MediaSense

Jon Leland is a leading communication expert who has been an innovator for almost 40years. In the seventies, Mr. Leland founded one of the first narrowcast radio networks. In the eighties, he was a cable TV pioneer as founding director of creative services at USANetwork. In the nineties, Leland wrote and produced “future vision” video programs for companies like Pacific Bell and a prototype interactive TV application for Oracle Corporation, which was displayed at Disney World’s Epcot Center.

Over the last 20 years, Mr. Leland’s mission has been to “Span the Grand Canyon Gap between people and technology.™” He does this through his creative services company, ComBridges, which provides marketing consulting, website design & development, SEO and other services. Jon also provides valuable insights via social networks, his blogs and YouTube channel.

Most recently Jon is the author of the e-book, “What Every Business Needs to Know About Internet Marketing” and the Founder and Dean of New Marketing University, NewMarU.com, is a membership website dedicated to online social media and Internet marketing education for professional people. Mr. Leland has led Internet marketing workshops at Inc. 500, Growing the Organization, Corporate Computing Expo, MacWorld and other conferences.

Anna joined Tourism New Zealand this year to manage the Brand and Social Media area for the business. Prior to this she was with STA Travel for three years as Marketing and Communications Manager NZ, While there, Anna worked on both their ATL campaigns and online development including web, mobile and social media. Prior to this, Anna worked in London and Sydney in predominantly brand and online focused roles in a range of industries including Professional Services, Research and Online Gaming.

Tourism New Zealand recently repositioned the New Zealand 100% Pure brand globally to focus on redefined key global brand attributes that are communicated in a localised manner. The social strategy mirrors this approach and has both a global and regional focus, to ensure community engagement is relevant as well as works towards the business’ objectives.

Greg Forsythe has nearly 30 years’ experience in marketing agencies, producing campaigns for major marketers including: Mitsubishi Motors, Holden New Zealand, DB Breweries and ANZ.  As a Wellingtonian, Greg also has experience working with government organisations including Inland Revenue, ACC, EQC, Ministry of Education and New Zealand Police. In 2008, Greg set up his own marketing communications consultancy, Relay Communications, that has produced campaigns for clients, Datam, EQC and i-SITE New Zealand and was contracted as Marketing Manager for the New Zealand 2011 Office in October 2010.

The NZ 2011 Office was established to ensure that New Zealand makes the most of the opportunities afforded by hosting RWC 2011.  The main areas of focus
are the REAL New Zealand Festival and Showcase, community and business engagement programmes and the NZ 2011 Business Club. The NZ 2011 Office is
making extensive use of social media to: increase awareness for Office initiatives, to drive traffic to their websites and social media platforms and to nurture engagement between New Zealanders and our overseas visitors prior to, during and after RWC 2011.

Young & Shand is a strategic digital marketing agency that takes a word of mouth approach to transform business.

Ben Young – is a digital expert, he started the bwagy blog in 2008, writes for the NZHerald and published ‘The Best Ideas are Free’. Ben has a decade of experience in the Internet Marketing field, from SEO, ppc, to blogging and social media he’s seen it all.  These days his focus is on strategy; helping
businesses understand and utilise the space strategically.

Simon is partner and connector at sy-ENGAGE, a consultancy firm that specialises in creating possibilities through social engagement.

Simon has been a thought leader in the online communications space since 2001, having written many articles on the future of marketing, management and innovation. Simon’s also a sought-after public speaker, having spoken and presented in China, Australia and New Zealand, including presenting courses for the University of Auckland, and guest lecturing at the University of Otago.

Tim is an online media enthusiast and has been involved in the strategy side of Internet marketing since 2003, specializing in Search Engine Marketing and Social Media. Tim has a BCA in Marketing, International Business and Commercial Law and has studied the new laws around email marketing and online communications that affect businesses.

Matt graduated from Victoria University in 2009 with a BCA majoring in Marketing & Management. Before creating Uprise he spent two years as a Media Analyst at a leading New Zealand PR company where he had a first hand experience of the rise of Social Media in business marketing and communications strategies.

Company Bio:

Uprise (formerly i-Marketing), established in 2009, is a leading company focused on developing and implementing customised online marketing strategies. Uprise has been running very successful Social Media for Business seminars around New Zealand and will be speaking at international events in Australasia in 2011-12. From small start-ups to Fast 50 companies, Uprise focuses on creating results based solutions for their clients; unique to the markets they are in.

Matt Miller has a wealth of experience in digital marketing and web development. For the past eight years, he has managed online businesses, designed web applications, and formulated digital marketing strategies for a variety of NZ organizations in both the private and public sector.