Event Postponed

Unfortunately this event has been postponed until later in 2008 because of client commitments.  We hope to announce a new date shortly - likely to be October 2008.   You can, however, pre-register your interest.  Just drop an email to jeff@NOSPAMquadco.co.uk (removing the words NOSPAM from the address) and we’ll ensure you’re first in the queue for a place. 

Quadriga Consulting has been providing B2B marketing consulting services for the last 6 years with clients including some of the leading B2B brands in the world as well as early to mid-stage firms.  We are one of the leading proponents of B2B digital marketing strategy development in the UK and our Managing Consultant, Jeff Peel, has spoken at events all over the world on the Web 2.0 revolution.

Jeff is the author of a book on CRM and has advised government departments, technology firms and B2B marketers on digital marketing strategy. 

Supported by a line-up of speakers with specialist Web 2.0 marketing and market research expertise, he will present the massive opportunities for B2B marketers to create huge competitive advantage through adoption of best practice strategies.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Confirmed speakers include:

Jeffrey Peel
Managing Consultant
Quadriga Consulting (Seminar Leader)
Web 2.0 Marketing Techniques, Tools and Strategy Development

Marek Vaygelt
Head of Technology and Telecoms Consulting
YouGov plc
Research 2.0 and the B2B Marketing Process

Adam Parker
CEO
WebITPR
Newswires, SEO and Social Bookmarking

Jeremy Brown
CEO
Sense Worldwide
Social Networking the Business

By Jeffrey Peel - At last week’s Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco there was, as expected, lots of discussion about social networking.  The discussions didn’t just focus on the usual suspect social networking sites either.  There was a lot of discussion about how so-called “micro-blogging” sites are becoming increasingly influential.  Micro-blogging sites like Twitter allow for much more rapid one-to-many interactions and are now considered a key component of the social networking/blogosphere.  In fact, I’d go even further and say that by the end of the conference on Friday I was all twittered out.  And this morning I read that Twitter may just have closed a round of funding. 

All this means that social networking is becoming more and more granular but it also means that the distinction between b2b networks and consumer networks is blurring.  Twitter, in particular, is becoming a day to day interaction tool for the celebrity tech bloggers who were there in abundance last week (like Robert Scoble and Stowe Boyd).  In fact Boyd has now come up with the idea of the Twitchpitch that mandates PR types who want to pitch a story to him have to use Twitter.  When I ran into him at a drinks party last week he made clear that he didn’t care much for Facebook pitches either. 

Therefore if you thought that all you had to do to get your B2B social networking strategy together was to have a Linked-In profile, I’m going to have to tell you that you need to think again.  Complex social networking ecosystems allow people to pick and choose - and people will define themselves in the ecosystem according to their favourite tools (and none of us has time to use them all). 

This, of course, means that there is an increasing role for marketing services companies.  Social networking elements in the marketing mix are essential in order to elicit information on how markets are evolving.  B2B networks are becoming the definitive communications media for channel owners, consultants, journalists and other ‘influencers’ in the tech space - not just celeb bloggers. 

As Stowe Boyd said in a panel session last week, social networking is about people talking.  And, when people talk, marketing people should always be interested. 

By Jeffrey Peel - Often I’m asked how it is that as a company that started in research we ended up doing so much more. 

The conclusion  I have come to is that research and analysis firms have more interesting things to say because our thoughts, and perspectives, are based on market knowledge and understanding.  While much of the work is client-confidential we, at the same time, build tacit knowledge that gives us some right to take a stand on issues.  Admittedly we have to operate within a frame of reference - and in our case that ‘frame’ would be heavily influenced by information technology.

But, think about it for a minute, the fact is that just about every business these days is becoming a technology business.  Even David Cameron in his latest election broadcast - just last week - made overt reference to the Internet as one of the most fundamental reasons for social change in the UK.  After all, entire swathes of our population no longer watch television.  Internet advertising is set to overtake TV advertising in the next two years.  And where the web used to be the domain and stomping ground for big business, suddenly - with Web 2.0 technologies - it has become democratised.  Even my own 11 year old daughter can now design her own Bebo ’skin’. 

The Internet is a super-medium.  In the past all advertising was a tell-sell.  Now it’s an interactive sell and it has become much more complex, interconnected and, obviously, viral.  If brands offend they will be pilloried online in seconds. 

The impact on marketing services is massive.  Frankly, unless one is immersed in the world of interactive web technologies one will quickly lose touch.  Indeed I recently went on an Internet-free, one week, beach holiday and felt I had lost touch a bit when I returned. 

But, let’s face it, marketing services firms can’t have the luxury of being type-cast these days as one thing or the other.  The Internet will inevitably make us all chameleons - admittedly with our own specialisms.  Therefore as a researcher I will present my research - socialise it - using new communications media.  I will also collect it in new ways making use of social networking communities and online data collection techniques.  And my clients must be prepared to act on research by reaching out to these new global communities, search engines and news portals via more and more flexible and target-able media.