The power of social media - Tuesday 30th March - Speakers


SPEAKERS AND PANELISTS


Host - Sasha Qadri


Sasha Qadri is a communications specialist and former broadcast journalist.  

As a journalist, she's produced, reported and presented the news at several national stations including ITV News, Reuters and Sky News.

Two years ago she decided to put her journalism skills to use in a corporate environment and began working in the communications team at Coca-Cola Enterprises.

Work aside she is a keen traveller with a special interest in Antarctica and she is currently trying to master Spanish fluently.



Charlie Osmond
CEO and co-founder, FreshNetworks and FreshMinds


Charlie co-founded FreshMinds in 2000, moving from the Interactive Marketing Team at Procter & Gamble.  He graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Engineering, Economics and Management.

He has a long-standing interest in branding, social networks and driving innovation online.  In 2007 he co-founded FreshNetworks, a social media agency that helps brands build and manage online communities.

In honour of his entrepreneurial efforts, Charlie was named by Growing Business magazine as one of the UK's "Next Generation of Entrepreneurs".  In 2003 he was named London Entrepreneur of the Year and The Carlton Young Business Person of the Year.  In 2006 he was named by Esquire Magazine as UK Young Entrepreneur of the year.  

FreshMinds has gone on to be named Best UK Agency by the Market Research Society in both 2006 and 2007, as well as Most Innovative Employer.  In 2008 FreshNetworks won the Sunday Times £5M London Entrepreneur Challenge.

Charlie works with a number of charities to promote entrepreneurialism amongst young people and has acted as a special advisor to various government departments on this topic.

In his spare time, he is an occasional blogger for FreshNetworks and Econsultancy and competes as part of the FreshMinds sailing team at international match-racing regattas. Last year the team reached a ranking of 28th in the world.

Michelle Goodall
Online PR and social media consultant and trainer, Econsultancy


Michelle Goodall specialises in Online Public Relations and is an Online PR and social media consultant and trainer at Econsultancy.

Formerly Digital Director at Lexis Public Relations she has over 13 years’ Online PR and social media consultancy and implementation experience working on award winning campaigns and crisis issues management projects with many large organisations including Norwich Union, Coca Cola,
Domino’s, eBay, Camelot, Diageo and Barclaycard.

Michelle understands how evolving web technologies are affecting traditional marketing and communication models.  She has helped PR and marketing professionals embrace the medium by advocating a simple and pragmatic approach.

Michelle’s has trained over 1,000 marketers in social media including inhouse teams from the RSPCA, London2012, CNN, Platinum Guild, Random House and Philips.

Michelle (rarely) blogs at econsultancy.com/blog and (frequently) tweets as
@greenwellys on Twitter.

James Alexander
Co-founder Zopa, CEO Green Thing


James is a highly innovative and practical business creator, builder and strategist.  He is currently a Trustee and CEO of Green Thing, the award winning not-for-profit organisation that inspires people to lead a greener life through “creativity versus climate change”.

James was co-Founder of Zopa, the multi-award winning marketplace where people meet to lend and borrow money and a Board Director until September 2009.  Zopa was named by Business 2.0 in September 2006 as “1 of 11 companies that will change the world”.

James also works for the leading growth and innovation consultancy, The Foundation, is a Trustee of the RSPB, and Advisor to MyBnk.com, Walkit.com, mo.jo, LeapAnywhere.com, Kubera Money and ClearlySo.com and a Patron to Martin Firrell.

James holds an MBA from INSEAD and a 1st class honours degree from University College, London.



Anna Rafferty
MD, Penguin Digital


Anna is responsible for the online and digital publishing and marketing for Penguin books in the UK which means everything from eBooks and apps to the Penguin, Puffin and Penguin Classics brand websites, to digital innovations and partnerships like www.spinebreakers.co.uk, www.penguindating.co.uk and www.blogapenguinclassic.co.uk.  

Anna started work in 1999 as a copywriter at www.lastminute.com eventually becoming the Head of Customer Experience and was part of that growth from a one-room start-up through the IPO and PR explosion, to profitability. 

She left lastminute.com to join a Digital Creative Strategy agency in a bizdev role.  After 2 years, she had enough of the agency world and left for the sleek and fragrant V&A Museum in South Kensington, happy to be a client again, working on her own projects.  

However, 8 months after starting at the V&A, she spotted her dream job on the Penguin website and the rest is above…