Alfie Deyes

YouTuber

Alfie is an English YouTuber and author who runs the YouTube channels PointlessBlog, PointlessBlogVlogs (previously PointlessBlogTv) and PointlessBlogGames (previously AlfieGames).

As of December 2015, the channel has over 4.5 million subscribers and over 330 million views on YouTube. His second channel has over 2 million subscribers and 180 million views. He also has a following of over 2 million followers on Twitter and over 2 million followers on Instagram. He was named by Yahoo! News as one of "12 Web-savvy entrepreneurs to watch" in December 2013, and was featured on the cover of the January 2014 edition of Company magazine for the "Generation YouTube" feature.

Olivier Robert-Murphy

Global Head of New Business / Chief of Possibilities at Universal Music Group

Originally from Toulouse, France, Olivier had his first taste of the music industry by financing his studies through chauffeuring music artists around Paris. After serving as an officer in the French Air Force, he began at Procter & Gamble as a Key Account Manager, before joining the entertainment industry at PolyGram Video France.

For 5 years he marketed and launched hundreds of audio-visual products, ultimately advancing to Vice President of Marketing at Universal Pictures International Video and relocating to London.

Since 2001, he has been with Universal Music Group, the world’s leading music company, where after launching the audio-visual department, and whilst doing an MBA at the London Business School, Olivier was given the added responsibility of managing the Strategic Marketing Division. He now heads up Universal Music & Brands globally, providing innovative and entertaining business solutions to brands.

Dom Smales

Managing Director and Founder, Gleam Futures Ltd

After spending 15 years in media, production and advertising Dominic Smales set up Gleam Futures initially to help online communities connect for mutual benefit. This has evolved now into purely managing 'Social Talent', a term coined by Gleam to describe individuals who have achieved the kind of reach and influence on social media platforms usually associated with traditional celebrity or media ownership.

Gleam look after the very top tier of online super influence in the U.K. and the U.S. primarily in the entertainment and lifestyle area. The joint reach of the top 10 talent on Gleam Futures Roster delivers over 40m subscribers on YouTube and will clock up over 4 billion views this year.

Content Factory Workshop

L'Oréal has long been an innovator in the branded content space and in 2015, the Canadian subsidiary inaugurated the very first in-house content studio with the objective to create content with distribution in mind and to distribute content with a creative focus. More importantly, the strategy behind the Content Factory is to develop engagement with consumers, which is generated in-house through social media. During this workshop, Ekaterina will go over content best practices, rising trends and influencers content strategies.

Ekaterina Dobrokhotova

Consumer Engagement, L'Oréal Canada

Ekaterina has been part of the L’Oreal Group since 2011. In her current role, she is responsible for continuously sharing social media best practices, innovation, reporting and managing the Consumer Care Center. In this digital age, the role of consumer care is now more complex and more important than ever, therefore placing the consumer at the core of everything we do at L’Oréal Canada is a priority.

In addition to her business career, Ekaterina is a world-renowned professional magician who has appeared on several major TV networks and uploaded hundreds of magic videos on Youtube spanning over 3 million views.

Storytelling with video: how to avoid being irrelevant

If you listen to any social media soothsayers in 2016, the one prediction they have in common is the increasing importance of video. But how do you make sure that the video you’re creating is suitable not just for the platform you’re putting it on – but for the intended audience as well? The answer, as always, lies in compelling storytelling. This practical workshop will explain how BBC Worldwide Digital Studios have taken the experience of 90 years of storytelling at the BBC and applied it to the unique challenges put forward by social media in 2016 – and how you can do the same.

Alex Ayling

Head of BBC Worldwide Digital Studios

Alex iis the Head of BBC Worldwide Digital Studios. His team focuses on the creation of original content for the web - any shape, any size, any platform. His remit includes the management of online communities for BBC Worldwide’s biggest brands, including Top Gear, Doctor Who, BBC Earth & Sherlock (with a combined 50m fans) as well as the BBC Worldwide YouTube Network that encompasses 15 channels and currently stands at over 7.2m subscribers and 60m views per month. Prior to BBC Worldwide, Alex worked as a multiplatform commissioner and producer, creating shortform series about power, the paranormal, parenting and the Paralympics as well as some things that didn’t begin with P.

A Live Video Vortex Workshop - Adding Periscope to Your Arsenal

Live Streaming has opened up a new world for creators and brands to build communities, drive engagement and create value. Go through 3 very different case studies with one of the leading live streaming experts about how to really leverage this new platform, and how to track the return on your streaming investment. This session will cover how to track your views, drive engagement, tips for producing the best content and secrets for driving outrageous engagement.

Ryan A. Bell

Founder, Periscope Summit

Ryan A Bell is the founder of Periscope Summit and is the most connected person in live streaming. He has headed many projects within live streaming such as the first global launch of a new product on Periscope for SanDisk and talks about live streaming more than most people sleep. He has been recognized by The Presidential Office for his volunteer work with Special Olympics and youth mentoring programs.

NATO’s Digital Outreach: Creating A Global Conversation

The speed of technology development is a game-changer for international organizations, which typically are slow to adopt new ways of working. But with the paradigm shift in communications the world has entered, we no longer have the option to wait and see. Using NATO’s digital journey to outline the path, this is an in depth look at the challenges and techniques for creating momentum behind digital outreach in large organizations. This case study offers and inside look at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as it builds a communications infrastructure and develops a scalable approach to digital storytelling that’s taken NATO from being years behind in the digital transformation to being seen as a leader in digital outreach among international organizations.

Steven Mehringer

Head of Communication Services, NATO

Steven Mehringer is Head of Communications Services in the NATO Public Diplomacy Division. Communications Services manages NATO HQ's entire digital content and audio-visual production chain to include NATOChannel.tv, the NATO website, the NATO Radio & TV Studios, and NATO's Social Media presence.

Steven’s extensive experience with international outreach, content creation and technology development has created a new way of working for NATO's Public Diplomacy Division and proven to NATO the essential value in storytelling versus information distribution, conversations instead of broadcasting, and utilizing the right technologies to move communications priorities from concept... to content...to digital...to global.

Before joining the International Staff in August 2010, he served 3.5 years in Iraq with the U.S. Department of State as the Director of Broadcast Operations at the U.S. Embassy - Baghdad where he led the development of the embassy's critical broadcast facility and the Embassy Public Affairs Section's capacity for using communication technologies. Prior to his appointment in Iraq, he worked across the United States for 15 years as a broadcast news Journalist and Producer for NBC, ABC and FOX. His coverage of the U.S. Federal Government shutdown in 1995 won an Emmy Award for KTNV-TV in Las Vegas. He graduated with honors from East Carolina University in 1991, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Communication.

Following the cookie trail: from following to driving consumer journeys

Consumer-centricity is one of the hot topics of the moment – but are most organizations ready for the change that it brings to the way we build brands? Leveraging the launch of Absolut Oak in the US, the purpose of this case is to illustrate how to organize creative execution around a consumer decision journey, in opposition of a 360 broadcast approach.

Luis Spencer Freitas

Regional Consumer Experience Director, Pernod Ricard Americas

With over 8 years of experience in Digital Marketing Strategy, Luis is currently leading the Pernod Ricard’s Digital Acceleration efforts across the Americas region, with a particular focus on Data driven marketing, Consumer Relationship Management, E-commerce and the development of a strong internal digital culture. Having a pure digital agency background and working across 7 markets, Luis has had the opportunity to understand the nuances of digital as it applies to very different business and cultural contexts.

How to deliver a Great customer experience: making it easy to do the right thing

You can put your customers experience at the heart of your business by delivering great customer service across your Social Service channels, I will show you today how you can demonstrate what Success and what Good looks like. We will leverage SocialBakers technology and a working hypothesis to deliver a new robust and commercially focused Social Devotion KPI.

Daniel Fellows

Senior Manager - Digital & Social Interactions, Vodafone

A commercially focused senior digital & brand marketer with strong customer focus, understanding and delivery. I have a very successful track record in digital marketing environments for driving consistently better results and commercial revenues.

Content, Scale, Distribution - How to crack the code for content and influencer marketing success

As consumer reality is of short attention spans, insane video consumption and growing intolerance for ads. It’s becoming evident that video quality, quantity and reach make a strong digital marketing strategy - yet brands still face the challenge of balancing scale, distribution, control over branded video content, and cost efficiency. During this session Tomer Afek, co-founder and CMO of Showbox, will illustrate through a number of case studies the benefits of incorporating original video content in digital marketing, and how working with vloggers\influencers answers crucial distribution needs. Participants will be invited onto the Showbox video production platform, and be guided in creating their own branded video content - adding an ever so important skill to their social media tool box.

Tomer Afek

Co-founder & CMO, Showbox

Prior to Showbox Tomer was CEO of ConvertMedia, a big data startup, backed by world leading VCs. Prior Tomer worked for seven years at Evergreen VC, among Israel’s oldest and largest VCs, where he was in charge of Internet & New Media investments. He was also on the founding team of Sanctum Inc., a leader in web application Security.

Set. Ready. Go! Implementing Social Customer Service

Social Customer Service is important, your organization is convinced and ready to do it right, now what? From where do you start? Which are the processes involved? How do I know who to hire? Will it scale up? How do I operationalize the whole thing? Starting with a practical case we’ll go through the steps and detailed practicalities of setting up teams, processes, tactical implementation and best practices. Concluding with an analysis of which metrics will best suit you in order to report clear business benefits.

Delfin Vassallo

Global Lead Customer Experience, Communities and Social Media Support, Microsoft

Multicultural digital mind who speaks in four languages and dreams in five. With a 20+ year journey surfing between advertising, marketing, and social business; working for integrated and social media agencies in a number of industries: automotive, IT, luxury, travel and hospitality, financial and banking, professional services, FMCG, retail, telecom, charities, agricultural supplies; as well as client side with global brands. Delfin really hates those guru, maven or rock star titles; he rather aims to be just a Digital Villager, simply another inhabitant of McLuhan’s global town, doing real business in the virtual world.

Localization of Global Digital & Social Media Strategies

Working with Global brands can always be a challenging task for local teams and agencies, having to maneuver through guidelines, apply global best practices and adopt global campaigns all this while striving to maintain the market’s local flavor. In this workshop we will cover the best techniques to work with global digital strategies and best practices to apply localization that engages and delights consumers at local level.

Mohamed Abo El Fotouh

Digital & Social Media Manager, Nestlé

Mohamed is the currently the Digital and Social Media manager for Nestle in the North East Africa Region. For the past 3 years he has been responsible for establishing and expanding the online presence for 13 Nestle brands across the region. He also worked as part of Nestle’s global digital team in Switzerland with key responsibilities on advancing the use of social monitoring and analytics tools and leading digital initiatives for different global Nestle brands. Having solid experience working with brands on a global level, Mohamed will be sharing his insights and perspective on how manage a brand’s global social profiles.

Channel Hopping: Your Essential Primer to Effective Video in Social Channels

This workshop will help content creators and brand managers understand how and why video is the biggest trend in social media. You will learn how to implement video to suit the nuances of social media channels and how to effectively plan for maximum effect. We will look at case studies covering brands that are getting it right along with the power of new creative celebrities that are making up their own rules and influencing brand direction. Emerging technology with video along with the importance of context will also be covered.

Jill Saydam

Creative Director / Digital and Social Strategist / Content Producer

Jill Saydam is a Canadian, Dubai-based award winning Creative Director, Content Producer and Digital/Social Media Strategist with over 20 years of experience creating integrated and stand-alone campaigns for a wide range of clients. Recently Jill oversaw all of the content creation and social strategy for the award winning mobile learning app Mobile Academy, which is currently available in 40 countries in 16 languages.

Prior to moving to Dubai, Jill was the Senior Creative Director for the national broadcaster CBC overseeing all of the creative marketing and communications for entertainment, lifestyle and news television and radio programming across all media. Jill is also a filmmaker with 7 short films to her name and in her spare time performs stand-up comedy in Dubai.

Plan, Create, Distribute: Unleashing The Power of Social Publishing

As social platforms continue to grow and evolve, capturing user attention across channels is an ongoing challenge. How do the most successful editors crack the code to create a social strategy framework, execute, and monetize their audience? In this workshop we will go through some practical strategies to consistently distribute and place your content within the consumers journey, to succeed in the “social media hangover” era we live in.

Pierpaolo Maniglio

Global Lead of Social Media Marketing | Reuters.com at Thomson Reuters

Pierpaolo is an enthusiastic and innovative digital marketer who is passionate about all things social. He was named among the 2015-2016 “20 Rising Stars” by The Gramercy Institute, the world’s leading think-tank for senior marketers in New York City. Pierpaolo currently works in publishing, as Global Lead of Social Media Marketing at Reuters between London and New York. In the past he has covered several roles in brand marketing and social media at some of the world's leading consumer companies like Coca-Cola and Kellogg’s. He is also an avid globetrotter; passionate about the startup world, wearable devices, and mobile tech trends. You can follow him on Twitter at @pierpa88.

Harnessing Instagram to take brands to the next level

In the busy Instagram space, how do you create and manage an inspiring account that will increase your brand awareness and achieve that critical engagement from the instagrammers? Eelco will provide you with insights around how brands are utilizing photographs to gain engagement and catapult their awareness. You will learn some great tips on how to make this happen for your brand. Eelco will show you several examples of how brands have done it right as well as show you how some have it all wrong. With an impressive client list including KLM - Sony - Samsung - Johnnie Walker - Vodafone - Beachcomber Hotels Mauritius, Eelco is the expert to show you how it is done.

Eelco Roos

Photographer

Eelco Roos is a photographer from the Netherlands. His love for photography started when he was 16 and borrowed his father's camera, and he has been photographing ever since. His love for telling one-frame stories only grew after he joined Instagram in 2011. Gaining a big following on the popular platform secured him work in photography and the confidence to ultimately quit his day job to devote himself to photography in 2014.

Eelco has worked with big brands such as Johnnie Walker, Ducati, KLM, Philips, Samsung, Sony, Vodafone, and Acer. Because his love for nature and travel shows through his Instagram feed, he is regularly invited to travel to destinations all over the world and share his views of these cities or countries with his followers.

The importance of visual storytelling

In today's marketing mix – if “Content is King”, visuals reign Queen. Images and video hold more power over your audience than words. A few well-written paragraphs can sway opinions, but a well-told visual story can move mountains. Compelling visual stories exude authenticity and personality, embrace real life, and convey your message from a humanistic standpoint. They drive deeper social engagement by evoking emotions – love, sadness, laughter, sensory stimulation – instilling connection and openness within the viewer. No one knows this better than Paula whose visual story telling has captured the imaginations of over 4M people worldwide.Paula is a curator and expert visual story teller. In this talk she explains how and why it's crucial to understand the human behavior behind your potential clients and customers.

When you consider the facts that humans are visual before verbal and make more decisions based on feeling than thought, it makes sense that visuals are a highly effective tool to get people to take action. Intentional social marketing needs to tell your story in ways that inspire the right types of people to do what you want, whether that’s buying your product or donating to your cause. It’s not about first impression – it’s about immediate impact. Failing to make visual storytelling the primary focus of future marketing campaigns is voluntarily choosing to play without your Queen from this point forward, limiting your reach and forcing your brand to compete at a significant disadvantage.

Paula Coop McCrory

Social Media Marketer and Influencer

Living by the mantra of “I pin what I love”, global influencer Paula Coop McCrory has created a following of over 4.3 million on Pinterest turning a one-time hobby into a career. Paula has earned a spot as one of the Top 30 pinners in the world on Pinterest. Introduced to Pinterest while on maternity leave just over three years ago, she never expected the overwhelming support she has received. Her boards showcase everything from art and design, fashion, food, travel and photography and has caught the attention of emerging and developed brands such as Madewell, J.Crew and AllSaints.

Having a BFA in visual art from Queen’s University and a MFA from Herriot-Watt University and the Edinburgh College of Art, paired with exhibiting throughout North America, the United Kingdom and Japan, Paula has a strong understanding and appreciation for what pleases and excites the eye. Paula also spends her time writing for fashion outlets, conducting workshops, lunch & learns, speaking and engaging audiences in on-site consulting for companies and executives. With a growing mix of international followers and clients, Paula continues to influence, inspire and teach.

Organic integration of commercial partners on social

One of our priorities is to provide value for our commercial partners and blend the goals of the tournament with those of the partners. This year we went out to partners with specific content streams that we felt aligned with their brand direction. As a result of adopting this methodology we were able to build their presence within the narrative of – and conversation around – the tournament and give them a stronger, stickier return on their investment.

Paul Moore

Head Content Producer for Tennis Australia & the Australian Open

In this role Paul oversees editorial, video and photographic content production across all of Tennis Australia’s digital properties; including ausopen.com, tennismash.com and the many Tennis Australia social media channels. He has helped spearhead Tennis Australia’s digital initiatives in China, and has been a key member in the continuing growth of the Australian Open brand around the world.

Prior to joining Tennis Australia Paul travelled the world working as a contractor for a variety of tennis organisations and writing books about extreme sports (some of which actually made it into print). He has worked across a variety of digital media genres, including entertainment television, extreme sports and tennis.

The Social Media Customer Journey

Businesses know that they must have a presence on social media, but they don’t know how to harness its power. Some can even claim to know what makes social media so powerful i.e. its ability to monitor, measure and amplify word-of-mouth effects, but it can be overwhelming for those who begin social media marketing without a plan. Few have a deep understanding of exactly how social media interacts with consumers to expand product and brand recognition, drive sales and profitability, and engender loyalty. To understand how to use social media marketing, you first have to understand how your customers think and their specific behaviors.

There are seven behaviors that customers exhibit as they interact with a brand: know, like, trust, try, buy, repeat, and refer. You can use social media to assist in guiding several of these behaviors, particularly know, like, trust, repeat and refer. The wonderful thing about social media is that there are multiple platforms and countless ways to use them. The opportunity for companies lies in making authentic social connections. This workshop will help you use social media to guide your customers through their journey.

Dimi Karavasilis

Senior Social Media Strategist, Desigual

Dimi belongs to the “socially native” generation. Before taking over the channel and content strategy at Desigual, along with significant global projects of the brand such as NYFW, Dimi has worked with some of the biggest brands in the market – Bacardi, Virgin Media, Barclaycard to name a few - to align social with different parts of their business.

How news corporations can keep their viewers engaged in the age of social media

Social media has made a great shift in news consumption. Audience habits have changed and it has become increasingly difficult for traditional television to keep their audiences engaged. With the implementation of social media, low cost domestic online news brands can be more popular than major global news organizations. We will go through the Aljazeera strategy in keeping audiences engaged with the big screen even after they browse their social media timelines on their devices. We will show you how to get deeper understanding for audience interests and engagement.

Musab Sharayri & Hamda Khochtali

Digital Senior Producers, Al Jazeera

The evolution of Omni Channel Customer Interaction Centres and the impact of social platforms

We will see how brands like Coca Cola have integrated social platforms and content into their customer engagement strategy, how this is implemented and how it drives advocacy and positive relationships. We will review the typical challenges and how all this is delivered across cultures and multiple sub-brands. There will be also be examples from Auto and Technology sectors. This workshop will help organisations (B2C and B2B) struggling to develop or implement integrated multi-channel customer solutions. And help organisations improve their customer relationships and create stand out.

Dean Drew

Country Manager, Findasense UK

BMW, embracing the future of social and meeting the changing needs of their audience

Premium lifestyle is based on discerning, ethical and hedonistic reasoning. This has become by far the most important social development and as a consequence of an overall change in values. The customers are well informed and do not respond to persuasive marketing, they are skeptical towards brands, but are eager consumers. In a few years most miles in urban settings globally will be on shared platforms. Its on demand mobility that will be a significant catalyst of the shift to electric vehicles. We stand on the threshold of what can realistically be described as the largest and most important shift in transportation in a century. Lets look closer at how the most meaningful brand within luxury automotive segment communicate with the customers and think of future.

Pavel Jankovsky

Marketing Director at BMW Group Czech Republic

Experience Watson Analytics hands-on! Your secret weapon to better insights!

IBM Watson Analytics is a cloud based smart data discovery tool, that offers you the benefits of advanced analytics without the complexity. It guides data exploration, automates predictive analytics and enables effortless dashboard and infographic creation. You can get answers and new insights to make confident decisions in minutes—all on your own. Join this workshop that's especially tailored for marketeers to gain a hands-on experience. Why? Because hunches don’t win customers.

Sean Harmon

Data Analytics Expert, Watson Analytics Team, IBM Europe

Sean is one of three Watson Analytics experts in Europe. He strives to aid organisations in unlocking the untapped value lying dormant within their databases. His educational background is in Mathematical Sciences and Engineering, has a MSc. in Business Analytics and has been working towards a second MSc. in Data Analytics. But more importantly he is a data enthusiast.

How to harness the next wave of social marketing: Chatbots

The social landscape is changing. Millions of users are favouring messaging apps that offer personalised 1:1 interaction over 1:many social networks. We will look at the opportunities for global brands to genuinely engage one-on-one with consumers via mobile marketing, ecommerce sales, and customer support, through the use of chatbots. We will explore new consumer experiences that will emerge as a result of this new wave of 'conversational commerce'. BetterBrand will show you how to effectively create and scale chat marketing campaigns across multiple chat apps simultaneously. Attendees also have the opportunity to interact with the dedicated Engage event chatbot, and will be shown how to create and publish their own chatbots with BetterBrand.

Asaf Amir

Co-founder, BetterBrand

How Artificial Intelligence is Redefining Storytelling

AI is changing our lives in ways we don't even realise. Find our how Mashable has used AI to change the way they tell stories to nearly double their audience in 2 years.

Ben Maher

Executive Director EMEA

The expansion of digital technology has allowed Ben to spend the last 15 years working in industries that he is passionate about. His career so far has allowed him to build a vast knowledge base across the digital landscape from portals to social networks, from peer to peer downloads to launching products on various platforms. He has worked across many territories with major agency groups, a huge number of fortune 500 brands and major sports clubs to help them realise their digital ambitions. Right now Ben is the Executive Director for EMEA at Mashable - a leading source for news, information & resources for the Connected Generation. They report on the importance of digital culture and how it empowers and inspires people around the world.

Socially Ethical Businesses

Social conscious business is extremely fashionable at the moment but is it sustainable? and is it good business? Mashable shares their approach and some inspiring examples that are changing society.

Ben Maher

Executive Director EMEA

The expansion of digital technology has allowed Ben to spend the last 15 years working in industries that he is passionate about. His career so far has allowed him to build a vast knowledge base across the digital landscape from portals to social networks, from peer to peer downloads to launching products on various platforms. He has worked across many territories with major agency groups, a huge number of fortune 500 brands and major sports clubs to help them realise their digital ambitions. Right now Ben is the Executive Director for EMEA at Mashable - a leading source for news, information & resources for the Connected Generation. They report on the importance of digital culture and how it empowers and inspires people around the world.