What To Wear: Forbes CMO Summit - Chicago Tribune

The world's leading marketing practitioners and thought leaders will gather for the 9th Annual Forbes CMO Summit ^[1] on October 23rd to 25th, at the stunning waterside setting of the Mandarin Oriental in beautiful Miami, Florida.

More than 100 participants will be in attendance, including Dallas Cowboys Football Club's Executive Vice President & Chief Brand Officer, Charlotte Jones Anderson; HSN, Inc.'s Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer, Bill Brand; American Express OPEN's Senior Vice President of Customer Marketing & Engagement, Mary Ann Fitzmaurice Reilly; Cisco's Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, Blair Christie; Microsoft's Executive Vice President of Advertising & Strategy, Mark Penn; gyro's Chief Executive Officer & Chief Creative Officer, Christoph Becker; ForbesWoman's Publisher, Moira Forbes; and, of course, Forbes Media's Chairman & Editor-in-Chief, Steve Forbes.

The mission at the Forbes CMO Summit ^[2] is to discuss today's complex marketing ecosystem and explore a multitude of tactics and digital tools to meet these challenges. Discussion topics include, The Transformational CMO: Marketer as Enterprise Value Creator, Life's a Journey not a Destination: Managing the New Customer Experience Paradigm and CMO to CEO - a conversation on how to make the leap from successful marketer to company CEO. Here is the CMO Summit's full 3-day agenda ^[3] .

A dynamic business event demands a dynamic professional presentation. After reviewing the few available snapshots from previous year's conferences, I noticed many guest speakers and attendees wearing lots of black. Since the CMO Summit ^[4] community is an innovative, creative, intelligent and collaborative group, why not break from the traditional, nondescript attire, and use great style to visually highlight these professional strengths?

I'm a big advocate for wearing a vibrant color to business conferences. It's an effective connector. However, I'm recommending you try something a little different (and equally exciting) for this particular event to best visually commemorate the current field of marketing, its invigorating climate, groundbreaking strategies, its real-time demands and your expertise in the industry. This fall season's fresh take on microprints is an ideal way to infuse a little bit of color with your favored, go-to black, navy, brown, gray or other neutral colors, while still achieving the powerfully positive impact that a vibrant color provides. You will visually communicate your confidence and competence instantly at this year's Forbes CMO Summit ^[5] .

Here are two alternative outfits to inspire you. Both are dresses, but the same style principals can be reinterpreted into separates as well. Blazers and tights are optional, depending upon the weather.

Tory Burch Denise Dress $263/ MICHAEL Michael Kors Studded Suede Ailee Pumps $175/ MaxMara Blazer $545/ Janna Conner Designs Earrings $50/ J.Crew Opaque Tights $27/ Marc by Marc Jacobs Colorblocked Bag $700 Steffen Schraut Navy & Red Check Dress $405/ Zara Navy Court Pumps $90/ Rebecca Taylor Navy Leather Tweed Jacket $650/ Baroni Blossom Drop Earrings $98/ MICHAEL Michael Kors Watch $180/ Zara Navy Leather Suede Bag $80

Do you have an industry event or business activity you would like featured on Forbes Style File: Style Spotlight? Let us know in the comments section.

Kristina Moore is a style expert focusing on visual presentation as a dynamic professional tool. She is the founder and editor of Corporate Fashionista ^[18] . Kristina welcomes your comments and questions.