SME Technology Summit 2009 – Good Review

Posted by Adam Franklin

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SME Technology Summit Review

People working in Small and Medium Entreprises (aka SMEs) from across Australia converged to

Sydney Olympic Park for the first SME Technology Summit.

The one-day event had a couple of keynote presentations & a panel discussion, interspersed

with 3 ‘tracks’ running symultaneously so you could choose your own agenda.

The keynotes were Tim Pethick, the entrepreneur who founded Nudie & Mark Pesce, a futurist,

commentator & panelist on ABC’s New Inventors.

Tim shared how he has embraced technology to help catapult the success of his juice company

& it was good to hear about how he’s used ‘crowdsourcing’, social media, CRM and Skype to be

really take off.

Mark showcased some real examples of (huge) companies that seem to be missing the mark when

it comes to social media. The cause: NOT LISTENING.

It is very easy to MONITOR what people are saying about your company (eg use google alerts)

yet instead these companies (or most likely their ad agencies – according to Mark) are too

pre-occupied with their own ‘clever’ campaigns to notice the public conversations people are

having about them.

The good thing about SME Technology Summit is that it highlighted how all the different

technologies can work together (rather than in isolation as is often the case of more

specialised conferences)

The panel comsisted of Josh Mehlman – writer and former editor of #Nett magazine, Suzi

Dafnis – Australian Businesswomen Network, David James CEO of Brasserie Bread & Phil Morle,

co-founder of Polleninzer.

It opened up an informative discussion where many ideas came up. I personally liked what

happens on Phil’s “internal twitter” where staff ‘tweet’ CRM Woo-Hoos and the CRM Boo-Hoos.

When a boo-hoo gets published, the IT team then have to try to fix that problem so the

system works better!

I had the opportunity to deliver an email marketing workshop after lunch & I was pleased so

many delegates chose to attend. Those who came along learnt my ‘secret formula for email

marketing success’ and got to take the whitepaper away as a tool for creating their own

campaigns. I had the pleasure of meeting Dale Beaumont, author of 16 best sellers, in the room too.

The networking drinks were a great way to wrap up an interesting day. I got to chat with

the two Daniels (Doherty and Mangion) who introduced me to augemented reality on the iPhone

& the Smart Pen — both blew my mind & they warrant blog posts on another day!

Thanks & congrats to Ross Dawson, Jess Nelson & the crew for organising everything!

People working in Small and Medium Entreprises (aka SMEs) from across Australia converged to Sydney Olympic Park for the first SME Technology Summit.

Bonus: Download the 33 free templates from the book Web Marketing That Works.

The one-day event had a couple of keynote presentations & a panel discussion, interspersed with 3 ‘tracks’ running simultaneously so you could choose your own agenda.

The keynotes were Tim Pethick, the entrepreneur who founded Nudie & Mark Pesce, a futurist, commentator & panelist on ABC’s New Inventors.

Tim shared how he has embraced technology to help catapult the success of his juice company & it was good to hear about how he’s used ‘crowdsourcing’, social media, CRM and Skype to be really take off.

Mark showcased some real examples of (huge) companies that seem to be missing the mark when it comes to social media. The cause: NOT LISTENING.

Mark Pesce (via http://lindajohannesson.com)

It is very easy to MONITOR what people are saying about your company (eg use google alerts) yet instead these companies (or most likely their ad agencies – according to Mark) are too pre-occupied with their own ‘clever’ campaigns to notice the public conversations people are having about them.

The good thing about SME Technology Summit is that it highlighted how all the different technologies can work together (rather than in isolation as is often the case of more specialised conferences).

The panel consisted of Josh Mehlman – writer and former editor of #Nett magazine, Suzi Dafnis – Australian Businesswomen Network, David James CEO of Brasserie Bread & Phil Morle, co-founder of Polleninzer.

The panel (via http://lindajohannesson.com)

It opened up an informative discussion where many ideas came up. I personally liked what happens on Phil’s “internal twitter” where staff ‘tweet’ CRM Woo-Hoos and the CRM Boo-Hoos. When a boo-hoo gets published, the IT team then have to try to fix that problem so the system works better!

After lunch, I had the opportunity to deliver an email marketing workshop & I was pleased so many delegates chose to attend.

Those who came along learnt my ‘secret formula for email marketing success‘ and got to take the whitepaper away as a tool for creating their own campaigns. I also had the pleasure of meeting Dale Beaumont, author of 16 best sellers, who was in the room too.

If you missed out, feel free to download my ‘Secret Formula for Email Marketing Success… plus 115 tips, ideas & mistakes to avoid‘ whitepaper.

The networking drinks were a great way to wrap up an interesting day. I got to chat with the two Daniels (Doherty and Mangion) who introduced me to augemented reality on the iPhone & the Smart Pen — both blew my mind & they warrant blog posts on another day!

Thanks and congrats to Ross Dawson, Jess Nelson & the crew for organising everything!

Related posts:
SME Summit was tops – Linda Johannesson blog
SME Tech Summit Speaker Contacts and Presentations – SME Tech Summit blog

Email Marketing Presenter: If you’d like Adam Franklin to give his email marketing presentation at your conference, call Bluewire Media on 1300 258 394.

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About Adam Franklin

Adam Franklin is the bestselling author of Web Marketing That Works. He is an international social media speaker and CEO of Bluewire Media. His blog was Australia's #1 Business Blog and his podcast was #9 on the top marketing podcasts in Entrepreneur magazine. His work has featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, The Australian, Sydney Morning Herald, Huffington Post and iTunes. Download the popular Web Strategy Planning Template which has been used by hundreds of thousands of businesses worldwide. His weekly 'Bluewire News' email goes out to over 32,000 readers.