S4 Episode 13: Stephanie Buscemi from Confluent on the future of real-time data and marketing

Digitally Curious

If you had the chance to speak with the former CMO of Salesforce about the future of Marketing what would you ask them? I had the chance to do just that on this episode of the Actionable Futurist Podcast, speaking with Stephanie Bushcemi who is currently the CMO of Confluent.
She was previously EVP and CMO of Salesforce and held the same role at IHS Markit, and also spent a number of years at SAP heading their Marketing functions.
We recorded the episode live at the Kafka Summit in London and spoke about a range of topics related to Confluent, and the platform Kafka that came out of LinkedIn, as well as hearing her thoughts on where marketing and events are headed in 2022 and beyond.
Stephanie is a strong advocate for real-time data, especially when it comes to marketing campaigns.

She was previously EVP and CMO of Salesforce, and held the same role at IHS Markit, and also spent a number of years at SAP heading their Marketing functions.

Prior to SAP, Stephanie was at Hyperion, acquired by Oracle, where she spent nearly a decade, in various marketing leadership positions building the performance management category and Hyperion's presence within.

An example used at the Kafka summit we were both attending was:
“When you cross the road you prefer to use real-time data to make a decision that the road is clear or would you use data that is 5 minutes old?”

We discussed a broad range of topics including:

• How Confluent came out of LinkedIn
• The birth of Project Kafka
• The need for real-time streaming data
• The role of Confluent
• Data in Motion is the future
• Why Stephanie became a Marketer
• Stephanie's experience as Salesforce CMO
• Why Stephanie moved from Salesforce to Confluent
• The similarities between Confluent and Salesforce as category creators
• Working on the Confluent IPO
• Tips for writing an IPO S1
• Advice for companies considering an IPO
• Does going public change how you go to market?
• The importance of open data
• How do you build a business on free, open-source software?
• Adapting to marketing in a post-pandemic world
• The need for marketers to be more data-savvy
• Getting out of the 4 walls of marketing
• What "customer 360" really is
• The value of communities
• The importance of influencers and advocacy in B2B marketing
• What the future of marketing looks like
• The likely mix between virtual and in-person selling
• Lessons learned as a Manager during the pandemic
• Three actionable tips for marketing in 2022 and beyond

Resources mentioned in the show
Educated by Tara Westover

More on Stephanie
Stephanie on LinkedIn
Confluence website

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1. S4 Episode 13: Stephanie Buscemi from Confluent on the future of real-time data and marketing (00:00:00)

2. How Confluent came out of LinkedIn (00:01:32)

3. The birth of Project Kafka (00:02:24)

4. The need for real-time streaming data (00:02:38)

5. The role of Confluent (00:03:10)

6. Data in Motion is the future (00:04:26)

7. Why Stephanie became a Marketer (00:07:22)

8. Stephanie's experience as Salesforce CMO (00:09:06)

9. Why Stephanie moved from Salesforce to Confluent (00:11:49)

10. The similarities between Confluent and Salesforce as category creators (00:13:12)

11. Working on the Confluent IPO (00:13:46)

12. Tips for writing an IPO S1 (00:14:52)

13. Advice for companies considering an IPO (00:15:35)

14. Does going public change how you go to market? (00:16:37)

15. The importance of open data (00:17:47)

16. How do you build a business on free, open-source software? (00:18:23)

17. Adapting to marketing in a post-pandemic world (00:20:06)

18. The need for marketers to be more data savvy (00:21:48)

19. Getting out of the 4 walls of marketing (00:23:28)

20. What "customer 360" really is (00:24:35)

21. The value of communities (00:26:09)

22. The importance of influencers and advocacy in B2B marketing (00:27:39)

23. What the future of marketing looks like (00:30:01)

24. The likely mix between virtual and in-person selling (00:32:05)

25. Lessons learned as a Manager during the pandemic (00:33:26)

26. Quickfire round (00:36:15)

27. Three actionable tips for marketing in 2022 and beyond (00:38:42)

28. More about Stephanie & Confluent (00:39:30)