New Network to Help State’s Business Community Prepare for Rapid Change in the Experience Economy through Learning and Professional Development Opportunities.

Designing a winning customer experience and employee experience model has become a powerful competitive advantage in business. In Maryland, interest in how to become “experiential” has become so strong that the global Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) announced that it chose the state for its newest regional network.

Co-founded by Edwin “Ed” Bodensiek, former chief experience officer at Miles & Stockbridge and owner of Cravety, and Gregory Derwart, managing director of the Maryland Department of Commerce, CXPA’s Baltimore/Chesapeake Network is the first organization of its kind in the state to pull together business leaders, marketers, human resources leaders, digital transformation experts, and culture change leaders around the business strategy of experience design.

“Customers are smarter and more well-informed than ever, and expectations are far higher,” said Gregory Derwart. “The same thing is true of employees, who examine your talent brand to make decisions about whether to work for you or not, and once they do, whether they will become your promoters or detractors. The time has come to have more structured opportunities to learn from each other and move this new field forward. It promises to keep Maryland as a whole much more competitive too.”

“Building a customer experience around a brand is dead wrong in the Experience Economy,” said co-founder Ed Bodensiek. “To compete, organizations need to build the brand around the customer experience. It’s a new way of thinking, but to operationalize it, it’s going to take new analytics and a far more intentional alignment of every function in the business. That means new methodologies and a heavy focus on culture. We are thrilled CXPA chose Maryland for its newest network. It will really help practitioners and the professionally curious right here in our backyard learn proven methods to meet radically different expectations.”

The local network’s co-founders see beneficial timing and trendlines for the new group. They also expect interest from the C-suite, marketing and HR disruptors. According to recent surveys from Oracle, American Express, Forrester Research and Gartner, among others, up to 86 percent of customers say they will pay more for an effortless customer experience. At the same time, amidst historically low levels of unemployment, employees have greater choice and demands of their employers – placing more urgency on organizations to develop employee experience models that move past mere employee engagement tactics.

The Baltimore/Chesapeake Network will focus on education and networking around satisfaction, loyalty, data science, culture change, branding, and technology. For its first official programming event, the group has begun to look for space to hold a “State of Customer Experience and Employee Experience in Maryland” event on Oct. 2, 2018. A portion of the event will be webcast and made available to more than 7,000 members of the global CXPA as part of a sequence of worldwide broadcasts for CX Day. The State of Maryland will also present its 2018 Customer Experience Report during the event. Both public sector and private sector leaders are currently being recruited to present.

To join the new network or learn about its upcoming events, interested parties can visit the CXPA networking page or Meetup page, or contact ed@cravety.com or gregory.derwart@maryland.gov. Nearly 100 members of the CXPA are based in Maryland.

The new group’s initial planning committee includes Neal Woodson and Giulia Pistorio.

About the Customer Experience Professionals Association

Founded in 2011, the Customer Experience Professionals Association(CXPA) is the premier global non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and cultivation of the Customer Experience profession.The CXPA supports the professional development of its members and advances the field by providing shared best practices and education, developing standards, offering networking opportunities, promoting the industry, and creating a better understanding of the discipline of Customer Experience and Employee Experience.