IMMAP has grown to be the premier organization of digital marketing professionals in the country. 2016 is the breakthrough year where IMMAP goes beyond marketing communications to fuse the synergies of their own IMMAP Summit with the Mobile Marketing Congress, and the Digital Commerce (D-Com) Summit. Three big events roll into one,   debut the IMMAP Digital Congress.

 IMMAP DigiCon
 is a call to action for stakeholders in business, creative, tech, services—name it—to amp up their skills in the rapidly evolving digital industry.

Carrying the theme
“The Power of X: Digital Multiplied,”
the IMMAP DigiCon fuses together other regular digital marketing conferences such as the Mobile Marketing Summit, Digital Commerce Summit and the IMMAP Summit into one grand event which drew around 3,000 delegates from various industries across the country.

IMMAP DigiCon
. The event’s 10 tracks has everything for everybody, at every level of their digital phase or needs. A total of 100 speakers representing the various sectors of digital marketing’s diverse ecosystem  enlightening delegates on 10 tracks of topics:

“Branding and Marketing,” “Content and Distribution,” “Start-Ups,” “The Digital Creative,” “Social and Search,” “eCommerce and Payments,” “The Digital Agency,” “CRM, Data and Analytics,” “Research and Measurement,”
 and “Media and Ad Networks.”

Included in the speaker lineup for the IMMAP DigiCon
were Steve Kalifowitz, Twitter’s Head of Brand Strategy and Advocacy for Asia Pacific and Middle East and North Africa (APAC-MENA);
Sunita Kaur, Spotify’s Managing Director for Asia;
Ryan Morales, Head of Consumer Marketing for Google Southeast Asia;
Eleanne Hattis, Head of Asia Pacific Sales for Waze;
and Sandhia Devanathan, Head for eCommerce, Financial Services for Travel, Southeast Asia, for Facebook eCommerce, among others.

As much as the event is an instant attraction to practitioners, it’s also a shout out to those testing the waters to jump right in.

“When it is every company’s challenge to have a digital ecosystem encompassing paid and owned digital assets: media, social channels, mobile and commerce.
Where do you start? Start somewhere, and start now,” advised Torres.

Other highlights of the IMMAP DigiCon
Were the Trade Exhibit that will showcase digital commerce and other impressive and innovative technology solutions,
and the Boomerang Awards, which celebrates the most effective and creative digital marketing campaigns developed and produced over the last year.

“We have long dreamt of establishing the country’s first digital congress, and now it’s finally happening after months of planning and painstaking work. We would like to thank the IMMAP DigiCon management committee for putting together this milestone event for our association’s 10th anniversary, and we’re looking forward to a successful event,” says Margot Torres, IMMAP President.

For his part, IMMAP Vice President and DigiCon Director-in-Charge Eduardo Mapa, Jr. said,
 “The array of speakers gathers the best of the best, the brightest of minds when it comes to digital marketing. We are glad that they are willing to speak during this event to help spread the word on the importance of digital marketing and, eventually, help transform the marketing landscape to make it even more vibrant and dynamic in the 21st Century.”

“The whole idea of the digital congress is that digital is everything,” Mapa added.

“What we are preparing for is the establishment of what we call a ‘digital economy.’ It is slowly and surely happening so everyone, whether in the traditional or digital marketing industries, should be able to embrace it and witness it. Our goal in digital marketing is to complement the tenets of marketing and hopefully transform and bring it to a whole new level. The road is tough, acceptance from companies is trickling, but we are moving forward. We hope that our event will help achieve that goal,” explains Donald Lim, co-founder of IMMAP and overall Chairman of the IMMAP DigiCon.

“IMMAP DigiCon is the best and biggest with the lineup of international speakers.

 Every digital organization: Google, Facebook, Twitter… were represented by their regional heads.
 This is where you can meet all the digital heads in the Philippines. What’s important is that you will meet every player in the industry—that’s more than 2000 delegates.
 It’s the best opportunity to network, and know what networks and brands are thinking,” said Lim in a video interview of Unbox.ph.

Torres also outlined some of IMMAP’s launchpad projects for 2016 that include, a refreshed Boomerang Awards to will now include Creativity in Data, Digital Craft,
 and Rising Startups.

The Boomerang Awards is IMMAP’s flagship body that honors creative excellence, effectiveness, and relevance.

IMMAP’s Digital Measurement Board will also unveil the E-squared = Exposure and Effectiveness evaluation of online advertising.

This year, the Education Committee’s Youth Congress will mine students to augment the need to digitize businesses.

Lastly, the association’s Advocacy that is Cyber Safety is slated to complement existing platforms of the DepEd.
Said Torres, “IMMAP stands to be the authority in digital because there has to be one ‘go to’ organization and thought leader for everything digital. And, with our plans for this 10th year celebration, we will be at the center of it all.”