Small Business Summit 2009. It Rocked.

From what I’ve heard, this year’s Fourth Annual Small Business Summit, produced by Smallbiztechnology.com and Prime Strategies, and brought to you by Dell, rocked and was one of the best ever.

We were told the space at the Digital Sand Box (55 Broad Street) was cozy, cool and quite nice. We were told the seminars were the best every – rich in information and exciting.

Dell’s social media guru, Bob Person, kicked off the event by helping us all understand the POWER of social media for big and small businesses. Dell listens to millions of conversations a year and is able to not only respond to customer’s conversation online but design better products that customers want.

Watch Bob talk about social media on Dell’s Facebook page. We’ll have Dell’s Summit speech on the Summit site shortly.

Marian Banker, Prime Strategies (left) (business leadership consulting) and co-host of the Summit, led an awesome panel discussion focused on what to do when customers spend less. Each of the panelists – Danny Estrada (Net@Work), Melanie Attia (Campaigner), Brad Porteus (Elance and Jeffrey Bernstein, Strategic Brands and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce) brought their unique perspective to the panel.

Read about the discussion here, on the blog of Sanford Dickert.

Next up was Harry Brooks of Network Solutions. His presentation was all about the power of the Internet (social media, search engine optimization and more in growing your business).

Read about the discussion on the blog of Sanford Dickert.

My good friend, CRM and social media guru Brent Leary (left) of Business Technology Radio, led a panel to help us understand how to use online tool to acquire and keep customers. Before the panel Michael Schultz, Microsoft Office Live, spoke about the power of software as a service. The full panel included Jonathan Rochelle (3rd from left), General Manager of Google Docs and Harry Brooks (right).

For lunch, Gene Marks, The Marks Group (CRM, accounting and services consulting) rocked the house and told us why the economy was GOOD for business. One reason it is good is that it forces us all to re-evaluate our businesses and do better. There’s lot’s more you’ll hear about later on.

America’s Small Business Diva, Anita Campbell, of Small Business Trends, summarized the morning session and opened the afternoon sessions.

The final four presentations of the day were filled with excitement and rich in information.

Rob Roy (right photo), former Navy SEAL with Yacov Wrocherinsky, Infinity Info Systems tagged team to help us learn how to survive and thrive in business. Taking Rob’s 20 years in the SEALs, Yacov’s 20 years in business and Yacov’s participation in Rob’s “Leadership Under Fire” 3 1/2 day training course for CEO’s – they gave an awesome presentation on how to lead ones business using philosophies from the Navy SEALs.

Melanie Attia, email marketing services company Campainger gave us 10 quick and powerful tips on how to do BETTER email marketing. Many businesses are doing email marketing, but if you want to GO BEYOND the normal and BOOST sales you can’t just to email marketing as usual.

Ramon Ray, Editor, Smallbiztechnology.com followed Melanie with a fast paced presentation in how to get free publicity for your growing business.Advertising and word of mouth are great, but taking things to the “next level” and getting free publicity through media attention is another way to BOOST sales, built credibility with prospective clients and increase customer loyalty.

Our final presentation of the day, one of the best, was by Jezra Kaye, a communication coach who helped us realize that being afraid of speaking in public is NOT bad and how to be communicators overall. She rocked the house.

Marian and I ended the day with giveaways including a Neat Receipts scanner, copies of Microsoft Office, airline tickets from American Airlines and more.

A huge thanks to our attendees, sponsors, media and marketing partners, and production team for making this all possible.

Hopefully YOU’LL be there for the March 2010 Fifth Annual Small Business Summit!

See comments about the Summit on Twitter (Hash #nycsbts)