Press Release: National B2B Centre Conference Announced

West Midlands companies can find out how e-business can take them into the economic recovery during an event in Coventry.

The National B2B Centre is holding its annual conference, ‘E-Business 2009: Finding and Keeping Profitable Customers’, on Thursday, September 17, and businesses are being urged to book their places.

The first part of the conference, which is being held at the International Manufacturing Centre, University of Warwick, will help SMEs understand how social media, website optimisation and email marketing can attract new clients.

Renowned online marketer Susan Hallam will provide the opening presentation with a rapid-fire set of tips on how to achieve exceptional performance from the web, followed by eMarketing guru Dr. Dave Chaffey helping delegates to maximise the value of their client and email lists.

Workshops will be held throughout the day with the first showing how clients can be targeted through social media. Malene Stanley, founder of online business KSBKids.com, will be discussing how she has embraced social media technologies - including Facebook, Twitter and blogging - to target new customers.

James Pennington, of the National B2B Centre, will also be holding a morning workshop showing SMEs how to share content across all of their social media sites, and a question and answer session will be held before lunch.

Martin King-Turner, director of the National B2B Centre, said: “This is our second annual conference and this year we are focused on helping small and medium sized firms exploit their e-business investments to maximise sales and marketing success.

“The first part of the day is about attracting new clients by being smarter than your competitors in your usage of internet based tools.

“In the afternoon, we will focus on managing the client relationship and winning repeat business because this is an area where we believe SMEs can make major improvements using e-business technologies.”
The day will continue with customer management and sales process expert, Richard White of Pro-Excellence, who will discuss managing prospects, leads and clients for SMEs.

And this will be followed by the choice between a case study on how B2B client Nick Blenkarn of Severn Partnership has used e-business systems to build profitable client relations, and how SMEs can plan and specify their own CRM, with Steve Orriss of the B2B Centre.

The day will end with a final question and answer session, followed by the opportunity of networking and an optional tour of the International Digital Laboratory.
Martin added: “We are seeking to help SMEs take e-business to the heart of their organisations, exploiting IT to maximise business performance through the recession and take full advantage of the recovery as soon as it comes.”

To book your place on the E-Business 2009: Finding and Keeping Profitable Customers conference, go to www.nb2bc.co.uk/events.

Media enquiries:
Lee Corden
Advent Communications
2 Edison Building
Electric Wharf
Sandy Lane
Coventry CV1 4JA
Tel: 024 7663 3636
http://www.advent-communications.co.uk