With the Great Resignation, Great Gloom and the general challenges of recruiting and retaining employees plaguing employers, creating a sticky corporate culture is more important than ever. Economic uncertainty has also created challenges with customer acquisition and retention. While conventional wisdom would indicate an equal investment in employee experience (EX) and customer experience (CX) would yield equal returns, research indicates otherwise. In this session, Kent Lewis will outline the relationship between EX and CX and how to invest effectively to maximize both customer and employee engagement and retention. This session will outline useful tools and strategies to develop a Culture of Caring that has proven to increase revenue and profitability.

Learning Objectives and Takeaways:

1. Define a Culture of Caring and how it drives EX

2. Illustrate the potential ROI developing a Culture of Caring

3. Understand how your organization can foster a Culture of Caring

Just two years into his career as a marketer, Lewis flew across the country to speak to professors about the Internet’s impact on marketing communications in 1996. Since then, he’s presented to audiences over 700 times on a variety of topics, primarily relating to digital marketing, entrepreneurship and more recently, maximizing employee engagement. In 2023 alone, he presented 40 times, including two workshops in Ecuador. Lewis became an advocate for employee engagement and experience based on his recent role as CMO, after running his own award-winning agency for 22 years.

As a highly rated speaker, Lewis has been asked to return to annual conferences, trade association events. Examples include IABC Heritage Region connect2comms Conference, NATDA Trailer Show, InnoTech, SMASH, and Digital Summit series. For twenty years, he was an adjunct professor at Portland State University, and has been a volunteer instructor for SCORE Portland since 2015. In addition to speaking, Lewis writes for a host of business and marketing publications, including Inc., Business2Community, Portland Business Journal, SmartBrief, SEMpdx, and ThinkNW.

Lewis is currently Managing Partner at Anvil Unlimited, a business consultancy specializing in developing and guiding growth marketing strategies via digital channels and tools. Lewis acts as a Fractional CMO and strategic advisor, leveraging nearly 30 years of experience across 10 agencies and 1,200 clients. He is also Founder of pdxMindShare, Portland’s premier career community, with over 12,000 LinkedIn Group members.

Active in his community, Lewis has been involved in non-profit charity and professional trade organizations including early literacy program SMART Reading and The Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO).  Industry recognition and awards include Portland Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40 Award, American Marketing Association Oregon Chapter Marketer of the Year, and Top 100 Digital Marketing Influencers by BuzzSumo.