Marketers and PR professionals can no longer ignore the power of social media

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad & Tobago - Aug. 7, 2014 - PRLog -- Global Expert Systems (GES) and  ORBIT Solutions are teaming up once more to host the 2014 Caribbean #Marketing Conference.  This year’s conference will focus on the social media revolution and its impact on our businesses. The one-day conference will take place on September 25^th and 26^th in Bridgetown, Barbados and Port of Spain, Trinidad respectively.

This exciting business conference will engage marketers and other professionals on marketing and branding especially in the digital world. How can we integrate apps, blogs and opt-in strategies into our marketing and PR? In other words, there’s a shift from outbound to inbound marketing that is taking place. Partner Consultant of GES, Ian Walcott-Skinner, stated that “even though traditional marketing, as we know it, is not dead, GES and ORBIT have gone great lengths to bring a lineup of impressive keynotes and speakers who will be addressing some of the more novel approaches to the marketing game. We listened to our clients and customers and offered them content that will assist them in overcoming their daily challenges, considering how quickly this field is changing.” Themes and Topics include:

·         Content Marketing

·         Data Analytics

·         Digital Marketing

·         Inbound Marketing

·         New Marketing Trends

·         Search Engine Optimization

·         New Public Relations Trends

·         New Careers for Marketers

·         The End of Outbound Marketing

·         There is an app for that!

This year’s keynote speaker is Selena Cuffe who is the President and CEO of Heritage Link Brands, LLC, the largest company in North America dedicated to importing and marketing wine produced by indigenous Africans. With wines that have been featured by media outlets including TIME and PBS, the company’s South African portfolio has won industry accolades from the International Wine Challenge, Decanter Magazine, and Wine Spectator, among others. Customers include household names like American Airlines, 1-800-flowers.com and Whole Foods Market.

Selena, along with her husband Khary Cuffe, founded Heritage Link Brands when they learned in 2005 that South Africa had a $3 Billion wine industry yet less than 2% of the industry was owned by blacks who make up over 80% of the country’s population. As the only company in North America to import and market Africa’s black-produced wine en masse, vintners’ stories of turning hardship into hope and opportunity inspire wine lovers with every sip!

Selena will be introducing the concept of Diaspora Marketing and sharing how we can tap into our extensive Caribbean Diaspora especially with the ease of using the various exciting social media platforms that are out there today.

Previously Selena served as a marketer for the Council on International Educational Exchange and the Procter & Gamble Company. While there, she managed its $100 million North America marketing budget and supported the commercialization of all Pringles flavors in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. Cuffe is a graduate of Stanford University and holds an MBA with honors from Harvard University.

She serves on the Bing Overseas Studies Advisory Council at Stanford University, the Alumni Board of the Harvard Business School, and the Advisory Board of House of Mandela. Cuffe is also a weekly columnist for Inc.com, a publication focused on growing companies.

Ms. Cuffe will be joined an equally impressive team of speakers from the region and the USA. These speakers and fellow keynotes include, bestselling author and brand specialist, Lauren Maillian Bias; Robert De Gannes, a Trinidadian social media expert and Managing Director of Tribal Worldwide; the directors of the digital solutions company, Caribbean Ideas, Brevard Nelson, Chike Farrell and Cordell Lawrence. Hailing also from the USA are Samanthan Trinh, a product marketing professional and Tiffany Griffin, a global brand strategist and digital marketer. For more information visit online at www.globalexpertsystems.org