The Business of Naming
About this Event
From creating community to staying creative (and competitive) to running the business of it all, The Business of Naming is where namers find what it takes to get ahead.
A packed day of talks, panels, and quality time alongside the best and brightest in naming.
Speakers:
- Alex Foss (Anthropic)
- Aron Galonsky (Ipsos)
- Brad Davidson (Novartis)
- Chelsea Carlson (The Working Assembly)
- Eunice Park (SAP)
- Everett Alatsis (former Chamberlain Group)
- James Mueller (Independent naming architect)
- Jed Rendleman (Independent namer)
- Jenna Wise (AW, Powered by Syneos Health)
- Laurel Sutton (Sutton Strategy)
- Marc Hershon (Landor)
- Rachel Metter (Interbrand)
- Scott Hauman (Ford)
- Steve Cecil (Wherewords)
- Tyler Doyle (TBD)
- Win Platt (Salesforce)
More information:
www.thebusinessofnaming.com
Tentative agenda
🕑: 08:30 AM - 09:15 AM
Doors & check-In
🕑: 09:15 AM - 09:45 AM
Welcome and opening remarks
🕑: 09:45 AM - 10:15 AM
Naming in the Wild
Host: Tyler Doyle (TBD)
Info: Lessons for namers from non-commercial naming.
🕑: 10:15 AM - 10:45 AM
Naming the Fear
Host: Rachel Metter (Interbrand)
Info: Fear shows up at every stage of a naming process. It softens strong ideas, blurs decision-making, and pulls clients toward what feels safe.
In this workshop, Rachel Metter (Certified Professional Coach and Director of Verbal Identity at Interbrand) and Jed Rendleman (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Namer) share practical ways to spot fear, name it, and work through it in real time - both in ourselves and within our clients.
When applied skillfully, these techniques empower us all to move past instinctive reactions and toward clearer, more strategic choices.
🕑: 10:45 AM - 11:00 AM
Break
🕑: 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM
How to Keep Linguistic Disaster Checks from Turning Into Disasters
Host: Laurel Sutton (Sutton Strategy)
Info: Linguistic checks are essential to global naming success. In this presentation, Laurel will review the process necessary to flag names that are unpronounceable, offensive, or have undesirable connotations in target geographies. (This applies to related brand elements, such as colors and shapes, too!) She'll also give examples of how relying on AI, or even simple internet searches, for linguistic checks can lead you down the wrong path. Finally, she'll share some of the landmines she's found in 20 years of running checks, and invite the audience to share their greatest hits (and misses).
🕑: 11:30 AM - 12:15 PM
Panel: Better Naming Research, Better Naming Decisions
Host: Alex Foss (Anthropic)
Info: This panel will explore the realities of naming research: what it is actually good for, where it so often goes wrong, and how teams and agencies can use it more effectively to support stronger naming decisions. The conversation will consider how researchers and namers can work together to make naming research more actionable, more credible, and better aligned with the real decisions organizations are trying to make.
The panelists bring experience across qualitative and quantitative research, agency and in-house contexts, and work spanning organizations including Interbrand, Ipsos, Anthropic, Adobe, LinkedIn, Novartis, and Lexicon.
🕑: 12:15 PM - 01:15 PM
Lunch break
Info: Please note: Lunch will not be served onsite. There are tons of great options within a few blocks of the venue.
🕑: 01:15 PM - 01:45 PM
How I Made $5 Million Naming New Products & Companies
Host: Steve Cecil (Wherewords)
Info: After 896 name jobs over 25 years, Steve has made every mistake possible and has learned something from each one. Oh, sure, he's enjoyed many successes: He named the Subaru Crosstrek, Coursera, and Figma. But running a naming business requires totally different skills than coming up with the actual names. So, he's developed systems, processes, and methods that work for him & he's happy to share some of them. You’ll learn about: how he became a namer, how he's grown his business, how he's promoted his business, how he manages the workflow, how he comes up with names, what a typical day looks like, how he structures a productive week, how he maintains work / life balance, plus much more.
🕑: 01:45 PM - 02:15 PM
Yes, And…Naming & Improv
Host: Marc Hershon
Info: What if your naming sessions aren't stuck because of the brief, but because you're killing ideas before they can breathe?
"Yes, And" is the foundational rule of improvisational comedy, refined over 70 years in theaters, clubs, and dive bars. It teaches performers to accept any idea and build on it. On a comedy stage, that creates momentum and prevents scene-killing. In a naming session, it creates momentum and helps prevent the death of ideas. Your team's "that'll never work" reflex? That's could be the idea that becomes your best name.
In this session, veteran naming expert and lifelong improv practitioner Marc Hershon, Director of Naming and Verbal Identity at Landor, draws on more than 30 years on the improv stage and an equally long career naming brands like BlackBerry, Clash of Clans, and nüvi. He'll show how his Unthink improv principles keep naming sessions from going flat and great ideas from dying before they're born.
🕑: 02:15 PM - 02:30 PM
Break
🕑: 02:30 PM - 03:15 PM
Panel: Insider Naming | Decisions, Dynamics, and Systems Inside the Enterprise
Host: Scott Hauman (Ford)
Info: This panel will explore the realities of in-house naming: how naming teams build authority inside organizations, navigate decision-making and stakeholder dynamics and politics, and create systems that work across complex product portfolios.
The panelists bring in-house naming experience from major organizations including Ford, SAP, CVS, Amazon, and Salesforce.
🕑: 03:15 PM - 03:30 PM
Rapidfire Talk: A Frame That Works | A Namer's Guide to Creative Strategy
Host: James Mueller (Independent Naming Architect)
Info: Every practice has a few rules of thumb, which help professionals make decisions and speak the same language. Put two or more of those those rules together, and you've got a framework. In this talk, James will briefly explain the uses and limitations of an industry-standard naming framework, introduce an original framework that aims to do something different, and talk about how to build a frame that works for you and your clients.
🕑: 03:30 PM - 03:45 PM
Rapidfire Talk: Weird with Purpose | Pharma Naming for Humans
Host: Jenna Wise (AW, Powered by Syneos Health)
Info: Pharma names are weird. How many drug ads have you seen and wondered how they landed on a name like Skyrizi? Or Opdivo, Rinvoq, Ozempic, Wegovy?
As verbal designers, you know the weirdness is on purpose, even if you can’t pinpoint why. The answer isn’t chaos; it’s constraint.
Join Jenna Wise as she reveals the human spark behind drug naming: how safety, science, language, and regulation converge to give every letter a job. She’ll reframe weird as purposeful design within one of the most tightly constrained creative systems out there. You’ll see how her team stays strategic inside those constraints, how they build names that work, and where AI fits in as a collaborator. Once you understand the system, the weirdness gives way to intent, and you’ll feel like a creative codebreaker.
🕑: 03:45 PM - 04:00 PM
Rapidfire Talk: Storied Naming | Infusing Names with Emotional Weight
Host: Chelsea Carlson (The Working Assembly)
🕑: 04:15 PM - 04:30 PM
Break
🕑: 04:30 PM - 05:00 PM
15 Things Namers Will Need For the Year to Come
Host: Early Barrett (Wild Geese Studio, Naming for Everyone)
🕑: 05:00 PM - 05:15 PM
Closing notes and thank you!
🕑: 06:30 PM - 08:30 PM
Informal post-conference gathering: Location to be announced!
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 375.32 to USD 455.35
