The Center on Global Brand Leadership at Columbia Business School held its annual BRITE conference on March 4 and 5 in Alfred Lerner Hall. The two-day event brought together leaders in business, technology, media and marketing to discuss how technology and innovation are transforming the ways that companies build and sustain brands.Panel topics at this year’s conference included digital marketing, crowdsourcing, tribes, social media, mass media and next-generation business. As part of BRITE’s focus on social media, audience members were invited to post their questions for the conference’s speakers on Twitter.Several key themes emerged throughout the conference, including the importance of trust and transparency in digital marketing, the value of building systems that are adaptable and scalable, and fueling innovation by understanding consumer and user behavior.“The nature of conversations between brands and their audiences continues to evolve dramatically,” said David Rogers, host of BRITE ’09 and executive director of the Center on Global Brand Leadership, in advance of the conference. “Digitally networked customers have a voice and power that is reshaping marketing and business models.”Featured speakers and panelists at the conference included Seth Godin, author of Tribes and Purple Cow and editor of Seth’s Blog; Jeff Howe, contributing editor for Wired and author of Crowdsourcing; Lisa Hsia, senior vice president, new media & digital, Bravo TV; Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do?; Umair Haque, director of the Havas Media Lab; and Professor Bernd Schmitt, faculty director of the Center on Global Brand Leadership and author of Big Think Strategy.