Last Thursday 29th March was the first conference that Business Biscotti has put on called ‘Digital Day’. The event was held at Grovefield House Hotel in Burnham which was the perfect setting and Emma Beddall the General Manager and her team were simply amazing, as the numbers of delegates crept up from 40 to 60 to finally 90 plus on the day.
We were blessed with the weather and in fact, I think last Thursday was the hottest day, so some of the delegates may have returned to the office on Friday looking rather red as they enjoyed the terrace between presentations.
For me (SJD Events) it was an early start as I was working alongside Mr and Mrs Biscotti to create the ‘Digital Day’ event with the creating of the event itinerary to create the flow and then creating the delegate’s badges and acting as front of house.
The day started with a welcome from the Mayor of Slough and Mrs Biscotti (Sue Reeves) followed by a series of amazing speakers which sadly I didn’t hear personally but, the feedback was all positive and I look forward to downloading the video once it is available on the website, so watch this space.
Speakers such as Amanda Gee from Berkshire Media Group, Margaret Adams on ‘Social Media Engagement is Not Enough’, Barnaby Wood of Symantec, Nick Baggott of Navigate Consulting Ltd on ‘Acquiring new customers and prospects using Digital Channels’ to 1&1 Internet and Peter Rees on ‘Emerging Trends’.
Then after lunch the delegates were offered break out workshops alongside the exhibitor’s exhibitions which ran throughout the day. Again sadly I was unable to attend these but again all the feedback was positive, and even though some of the workshops had only 10 attendees the information shared in the Q&A sessions was mutually beneficial.
The workshops covered Cloud Security by Symantec, Legal Issues by the Head Partnership and ‘Social Media in the Sales Process’ by TACK International. Then, running in conjunction with these were two great workshops by June Dean on ‘Social Media and Making the pieces fit’, card security online with Paul Ashes of Barclaycards Fraud Team and then, ‘An insight into mobile technology in business using Apps’ by Crosby Associates.
As I mentioned earlier, throughout the day we had video coverage by Imran Farooq and his team which will be available in due course.
Catherine Hadler was running a photographic suite for capturing the all important head shot and, then Tim Beddingfield of FocusPull gave a talk on the ‘Power of using Video’ online.
All, in all it was an action packed day with experts in their fields sharing knowledge and also gaining feedback from the person on the street (the delegates) which in some cases was a first.
The day ended with a much earned drink sponsored by the CAM Foundation with entertainment from magician, Ian Gray and silhouette artist, Charles Burns. Charles blew away the delegates with his silhouettes and I am hoping to see two of my fellow Biscottiers using them on their profiles.
Watch this space for the next ‘Digital Day’ Conference and keep an eye on the website for images and the video download at www.businessbiscotti.co.uk.
Event Management Consultant and Fundraiser 