Looking through the footage we shot at Alterian’s Engaging Times summit in Chicago, one thing is clear. Leading companies have rethought engagement and they’re a long way ahead of the pack.

Instead of thinking about “engagement” in terms of “exposure to the marketing message”, either on a webpage, not unsubscribing to an email or being exposed to an advertisement, it’s time we started thinking about “engagement” in terms of a reciprocal relationship between business and consumer.

Brands can’t just communicate if they want to engage. They need to start participating.

Over the coming weeks we’ll be editing up our interviews from the summit. We have some really interesting examples of how marketers can achieve engagement through participation.