NextNW 2025: A Year in Review

As we wrap up 2025, it’s an ideal opportunity to reflect back on my first year as Executive Director of NextNW (formerly ThinkNW and SEMpdx). It’s been an honor taking the baton from Doug Zanger in January, who expanded what originated as Portland Advertising Federation in 1906 into five Pacific Northwest States and 2 Canadian Provinces over the previous five years. With limited funds and a mandate to elevate our members by building community through educational and networking opportunities and celebrating exceptional work and the people and companies that make it possible, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work.

My first step was to build a volunteer board of heavy-hitting marketing professionals with a shared passion for growing the creative community. Our current board is world-class, and I want to thank them for agreeing to take an active role in growing our non-profit organization. Realizing running an association with 119-year history is a heavy lift, I also created an Advisory Committee and stable of gifted and committed volunteers. Lastly, I want to acknowledge the importance of our sponsors this year, starting with Amazon XCM. NextNW would not exist without additional help of these financial supporters: Viant Technology, Forix, Data Speaks, Channel Factory, Pathlabs, Marmalade Creative, Serenity Studios, and MDZN.

As an educationally focused organization, hosting informative and engaging events is a priority. With the help of the Events team, we developed monthly webinars to support our broader membership (archived on our YouTube channel), as well as seminars and panels throughout the year. We also hosted a few Extremely Happy Hour networking events in Seattle and Portland.

Presented below is a selection of our scheduled events from 2025:

We also felt it important to maintain momentum and celebrate traditions with our annual creative awards event and golf tournament. The Cascadia Creative Awards teaser video, photo gallery and full awards show from June is available in case you missed it or would like to relive the fun. Our NW Open at Rose City Golf Course was also well-attended and reviews. Check out the photo gallery and video by Portland Drone.

Education goes beyond hosting webinars, seminars, and panels. For years, we’ve posted informative blog posts, and this year was no exception. Below are just a few of our posts from 2025, that just so happen to be authored by yours truly.

To end 2025 and kick off 2026 strong, we are hosting three webinars and an Extremely Happy Hour in Portland and hope you’ll join us for these and our signature events:

12.3 Webinar: Unlocking the Future of Programmatic Advertising: How NextNW Sponsor Viant is Leading with AI and CTV
12.4 Ugly Sweater Holiday Party at Migration Brewing
1.6.26 Webinar: A Legal Playbook For Creative Agencies – How to deal with anxiety & alligators with Matchstick Legal
2.3 Webinar: The Systems You Need To Scale Your Agency with Jason Swenk
6.3: Cascadia Creative Awards at Castaway PDX
9.25: NW Open Golf Tournament at Rose City Golf Course

Looking into next year, we plan to continue with monthly webinars and expand into live streaming for optimal reach and engagement. We’re also expanding our Extremely Happy Hours into Boise and Vancouver BC. Our event team is finalizing our Q1 events, including an AI Panel in Portland and CMO Panel in Seattle. I’m extremely excited to announce we will be hosting the author of 22 best sellers in 39 language: marketing blogger and author, Seth Godin, for our March webinar. Look for more details in the coming weeks on these and other events we’ve got in the works.