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Conference top trends on Twitter and delivers record-breaking attendance as well as compelling content

On 21-22 February 2012, Sydney’s ANZ Stadium – home to the 2000 Olympic Games – hosted the third iStrategy ANZ, the region’s leading digital marketing strategy conference. And inspired by the sporting heritage of its stunning venue, iStrategy ANZ reached new levels of excellence in terms of delivering a world-class event.

An innovative, two-day event held bi-annually at regional locations across Australia, North America and Europe, iStrategy curates invaluable content for senior executives who believe that the success of their business requires a progressive digital strategy. Combining keynote speeches, panel discussions, interactive workshops and live interviews to deliver the highest quality programme to its delegation and sponsors alike, iStrategy welcomed presenters from leading brands, both in Australia and further afield.

Nic Cola, CEO of Fairfax Media Marketplaces, delivered an electrifying opening keynote on how Australia’s leading media firm is embracing the shift to digital by adopting a ‘mobile-first’ approach. It’s a bold move for a traditionally print-dominated business, but one that appears to be paying off: in five years, digital channels have increased total media reach for Fairfax by 30 percent. Not bad for a supposedly declining industry.

Google, Twitter, News Digital, eBay, VISA, ESPN Star Sports and Canon Australia also gave engaging and insightful presentations, and over the course of the two days there were some notable highlights. Rob Bell and Darren Sutton from XCOM Media spoke about a Tourism Queensland campaign that used Facebook as the primary platform for a major rebranding effort called “passport to shine”; John Batistich from Westfield explored the idea that ‘everything is broken’ from a marketing perspective, and gave suggestions as to how it might be fixed; while SEOmoz’s Gillian Muessig brought the house down with an inspirational talk on building engaged, proactive communities.

And saving the best for last, the conference was closed out by Andy Lark, CMO and Head of Online for Commonwealth Bank, who wowed the crowd with a keynote on how the advent of social collaboration is unlocking a number of exciting new areas for businesses everywhere – and how his firm is exploiting them.

Randi Zuckerberg, former CMO of Facebook, gave the closing keynote at iStrategy San Francisco in January, and has no doubt as to the value the event brings. “It’s a great program, wonderful networking opportunities, and I have really never seen such great interaction between audience and speaker with the level of tweets and real-time facebook messages coming in,” she said.

Sydney attendees also benefitted from an entirely new programme format: with over 15 new sessions, from masterclasses to case studies – and including a live Q&A from its sister IPTV channel, Meet The Boss TV – it continued to push the standards of digital conferences and became Australia's top trending topic on Twitter within the first few hours of the conference. In addition, it surpassed previous standards set at iStrategy Amsterdam last year by producing an online Twitter reach of over three million people.

Richard Owen, VP of Conferences for GDS International, feels the event was a resounding success. "Sydney was the third time we’ve brought iStrategy to Australia, and without question this event was our biggest and best yet. With top speakers such as Andy Lark, Nic Cola, Gillian Muessig and Claire Diaz Ortiz, our content provided attendees with great takeaways on how to implement and execute on a whole range of digital marketing strategies.

"We continue to build what we believe to be the best digital marketing and social media strategy programme in the world; one that is delivered by world-class speakers. I cannot wait for our next Australasian event in Melbourne in November, where we promise to raise the bar once more and offer attendees our best programme yet, with a speaker line-up to match.

“We fully expect to cater to another sell-out crowd, and will continue to work tirelessly with our ever-growing community of fans, followers and advocates to deliver the most compelling, engaging and relevant conference in the industry."

The next iStrategy event will take place in Melbourne on the 13-14 November, 2012. For more information, please visit: http://www.istrategyconference.com

On 31 January – 1 February 2012, the South San Francisco Conference Center played host to the fifth edition of iStrategy North America, one of the world’s leading digital strategy conferences. An inspirational, two-day event held bi-annually at regional event locations across North America, Europe, Australia and Asia, iStrategy focuses its efforts on curating disruptive and invaluable content for senior executives who believe that the success of their business requires a sound digital strategy.

Opening 2012’s San Francisco event to a jam-packed delegation of over 400 attendees, Altimeter Principal and a leading voice in the world of marketing blogs, Brian Solis delivered an exceptional keynote on the philosophies behind frictionless sharing and its effects on the evolution of media products. To complement the underlying ethos, iStrategy and Solis combined efforts to give away free copies of his new book, ‘The End of Business as Usual’, to a majority of the audience.

Combining keynote speakers, interactive workshops and live interviews to deliver the highest quality programme to its delegation and sponsors alike, iStrategy also welcomed Craig Newmark of Craigslist fame; Rick Wion, Director of Social Media for McDonalds; Neal Schaffer, President of Windmill Marketing; Sandy Carter, VP of Social Business Evangelism at IBM; and Rock Glick, Co-Founder and CEO of iNdelible Agency, as independent speakers.

Closing iStrategy’s two-day event, Randi Zuckerberg, former Director of Marketing for Facebook and Founder of RtoZ Media, offered her rather timely perspective on ‘The Future of Online Branding’ mere minutes after Facebook’s IPO announcement, with an enthralling keynote relaying her top 10 tips to maximise brands on Facebook, as well as detailing how to speak to you ‘future brand’ and understand communities.

Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia, gave the closing keynote at the previous iStrategy conference situated in the Park Plaza Hotel, Amsterdam. “Digital strategy is incredibly important for all kinds of businesses; lots of people need to be learning about this stuff because it really is the future for a lot of different people,” he said.

As with previous events, this year’s iStrategy San Francisco conference was designed to help forward-thinking executives in the digital realm take charge of their strategy in ways they never deemed possible. Unlike previous years, however, San Francisco’s iStrategy attendees were witness to an entirely new programme format; with over 15 new sessions, from masterclasses to case studies – and including a live Q&A from its sister IPTV channel, Meet The Boss TV – it continued to push the standards of digital conferences and became one of San Francisco’s top trending topics on Twitter within the first four hours of the conference. In addition, it surpassed its previous standards set in Amsterdam by producing an online Twitter reach of over three million people.

Richard Stirk, VP of Conferences for GDS International, cemented this notion, stating: “San Francisco was our fifth US-based iStrategy event, and without question was our biggest and best yet. With rock star speakers such as Brian Solis, Charlie Cole, Neal Schaffer, Rick Wion and Randi Zuckerberg taking the stage literally minutes after the official Facebook IPO announcement, our content and timing seemed perfectly aligned.

“We continue to strive to build what we believe to be the best digital and social media strategy programme in the world; one that is delivered by world-class speakers. As Brian Solis rightly said, “we have an audience of audiences” such is the influence of our senior level attendees hold.

“I cannot wait for our next US event in Chicago in September where we promise to raise the bar once more and offer our attendees a speaker line-up to complement our best programme yet. We fully expect to cater to another sell-out crowd, and will continue to work tirelessly through our Twitter stream and hashtag to deliver, at the very least, a fraction of the true essence of the conference to all of our followers online.”

The next iStrategy event will take place in Chicago on the 11-12 September, 2012. For more information, please visit: http://www.istrategyconference.com

On 28 February – March 1, leading SVPs, VPs, CMOs and CCOs from the world’s leading brands will convene at the inaugural Next Generation Customer Service summit at the Barton Creek Resort & Spa, Austin, TX, to discuss and share ideas pertaining to today’s business challenges. Topics up for discussion include how companies grow profits and boost margins in the current hypersensitive market.

In today’s recovering economic climate, the modern customer is more fickle than ever and with the rapid growth and adoption of technologies such as social media, mobile technology, online technology, geo-location based technology, and touch screen technology, companies and executives must be focused on not just what they have to offer, but how they offer it. The Next Generation Customer Experience summit brings executives’ vision into sharp focus on how to achieve real growth and boost profits.

Those C-level executives in attendance will include; Brad Taylor, VP Customer Marketing, Coca-Cola; Howard Mogasen, SVP, Citi Group; Antonio Maia, Head of Customer Service, DHL Express; Ellen Filipak, SVP Customer Care, Direct TV; Scott Richman , SVP and General Manager, Interactive Marketing, Madison Square Garden; Roei Ganzarski, Chief Customer Officer, The Boeing Company; Trish Mueller, SVP & Chief Marketing, The Home Depot.

GDS International – the global business event company behind Next Generation Customer Experience – has hosted B2B events since 1993 and has a long list of high-level attendees.“The locations that are chosen, the professionalism of the staff, and the upbeat atmosphere, drives for an opportunity to do good business,”said Gregory Garrett, Chief Strategy Officer, Volkswagen Group, a previous summit attendee. Another attendee, Tony Ward, VP Client Services, NET(net) said; “I’ve been speaking to CIOs who spend a billion dollars a year, and our conversion rate to potential engagement is 100 percent.”

Salvatore J. Papa, Next Generation Customer Experience Summit Director believes the high calibre of speakers and innovative content at this GDS International Summit, combined with fantastic opportunities for networking, give delegates real value for money and return on investment.

“The inaugural Next Generation Customer Experience summit is an amazing addition to an already powerful summit resume,” Salvatore says. “And with analyst's predicting that there will be an all out war to own the CEM space in 2011, the Next Generation Customer Experience Summit will serve as an arena for senior level executives to engage in clear and focused dialogue with their peers and examine their management objectives in a relaxed and vibrant environment.”

Taking place 23 – 25 April in Frankfurt, Germany, Next Generation CFO Europe will be the best attended and most well respected event for CFO professionals in Europe during 2012.

Thilo Kusch, CFO at Magyar Telekom; Ronald Van Ballegooijen, CFO Europe at Rabobank International; and Christian Moraldo, VP Group Financial Control at Tetra Pak International were among the delegates who attended 2011’s CFO summit.

“The format is definitely different,” Thilo Kusch says of last year’s CFO Europe summit, “I think there is more interactivity planned in, which I think makes the event a lot more interesting. It is a fantastic opportunity to meet peers from other industries, and I think that’s the main benefit of this event.”

The event is designed specifically to assist forward-thinking CFOs to meet challenging demands in times of economic crisis. As well as comprehensive workshops, the summit will involve panel discussions offering delegates moderated, peer-led discussions on major industry issues. One-to-one meetings give delegates the chance to meet with business analysts and analyst partners to discuss strategic and technological demands in a rapidly evolving business climate.

Conrad Troughton, Director at GDS International – the global business event company behind NG CFO – says, “Our high calibre of speakers and exciting content, combined with fantastic opportunities for networking, give our delegates and sponsors real value for money and return on their investment and ensures that CFO Europe stands out against other events.”

See what the delegates had to say about the event at http://www.cfosummiteu.com/.