What Will Be Covered at the Marketing and Leadership Summit

Get valuable marketing insights and trends, learn from inspirational speakers and subject matter experts, and take advantage of ample networking opportunities.

Agenda is tentative and subject to change.

TUESDAY, MAY 12

Travel Day

2:00–5:00pm: Registration Open

WEDNESDAY, MAY 13

7:30am–4:30pm: Registration Open
Location: Ballroom Foyer

7:45–8:45am: Breakfast
Location: Sabal Palm Room

** All Sessions on Wednesday will take place in Leamington Grand Ballroom

9:00-9:30am: Joe Bartozzi, NSSF President & CEO – Welcome & Introductions

Join us as we kick off the NSSF Marketing and Leadership Summit with some introductory remarks from NSSF’s President and CEO and also get to know your industry peers in attendance.

9:30–10:30am: Mel Blackwell – Uncommon Sense: The Fight to Fix Your Workplace Culture in the Wild West of Business

If you’re stuck firefighting, comfortably miserable, repeating the same problems, and watching culture slip, you don’t need theory. You need what works. With 35+ years leading startups, turnarounds, and large organizations, former EOS Integrator Mel Blackwell knows what breaks businesses—and how to fix them. He’s led from the floor to the C-suite and rebuilt teams when pressure was real and payroll was due.

10:30–11:00am: Patrick Hogan, Southwick & Associates – Understanding Today’s Firearm Consumers

New segmentation research produced by Southwick Associates examines trends among firearm buyers over the last five years, offering clarity on how motivations and purchasing patterns have shifted during and since the pandemic. The analysis covers both recreational and protection markets and defines distinct consumer personas based on their needs, behaviors, and lifestyle attributes. NSSF members can use these findings to guide strategic communication, enhance product planning, and evaluate new growth opportunities, contributing to more targeted marketing efforts and improved customer engagement across the industry.

11:00-11:30am: Networking Break
Location: Ballroom Foyer

11:30am–12:30pm: Erik Qualman – Digital Transformation: Design Your Future

Digital leaders are made—not born. Digital leaders aren’t digital. With the massive virtual shift that has occurred these last few years, the key is understanding & never forgetting the powerful harmony between our offline and online worlds. Based on practical research, Qualman showcases the 5 Habits that drive success for families, partners, and clients. How to take Word of Mouth and transform it into World of Mouth. Qualman reveals new techniques including Posting-It-Forward, Removing the #7, Being Flawsome, and other insights that will make you a better leader while positively impacting and transforming your organization today and tomorrow.

12:30–1:30pm: Networking Lunch
Location: Sabal Palm Room

1:30–2:30pm: Andy Hallinan, Warrior Marketing Group – The H30K™ Method: Unlocking Facebook and Instagram Advertising for Firearms Businesses

Most firearm industry advertisers have written off Facebook and Instagram as unusable due to constant bans and content violations.
That ends now.
In this session, Andy Hallinan reveals the exact approval process that allows firearm businesses to run Facebook and Instagram ads — even featuring firearms directly in the ads themselves. Attendees will see how the approval pathway works and how to unlock Meta’s AI-driven engine for powerful, profitable growth across the gun industry.

2:30-2:45pm: Networking Break
Location: Ballroom Foyer

2:45–3:45pm: Peter Rupert, Ph.D., Professor of Economics – Understanding & Navigating Economic Uncertainty

Economic uncertainty is reshaping spending and shifting priorities. To help provide some clarity and actionable insights, Dr. Peter Rupert will provide an analysis of the current economic landscape – and forecast what trends are beginning to take shape that will drive your business decision making.

3:45-4:45pm: Sheryl Connelly – The Future Of…

As a corporate futurist for more than a decade, Sheryl is skilled at identifying what’s coming around the corner and the potential influences to customer attitudes and behavioral patterns that directly impact business strategy.

5:00-6:30pm: Networking Reception
Location: Basshead Deck

Kick back, enjoy some refreshments, and build relationships with your fellow NSSF Marketing and Leadership Summit colleagues, sponsors, and speakers.

THURSDAY, MAY 14

8:00am–4:30pm: Registration
Location: Ballroom Foyer

7:45–8:45am: Breakfast
Location: Sabal Palm Room

9:00–10:00am: Cam Marston – Five Generations in the Workplace
Location:  Leamington Grand Ballroom

For the first time in history, five distinct generations – Matures, Boomers, Xers, Millennials and Gen Z – are employed side by side in the workplace. In this engaging presentation, Cam Marston teaches how each generation developed its core values, how these values manifest in the workplace daily as workplace preferences, and why they can all not only operate alongside each other but do so with extraordinary success.

10:00–11:30am – Marketing Roundtables
Location:  Ballroom A

Topics to Include:  Meta Advertising That Actually Works for Firearm Businesses; Incorporating Government Relations Materials to Keep Your Customers Informed; Ingredients of an Effective Social Media Strategy; Building an AI-Enabled Team; E-commerce:  Affiliate Marketing, SEO, Marketing Channels, and More

Networking Break (inside the Marketing Roundtable Room)
Location:  Ballroom Foyer

11:30am–12:30pm: Scott McKain – Beyond Distinction
Location:  Leamington Grand Ballroom

The real threat facing your audience is not the competition. It is irrelevance. Their sales approach may be outdated. Their customer experience efforts could be outmoded. Their leadership instinct might be to defend what used to work. In an AI-transformed world, the assumptions that built their success are the very things most likely to make them invisible.

12:30–1:30pm: Lunch
Location: Sabal Palm Room

1:30–4:30pm: Networking Activity*

Choice of:  Pickle Ball 101; Kayaking on the Lagoon; Bike Rental to Explore the Island
*Please visit your registration record to add on your choice of networking activity

4:30-5:30pm: Closing Networking Reception
Location: Basshead Deck

FRIDAY, MAY 15

Travel Day