It is with great pleasure that we announce our involvement as a local sponsor of the inaugural Like Minds conference.

The conference will focus on sustainable social media and social media ROI, answering such questions as:

- How to measure social media ROI
- How to carry out online campaigns to compliment offline marketing mix
- How to target online audiences, and best engage current customers and new customers
- How to turn customers into brand advocates through social media

The conference will take place on Friday, October 16th at the Exeter Conference Centre.

For more information on Like Minds, and to register your attendance, please log on to: http://alikeminds.org/

Like Minds.
Measuring Social Media, and making it sustainable.

This month Insider profiles 21 more young business leaders who have made it into our 42 under 42 class of 2009.

Why 42? It’s ten years younger than the average age of the people featured on Insider’s South West Rich List. In ten years’ time some of those featured could well be household names – and may even make the Rich List themselves.

ALASTAIR BANKS & JAMES DAWKINS, BOTH 30
CO-FOUNDERS, OPTIX SOLUTIONS

Not many business run by a pair of 30-year-olds have been going ten years, but Optix Solutions has. Alastair Banks and James Dawkins set up the business while at Exeter University. A decade on, the pair have built one of the strongest web design companies in the region, covering web design, hosting, domain registration, e-commerce, content management systems, e-brochure and business support. The company has doubled its headcount in the past 18 months and employs 12 people. The growth means Banks and Dawkins are trying to manage the company’s evolution by using resources such as the Breakthrough Forums offered by the Beacon South West Initiative to share business practice.

For more information, pick up a copy of the September 2009 edition of South West Insider. http://www.insidermedia.com/

The Optix Sales & Marketing team last night presented Winning On The Web a 2 hour interactive session to the ACCA at Exeter Rugby Club, Sandy Park.

The presentation involved a real hands on feel for all the members present and we had them really taking part and embracing all the web has to offer.

We covered the web site life cycle from Foundation, through Design and Development, Online Marketing and Retention, with an interactive parts throughout.