WASHINGTON, DC—Former Clinton advisor and Burson-Marsteller chief executive Mark Penn (pictured), Hill & Knowlton CEO Jack Martin, and Honeywell chief communications officer Tom Buckmaster will be among the featured speakers at The Holmes Report’s first ThinkTankLive conference in Washington, DC, on October 27.

The conference will look at The Intersection of Politics and Branding, with an emphasis on the ways in which communications techniques from the political realm are influencing corporate and marketing communications.

Tickets for the event are on sale via Eventbrite at $395 for the full-day conference, which is being sponsored by Burson-Marsteller and Hill & Knowlton.

“Political campaigns have always been on the leading edge when it comes to the application of new tools and techniques in communications, from real-time research and evaluation to the use of social media and engage and activate loyal supporters,” says Holmes Report editor-in-chief Paul Holmes, who will chair the conference. “This conference brings together senior professionals who have worked in both worlds and asks what lessons corporate communicators and marketing executives can learn from the political realm, and also whether there are some techniques from the political arena that simply don’t work in the corporate world.”

Mark Penn is worldwide CEO of Burson-Marsteller, a leading global public relations and public affairs agency, and President of Penn Schoen Berland (PSB), a strategic research firm. He has served as a senior adviser to corporate leaders like Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and Bill Ford, and helped to elect over 25 leaders around the world, including serving as senior adviser to President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. Mark is also author of the best-selling book “Microtrends” and a regular guest on cable television and a columnist for the Wall Street Journal.

Jack Martin became global chairman and chief executive officer of Hill & Knowlton, Inc. on Jan. 1, 2011 upon its merger with a firm he founded, Public Strategies, Inc. Martin founded Public Strategies in 1988 and directed the rapid growth of the firm. He built a strong senior management team with impressive corporate and public experience as he focused on strategic counsel at the board and executive levels for the firm's Fortune 500 clients. Martin's career has been significantly shaped by his association with his long-time friend and mentor, U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, beginning with his first job as travel aide at the age of 21, and serving as Executive Assistant in the U.S. Senate and Campaign Manager to two of Bentsen's re-election campaigns.

Tom Buckmaster is vice president of communications, overseeing global advertising, branding and communications at Honeywell, a $33 billion company with operations in more than 500 locations worldwide. Buckmaster also serves as president of Honeywell Hometown Solutions, the company's philanthropic and community relations initiative. Tom's accomplishments at Honeywell include the repositioning of the company's brand and supporting advertising standards, implementing a contemporary universal web strategy for all on-line applications, the development and execution of an employee value proposition and the creation of a new global platform for corporate giving. Buckmaster previously served in senior leadership positions in several of the world's leading public relations agencies including president of Edelman PR New York, EVP and GM of Hill and Knowlton's Washington office and a senior partner of Fleishman Hillard.