The first SME Tech Summit played host to a lot of experts and disseminated a huge amount of valuable information. Some attendees may have had conflicting interests in conflicting tracks, and others may just wish to refresh their memories. The Insight Exchange has endeavoured to collect resources from the speakers on the day, and list contact details to help with ongoing conversations.

Matt Barrie, Chief Executive, Freelancer.com
Presentation | Website | Twitter

Matt Bateman, Managing Director, Viva9
Presentation

Carl Bellamy, Group Sales Manager – Small Business, Australia and NZ, Yahoo! Search Marketing
Presentation

Kate Carruthers, Director, Digital Media Group
Presentation | Website | Blog

Suzi Dafnis, Community Director, Australian Businesswomen’s Network
Twitter | Website | Blog

Adam Franklin, Managing Director, Bluewire Media
Presentation | Website | Email | Twitter | Linkedin | Blog

Gavin Heaton, Publisher, The Age of Conversation
Website | Twitter

David James, CEO & Director, Brasserie Bread
Presentation | Website | Twitter | Blog

Benjamin Mangold, Analytics Director, Mangold Sengers
Presentation | Website | Resources | Blog | Email | Twitter | Linkedin

Josh Mehlman, Editor, NETT Magazine
Website | Twitter | Personal Blog

Phil Morle, Co-Founder, Pollenizer
Website

Mark Pesce, Inventor, Writer, Educator & Futurist
Presentation | Text Version of Presentation | Twitter | Email

Tim Pethick, Entrepreneur at Large & Founder, Nudie Juice
Presentation | Website | Email | Blog

Steven Power, CEO, ReachLocal Australia
Presentation

Dominic Thurbon, Managing Director, The Centre for Skills Development
Twitter

James Toepfer, Industry Marketing Manager, Google
Presentation | Email | Questions | AdWords Special Offer

Sharon Williams, Founder and CEO, Taurus Marketing
Presentation | Website | Email | Twitter | Linkedin | Ninemsn Small Business Blog

Shane Williamson, Co-Founder, Mobile Monday
Presentation | Website | Email | Twitter | Blog | Linkedin

Viva9 Managing Director Matt Bateman has provided the supporting material for his presentation on Performance Marketing ahead of the SME Tech Summit (Sydney, December 1).

Matt will explain the concept of affiliate marketing and how best to use it to advance small to mid size business.

ReachLocal Australia CEO Steven Power has been kind enough to share his presentation ahead of Tuesday’s Summit.

Here it is for those who’d like a sneak peek. This will also be a handy resource for those who will be at another Track (either Social Media or Effectiveness) on the day.

Ahead of the SME Tech Summit (Sydney) on December 1, ReachLocal CEO Steve Power is offering this video ahead of his presentation on making the most out of online advertising.

Here he discusses search engine optimisation and search engine advertising and the science behind each, the state of the online versus printed directories market and just how important it is to have a website (not always!) when customers are trying to find you.

ReachLocal is a strong position to speak with authority on the subject. They topped this year’s Technology Fast 500 list compiled by Deloitte, achieving the coveted top spot on the list with 2008 fiscal year revenue of $146.69 million and a five-year fiscal growth rate of 146,050 percent.

By Adam Franklin

I sent my very first email marketing campaign in 2006 and I learnt two brutal lessons. One, how easy it is to stuff things up and, two, how few people actually read your email.

Since that time I have learnt that a 40-50 percent open rate is actually quite good and that our email campaigns are interesting enough to attract a click through rate that is five times the average.

In the SME Tech Summit workshop we’ll examine six common mistakes, I’ll reveal my secret formula for email marketing success and finally show you how it can all come together with a real life case study from Sydney weight loss company Hypoxi Australia.

If there are any questions you’d like to ask, please tweet me @Franklin_Adam

Sydney Web Design: Adam Franklin is Managing Director of Bluewire Media an ISO9001 quality assured digital agency. 1300 258 394.

SmartCompany magazine is running a webinar on Monday 16 November at 2pm: How Small and Mid-Sized Companies are Using Technology to Drive Business Success.

The webinar will provide a preview to some of the outstanding content at SME Technology Summit.

Amanda Gome, Publisher of SmartCompany, will moderate the discussion and share some of her insights in running a young and rapidly growing company, as well in covering the best of what’s happening in small and mid-sized business in Australia.

Matt Barrie, CEO of Freelancer.com, will discuss how companies can best take advantage of online outsourcing to build efficiencies, scale operations, and grow companies rapidly.

Suzi Dafnis, Community Director of Australian Businesswomen’s Network, will draw on her extensive experience in building online communities using blogs, forums and other tools.

David James, CEO of Brasserie Bread, will share how he has rapidly grown a real-world business using Twitter and other social media tools.

See the full SME Technology Summit agenda for details of what they will be speaking about and where they fit into the array of valuable content available on the day.

And be sure to register for the webinar to get these speakers great insights! There will be three complimentary passes to the Summit drawn at the end of the webinar.

Looking at CRM solutions for your business can be a weighty task. There are so many options out there from powerful paid tools to free and simple options.

If you’re still not convinced about what you can do with a CRM system, this article from Smart Company explains the power of CRM.

What ever you decide on, researching how the CRM tool meets your needs can be the most difficult part of the choice.

Australian small business site Sage Business has outlined the Top Five things to look for in a CRM that can be used as an excellent guide on how to kick off your product research.

Key elements include:

* Making a comprehensive list of what you need out of a CRM system and what you may need in the future.
* Settle on your budget (and a timeframe for expenditure) before undertaking your research.
* Understand your IT support capabilities. Ask how much maintenance your CRM system will need.
* How well does the system fit with other programs used?
* Are there any specifics about your industry that a CRM system will need to meet?

There will be far more on customer relationship management tools and how to use them to improve your business at the SME Technology Summit in Sydney on 1 December.