Agenda

Pick up your name badge, then enjoy breakfast and networking before we kick off GAIN 2025!

Hit the ground running as Juliana Slye, Chair of this year's GAIN Executive Committee and CEO of Government Business Results, kicks off GAIN 2025.

We spend a lot of time telling government agencies how different we are. But watch the videos, read our white papers, and a attend the webinars we're producing and you'll quickly find that we all sound the same (especially to procurement officers.)

It's time we stop telling government clients we're different. Start showing them you're different.

It turns out one of the most effective ways to grow your B2G business isn't just filling a funnel with leads that languish through 12-18 month sales cycles. What if you could nurture those prospects more effectively, turning them into sales faster with higher conversion rates? It's time to exploit your loyalty loop.

B2G marketers are facing a reckoning. Traditional marketing tactics—built for stable budgets, predictable procurement, and long lead times—are failing in the face of today’s volatility. In 2025, federal buyers are mission-focused, risk-averse, leaning into urgency with off the shelf tech purchasing, and overwhelmed with options. In this fireside chat, the CMO of Mattermost will discuss how bold, mission-aligned marketing can break through the noise and build trust with the government’s most critical buyers.

Mattermost, a secure collaboration platform used by the DoD, intelligence agencies, and critical infrastructure, has transformed its GTM approach to thrive in this high-stakes environment. This conversation will unpack the real-world marketing shifts that helped the company evolve from an open-source underdog into a trusted name in mission operations.

Expect a candid conversation about what works—and what doesn’t—in modern B2G marketing. You’ll hear how Mattermost:

1. Threw out the old playbook and restructured around mission outcomes Invested in unmatched content creativity to stand apart from imitators
2. Built trust through alliances with Microsoft, Oracle, and defense tech partners
3. Structured their marketing org to move fast, take risks, and win internal trust

You’ll walk away with inspiration and tactical insights to lead through uncertainty, build deeper alignment with your buyers, and put your mission in motion.

Refresh your coffee and jot down your thoughts before we continue with the next leg of GAIN 2025.

This session contains a hands-on activity.

The buying journey of a government customer is changing dramatically. They now have access to an avalanche of information to define their problem, scope a solution, evaluate providers, and develop purchase intent. And sophisticated marketers can make that information more curated, relevant, and personally-tuned than ever. The buyer’s journey is largely digital now, at first, with search, social and digital content supplanting the role that was once filled by enterprising sales reps backed up by sales playbooks and enablement. So, do technology and service providers still need sales reps?

This session will address that question by delving into each step of the buyer’s journey, the gaps in marketing approaches that slow down or stop that journey, and the opportunities latent in those disruptive moments to envision a more effective mix of marketing and sales activity. Eric Trexler, a prolific public sector sales leader, and Greg Herbold, seasoned in public sector go-to-market, spent years working together to attack these challenges, and develop bold, yet practical, actions in their business. They personify the natural tension between sales and marketing, practical and visionary, left brain and right brain. And they aim to convince you that the modern B2G playbook balances all of that too.

Most B2G organizations have a treasure trove of data at their disposal, from publicly available information on their customers to internal account histories and ongoing digital engagement signals from prospects. Unfortunately, this data is often underutilized – if it’s used at all.

The explosion of data science capabilities and tools over the past several years makes it possible for marketing and sales professionals to better focus their limited resources on the target accounts that have the highest propensity to buy.

B2G companies that learn how to harness this data effectively can dramatically increase their win rates and realize higher return on their marketing investments.

This session will delve into innovative data strategies that empower B2G marketers to target the right government agencies with the right messages at the right time while optimizing resource allocation and enhancing conversion rates.

Attendees will learn about:

1. Implementing Predictive Scoring Models: Discover how to use algorithms to prioritize accounts based on their likelihood to buy, ensuring focused and efficient marketing efforts while helping sellers ero in on the best prospects to call (or ignore).

2. Tracking Buyer Intent and Engagement: Understand how tracking buyer intent and engagement signals across digital properties can further qualify prospects and target them with precise marketing activities based on where they are in the buying journey

3. Integrated Data-Driven Approach: Explore the synergy between predictive scoring models and Account-Based Marketing (ABM) platforms, which significantly improves targeting, conversion rates, and overall sales performance.

Join us for an insightful session that offers practical takeaways and real-world examples to help you rewrite your B2G marketing playbook with bold data strategies.

Much like a captain steering through shifting tides, marketers must navigate the complexities of balancing sales-driven urgency with strategic priorities, optimizing lead flow, and demonstrating ROI. Organizations often find themselves caught between immediate revenue demands and long-term growth strategies—while contending with fragmented lead tracking, inconsistent automation, and misalignment between marketing and sales teams.

To successfully chart a course through these challenges, GovCon marketers must be the trusted navigator between corporate marketing and sales, ensuring alignment with business growth objectives and market dynamics while captaining the go-to-market strategy and ROI. In this session, attendees will learn how to secure leadership buy-in and champion meaningful metrics—including brand influence, pipeline influence, sourced pipeline, SQLs, and MQLs—to guide decisions for both short-term wins and sustainable growth.

And, like a well-coordinated crew, effective collaboration between marketing, sales operations, and marketing teams is essential for guiding leads through the funnel and maximizing ROI. Navigating lead flow requires identifying gaps, bridging short-term fixes, and working toward long-term solutions. Success depends on more than automation—it demands connecting automated and manual processes for strategic insights, ensuring leads are not merely touched but effectively nurtured and converted.

Drawing from real-world experiences—from building marketing functions in small companies to transforming Public Sector marketing for Fortune 500 firms—this session offers practical strategies backed by proven success. Attendees will gain insights into top-performing teams with industry-leading conversion rates and KPIs.

Attendees will leave with actionable strategies to confidently navigate marketing strategy challenges, optimize lead flow, and establish themselves as indispensable drivers of business growth.

In the complex and competitive world of federal contracting, traditional marketing strategies no longer cut it. Modern B2G marketers must become data-driven, AI-enabled collaborators who align tightly with business development, capture, and delivery teams. To win work and support the administration’s mandate for speed and efficiency, we must connect more intelligently with decision-makers and meet them where—and how—they prefer to buy.

In this panel, Holly Bone (VP of Marketing at Alpha Omega), joined by the company’s Chief AI Transformation Officer and a senior Solutions Architect, will explore how they’re rewriting the B2G playbook by using artificial intelligence, data insights, and deep cross-functional collaboration to enable capture and drive smarter growth.

Together, they’ll show how Alpha Omega:

Uses AI to profile and understand target decision-makers, analyze their behavior and digital habits, and tailor messaging accordingly.

Partners across BD, capture, SMEs, and technologists to build high-value marketing content, ensure message alignment, and pursue opportunities via accelerated procurement channels like Tradewinds and SBIR/STTR.

Uses campaign data to continuously refine strategy—sharing a real-world example of how a pivot in messaging and channel targeting led to stronger engagement and better results.

Enjoy lunch and explore the exhibit hall as you reflect on the morning sessions, then get ready to dive into part two of GAIN 2025.

Events are still one of the most powerful ways to connect in GovCon—whether in person or virtual. From conferences and association meetings to webinars, networking receptions, and briefings, events remain a critical part of public sector marketing. At times, it can feel like there’s a new GovCon event every week. The market is crowded, government audiences are pressed for time, budgets are not growing, and attention is harder than ever to earn. Standing out and getting the most from every event requires a well-stocked toolkit and constant adaptation based on results.

Lisa Sherwin Wulf and Mark Amtower have tested and refined over 100 tips and tactics to help you blow up your next event’s results—whether you’re attending, sponsoring, speaking, or staffing a booth.

In this fast-paced session, they’ll deliver 20 of their best tips from their new book in just 20 minutes—drawing from their combined 70+ years of public sector marketing experience and their participation in thousands of events. These easy-to-execute ideas include both free and budget-friendly tactics. You’ll hear how to drive more attendance, engage attendees, amplify your presence, and extend the life of each event well beyond the day it happens.

LinkedIn plays a key role—but it’s not the only play. These tips span digital and onsite tactics, internal enablement, partner collaboration, and pre- and post-event strategies.

You’ll leave with practical actions to take right away and the inspiration to refresh your own event playbook to get more from every event you participate in.

In a landscape where federal buyers are inundated with messages, transactional marketing just doesn’t cut it anymore. Michelle Clark brings a powerful perspective on how to shift from one-off touchpoints to building lasting, trust-based relationships with government clients. Drawing from real-world B2G experience, this session explores how authenticity, thought leadership, and strategic storytelling can humanize your brand, align with mission needs, and foster long-term loyalty in the public sector. You’ll leave with actionable frameworks for relationship-first marketing that drives real impact—and repeat business.

This session contains a hands-on activity.

In the world of government contracting, marketing is often seen as an accessory to proposals rather than a growth driver in its own right. But in today’s increasingly competitive landscape, especially for mid-sized businesses vying for full and open contracts, brand reputation can be the differentiator that tips the scale. This session explores how one federal contractor rewrote its playbook to turn brand into a strategic growth lever. From repositioning campaigns and values-based storytelling to proposal-ready content and cross-functional alignment, attendees will hear real-world lessons from the trenches of B2G transformation.

We’ll explore how to build a modern, memorable B2G brand that resonates with technical evaluators, contracting officers, and agency stakeholders alike—without falling into buzzword traps or compliance landmines. The session will include examples of how to integrate marketing with capture and delivery teams, use strategic content to support pipeline health, and position thought leadership to stand out in a saturated space.

For B2G marketers ready to elevate their role and help rewrite the narrative around marketing’s role in federal growth, this session provides a bold and practical roadmap.

Take a stretch break then get ready for the final sessions of GAIN 2025.

ABM means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. To enterprise sales teams, it means not just executing targeted marketing against a key account... it means driving a specific deal forward. In B2G, we all know that we work in 2-3 year cycles towards a specific award. This session will detail how you can partner more closely with sales on a specific deal -- whether it be pre-RFP or late stage -- to identify and engage the right decision makers, position your company's value against the competition, and catalyze a win. This is your guide to providing the quantifiable lift that your sales team is looking for!

This session contains a hands-on activity.

The B2G marketing landscape is constantly evolving, demanding greater efficiency and impact from modern marketers. Moving ‘beyond buzzwords,’ this session cuts through the hype to provide practical, actionable strategies for leveraging AI and automation to unlock significant productivity gains. We'll start by clearly defining the roles of both automation and artificial intelligence and identifying which marketing tasks are best suited for transformation – from streamlining content creation to enhancing data analysis for better decision-making.

You'll discover a straightforward four-step framework for designing and implementing effective AI-powered workflows within your team. We'll walk through each step: identifying the right opportunity, choosing appropriate tools, designing the workflow, and finally, testing and refining for success. To help you get started immediately, we'll share concrete project examples tailored for B2G marketers, illustrating how you can apply these concepts in practice.

This session is designed for B2G marketers eager to make bold moves and enhance their efficiency. While a foundational understanding of common marketing software and digital tools will be helpful for context, it is not strictly required to grasp the core concepts and framework presented. Join this session to learn how to practically apply AI and automation for greater productivity and impact.

Market Connections is known in the B2G space for delivering actionable insights. The M4PS Content Marketing Review is our way of giving B2G marketing teams sound tactical insight that will result in a higher return on investment. Come learn about the results from the 2025 M4PS survey.

Reflect on everything you learned as we close out GAIN 2025.

Celebrate the winners of the 2025 GAIN Awards, the top honors for B2G marketers.

Unwind with complimentary refreshments as you take advantage of this final opportunity to build lasting connections with your peers.