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| Home > Events > Free Business Seminars |
N.E. Biz Expo- Thursday, November 3, 2011
All seminars are held in the conference rooms located on the third floor. These free seminars are listed by their scheduled time and location. Please refer to the chart on page XX for an overview of the seminar schedule.
A. Controlling your Energy Costs: Making the Energy Markets Work for You - And How to Save Big Doing It
B. Be a Resilient Leader
C. Making Time for Social Media
D. Internet Self Defense: Guidelines for business owners and professionals
E. Seize the New Economy: Get Motivated, Double Sales
F. Lessons Learned from Failure
G. Discover Your CEO Brand: Secrets to Embracing and Maximizing Your Unique Value as a Leader
H. The Power of Email Marketing
I. How and Why to Implement Unified Communications
J. Social Media and your Website Rank on Google
K. Year End Tax Seminar for Small Business
L. Fear to Fun: How Not to Freak When You Speak in Public: how to calm your nerves and wow the crowd
M. Business Growth in the Emerging Hispanic Market
N. Effective Web Design = Business Results
O. Engagement Marketing: Building Relationships, Building Success
P. Wealth Management For Small Business Owners
Q. Communication – Learn How to Create the Effect You Desire
R. Top 10 Tips to Grow your Website (and Rank on Google) for Free!
S. Stop Flirting With Disaster! Importance of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning
T. The Big Picture for PR: Navigating the new media landscape to drive sales
U. Filling the seats on your bus! Do you have a hiring, plan in place for 2012?
V. In the Trenches: Nuts and Bolts of Social Media
W. Ground to Cloud in 30 Days!
REGISTRATION: Requested, not required
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A. Controlling your Energy Costs: Making the Energy Markets Work for You - And How to Save Big Doing It
Location: Conference Room A (Business)
If you could easily reduce the price you pay for energy – both by getting your power for a lower rate and by becoming more energy efficient – would you? Our guess is yes, but getting started can be difficult. Where do you turn? Who can you trust? And how do you know what steps to take first? Attend an informative discussion on the opportunities awaiting small and medium sized businesses like yours to make competitive energy markets work for you. Learn how to tap into the hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives awaiting firms that adopt efficiency measures.
Presenters: Chris Tremblay, Energy Gateway; Bruce Buckbee, World Energy Solutions
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B. Be a Resilient Leader
Location: Conference Room B (Leadership and Growth)
This workshop will outline the characteristics and components of resilient leadership – a requisite to good leadership. The resilient leader excels in his or her ability to communicate well and problem solve. Resilient leaders are innovative - they choose effective strategies for dealing with conflicting priorities. They stay committed to change and allow themselves to be open to new ways of doing things. They inspire and mentor others. Participants will: assess their personal resilient leadership skills; review a case study of resilient leadership in action; identify characteristics and factors that make for resilient leadership; explore methods of effective communication and strategies for dealing with conflicting priorities.
Presenter: Rita Schiano, Live a Flourishing Life
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C. Making Time for Social Media
Location: Conference Room C (Marketing & Sales)
Everyone knows that social media is important to marketing your business, but no one thinks they have time. This workshop will review the tools and strategies to help you make social media marketing a regular part of your routine. Using social media — like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogging — can be intimidating. But with the right approach, you can make the most of the time you invest and see a real ROI. Some of the highlights include: identifying which social media sites should be your priority; determining your target audience and the media sites they use; establishing your business goals and marketing priorities; a review of tools to make it efficient (Twitterfeed, TweetDeck, HootSuite, etc.); website and print integration; scheduling, and more.
Presenter: Christina Davis, Web Editor/Columnist, Worcester Business Journal
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D. Internet Self Defense: Guidelines for business owners and professionals
Location: Conference Room D (Technology)
The Internet is a wonderful tool for collaboration, information gathering, and promotion. But as recent developments show, the threats are evolving from pranks and hacks to big-money organized crime rings. This seminar describes the most common threats and pitfalls faced by business owners. Topics covered include: who's out there and why are they doing this; what's at stake; the new risks including information leaks; choosing usernames and passwords; backups; viruses/malware/riskware/spyware; and what to do if you think you've been hit. Tips and best practices for avoiding trouble and a basic contact and checklist along with devising a plan before bad things happen will be discussed.
Presenter: Gregory M. Charland, Founder and CEO of Charland Technology
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E. Seize the New Economy - Get Motivated, Double Sales
Location: Conference Room E (Marketing & Sales)
Learn key sales success principles and the one sure way to keep yourself motivated. This session will cover ideas for making a great first impression and building solid relationships with people who want to do business with you. Take away ideas on: getting and staying motivated; doubling sales; taking advantage of new opportunities created by the new economy; and adjusting your attitude to do more business. Learn to avoid the two biggest roadblocks; how to instantly get control of your life and business; the one idea that put the World’s Best Salesperson in the Guinness Book of World Records; how to build trust and rapport almost instantly and get people off the fence; and how to build a customer base that will stay with you, grow, and provide lots of referrals.
Presenter: John Chapin, Complete Selling
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F. Lessons Learned from Failure
Location: Conference Room A (Business)
Many people will share their successes with you, and tell you what they did to make millions of dollars. Not me. How does that help you? Mark Zuckerberg himself could tell you exactly how he built Facebook, but you still wouldn’t be able to build a comparable company. This session will share how Grasshopper overcame bad business decisions and continued moving forward and growing. You'll hear about the two monstrous mistakes they made – and what they learned from them so that you can avoid these mistakes yourself. Learn how they broke their customers' trust in just one day and why they shut down a company that had great press, paying customers, and was growing daily.
Presenter: Jonathan Kay, Grasshopper
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G. Discover Your CEO Brand: Secrets to Embracing and Maximizing Your Unique Value as a Leader
Location: Conference Room B (Marketing & Sales)
Developing a stellar, brand-name reputation in your company and industry is a tremendous career asset and, this reputation or "brand" provides tangible value to your business. Yet, what if you're not sure what your brand is, or how to maximize its potential. Learn secrets of great “brand name” leaders from Steve Jobs, to Warren Buffett, to Richard Branson, and many more. In this engaging, interactive session, you will find out how to: look at your life to find a story that illustrates one of your “brand” values; translate that story into a powerful “lesson;” communicate your unique leader brand and leverage it to drive value into your company; and map out a personal brand plan - to make a name and raise your profile in your company or industry.
Presenter: Elizabeth Freedman, Communications Consultant, Bates Communication
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H. The Power of Email Marketing
Location: Conference Room C (Marketing & Sales)
In today’s world, marketing is about building relationships and sharing value with people online. Through easily accessible and cost-effective tools, you can turn your for-profit or not-for-profit business into a powerful and trusted resource. In this seminar, you will learn: best practices and strategies for effective email marketing; list-building ideas and techniques; what valuable content is and how to vary your offerings; how to read metrics and create targeted follow up campaigns; how to integrate with social media marketing efforts; and how to create new business, sales and impact. Come learn how to build strong relationships that will lead to more business and growth through the power of email marketing.
Presenter: Corissa St. Laurent, Regional Development Director, Constant Contact
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I. How and Why to Implement Unified Communications
Location: Conference Room D (Technology)
Unified Communications is a hot topic among business professionals that seek to leverage already deployed infrastructure to derive a competitive advantage by making themselves accessible to their coworkers, prospects, and customers. The ROI for attending this seminar is a deep understanding of what is meant by unified communications, and how it can be cost-effectively implemented in most typical organizations to derive significant competitive advantage regarding customer service and internal responsiveness.
Presenter: Paul LaFlamme, Centrend Inc.
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J. Social Media and your Website Rank on Google
Location: Conference Room E (Marketing & Sales)
Social media can be an effective stand alone tool for business. But do tweeting, Facebook posts, and online reviews help your website rank higher on search engines such as Google and Bing? How do your social media efforts and blogging relate to your website? Learn how new social media ranking factors can help your website appear on the first page of Google. Participants with smart phones will work to rank a new website page for the term New England Business Expo in live time. Whether you are a novice or an expert, attendees will learn tips to more effectively communicate while boosting your website ranking. Participants will learn about new ranking factors and tracking results.
Presenter: Kevin Burke, Agile Internet Marketing
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K. Year End Tax Seminar for Small Business
Location: Conference Room A (Business)
Significant changes in the tax laws are taking effect this year. How will they affect your business? Your personal tax liabilities? Will you pay more taxes? Or less? Learn how the new regulations will impact you and what steps you can still take to minimize this year’s taxes. Attendees will receive; an overview of the tax changes; business-specific tax law changes; the furor of 1099 reporting; changes to tax rates and capital gains rates; personal tax issues that affect you; and the outlook for additional tax changes.
Presenters: Brad Carlson, Jack Cashman, CPA, CFPTM
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L. Fear to Fun: How Not to Freak When You Speak in Public: how to calm your nerves and wow the crowd
Location: Conference Room B (Leadership and Growth)
Public speaking is an invaluable professional skill. From job interviews to staff meetings to sales pitches, speaking with clarity, confidence and style can help you promote your products, your ideas, and even yourself. Because public speaking is also the most common fear in America, mastering it can give you a vital edge over your competition. Take the first step toward tackling your fear of public speaking with this engaging, interactive, timely primer. You’ll learn why you get butterflies and sweaty palms when you even think about speaking, and pick up six easy ways to calm your mind and body, so you can give a great performance every time. You’ll leave inspired and ready to enjoy your next public speaking opportunity!
Presenter: Andy Saks, Spark Presentations
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M. Business Growth in the Emerging Hispanic Market
Location: Conference Room C (Marketing & Sales)
It’s the trendsetters that spot opportunities and respond to demographic changes in the marketplace - they are the businesses that thrive. The biggest trend in consumer marketing is the growth of the Hispanic market and over the next 25 years, this market will experience unprecedented growth presenting many opportunities for businesses. Has your company considered this new, untapped market? “Business as Usual” is no longer a valid method to be successful in this marketplace. How do you modify your strategy to attract new clients and close sales? And, once they become your clients, how do you truly build loyalty? Learn how to embrace these challenges and understand consumer behavior, including the cultural traits and beliefs that are necessary to establish rapport and build solid relationships.
Presenter: Eduardo Crespo, Hispanic Market Solutions, Jeannette Gerald
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N. Effective Web Design = Business Results
Location: Conference Room D (Technology)
While nearly every business has a website, relatively few create positive business results. Beyond an electronic brochure, a well designed web site can help connect you with potential customers and better serve the customers you have. Chris Lackey, lead designer for Cold Spring Design, will discuss the basics of web site design and business outcomes. Chris will cover how decisions about color, layout, navigation, images, and other design elements can help or hurt the effectiveness of your site.
Presenter: Chris Lackey, Lead Designer, Cold Spring Design
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O. Engagement Marketing: Building Relationships, Building Success
Location: Conference Room E (Marketing & Sales)
Building lasting relationships with your existing customers and members drives business success. Having an engagement marketing strategy is the key to inspiring your most passionate customers and advocates to: have conversations with you and fellow customers, share stories and opinions, and share your content with their own social circle. In this seminar, you’ll discover the three components that lead to Engagement Marketing success: providing an excellent customer experience; making connections that engage your audience and enable an ongoing dialog; and using email and social media to deepen relationships and broaden your reach. Come learn how other small businesses, non-profit associations, and organizations combine email marketing and social media marketing to make connections, monitor feedback, share interesting content, and build lasting business success.
Presenter: Corissa St.Laurent, Constant Contact
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P. Wealth Management For Small Business Owners
Location: Conference Room A (Business)
Financial planning is essential to business growth and success. But too many business owners and managers neglect to plan for their own future. Learn how to accumulate, grow, and manage financial assets to help assure a secure financial path for you and your family. Learn about: the promises we make for today and the future; three essential ingredients for successful financial planning; how to identify key areas of concern; a plan for each phase of your life; how to put your plan into action. Securities offered through 1st Global Capital Corp., Member FINRA, SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Gray Equity Management, LLC. Gray Equity Management, LLC and 1st Global Capital Corp. are unaffiliated entities.
Presenters: Daniel C. Romano, CPA, PFS and James Branch CFP, ChFC – Gray Equity Management, LLC
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Q. Communication – Learn How to Create the Effect You Desire
Location: Conference Room B (Leadership and Growth)
Communication, a piece of cake you say? We do it every day from the time we get up in the morning until the time we lay back down at night. It’s easy, right? After all, it’s just taking a thought and choosing words to express that thought. Or is it? Communication, in fact, is quite complex and it’s not an area on which our culture or educational system places focus. Sure we’re taught to read, right and speak, but where do we learn to actually communicate?
Presenter: Maureen Letendre, Founder, In Demand Coaching
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R. Top 10 Tips to Grow your Website (and Rank on Google) for Free!
Location: Conference Room C (Marketing & Sales)
We’ve compiled a list of the top ten things that you can do (free of charge) to help keep your website up-to-date. In these tips, we’ll review the best tactics used to get your site to rise to the top of the search engines. We'll discuss: why you have a website; top 10 tips for maintaining your site, the value of content and editing existing content; what to focus on; titles and page names and how to get people where they want to be; where you rank; keywords; your competition; form fields; links and why you need them; establishing a maintenance schedule.
Presenter: Matt Ward, inConcert Web Solutions
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S. Stop Flirting With Disaster! Importance of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning
Location: Conference Room D (Technology)
Blizzards, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes have disrupted businesses this year alone, resulting in down time and loss of revenue. What would happen to your business in the event of an unforeseen disaster? How do you recover? What steps do you take to ensure uninterrupted operations? This seminar will discuss backup and disaster recovery solutions and technologies that can keep your business running in the event of a natural disaster or an unforeseen disruptive event such as power failure, server down, network failure, etc. The presentation will help participants understand the importance of a formal, written disaster recovery plan to minimize their business down time. You'll learn: what data should be backed up; types of backups available, how often it should be done, and where to store data - including cloud computing. You'll hear about real world examples of businesses that were able to survive disastrous events and continue to function with minimal or no interruption.
Presenter: Sameer Sule, Kinara Insights
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T. The Big Picture for PR: Navigating the new media landscape to drive sales
Location: Conference Room E (Marketing & Sales)
The shifting media landscape has diminished many traditional public relations opportunities for consumer-facing businesses, while the rise of digital and social media has created opportunities to take your message directly to consumers. Just as a mix of the right ingredients make a recipe a success, the right balance of PR, social media and marketing can help drive your sales. Attendees will learn about the: myriad tools available to manage, digest, and publish in today’s social media world; value of new media tools such as video and in-bound marketing services; and ways to make time for social media.
Presenters: Mark O’Toole, Sr. V.P. and Hilary Allard, V.P., The Castle Group
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U. Filling the seats on your bus! Do you have a hiring, plan in place for 2012?
Location: Conference Room A (Business)
Employers of all sizes are experiencing a lack of qualified candidates applying for their
open positions. Even with unemployment at a very high rate, there is a major skills gap
preventing growing companies from finding the talent they need to staff their teams. And with a growing number of baby boomers looking at retirement over the next five years, the skills gap is expected to increase, leaving businesses with knowledge gaps in their ranks. Learn the best way to protect your company and create a hiring plan to ensure that you'll be staffed with the best candidates in the region.
Presenter:Sandy Reynolds, Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM)
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V. In the Trenches: Nuts and Bolts of Social Media
Location: Conference Room C (Marketing & Sales)
You've been tasked with leading the social media team at your company, or perhaps you ARE the company. What are the tools that the pros are using now? How can you manage social media efficiently and effectively and report back to top level managers with the information they need? In an era of data overload, how do you justify the dollars spent on social media. You will explore: case studies of successful pages; the most favored social media tools including those that find content specific to your target audience, can automate your postings, and monitor them;
which is better - Google or Facebook advertising, PPC or CPM; how to implement blogging and why it is critical to your SEO efforts; QR codes – why marketers should not print another piece without one!
Presenter: Michelle Fontaine, FBS Smarty
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W. Ground to Cloud in 30 Days!
Location: Conference Room D (Technology)
Forget the hype about "Cloud Computing" and join Allen Falcon, CEO of Cumulus Global, for this interactive session. Allen will discuss and take questions about how businesses can improve communication and access to information while saving money. By looking at cloud solutions as an ecosystem, you combine services and applications that work together with each other, and with your other IT assets. Key business issues involved in selecting cloud solutions will be covered: what is “cloud computing,” selecting the types of cloud computing that fit your business; creating your ecosystem - in stages; changing the way you pay for IT; security, PAR, data privacy, and more; and taking your first steps.
Presenter: Allen Falcon, CEO, Cumulus Global
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