10.10am - Keynote Address
George Wright, VP of Sales & Marketing, Blendtec USA
Creator of the "Will it Blend?" YouTube Phenomenon

The keynote speaker for this event is George Wright, Vice-President of Marketing for Blendtec. Blendtec is based in Utah, USA and makes blenders for the consumer and commercial market. Blendtec have become a global phenomenon with their Will It Blend? viral marketing campaign consisting of a series of infomercials demonstrating the Blendtec line of blenders, especially the Total Blender. Their online videos show Tom Dickson, the Blendtec founder, attempting to blend various items in order to show off the power of his blender.

These infomercials became the number 3 rated video on YouTube and the company showed a 700% increase in sales through their online campaign. George Wright will discuss how Blendtec used online viral marketing and social networking to increase saIes of their product. He will talk about how companies can use internet tools to build awareness of their products and diversify their market. His keynote talks about one of the most famous viral marketing campaigns to take place on the web and how Invest NI clients can use similar internet sites to increase awareness of their products globally.

11.00am - Search Engine Optimisation and Pay Per Click
Susan Hallam, Managing Director, Hallam Communications
Qualified Google Adwords Professional

Every discipline has its current best practice, and Internet Marketing is no exception. Keeping up to date with latest trends in Search Engine Optimisation and Pay Per Click advertising is essential and a challenge to any firm in any economic climate.

Susan will discuss best practical examples of how these two techniques can be used to drive more visitors to your website. Susan will provide an overview of the steps your business needs to take to improve its ranking in Google, and demonstrate how your business can use advertising to start acquiring more visitors to your site with immediate effect. Using case studies and real life business examples, Susan will help you to get a better understanding of how these marketing techniques work and what they mean, good or bad, to your business.

As an independent consultant she will give attendees an overview of online tools open to them and how to use these tools to access global markets. She serves on the board of the East Midlands International Trade Association and is well place to talk to small to medium enterprises at this event.

11.45am - How to make Affiliate Marketing work for you
Andrew Maat, Managing Director, TradeDoubler (Ireland)
Affiliate Marketing Expert

What is affiliate marketing? Who are affiliates? Will affiliate marketing work for my business? Andrew will answer these questions and demonstrate how affiliate marketing can help businesses generate sales at a very reasonable cost. He will discuss how you can consider a twelve month strategy and what to avoid when doing performance based marketing?

1.30pm - A Practical Guide To Creating An Email Marketing Strategy In NI
Niall McKeown, Managing Director, Ion Online Marketing
E-mail & Online Marketing Specialist

Niall will provide practical advice on creating an email marketing strategy and integrating your off-line marketing efforts with your on-line marketing. He will also talk about making your email marketing strategy pay and how other Northern Ireland companies are using email marketing.

2.15 pm - Social Networking for Businesses
Tom Nixon, Managing Director, NixonMcInnes
Social Media Marketing Agency

YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Blogging….these are just some of the social networking sites that you have heard of but aren't sure how they could help your business. Tom Nixon is a director of the largest social media agency in the UK - NixonMcInnes. Its mission is to create powerful, long-lasting and authentic unions between major brands and their consumers. Tom will discuss the social networking options open to businesses, how to increase awareness of your products and how social networking can open new markets up for your business.