• Rupen Desai, Global CMO, Dole Sunshine Company;
• Taide Guajardo, Brand Senior Vice President Europe, Procter & Gamble;
• Sir John Hegarty, co-founder, The Garage Soho;
• Raja Rajamannar, WFA President and Chief Marketing & Communications Officer and President Healthcare, Mastercard; and
• Naomi Walkland, Vice President Marketing, EMEA at Bumble.

More speakers will be announced in the coming weeks.

When the pandemic struck, WFA moved to a remote event format, hosting over 370 meetings and events for its members online only, including Global Marketer Week in 2021.

And the WFA isn’t the only major industry group making plans for live events this year. The Lions Festival of Creativity has announced it is returning live to Cannes in June.