Alison Wagonfeld, CMO of Google Cloud, has had a unique career path from launching QuickenLoans for Intuit to start-ups to managing Harvard Business School’s California Research Center to Venture Capital, all to arrive in her role leading marketing for such a forward-thinking business unit in one of the world’s largest companies. So what exactly is Google Cloud? It is the business unit of Google that manages all the data, storage, analytics and AI technology as well as G Suite, which houses Google’s collaborative productivity applications for businesses such as Gmail and Docs.
“I think it’s critical to be comfortable with technology but do not ever walk away from creative storytelling because you would never want to over pivot and miss the part that makes marketing magical.”
As unusual as Alison’s path is on paper, it is obvious when talking with her why her path situated her in the perfect spot to take this role on and why her love for all things marketing compliments Google Cloud’s exceptionally fast growth in the market. Not only has Alison helped to grow the flagship Google Cloud Next event from 2,000 attendees to 23,000 attendees in just two years, but her application of storytelling to turn “boring” into magical helped steer one of Google Cloud’s most riskiest endeavors to date – predicting stats in real-time TV ads during NCAA’s March Madness leveraging the power of Google’s AI and Machine Learning capabilities. What could have been a full-on public goof actually yielded over 94% accuracy and showed both businesses and consumers what could happen when applying AI and ML in the right way.
Join us in this fascinating deep dive into technology today, what’s coming tomorrow and how Alison organizes her team to take on the rapidly changing landscape to help businesses adopt and embrace the future. Also don’t miss Alison’s tips on how to personally get ahead of the technology curve and what trends she sees growing in the next 5-10 years.
