Paul Woods

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After a full on start to the year (hence the severe lack of blogging!) ,I think it is time for some professional development for a couple of days… so I am off to the ad:tech Interactive Marketing conference at the Sydney Hilton.  Two days full of marketing fun!  I tried to convince the boss to send me to ad:tech New York (it has a 3rd day and double the number of tracks)… the answer was Sydney…  I guess I will have to be more persuasive next year.

There are some pretty interesting topics on the agenda… the sessions I am most looking forward too are:

• eCRM Strategies - because I have never worked for or seen a company that did this in a efficient and effective way (if found even working for Microsoft that there were issues and complexities with CRM that would have been great to get around)
• Blogs as a Marketing Tool - because every marketer (and every businessperson who has ‘bought the Internet for their organisation will be asking about it in the future - plus chances are I will bump into Darren Rowse there (yes… I admit that I too would like to pay off my house from blogging… not quite there yet though!).  The main reason is that I can see benefit for our organisation to look into this, for numerous reasons that I am sure will be discussed during this session
• Integrating Viral and Word of Mouth Strategies - what happens when you multiply one buzz word with another!!! OMG ROI!!!!!
• Building Brand Preference Through Digital Platforms - brand preference is in the eye of the consumer, so I am interested to see some tips and techniques into how to influence B2B consumers this way - is it just have a good website?  Do we need to use <blink> and Lime Green to get consumers attention… I hope not!
• Hiring and Retaining Talent in a Digital Age - I am currently going through the process of hiring a few folk for the team, so this will be very timely indeed
• Harnessing Web Analytics - It would not be marketing without some mention of metrics, traffic light analysis, hits or impression

The other session I am looking forward to is the Keynote with MySpace Chief Marketing Officer, Shawn Gold.  Will be interesting to hear what he has to say - I am still trying to figure out if MySpace has a legitimate place in the B2B marketing mix, hopefully I will figure out a definitive yes or no position after his interview tomorrow morning.

If not, I will ask him at the MySpace.com party tomorrow night!

Technorati Tags: Ad:Tech, Sydney, MySpace, Interactive Marketing