B2B Online Atlanta 2026
November 9 - 11, 2026
Grand Hyatt Atlanta in Buckhead, GA
Day 3
Day 3
Day 3: CX, Growth, and Brand Authority
8:00 am - 8:45 am
Breakfast
8:45 am - 8:55 am
Opening Remarks
Ryan Portela, Program Director, B2B Online Atlanta yan Portela, Program Director, B2B Online Atlanta
8:55 am - 9:05 am
Chair's Welcome Remarks
9:05 am - 9:25 am
Keynote Presentation: From Defense to Offense: Making Customer Experience Your Growth Engine
Lee Kemp -
SVP, Customer Success & Transformation,
PCNA
For too long, B2B digital transformation has been pitched solely as a defensive tactic to cut costs and drive internal efficiency. It is time to flip the script and align your entire executive team around the customer experience as your primary revenue driver. This keynote explores how prioritizing frictionless buyer journeys over internal convenience inevitably leads to massive market expansion and retention.
9:25 am - 9:55 am
Keynote Panel: Why Some AI Pilots Scale and Others Stall
Hemang Upadhyay -
Sr. Manager - Product Management (AI),
LG Electronics USA
Ryan P. Whitney -
Director, Enterprise Data,
Winsupply
We have officially reached peak buzzword fatigue; executives are tired of hearing that AI will magically solve every business problem. This candid panel cuts through the Silicon Valley hype to focus strictly on the non-hyped, practical, and highly effective AI deployments working in B2B today. Learn how to identify narrow, solvable use cases that deliver immediate ROI without requiring multi-year, ERP-level overhauls.
9:55 am - 10:15 am
Partner Presentation: Turning Customer Signals Into Long-term Growth
A solution partner shares how the best B2B teams convert customer data into smarter brand and product decisions. A practical look at moving from raw metrics to real direction. A solution partner shares how the best B2B teams convert customer data into smarter brand and product decisions. A practical look at moving from raw metrics to real direction.
10:15 am - 10:35 am
Keynote: From Data to Intelligence: Utilizing Customer Insights to Forge Brand Growth and Innovation
Shermika Dunner -
Innovation Leader, Brand and Insights,
Kimberly-Clark Corporation
While B2B organizations have access to more data than ever before, many struggle to translate these raw metrics into intelligent, brand-building strategies. This session explores how forward-thinking leaders move beyond basic analytics to harness both qualitative and quantitative customer signals, shifting the internal narrative from simple operational efficiency to strategic market expansion. Discover how to actively capture feedback from the entire customer journey and convert those insights into a unified roadmap that elevates brand authority, shapes new product introductions, and drives measurable revenue growth.
Transition from passive data collection to active intelligence by utilizing qualitative verbatim responses and informal customer councils to deeply understand how your buyers' worlds are changing.
Analyze post-purchase behaviors and lost-quote follow-ups to pinpoint exact friction points, aligning your marketing campaigns and brand messaging directly with the parameters of value that matter most to your prospects.
Bridge the gap between central marketing and specific business units by translating customer feedback into actionable support for New Product Introductions (NPIs) to optimize content and search visibility before a launch.
Break down supply chain silos by sharing vital market intelligence and search data with your distribution partners to synchronize technology roadmaps and uncover new opportunities for joint brand growth.
10:35 am - 10:55 am
Partner Presentation: The Tech Stack Behind Modern CX - What You Can (& Cannot) Live Without
A partner breaks down the technology choices that quietly power a standout customer experience. Get a clear-eyed view of what to build, what to buy, and what to skip. A partner breaks down the technology choices that quietly power a standout customer experience. Get a clear-eyed view of what to build, what to buy, and what to skip.
10:55 am - 11:35 am
Networking Break
Track A: Marketing & Brand
11:35 am - 12:20 pm Panel Remix: Getting Found When the Buyer Is a Bot: The New Rules of B2B DiscoveryAre you buyers starting on Google? Or AI Search? This panel brings together practitioners who are actually working on it: optimizing for AI-driven discovery, rethinking product content for machines as much as humans, and watching their funnel change in real time. We'll cover what's working, what's still guesswork, and where the smart money is going. Then we flip it. You move to a roundtable, pick the question that's keeping you up at night, and compare notes with peers facing the same shift.
Whether anyone can actually measure if they show up in AI search yet, and what they're using to try
How product content and structured data need to change when the reader is an algorithm
What's moved a number versus what's still a science project
Track A: Marketing & Brand
12:20 pm - 12:40 pm Partner Presentation: The Discovery Audit: Are You Even Findable?A working session, not a talk. Attendees pressure-test their own discoverability across traditional search, marketplaces, and AI assistants, and leave with a short list of where they're invisible and what to fix first. A working session, not a talk. Attendees pressure-test their own discoverability across traditional search, marketplaces, and AI assistants, and leave with a short list of where they're invisible and what to fix first.
Track A: Marketing & Brand
12:40 pm - 1:00 pm Case Study: Ask the Robot (live AI bake-off)Pull up ChatGPT and a couple of AI assistants on the big screen. Live, in the room, ask them to recommend a supplier for a few real categories your attendees sell into. Everyone watches who gets named and who's invisible. It's part demo, part horror movie. Nothing makes the AEO problem real faster than a distributor watching their whole category get recommended without them in it. High energy, zero prep beyond a wifi connection and nerve.
Track B: e-Comm Ops
11:35 am - 12:20 pm Panel Remix: Rise of the Machines: Mastering Agentic Commerce and GEOThe future of B2B is rapidly shifting toward AI agents researching, comparing, and purchasing products on behalf of human buyers. This keynote explores how to prevent your products from becoming mere commodities in an agent-driven landscape. Learn how to pivot your traditional SEO strategies into Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) so your brand remains visible and authoritative to Large Language Models.
Adapt your content strategy to answer highly specific, granular technical questions that AI models parse to formulate their answers.
Optimize your digital catalog and data syndication to be easily readable and executable by AI agents to prevent losing market share.
Monitor and influence your brand sentiment within LLMs, as these tools now gauge and report on brand authority during the research phase.
Implement conversational search features that allow human buyers to interact directly with their search results to instantly build complex carts.
Track B: e-Comm Ops
12:20 pm - 12:40 pm Partner Presentation: How Long Is Your AI Leash? What You Should & Shouldn’t Permit AI to Touch In a Lawless WorldAI will touch almost anything you let it. The hard part is deciding what you shouldn't. In a market with few rules and a lot of pressure to move fast, the teams winning aren't the ones using AI everywhere; they're the ones who know where to draw the line. This session digs into the real decisions: which tasks are safe to hand off, which ones still need a human in the loop, and where one bad automated call can cost you a customer or a contract. We'll talk pricing, customer data, contract language, and the gray areas in between. Come ready to leave with a clearer sense of how long your own leash should be.
A practical framework for sorting tasks into hand-off, human-in-the-loop, and hands-off, so you stop deciding AI permissions case by case
Where the real risk lives in B2B specifically: pricing, customer data, and contract language, and how to put guardrails on each before something breaks
How the fastest-moving teams set limits without killing speed, so you can say yes to AI in more places precisely because you've drawn clear lines
Track B: e-Comm Ops
12:40 pm - 1:00 pm Case Study: Beyond the Cart: Transforming Your Digital Portal into a Customer Intelligence Hub Jared Hogue - Director of Marketing, Digital Experiences, UPSNot every B2B customer wants to click "add to cart," as many large enterprise buyers will stubbornly stick to their entrenched EDI systems or automated ERP emails to place their orders. Drawing on his extensive background in experience design, content, and the overall transaction journey for UPS.com, Jared Hogue will reveal how to pivot your digital strategy by enhancing self-serve tools rather than just focusing on the checkout button. You'll walk away learning how to build a digital "command center" for your buyers. Discover how to create the necessary personalization to serve everyone, turning your website into an informational data hub that creates a superior customer experience and immense brand loyalty.
Scale Your Personalization: Learn how to enhance self-serve tools so that the digital journey is dynamically tailored for all users, accommodating both single-person enterprises and large corporate customers.
Rethink the Digital Focus: Shift your strategy away from forcing online transactions, prioritizing instead a frictionless environment where customers can seamlessly access their own account data.
Accommodate Legacy Buyers: Grant entrenched customers 24/7 digital visibility into their complex order histories and invoice statuses without forcing them to abandon their established purchasing habits.
Map Features via Customer Intelligence: Recruit key customers as early beta-testers through targeted, one-on-one phone conversations rather than relying on generic email surveys to accurately map out your portal's required features.
1:00 pm - 1:50 pm
Networking Lunch
1:50 pm - 2:30 pm
Panel: When the Honeymoon Ends: Keeping Digital Transformation Funded and Moving
Myca van Dijk -
mySchneider Digital Product Leader, NAM,
Schneider Electric
Monique Lesser -
Vice President of Digital Transformation,
Evonik Corporation
Jennifer Walth -
Senior Advertising Manager,
Douglas Dynamics
Seth Bergerud -
Senior Product Manager, Ice Control,
Douglas Dynamics
Every digital initiative looks good in the pitch. The real test is month nine, when the quick wins are behind you, the complexity is in front of you, and someone in the CFO's office is asking what you have to show for it. This session is a candid conversation between practitioners who have navigated that moment and the technology partners who helped them get through it, focused on what actually works when the pressure is on.
The budget defense frameworks practitioners use when leadership asking hard questions mid-transformation.
How your tech partners can help customers build the internal narrative, not just deliver the product.
What leading organizations do differently in how they structure accountability and communicate value during long-cycle initiatives.
2:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Case Study: Beyond the Blueprint: Market Intelligence and Cross-functional Transformation as Strategic Growth Engine
Mohit Sheera -
Strategic Planning Leader,
Terumo Blood and Cell Technology
Transformations often fail not because of lack of intent or faulty technology, but because organizations lack the alignment required to guide people through the resulting disruption. This intensive case study draws from a real-world transformation journey in MedTech industry to drive successful transformations by, first, building strong foundation through Market Intelligence and customer centricity, and then driving alignment across executive intent, strategic planning, technology implementation, and change management roadmaps across various functions involved.
3:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Rotating Hotseat Panel: Slaying the Giant: Thriving in the Shadow of Amazon Business
Amazon Business is no longer just a looming threat; it is an aggressive, thousand-pound gorilla fundamentally altering B2B buyer expectations. This high-stakes panel unpacks the latest strategic shifts in Amazon's playbook and how independent distributors can fight back by allowing an audience member to jump on stage to join the conversation. Learn when to leverage Amazon as a strategic marketplace partner and how to outmaneuver them through specialized expertise and high-touch services.
Analyze Amazon Business's latest logistical investments and technology trends to anticipate their next moves in the B2B sector.
Differentiate your brand by offering bundled B2B services, highly technical support, and curated catalogs that a massive generalist marketplace cannot provide.
Determine the financial viability, channel conflict, and brand risks of syndicating your catalog to sell directly on the Amazon Business platform.
Upgrade your own site's personalization and fulfillment transparency to match the baseline expectations Amazon has permanently set for modern buyers.