Over 2,000 of the world’s top online marketing talent — and those spending 30% of the world-wide web ad budget — descended upon Salt Lake City for Omniture’s annual Summit on web analytics. Omniture is recognized by Fast Company as one of the world’s most innovative companies (interestingly, 66% of the top 50 are Omniture customers).

Chris Parkin, Sr. Director of Genesis Solutions and former Sr. Director of Product Marketing, sits down with Brad Baldwin between sessions to talk about the trends and advances in online business optimization.

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Today, venture-backed, high-growth companies have more choices to spend on core business and outsource the rest. From enterprise software like Salesforce.com to hiring virtual CFOs, companies are trimming expenses.

Mark Marshall, Managing Director of The Accend Group, provides outsourced accounting services and the financial decision making on a virtual model. Like Salesforce.com, Marshall’s organization “rents” the CFO and general accounting services on a monthly basis. One of the top sources for acquiring new customers is venture capitals. VCs want their money going toward core sales and marketing or development, not unnecessary expenses. At the same time, these same VCs like knowing that CFOs with proven track records are close to their investments.

Marshall talks about the benefits of outsourcing to a Virtual CFO and the main questions that organizations ask when considering outsourcing over full-time employees.

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The Blogging for Business Conference is coming to Salt Lake City Monday, October 22nd, 2007. Brad Baldwin catches up with Matthew Reinbold and learns that the organizers are focused on delivering content that will benefit the business-minded person interested in learning about social media and it’s benefits.

Keynotes:

• Wendy Piersall, eMoms at Hom
• Gary Goldhammer, Edelman Interactive Vice President

Speakers:

• Cheryl Snapp Conner, Snapp Conner PR
• Lee Gibbons, Podango
• Rand Bateman, Bateman IP Law Group
• David Politis, Politis Communications
• Lindsey Pollack, on Selling to Gen Y
• Malcolm Atherton, BusinessWire
• Tim Stay, Know More Media

Location / Date / Time / Cost:

• Marriott Downtown (across from Symphony Hall)
• Monday, October 22, 2007
• 8:30 AM – 5:30 PM
• $299

More details on the conference can be found at the Blogging for Business web site http://bforbconference.com.

Charles Coonradt is the author of The Game of Work. Coonradt had an epiphany one day when he watched how engaged and excited people were when playing basketball on a work break. His thought was why couldn’t this same model be applied to work? Coonradt created a methodology for increasing productivity through making work a game. He incorporated important lessons from sports and games, complete with feedback, scorekeeping, goal setting, coaching, choice, and accountability.

Coonradt talks with Brad Baldwin about the creation of his business “The Game of Work,” entrepreneurship, and a new book released in July 2007, The Better People Leader.

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From mystery shopping to restaurant to call centers to retail to hospitality to travel, Mindshare Technologies provides an easy to deploy and customize ASP service measurement solution where executive teams can monitor and determine individual customer experiences. In addition to survey tools, Mindshare also provides alerts and triggers that notify management and action teams so they can take care of a poor experience quickly, before it becomes a problem for the organization.

Robert walked us through how he starts his day and how he keeps abreast of the news and the buzz of the blogosphere. He makes recommendations to those business who have not engaged in social media. He answers questions about how to get started and what to do next.

Founded in 2002, award-winning SNG PR is one of the industry’s premier public relations firms, and was voted the “Best PR Firm in Utah” by the readership of Connect Magazine.

Tom Dickson, the chief actor and executive office at Blendtec, establishes trust through his “extreme blending” product demos and down-home personality. As Wright says, “what you see is what you get.” Destined to be an MBA business case classic, Blendtec spins up a brand-building showcase through its use of social media technology that even the hippest Madison Avenue firms are struggling to figure out.

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Jeff Kearl recently changed roles from Chief Marketing Officer to Chief Strategy Officer at Logoworks. Logoworks is #66 on Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 500 List of the fastest growing companies. Listen to Jeff discribe Logoworks’ plan for growth by attracting new partners like OfficeDepot and Ebay and bringing a network of over 300 designers to the creative process.

Keep it up!

Cydni, Kip, Tim, Brad

Technorati Tags: InsideUtah, Podcasting, Podcasts

This podcast is sponsored by NextPage and ARMA.

Technorati Tags: ARMA, Compliance, NextPage, Open Text, Podcasts, PodTech, Records Management, Software

This podcast is sponsored by NextPage and ARMA.

Technorati Tags: ARMA, Compliance, Podcasts, PodTech, Records Management, UBS Warburg, Zubulake

While there, John presented on Social Media and the benefit of starting a conversation with customers and prospects through blogs and podcasts.