Ashley Friedlein, CEO, Econsultancy

Ashley is one of the most influential and connected figures in the UK digital marketing and e-commerce sector.As a recommendation for him on LinkedIn reads, “If Ashley doesn’t know it – it ain’t worth knowing.”

He writes for a range of publications and is the author of two best-selling books which have been translated internationally. Ashley speaks worldwide at industry events, as well as making media appearances to promote both his own company, Econsultancy, and the interests of the sector in general.

He founded Econsultancy in 1999 with business partner Matthew O'Riordan. This award-winning company now has over 98,000 members worldwide, opening its first US office in New York in January 2009, and now also operating in the Middle East and Far East. Its members include the cream of international media, retail, cultural and financial service organisations, as well as government departments. Econsultancy helps its members learn, make better decisions, build business cases, find the best suppliers, accelerate their careers and lead the way in best practice via research reports, how-to guides, training and development, forums and professional networking.

After graduating in 1995 with a 1st Class degree from Cambridge University, Ashley started out working in digital TV. After a brief spell as Producer at FT.com, his career took him to digital communications agency Wheel (now LBi) where he rose to Lead Strategist and launched numerous multi-million pound websites for major brands like Marks & Spencer, Five, Argos, Autoglass etc.

Following the dotcom crash he spent a pleasant year in the South of France writing the first of two best-selling books on web management (50,000 copies sold world-wide, translated into 4 languages). He is 38, married with two children. In his spare time he enjoys photography, art collecting and a range of sports including skiing, walking, cycling and yoga. More recently he has taken up boxing, polo and poker.

Ashley contributes to many publications as well as the Econsultancy blog and his Twitter feed.

Alex Vaidya, Consulting Digital Strategist, Porsche Cars

Alex is a digital marketing & branding specialist with a track record in creating innovative digital strategies which have become recognised as industry leading.

Currently, Alex is a digital consultant where he predominately works with luxury car manufacturer Porsche Cars GB with responsibility for developing their online brand strategy. Previously, Alex headed up the digital function at Porsche where he developed a number of pioneering projects. This included Porsche Experience TV, a dedicated web video series with over 4 million views and Porsche Origin, the automotive industry’s first brand experience content hub designed for brand advocates to share content across the web.

Prior to this, Alex worked in product management and market research at Porsche. Alex graduated top of his year at Warwick University where he studied Engineering. Alex is fascinated with innovative and disruptive technology and in particular how they are fundamentally changing the relationship between brands and consumers. He is a regular industry speaker on the trends and tactics of online brand engagement and has spoken at major conferences including Econsultancy’s 'JUMP' and the IAB’s 'Video Engage'.

Mustafa Ahmed, Lecturer in E-Commerce & Online Strategies, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals

Mustafa is a Lecturer in E-Commerce & Online Strategies at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Mustafa is on Google Online Marketing Challenge Academic Panel and has been consulting in the web industry for over 20 years (US, Australia and Saudi Arabia). He is currently working on the fastest growing E-Commerce platform in the Arab World. He enjoys teaching and researching about the Next Generation Internet Economy, and advising Dotcom entrepreneurs. Connect with him via Linkedin or .

He encourages entrepreneurial activities in his classes and is a 'life/career coach' to many of his students. He has managed CGI teams that have worked on Hollywood blockbusters such as the BAFTA Award winning movie, The Golden Compass. His research interests include the internet economy, social commerce, online retailing, digital marketing, web design, digital culture and internet startups. Favorite quote - “It’s always day one”, Jeff Bezos.

Abbas Alidina, Director of Digital Marketing and Social Media, Logicks.com

Abbas Alidina is the Director of Digital Marketing & Social Media at Logicks.com, a Digital Agency based in Dubai, UAE. He is also a renowned trainer and speaker on all matters digital.

With over 10 years of consulting experience, Abbas has developed strategies and executed projects for global brands including: Government of Canada, Intel, Toyota, Samsung, Lenovo, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Deloitte & Touche, Honeywell and Bell Canada, just to name a few.

Abbas is also an instructor and delivers a Certification in Social Media course on behalf of the University of Wollongong in Dubai. This is the first Social Media certification program offered by an accredited university in the Middle East.

Abbas has been invited to speak at Social Media conferences and events around the world. Some of the clients he has most recently delivered training and speaking to include: FOX International Channels, Standard Chartered Bank, HULT International Business School, Qatar Telecom, Abu Dhabi Airports Company, University of Wollongong and Dubai Cares.

Abbas blogs at http://www.abbasalidina.com. Add him on Facebook, follow him on Twitter or connect via LinkedIn. 

Julia Astashkina, Marketing Section Manager, Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology

Ms. Astashkina is an award-winning marketing professional with over a decade long experience serving Fortune 100 companies, including leading innovators, such as Oracle, 3M and AMD. Julia is currently focused on growing technology adoption in the GCC countries, working as a Marketing Section Manager for the Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology in Qatar. Her expertise includes digital and traditional marketing, social media strategy and management, as well as mobile marketing.

Akanksha Goel, Executive Director, Socialize

One of the most recognized social media consultants' in the Middle East, Akanksha moved to Dubai from Singapore, where she was the Edior-in-chief for STUFF Magazine and at the forefront of the digital media revolution.

Executive Director at Socialize, Akanksha makes use of her outstanding leadership skills to bring together a global team that work together to achieve excellence in Social Media for the Region, with clients such as Samsung Electronics, Majid Al Futtaim Malls, Sky News, Sony Middle East, Dubai International Film Festival, Al Rawabi, Kraft Foods, Puma, Swarovski etc.

Akanksha's thoughts about social media and marketing have been featured in publications like Gulf News, Gulf Marketing Review, Zawya, Knowledge@Wharton etc and she is one of UAE's most followed tweeps. Connect with her on Twitter @akankshagoel.

Husam Jandal, Senior Digital Marketing Consultant, WSI

With more than 12 years of experience in the digital space, Husam is a well-recognized digital marketing consultant, and certified marketing professional by Google, Yahoo, and he is also a member of the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization, member of the Web Analytics Association, and member of the Usability Professionals Association.

Hussam actively helps businesses in the Middle East and globally to be successful on the internet by implementing the most effective online marketing strategies, building their online presence, increasing their online visibility and web traffic, and converting online visitors into opportunities that generate solid business and unprecedented ROI from the internet. Many international awards Husam has received, and the latest being 2 excellence awards from the Web Marketing Awards (WMA is the Oscars of the Internet!).

Arto Joensuu, Director of Marketing, Dubizzle

Arto Joensuu is a digital change agent at Dubizzle.com. Together with his team of experts, he is redefining marketing inside the company. Throughout his career, Arto has held several leadership roles in the area of digital, with work ranging from pioneering in mobile marketing at Terra Mobile, to crafting and executing digital marketing strategies for Nokia.His work has been rewarded with several industry awards and for the last years, he has acted as a spokesperson on digital marketing and social media.

Today, Arto is the "comandante" of marketing at Dubizzle.com, overseeing their marketing & PR activities. He is based in Dubai, UAE.

Bhavishya Kanjhan, Clique Media

Bhavishya Kanjhan is a Digital Marketing Professional with a focus on Mobile Marketing and is currently employed at Clique Media, a Digital Media solutions provider in Dubai Media City. He is a Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) certified mobile marketer.

He completed his Bachelors at The University of Birmingham (UK) with an honours degree in Computer Science & Business Management as part of which he built a Facebook Application for Windows Mobile smartphones. He followed that up with a Masters in International Business & Marketing wherein he wrote his dissertation on the ROI of Social Media. Most recently Bhavishya delivered a session on Social Advertising with LinkedIn at the Think Social conference held by Social Media Club Bahrain

Often known to dream in 140 characters, Bhavishya featured in the Twitter Tips Guidebook for SMBs by Small Business Trends and made it to the list of Dubai’s “100 most compelling tweeters“.  He was interviewed for the Social Media Across Asia wiki and Bayt.com’s ‘A life in the day of’ feature. Infamous for voicing his opinion on everything Digital, Bhavishya has put his thoughts to words in various publications including EConsultancy, Emirates Business 24/7, Travel and Tourism News, Gulf News and Social Media Today.com.  His blog can be found at http://kanjhan.com while his shorter musings are on twitter at @Bhavishya and you can visit his professional profile on LinkedIn at http://linkedin.com/in/kanjhan

Suzanne Locke, Editor-in-chief, Yahoo! Middle East

Suzanne has an unusual hybrid background of journalism and product management. Described as a 'digital native' on LinkedIn (www.linkedin/in/suzannelocke), she started out at Sky News in 1999 as one of the website's launch journalists, before going on to launch and then edit and manage the Sky Movies and Sky Showbiz sites.

Having grown up in Bahrain, she left the UK to return to the GCC and sample life there as an adult, arriving in Dubai in the boom times of 2006 to launch and edit the XPRESS site for Gulf News and work as a development manager across the Gulf News portfolio.

She went on to Emap and the world of B2B and subscription sites as editor of meed.com before progressing into Emap Middle East's leadership team in 2009 as digital development director.

She took a career break in 2011 to go travelling around Latin America and take a crash course in Spanish and salsa before heading back to Dubai - and to her editorial roots - to take on the mantle of Yahoo! Maktoob's editor-in-chief for their English sites in January 2012.

She is still plotting how to optimally use Twitter but posts digital stuff that interests her, as well as updates on her running mileage, at twitter.com/suzlocke.

Akvile Pareigyte, Digital Brand & Marketing Manager, Jumeirah Group

Akvile Pareigyte is the Digital Brand & Marketing Manager at Jumeirah Group responsible for setting digital marketing strategy and implementation methodologies to increase the effectiveness of Jumeirah’s online channels.

At Jumeirah, Akvile provides strategic online brand directions, executes integrated digital marketing campaigns and specialises in multilingual SEO, PPC, email marketing, social media, digital advertising and web localisation.

Chris Rourke Managing Director, User Vision

Chris is the Founder and Managing Director for User Vision one of the UK’s leading user experience and user-centred design (UCD) consultancies in the UK. Chris established User Vision in 2000 and quickly developed an enviable client list and a reputation for practical thorough and affordable user centred design services to help clients gain a competitive advantage through improved usability. Chris has worked with clients across all sectors including financial services, public sector, retail e-commerce, travel & tourism, charity, media, telecoms pharmaceuticals and others.

An engaging and dynamic speaker, Chris is regularly invited to speak at industry events and has recently spoken at the UPA conference in the US, Internet World, and the Andicom conference in South America. He is a regular contributor to resources offline and online including the Econsultancy blog and the User Vision blog.

Chris holds a BSc. in Engineering Psychology from Tufts University and a MSc. in Ergonomics from the University of Michigan. In his spare time Chris enjoys improving his Spanish, travelling and sport, particularly ultimate Frisbee.

Jeremy Spiller, Trainer and Consultant, Econsultancy and MD and Co-Founder, White Hat Media

Jeremy has worked with the internet since 1990 and with the web since 1994. In 1995 he founded Clockwork Web which went on to become one of the top ten agencies in the UK, working for clients such as The Rank Group, Dun & Bradstreet, Hi-Tech Sports, Red Dwarf, Pete Townshend and Premier Brands.

In 2003, Jeremy founded award winning search marketing, social media and development agency White Hat Media. White Hat Media's clients include Microsoft, Toshiba, The Royal Opera House, The Gym Group, Coty, and Yardley. Jeremy is an expert in web marketing, and in particular search and social media marketing. He regularly writes articles, runs workshops and speaks at conferences on the subject for organisations such as The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and Sussex Enterprise.

In the last twelve months, Jeremy has spoken at many other events both locally and nationally. He has been quoted in or written articles for The Sunday Times, .net magazine, New Media Age, and The Essential Business Guide. Jeremy now confesses to being obsessed with Search Engine Optimisation and Social Media Marketing and strongly believes practising ethical techniques known in the sector as "White Hat" for successful long term results.