Speakers
Quick Links - Keynote 1 | Keynote 2 | Keynote 3 | Workshop Speakers
Naomi Langford-Wood
Naomi Langford-Wood is a great keynote speaker. It is rare to find a speaker like Naomi who seeks to demystify the subject of internet technologies and view them in truly business terms – cutting through the jargon and techno-babble and putting the role of new technologies and techniques into perspective in business life, both now and for the future.
A serial entrepreneur, businesswoman, business writer and speaker over the past 20 years, Naomi Langford-Wood always researches her audience to ensure that speeches are focused on their needs; and her speech “E-commerce without tears!” is sold out each time she gives it. Her speeches are useful, amusing, motivational, interesting, entertaining and thought-provoking.
Naomi has co-authored a number of books on subjects ranging from e-commerce and Internet technologies, through event management, to business planning and raising finance. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors and of the RSA as well as a Founder of the Association of eBusiness Professionals.
Keynote 1:
Shaa Wasmund
A graduate of The London School of Economics, Sháá’s entrepreneurial career had an unusual start. Having won a competition to write for Cosmopolitan magazine, she interviewed World Champion Boxer, Chris Eubank; by the end of the interview he offered her a job promoting his next fight. At just 22 Sháá became responsible for promoting and organising the biggest fight to ever take place in this country; with a live audience of 48,000 and a further 18 million people watching it from home.
In 1994, she set up her first business, a PR and Marketing company. James Dyson was one of her first clients and her role in establishing Dyson as one of the best known brands in the UK won her numerous awards including Cosmopolitan Business Woman of the Year. 5 years later with Dyson now a household name, Sháá was ready for a new challenge.
In late 1999, a chance meeting with Sir Bob Geldof ignited her contagious passion for the internet and all the possibilities that it holds. As one of the founding directors of his travel company, www.deckchair.com Sháá found herself at the heart of the internet revolution. A year later, Sháá decided to pursue her own venture and in 2000, raised substantial funds to launch www.mykindaplace.com. The company was recently sold to BSkyB.
In 2007 Shaa established a formidable partnership with fellow entrepreneur Dan Wagner to launch Bright Station Ventures, a unique investment vehicle with $100 million of capital dedicated to investing in internally generated ideas and seeding young companies that use information technology in innovative ways to create high growth business opportunities.
Shaa was selected as one of Management Today’s 35 Under 35 – their list of the brightest females of 2007 and in the same year, was named a “Young Gun” (entrepreneurs who are 35 or under and set to make big waves in the business world) by Growing Business.
Sháá is an intrinsic part of the new wave of UK Entrepreneurs combining real entrepreneurial drive and experience with a genuine desire to encourage and inspire others. Her latest venture is living proof. Smarta.com launched in January 2009 and is an innovative business platform providing free advice, networking and tools for entrepreneurs and business owners. Bringing business people together for support and inspiration, Smarta has hundreds of entrepreneur videos and bite-size guides on overcoming business challenges. Users can access free advice from business experts and find unique tools designed to take the pain out of everyday business tasks. Smarta has the support of leading UK entrepreneurs such as Theo Paphitis, Deborah Meaden and Michael Birch.
On April 4th 2011, Smarta’s launched the long awaited Business Builder, a new business toolkit for start-ups and growing businesses. It’s a one-stop shop for companies in every sector at every stage of the business lifestyle, bringing together all the key components that one needs to launch a new venture and become more streamlined and effective in the day to day running of their business.
Back to top
Keynote 2:
Will King
The King of Shaves brand was created by Will King in the depths of the UK recession in the early 1990′s.
Following redundancy, King decided to build his own business, King of Shaves, and his first product was shaving oil, then his big break came when he landed a deal for Harrods to stock his product in September 1993, followed by Boots in May 1994. Fast forward seventeen years and today over thirty different King of Shaves brand products are stocked in all major outlets across the UK as well as being available in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Africa and Brazil.
King of Shaves is second only to Gillette in the UK, and King is a multi award-winning businessman, and considered by many as one of the UK’s most creative and passionate entrepreneurs.
However the product wasn’t an instant success and sales in the first year totalled just £300 against a £30,000 loss! But, King drew on his marketing skills and worked hard to roll out the King brand into supermarkets to ensure broader distribution. It worked, and with the advent of the internet (King purchased shave.com for US$35) King of Shaves was in the vanguard of the growing men’s grooming market, and by 1997 the company’s turnover had increased to over £1m, doubling year on year.
By 2004, turnover at KMI, the company King founded, was over £11m. In June 2008 the King of Shaves Azor was launched, securing the number three best selling manual system handle in the UK* in 2010.
In September 2009, King’s first book, “How To Build A Great Business In Tough Times – The King of Shaves Story” was published, reaching the No. 1 Business Book slot at WH Smith’s, where it remained for the whole of September. King of Shaves is a multi-award winning business being named the T-Mobile Fast Growth Business, and the Product Business of the Year at the Growing Business Awards (2009) and named the CBI and Real Business Company of the Year in 2008. He was the regional winner of the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for London and the South East region in 2009 and subsequently he also became a judge for the CBI Real Business Awards 2009, the O2 Entrepreneur X Business Awards 2009, the IOD Director of the Year Award 2010 and the Growing Business Awards 2010. He is also regarded as one of the UK’s leading practitioners in the use of social media from a company and brand perspective.
Keynote 3:
Mark Borkowski
PR guru Borkowski is internationally renowned for his PR campaigns and is a regular in the media providing thoughtful analysis and a wry point of view on the latest celebrity scandal.
He has handled the PR for some of celebrity’s biggest names (Eddie Izzard, Graham Norton, Joan Rivers, Sir Cliff Richard, and Shirley Bassey), publicised some of the best TV dramas (Spooks, Our Friends in the North, Never Mind the Buzzcocks) and been behind the promotion of cult films (American History X and Best In Show).
He writes opinion pieces for the broadsheets often focusing on corporate and political abuses of the media, gone head to head with the likes of Nestle and Kraft and offered outspoken criticism of the Government’s spin culture.
Although his profile is often connected with celebrity, much of his agency work is in the representation of major brands including Vodafone, Tiscali, P&O, Eurostar, Smartcar, Lotus, Hovis, Virgin Megastores, Selfridges and the list goes on!
Workshop Speakers:
Di Gates
Stick Theory
Di Gates founded Stick Theory in October 2009, following nine years as co-owner and creative director of one of the region’s biggest full-service agencies. Stick Theory builds on these foundations and has inspired Di to develop a delivery model based on creative collaboration with freelancers and specialists in all areas of technology and communications.
Together with these specialists, Di works with businesses to develop creative and effective ideas, tools and tactics to help them connect better with their customers.
Brett Jacobson
Founder and Managing Director, Mediaworks Online Marketing
Spotting a gap in the market of the exponentially growing industry of Online/Internet marketing and aggressively growing his start-up business from a standing start one man regional operation to a now nationally recognised business with turnover approaching £1.25million in under 36 months is no small feat.
What’s more is that Brett has achieved this success during the worst trading period in the history of the UK and done it all from the banks of the Tyne as a student fresh out of Northumbria University aged only 21 years old.Founded in 2007, Mediaworks now manages the online marketing strategies for over 100 contracted clients including the likes of Akzo Nobel, Eversheds Lawyers, Tommee Tippee and Tombola Bingo to name a few.
Brett built the business with a focus based purely around Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) which is the process of optimising a business’ website so that it appears highly on search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing when their potential customers enter a search for their specific goods and services. Brett started Mediaworks and privately funded its growth with the help of investment from a well-known local entrepreneur.
Brett is currently looking at expansion opportunities around the UK and Europe which will help Mediaworks continue their rapid growth and achieve their ambitious financial targets moving forward.
Mark Easby
Better Brand Agency
Mark is Managing Director of Better which is an award winning brand agency who significantly improve how businesses talk with their audiences across their marketing channels through our Brand, Design, Marketing, Social Media, Web and Co-Creation services.
Mark has worked closely with clients, both big and small, across numerous public & private sector industries at a strategic board level. He has provided consultancy and scoping support on both brand development and digital strategy, advising on new digital channels and touch points with client brands.
Mark has also spoken regularly within the region on subjects relating to the leading topics in our industry such as digital and traditional media convergence, social media, and developing digital footprints.
Pascal Fintoni
International online marketing specialist
With a career in sales and marketing spanning over twenty years, and with practical experience gained in a range of business disciplines from international travel to manufacturing and warehouse management to information technology, Pascal has unrivalled knowledge of the role of international marketing in businesses success.
With the rapid advent of technology in the last decade, Pascal has been involved at the leading edge of integrating new online tools into the traditional marketing mix. Such is his level of knowledge that Pascal is regarded as one of the regions leading experts on search engine marketing and online communication strategies and techniques.
David Laud
Samuel Phillips – david.laud@i2isolutions.co.uk
David Laud is a Chartered Marketer and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. His career began with international financial services marketing and ten years with Thomas Cook, creating and launching the Moneygram brand for the company in the early 90’s. He moved on to head the marketing department for US technology company AT&T before re-locating with his family to the North East in 1996.
In 2000 David set up his own marketing consultancy i2i Business Solutions supporting clients in the professional, creative, digital and training sectors.
In addition to running i2i David is the Chief Executive of Newcastle law firm Samuel Phillips and Managing Director of e-publishing and App development company R2b Media Ltd.
David is an active Mentor for business owners working on behalf of a wide range of support organisations including Entrust, Business Link and the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He has delivered a number of social media workshops with colleague Emma Hignett and has recently completed his first commission for an international publisher focussing on social media for the professional service sector.
Emma Hignett – emma.hignett@i2isolutions.co.uk
Emma is a qualified ACIPR professional and has more than 18 years media experience, having worked extensively in local media and presented on both radio and television. She hosted radio breakfast shows for Capital Gold (London) and Red Dragon FM as well as presenting regular weather reports for HTV Wales and West. She has also managed a local radio station and recorded more than 35,000 audio announcements for London’s entire bus fleet.
Emma’s introduction to PR came from promoting a range of charities and appeals while working in South Wales. Since specialising in PR she has worked for a wide range of clients including Cartridge World, Taste of Leeds, Lingfield Point, NOF Energy and TBI Solicitors, building business and personal profiles in local, trade and national media.
Emma creates varied practical campaigns, gaining publicity for topical issues, business wins and successes, staff achievements and appointments and company’s corporate social responsibility schemes, and targets a wide range of media including printed press, broadcast media and internet. The range of services provided includes press releases, photography, leaflets and newsletters and audio and video reports.
Emma says: The most effective PR comes not from creating gimmicky campaigns or staging stunts. The truest public relations campaign is an ongoing process and more effective the more closely the client and PR can work.
Sarat Pediredla
Founder, Hedgehog Lab
Sarat Pediredla is a Partner & Co-founder of hedgehog lab, a Newcastle-based mobile agency that specialises in mobile apps & sites and touch screen experiences.
Formed in 2007 by Sarat and his co-founder Mark Forster, hedgehog lab has grown into a 10 person team that is growing rapidly by focusing on delivering great mobile products and services.
Hedgehog lab has architected and developed mobile apps and software for clients like London College of Communication, Statoil ASA, East Coast and Reckitt Benckiser plc.
Contact us
For more information on the event or to book a place, please contact: Karen Lilley on: 0191 281 5777 or email: businesslink@btob.co.uk