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 100,000 members worldwide, opening its first US office in New York in January 2009, and now also operating in the Middle East and Far East.  It's 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.

Ajit Jaokar, Author & Founder, futuretext

Ajit Jaokar is the founder of the London based publishing and research company futuretext focussed on emerging Web and Mobile technologies -including Web 2.0 and Mobile Web 2.0.

His thinking is widely followed in the industry and his blog, the OpenGardensBlog, which was recently rated a top 20 wireless blog worldwide.

In 2009-2010, Ajit was nominated as part of the Global Agenda Council on the Future of the Internet by the world economic forum. He hopes to use this opportunity to further extend the pragmatic viewpoint of the evolution of Telecoms networks in an open ecosystem.

Ajit is best known for his books "Implementing Mobile Web 2.0", "Social Media Marketing", and "Open Mobile".

His consulting activities include working with companies to define value propositions across the device, network, Web and Social networking stack spanning both technology and strategy. He has worked with a range of commercial and government organizations globally including The European Union, Telecoms Operators, Device manufacturers, social networking companies and security companies in various strategic and visionary roles

His recent talks include: CEBIT 2009; MobileWorld Congress (2007, 2008, 2009); Keynote at O Reilly Web20 expo (April 2007); Keynote at Java One; European Parliament – Brussels – (Electronic Internet Foundation); Stanford University’s Digital visions program; MIT Sloan; Fraunhofer FOKUS; University of St. Gallen (Switzerland); Mobile Web Strategies (partner event of CTIA in San Francisco).

Media appearances include BBC – Newsnight – 3phone launch; CNN money; BBC digital planet.

Ajit chairs Oxford University’s Next generation mobile applications panel and conducts a course on Web 2.0, Social networking, Mobile Web 2.0 and LTE services at Oxford University.

Econsultancy comment on why we asked Ajit to speak and his topic:

We've wanted to have Ajit speak at this event for years so we're very excited he can make it this year. He's quite the mobile and social guru, having written books on the topics and lectured extensively. We feel that this year really is the 'Year of Mobile' but there are all sorts of important questions around it e.g. should you focus on native mobile apps (iOS, Android etc.) or on mobile-optimised websites (web apps)? What about m-commerce? We've asked Ajit to give his take on these topics and lay out his vision for where this is all going. You can read a recent post by him on this topic on his blog - see Is 2011 the year of the Mobile Web apps?

David Wieneke, Digital Strategist, UsefulArts

With over 18 years of experience in the digital marketing space, as a digital designer, technologist and management consultant, Dave Wieneke challenges the established thinking with insights that are timely, infused by experience and backed by data. His presentations provide firms with practical advice on how to gain advantage through improved digital communications.

Throughout his career he’s helped firms, including the Christian Science Monitor, Thomson Reuters and Sokolove Law, to be the digital leaders of their industries. As a start-up manager, he published a chain of technology magazines. Previously he was founding director of the Mass Community Network, which brought high speed network access to all 351 Massachusetts communities.

Dave lives in Boston with his family and writes on the future of digital marketing at http://usefularts.us.

Econsultancy comment on why we asked David to speak and his topic:

David originally approached us about speaking. We were intrigued, not least because it's always great to get an American over to speak at a UK internet conference. We became very interested when we saw some of David's previous presentations, and, in particular, heard his vision for "Web 3.0". We think he's brave for even pitching "web 3.0" given Web 2.0 now sounds a little old skool. We also really like David's practical, sensible, approach to all this - he is, after all, a 'client-side' practitioner himself. So we're looking forward to see if David can sell you his vision for Web 3.0 and what it should mean for businesses. He describes his presentation as follows:

"This presentation breaks down the forces behind what analysts predict as the largest shift in Internet use since the emergence of the World Wide Web. While Web1.0 put vast information in people’s hands, Web2.0 allowed everyone to both publish and consume content. The next era in digital life, Web3.0, is enabling people to have more useful, immersive user experiences, which is already changing the rules of digital marketing. In his presentation, Dave will share extensive analyst research; define market needs and technology enablers; provide examples of how marketers are successfully capitalizing on Web3.0; and offer concrete reasons why some firms will want to move quickly while others may benefit by slower adoption." 

Claire Higgins, Head of Marketing, vtravelled.com / Virgin Atlantic

Claire Higgins is Head of Marketing at vtravelled.com, the social travel website launched by Virgin Atlantic. She is responsible for setting and delivering the marketing strategy to deliver revenue, readership growth and user loyalty and the next strategic phase of development for the site.

Immediately prior to joining Virgin Atlantic, Claire was at Glam Media where her role was to redefine the UK brand positioning, editorial, sales and marketing strategy, reaching over 12 million men and women online every month.

Claire has also held the position of Head of Marketing at Hearst digital, the digital division of the National Magazine Company (NatMag) where she was responsible for delivering the B2B and B2C marketing strategy, across the company’s portfolio of websites, including handbag.com, company.co.uk and cosmopolitan.co.uk, which collectively reach 5 million women every month, a third of all women online in the UK.

Alex Gisbert, Director of Online Partner Marketing, Expedia Europe

Alex Gisbert is Director of Online Partner Marketing for Expedia in Europe. Across 12 countries in the region, Online Partner Marketing at Expedia encompasses the marketing efforts across branded affiliates, display, metasearch and various other online Expedia partnerships.

He joined Expedia in 2007 as Regional Director Strategic Accounts responsible for the negotiation and management of the hotel deals and relationships with the major hotel chains across the EMEA region for Expedia’s Partner Service Group.

Alex joined Expedia from Opodo UK where he was Commercial Director. Prior to that he spent 4 years at the Thomas Cook group working within the Tour Operations group and the E-commerce Divisions.

Alex won Travolution Magazine’s Rising Star of the Year award in 2009. Alex is from Mallorca in Spain and studied at the University of Exeter.

Econsultancy comment on why we asked Alex to speak and his topic:

We saw Alex speak at another event and were really impressed with how smart and sophisticated his thinking was. And we'd like to think we're not easily impressed when it comes to digital marketing. In particular what Alex has learned about online display advertising, and some of the stuff they've done at Expedia on this, is fascinating. So we've asked him to come along and spend 20 minutes giving us his take on what's new and exciting, and what we can expect over the coming year, in the world of display advertising online. 

Simon Wood, Head of Operations, Marks and Spencer

Simon has worked within the online team at Marks and Spencer for the last 10 years holding a variety of commercial roles. He currently is responsible for all aspects of site production, content and web analytics.

Econsultancy comments on why we asked Simon to speak and his topic...

Online video is in the ascendancy, and M&S is one retailer that is making the most of it. Last year Simon commissioned the production of 2,000 videos for M&S. We invited Simon to talk about how M&S has embraced video as a branded content strategy.

Anthony Rose, Co-founder and CTO, tBone TV

Anthony Rose is a technical and product visionary, now working on tBone, a new platform that turns live TV into a two-way, social viewing experience.

Until Dec 2010 Anthony was Chief Technology Officer for YouView, the venture creating an open IPTV platform that brings internet connectivity to the UK’s free to air platforms.

Anthony joined the YouView team from the BBC where he was Future Media Controller, Vision & Online Media Group,  responsible for the BBC iPlayer as well as realising the BBC’s plans to create a unified embedded media experience across its online properties.

Anthony joined the BBC from Kazaa/Altnet where he was Chief Technology Officer, responsible for their end-to-end services.  During his six years with the organisation Anthony gained credit for his work on a host of impressive projects and patents, including P2P networks, DRM based content publishing and social networking services.

Prior to joining Kazaa/Altnet Anthony was Vice President for Technology at Sega Australia New Developments, developing real-time 3D animation and 3D graphics engines.

King Yiu Chu, Augemented Reality Strategist, Layar

King has over eleven years of experience in the online space - in both mobile and the web.

He is currently at Layar, where he is responsible for spreading the word about augmented reality on mobile to anyone that is interested in starting to work with AR on mobile. He is also responsible for fostering the expansion of the Layar ecosystem by working with creative and digital agencies, brands, developers, data suppliers and media companies. As an organisation, Layar aims to make the world around us more informative, fun and digitally interactive through augmented reality on mobile devices.

Previously, King was VP Monetisation at Nimbuzz, where his main responsibilities lay within all current and future revenue generating services. Prior to this he held the Product Manager role at Nimbuzz.

He has also held previously roles at Trader Classified Media, Microsoft and InteractPoint.

Ian Worley, Executive Director, Morgan Stanley

Ian is an Executive Director at Morgan Stanley, where he leads a team of design professionals, developing next-generation, client-facing financial software, including Morgan Stanley Matrix; an award-winning rich internet application written in Adobe Flex, which is setting new standards for user interface design in Financial Services and beyond. In addition to his role at Morgan Stanley, Ian is Managing Director of Arkh, an organisation he founded, which explores the convergences between digital media and physical space – with one of the projects exploring the concept of Augmented Reality.

For fifteen years, Ian has been leading design teams in the IT industry and specialises in developing innovative solutions which deliver customer satisfaction and tangible business benefit, by applying design and research techniques with a focus on the user experience.

Ian was previously Director of User Experience at Flow Interactive, a London-based user-centred design, research and strategy consultancy. Before joining Flow, he was a founder and director of user experience for Inspired Broadcast Networks, a kiosk-based games and mobile services startup that launched the first premium-rate SMS content services in the UK. In previous roles, Worley founded and was creative director for the London office of Viant, a global IT consultancy, which he helped grow to a staff of over 75 consultants. He has worked with major companies in the telecoms, travel, media and entertainment, financial services, publishing and retail sectors.

Stuart Handley, EMEA Communications Director, Dell

Stuart is currently Communications Director for Dell Public globally and EMEA, and has worked at Dell since November 2007. He is responsible for the Public Relations and Corporate Communications strategy for Dell’s Public Sector business unit.

Stuart has over 18 years public sector, corporate, technology, business-to-business and consumer communications experience. Prior to working at Dell, Stuart was (founding) partner of Purple Rabbit, a communications consultancy specializing in targeting the small business sector. Before that he was Managing Director Corporate Communications at leading international PR consultancy, Hill & Knowlton UK. Previous to this he was founder and CEO of AUGUST.ONE Communications.

His career started with leading international technology PR company, Text 100.

Andy Hobsbawm, Founder, Evrythng

Andy Hobsbawm established the first international Internet agency in 1994 and was a founding director of leading British new media company Online Magic, which merged with Agency.com in 1997. He is the co-founder of award-winning environmental movement Do the Green Thing and Internet of Things software start-up Evrythng.net. Previously he was European MD then Chairman of Agency.com until 2009.

In 2010 Andy was named in Wired magazine’s list of the UK’s "Top 100 Digital Power Brokers” and he has been recognised by industry professionals as one of most influential 100 individuals who have most contributed to the development and growth of e-commerce and the Internet in the UK over the last decade, receiving a Special Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.

He has has yet to get any royalties from obscure pop songs released by a minor independent record label in Europe.

Emma Jenkins, Digital Entrepreneur and former Associate Marketing Director, Procter & Gamble

Emma spent 12 years at Procter & Gamble exploring how digital technologies changed consumer's lives, attitudes and behaviours.  Leading P&G's New Marketing Models team Emma worked across interactive TV, web and mobile qualifying new digital advertising models for brands such as Pampers, Pringles, Lacoste, Olay and Ariel.  As a digital entrepreneur Emma now runs her own start up and  consults for large global brands.  A frequent member of judging panels Emma is passionate about innovation and creativity that grows businesses and also works as an advisor.

Stephen Dunn, Head of Tech Strategy, The Guardian

In 1999, Stephen joined the Guardian and has helped guide the technology strategy for guardian.co.uk's multiple award-winning network of websites and services since. 

Stephen has led several strategic platform initiatives at the Guardian, including the rebuild of the technical and information architecture powering guardian.co.uk on open web principles - which is the foundation of the Guardian's Open Platform content API. 

He is currently working on digital identity for Guardian News and Media.

Prior to joining the Guardian, Stephen completed his PhD at the Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics at Sussex University UK.

Nichola Stott, Director, the media flow

Nichola Stott is founder and director of themediaflow, a UK SEO and social media agency specialising in competitive sectors. theMediaFlow combine PR expertise with technical SEO principles based on a data-driven approach to drive maximum sustainable results for their clients. Prior to founding theMediaFlow Nichola was head of UK commercial search partners at Yahoo! and is a well-respected leader in the SEO field, speaking at industry conferences and regularly contributing to SearchEngineWatch, State of Search, SEO Chicks and Econsultancy.

George Nimeh, Consultant, @iboy

George Nimeh combines strategy, technology and creativity in order to make things happen. He believes in achieving profitable outcomes and thinks it's important to have fun while doing it. He's a proven leader and innovator in digital marketing and integrated brand communications and has a 15-year track record of significantly growing value from both the agency and client side.

George helped to market and launch NYTimes.com and was the lead strategist for the development and launch of Chase Manhattan Bank's first online banking service. He was the first employee at iwon.com, a highly successful CBS-backed startup which eventually sold to Ask.com for $480M. Whilst Digital Director at Red Bull, he created event and athlete sites whilst working on the brand's first dotcom and social networking projects. As founder of iris Digital, he grew the business from nought to over £10M/year and 120 people in offices around the world.

A respected blogger since 2001, George is a technology "editor at large" for Marketing magazine and is widely published. He is on the advisory board of Mobile Monday London and is a non-executive director of media140. He tweets a lot, too.