Social Media In Business

Joanne Jacobs

Joanne Jacobs is an expert in social networking technologies and heads up a web production house for social networking platforms, including gurgle.com, the site for pregnant women and young families.

Hailing from Australia, Joanne has been a consultant in user led technologies, providing advice to large firms on how to generate benefits from emerging technologies, and she has a long history in academia, lecturing extensively in strategic use of information technology and strategic internet marketing.

She was co-editor of the book, Uses of Blogs, published in 2006, and she is currently preparing her next book on other social networking applications and changes in business as a result of collaborative communication.

Joanne speaks on a variety of topics for professional associations, conferences and professional development seminars in the technology and communications sphere, as well as acting as a business advisor, marketer and technology problem solver for social media.

Neville Hobson

Neville Hobson, ABC, is a communicator, blogger and podcaster, one of the leading European early adopters and influencers in social media communication for business.

He is an accredited communication practitioner with over 25 years’ experience in public and media relations, marketing communication, employee, compensation and benefits communication as well as investor and financial relations. He helps companies use effective communication to achieve their business goals.

Neville is a founding Senior Research Fellow and Advisory Boardmember of the Society for New Communications Research, a California-based non-profit think tank. SNCR is dedicated to the advanced study of new communications tools, technologies and emerging modes of communication, and their effect on traditional media, professional communications, business, culture and society.

Throughout his career, Neville has been a passionate advocate for new and emerging technology tools and channels and how they can be deployed as effective agents of change in better aligning organizational needs with the marketplace and the needs of employees, customers and other stakeholders.

Neville’s activities in researching emerging communication technologies include engaging directly with companies, journalists, industry analysts, business bloggers and other influencers throughout Europe, North America and Asia.

His involvement in volunteerism leadership with the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) since 1989 includes serving as Regional Director in Europe and Member of the Executive Board and Executive Committee.

Neville blogs at NevilleHobson.com, at the intersection of business, communication and technology. He is co-presenter with Shel Holtz of the twice-weekly “For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report,” the communication profession’s first business podcast started in January 2005.

Judith deCabbit Lewis

Judith Lewis is search director at i-level Search in the UK, which is one of Europe’s largest SEM agencies. She works across multiple large brands creating integrated strategies involving paid and natural search combined with social media marketing. Judith is one of the SEO Chicks where she blogs about SEO, SEM, social media and analytics. She also writes regularly for Technology Weekly, a B2B newsletter covering news around the internet. She has been working in online marketing since 1996.

Judith has extensive experienced in performing “hands-on” SEO, indulging in everything from keyword research through to content development and linking building. She is also a dab hand at strategizing social media campaigns as well as pay-per-click (PPC) campaign creation and management. Prior to joining i-level Search she has worked in-house across a variety of sectors including retail/e-commerce, high tech and publishing. She currently fully embraces a white hat existence, though this was not always the case.

Eaon Pritchard

Eaon Pritchard is Head of Digital with London integrated agency Geronimo.

He was previously at pure play digital agency Weapon7 as Head of Channel Development and worked with Coca Cola, GSK, Mercedes-Benz and Daimler-Chrysler.

Pritchard, who has also worked with Littlewoods Gaming and BSkyB, works under the remit of ‘connecting clients with their customers’ across all Geronimo clients.

An NMA Effectiveness finalist in 2007 for his work on Sprite 3G, Pritchard has also featured in the D&AD annual in 2007 for his work in 2007 on EA Games ‘AV Wars’ as well as being nominated for a D&AD Yellow Pencil award in 2006 for his work on Xbox 360 ‘Easter Egg’.

Toby Moores

Toby is CEO of SleepyDog Ltd, the company behind one of Sony’s fastest-selling original video games for the PS2 (Buzz! The Music Quiz). As of 29th Aug 2008, the music quiz is number two on Play.com’s All Time Top 100 chart for the PS2 (excluding hardware). They also have a further 5 titles and a peripheral in the same chart.

The music quiz was the company’s original concept, coming directly from their creative process. They secured the world’s first blanket music licence for games, wrote the quiz questions and built the asset management system.

Toby is also a visiting professor at the IOCT, his role is to stimulate, challenge and support the academic team in the development of commercial and creative thinking skills toolkits. He is interested in Web 2.0/Enterprise 2.0 solutions within a University setting, Toby’s academic background is in product design.

Toby is also a consultant in Commercial Creativity and a founder member of CreativeCoffee Club and was the Executive Producer and Compare at Machinima Europe 07.

Benjamin Ellis

Benjamin is director and co-founder of communications technology house Redcatco. He has worked with communication technology for over 20 years, with roles in IT management, Consulting Engineering, Product Management, and board level responsibility for marketing and strategy. In the 1990’s, while at Cisco Systems, he championed Internet technologies across the globe. Later, he worked on broadband technology and standards for the Internet. Today his work is focused on social platforms and collaboration tools for business.

Benjamin is a member of the Institute of Directors, and holds a number of advisory roles, as well as regularly featuring in technology and management publications. He spends the rest of his time with his wife and four children in Surrey, producing music and honing his digital photography skills.

Will McInnes


Will McInnes is evangelical about all things Social Media, but more important than that he is a talented and inspiring translator.

Will monitors the early adopter activity online and translates the concepts for marketers desperate to know how to apply these new online techniques. Even your granny would understand his explanations.

A believer in the wisdom of crowds he engages with his audience drawing on their experience, questions and ideas. A natural entertainer and passionate speaker, his talks demand your full attention.

At speaking events Will has poked, cajoled and motivated delegates from: The Body Shop, Time Out Group, BBC, Lloyds TSB, Fat Face, Zurich Financial, O2, Neilson Active Holidays, Stannah and Vodafone.