Topic: Marketing

There is a growing consciousness of environmental responsibility in the fashion industry. This new trend, known as "green design", has inspired some top designers to rebrand their products for the environment savvy consumer, and reform their processes to foster a sustainable environment. Panelists Marci Zaroff, Helen Job, Scott Hahn and Julie Gilhart discuss some of the challenges faced, and the new initiatives introduced by the fashion industry in measuring up to this trend.

Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Pete Blackshaw, author of "Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends," about consumer megaphones -- the folks who get extremely displeased and upset with products or services.

If you're a software developer, you probably already know who Steve Yegge is. Developers all over the world spend a lot of their time reading or commenting on his blog when they're not writing code. A senior software engineer at Google, an ex-Amazon employee, one of the most widely read bloggers, an excellent hacker, and an outrageously funny chap, Steve talks about why branding is so important.

Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with author Steve Cone about his new book "Power Lines," in which he writes about words that sell, grip fans and sometimes change history.

When the marginal cost of producing something tends to zero, the smart thing to do is to treat it as zero and get ahead of the competition: give it away for free in order to sell something else. You can build whole businesses around giving stuff away for free. Chris Anderson, Editor in Chief of Wired magazine and author of "The Long Tail", puts his money where his mouth is. He's giving away the audio version of his new book, "Free: the Economics of Giving Stuff Away". In this talk he shares some ground-breaking ideas about making his next book almost free.

In this talk, Giovanni Gallucci, a search engine optimization and social media expert, a speaker, blogger and co-founder of Dexterity Media, spills out the secrets of a successful online marketing philosophy that leverages the communal strength of social networks such as MySpace, Facebook, etc. He contrasts social media against traditional marketing by providing case studies of companies that succeeded as well as those that've failed at it.

Advertising has always been something we suffered through, particularly in such passive activities as television watching. On the other hand, online advertising has become more context sensitive. Glen and Gerd discuss how this new model will continue to grow in the future as a better way to reach consumers. They review some possible ways to do this, including how Google is already working to better get the advertiser's message across to the user.

The Internet has always been known as a way for individuals to retrieve information. Shane Pearson, VP of Marketing and Product Management for BEA, believes that the Internet is now a place for individuals to interact with information. He also believes that many of these ways can be used by enterprises and businesses to better run their organizations. He joins Phil and Scott to talk about how "people centric" interaction. He joins Phil and Scott to discuss his ideas. He also talks about the upcoming Defrag Conference and how it will be a great place to discuss these ideas.

Whirlpool Corporation is a global manufacturer and marketer of major home appliances. Sara Ulius-Sabel, Metrics Manager for the company, presents a glimpse into Whirlpool's product development process through the lens of designing "Useful, Usable, and Desirable" products. She presents examples of how the company creates their appliances and describes design metrics as one of the tools that Whirlpool uses to drive their multi-brand portfolio.

In this interview Steve Marx, CEO of the Center for Sales Strategy and author of the book "Close Like the Pros," introduces a whole new way of thinking about closing B2B sales, turning the old-school "hand-off selling" concept on its ear. In Marx's interactive selling approach the sale is a process rather than an event. He explains why interactive strategies take advantage of the current choice-filled B2B landscape, enabling more efficient, productive, and successful sales.