Utah Valley Business Blog » Utah Valley Networking

Social Commerce Exchange Event Teaches Social Media Monitoring

randyscott — Fri, 18 May 2012 17:41:47 +0000

– Free Event to be Held May 23 at Salt Lake Community College From 6:30-8:30 pm –

Social Commerce Exchange, an educational and networking initiative driven by local companies interested in helping the business community improve their revenue, brand, and customer relations through social media, is holding their next event Wednesday, May 23 at the Salt Lake Community College from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. (Networking beginning at 5:30 p.m.)

This month’s event will focus on how local companies are using social media monitoring to grow their business. Presenters include:

Cory Edwards, Director of Social Media & Corporate Reputation – DELL
Jeff Jordan, Senior Product Manager, Social Media – ADOBE
Jason Bangerter, Founder – STRUCK
Jodi Mardesich, Social Media Manager – FUSION-IO
Mario Colosimo, Social Media Manager – ZIONS BANK
Collin Searle, Social Media Manager – INTERMOUNTAIN HEALTHCARE

The Social Commerce Exchange is a combined voluntary effort of 32 sponsors & hosts exemplifying the value of social media in business. Their objective is to help local companies learn and implement social media into their business in a fast and efficient manner. The Social Commerce Exchange was initiated by Whitehall Ventures, and is supported by companies such as Skullcandy, doba, ZAGG, Cafe Rio Mexican Grill, Chase, and KSL.

“Since the online world is moving so much faster than businesses can measure, gaining insightful and strategic social trends and tools is crucial,” said Nate Hirst, Blendtec Global Marketing Analyst. “We’re excited for this event to hear and share ways that help monitor and discover significant online conversations and engagement.”

To register for the event, go to http://socialcommerceexchange-6437.eventbrite.com/

About Social Commerce Exchange

Social Commerce Exchange is organized and run by companies wanting to increase their social commerce capabilities. Social Commerce Exchange’s unique event format provides participants with exposure to real social case studies, expert-led sessions, as well as networking opportunities with other forward-thinking individuals and businesses. For more information, or to attend an event, visit www.socialcommerceexchange.org

Women Tech Council Spring Event With Disney

Cary Snowden — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:45:13 +0000

The Women Tech Council is holding their annual Spring Networking Event. The perfect place for both networking and a great technology discussion.

This year we have Disney technologists and Imagineers coming to town to talk about media and entertainment technology trends, how they use technology, create playtests and make Magic in the parks.

Mark your calendars for the Magic.

Date: April 26th 2012
Time: 11:30-1:00
Location: Zion’s Bank Tower 18th Floor
One South Main, Salt Lake City
Members $35/Non-Members $45

Doing Business With China Conf at UVU

Cary Snowden — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 22:15:40 +0000

The Woodbury School of Business at UVU is hosting a conference on Doing Business With China.

May 10, 2012

The Doing Business with China conference will create opportunities for businesses to interact with local and nationally experienced business leaders from both the United States and China. This conference also provides business managers from Utah networking opportunities with officials from the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), the most important and the largest institution for the promotion of foreign trade in China.

—Registration information coming soon

For more information, keep an eye on http:www.uvu.edu/businesswithchina

Here’s the flyer…

UVEF Sponsoring Free CrowdPitch At UVU

Cary Snowden — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:25:00 +0000

UVEF is sponsoring a FreeCrowdPitch on April 3rd at UVU from 3:00 to 5:00. See you there!

Free Entrepreneur CrowdPitch Event – April 3rd At UVU!

Enjoy Free Food, Networking & Watch Utah’s Hottest Startups Pitch Their Ideas!

Be our guest. Enjoy free food, networking and watch three of Utah’s hottest Digital Media startups pitch to a panel of experts and investors (think “SharkTank”). Learn from investor feedback and see how they make their decision. Also, invest “CrowdCash” in the business of your choice and win valuable gift certificates if you invest in the winning business. If they win, you win!

Pitching Entrepreneurs

Winners of the Digital Media “Concept to Company” Innovation Contest

Panel of Judges

Angel Investors
Digital Animation Experts
Game Industry Executives

DETAILS

When: Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012

Time: 3:00-5:00

Cost: FREE – Including Food! (RSVP is Required)

Where: Utah Valley University, Orem, UT

More Details/Register At: http://crowdpitch12.eventbrite.com/

About CrowdPitch & Grow Utah Ventures

Grow Utah Ventures, is a privately funded Non-Profit Organization dedicated to stimulate, unlock and develop the entrepreneurial talent and early stage business opportunities for value creation across Utah. Grow Utah Ventures has acquired the CrowdPitch events formerly run by Lendio (Funding Universe) and will now host them throughout Utah.

For more information about Grow Utah Ventures and other upcoming events, visit www.GrowUtahVentures.com

Forward This Email

Grow Utah Ventures

450 S. Simmons Way

Suite 500

Kaysville, UT 84037

info@growutahventures.com

UVEF Hosting Entrepreneur Event With Tony Zito Of mediaFORGE

Cary Snowden — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:20:21 +0000

The Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum is excited to have Tony Zito from mediaFORGE as a featured guest discussing his experience in building a successful company on the principles of entrepreneurship.

Thursday, March 8 at Novell Building A (Provo), starting at 11:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Tony has been working as CEO of mediaFORGE since 2006. He is passionate about display media technology and the potential it has to shape the future of the advertising/marketing industry. With 20 years of entrepreneurial experience, Tony believes the key to building a successful business is developing a strategic partnership with clients, allowing their needs and interests to guide the company’s direction.

Prior to mediaFORGE, Tony worked as CEO of start-up tech companies ezADit.com and Precision Data Link, which were both acquired.

We hope to see you there for this special event.

Questions? Contact Michelle@cedo.org or 801.226.1521 ext.101
No cost for this event to current UVEF members. $25 for visitors.

About UVEF

The Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum (UVEF) is a volunteer non-profit support group linking entrepreneurs to Money, Markets and Mentors. Celebrating 20 years of new business success, UVEF empowers current and future business leaders to thrive in today’s competitive market.

We provide real-world, practical education and valuable resources on how to access needed capital, attract new customers and tap into industry experts.

UVU Business Development Conference Announced!

Cary Snowden — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:51:49 +0000

UVU will again host the 2012 Business Development Conference on Friday, March 9. The event will go all day ending at 4:00 p.m.

The Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum is a sponsor of this event.

Tickets are on sale now. Visit the RSVP page for more information and to purchase your tickets.

The event will be held at UVU at 800 W University Parkway, Orem, UT 84058.

Here is the flyer:

Lean Startup All-Star Networking Lunch!

Cary Snowden — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 17:36:44 +0000

Silicon Slopes is hosting an exciting lunchtime workshop featuring Steve Blank, author of Four Steps To The Epiphany, Alex Osterwalder, author of Business Model Generation and Nathan Furr, author of Nail it And Scale It.

Friday, February 3 at the Megaplex Theaters in Sandy
(Jordan Commons – 9400 S. State Street, Sandy, UT).

RSVP and purchase your tickets before they sell out.

Use the link above to get there directly. However, If you start at the megaplextheatres.com Home Page, you need to:

Go to http://megaplextheatres.com
Under ‘Showtimes & Tickets’ select ‘Sandy at Jordan Commons’
Choose date: ‘Friday, February 3′
Choose ‘Lean Startup All-Star Networking Lunch’
Order your tickets

Here is the flyer on the event:

UVEF Kicking Off Year With Crowd Form And Giveaways

Cary Snowden — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:57:37 +0000

The Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum is hosting a new type of luncheon to start off the new year. In a crowd-forum format, Lessons Learned will feature five startup entrepreneurs sharing their top three war stories on how they have overcome a particular challenge to make their business successful.

This is sure to be a big hit. In particular because the crowd will get to provide feedback and eventually vote on a favorite company from the group to receive $500 cash toward their business. UVEF will also conduct a random drawing for an iPad to be given away on the spot to a lucky audience participant.

Members are free, students are $10, and guests are $25. Here are the details:

5 Successful Startups and 15 Lessons Learned

Join UVEF in our New Year as five of our UVEF Top 25 Under 5 award winners share their startup to success stories.

Thursday, January 12 at Novell from 11:45 to 1:30 p.m.

In a never-before-seen crowd-forum format, the following entrepreneurs will introduce their businesses, describe three lessons they’ve learned while starting and growing their ventures, and then take questions, comments, and feedback from the crowd.

To top it off, all attendees will get a chance to vote for the entrepreneur they think imparts the most valuable insights and lessons learned.

UVEF will award the winner a $500 cash prize and 2 extra UVEF membership seats for their company, and give away an iPad2 to a random audience participant*.

Our participants for the January Crowd Forum include:

CampusBookRentals.com: Alan Martin, CEO

mediaFORGE: Rhett Frandsen, VP Sales and Network Development

KT Tape: Reed Quinn, Founder

The Sweet Tooth Fairy: Megan Brown, CEO

iApplicants: Ryan Kohler, CEO

Questions? Contact Michelle@cedo.org or 801.226.1521 ext.101
No cost for this event to current UVEF members. $25 for visitors.

*Yes, you read that correctly; we are giving away an iPad to some lucky audience member in a random drawing. It could be you, but only if you are there.

Launch Leads Helps Local Businesses Thrive In Sluggish Economy

Cary Snowden — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 23:38:38 +0000

In a down economy, financial success and profitability just seem like wishful thinking. However, Launch Leads is proof that no matter the state of the economy, growth and success are possible.

When many businesses were languishing in the depths of recession a couple of years ago, Brandt Page, CEO and founder of Launch Leads, rolled up his sleeves and created a company that gets other companies the pipeline they want, with minimal risk.

By listening carefully to their clients, Launch learned that their clients have great confidence in their ability to produce targeted qualified leads and as a result, Launch recently signed several new clients and they continue to see consistent growth.

“We provide our customers with targeted qualified leads that they convert into new paying customers,” Page said. “Now that our clients are focused on closing more and more sales, their conversion rates are through the roof.”

A few of the new clients Launch recently signed include: Lunsford Peck, ListPipe and Integrated Ordering Systems (IOS).

Lunsford Peck is a tax, accounting, and financial advisory firm for medical practitioners who help reduce audit risk and tax liabilities. They decided to use Launch after a personal tour of the facilities where they really loved the feeling and energy in the atmosphere.

“They have a very professional approach to getting in contact with the types of clients I’m looking for,” said John Briggs, Lunsford Peck Partner.

The biggest thing that drew Briggs to use Launch was the ability to contact hard to reach individuals.

“We can create tremendous value for dentists, doctors, surgeons, etc., but those professionals are so hard to get a hold of,” said John Briggs, Partner. “Launch leads can do that for me and all I have to do is focus on creating value not finding leads.”

ListPipe is an online content delivery platform for distributed localization of web-based media including search engine optimized (SEO) content for franchises and distributed sales organizations.

Cary Snowden, CEO of ListPipe, said there were two things that attracted him to Launch. The first was Launch’s leadership, in particular the CEO Brandt Page.

“Brandt instills his charisma, charm and professional aptitude into his team, making them a great extension of our own,” he observed.

The next thing to catch Snowden’s attention were the impressive client testimonials.

“Launch Leads is the kind of business I want to be associated with, and thus I don’t mind them representing my business to our customer base, and I don’t just trust that to anyone,” Snowden said.

Integrated Ordering Systems (IOS) is revolutionizing the way restaurants handle their take-out ordering system. IOS takes a restaurant’s high volume of phone-in orders and gets those orders to the kitchen within seconds while ensuring each call-in customer gets the attention and service they deserve without being placed on hold and without ever hearing a busy signal.

Joshua Stephens, CEO of IOS explained that they decided to use Launch Leads after meeting with the Launch team and seeing how Launch aligns its sales process with theirs.

“We were particularly impressed with the system of how Launch was doing things,” he said. “Systematically they are able to help us filter our leads and ask the right qualifying questions in order to connect us to the correct person. This way we can be more efficient and not waste our time talking to unqualified leads.”

Stephens explained that Launch does the heavy lifting on the front end of the sales process, so that their sales team can spend 100% of their time closing new business with qualified decision makers.

“In the last six months our company has doubled in size servicing more than 120 concepts nationwide,” he said. “However, we want to take things to the next level and Launch can give us that added push to take us there faster.”

Lunsford Peck, ListPipe and IOS are all doing very well in their respective markets and are seeing exciting growth with what they are currently doing. However, they want to continue to grow and know there is much more they can do, and Launch Leads is the vehicle that will help them do it.

“With Launch Leads on our side we are ready to step on the accelerator and grow into new markets at a much faster rate,” Snowden said.

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Media Contact:
Amie Hansen
PR Manager
(877) 466-0111
amie@launchleads.com

UVU to Host Franchising Seminar for Utah Valley Businesses

Cary Snowden — Thu, 12 May 2011 14:06:18 +0000

Franchise Development Group, a nationwide provider of franchising services, will be the featured presenter at a free, hands-on, informational event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, May 25, 2011 to educate local business owners on the franchising process and help them discover if franchising is a viable option for their expansion plans.

This information-packed, two-hour event will explore the essential elements of a successful franchising experience. Presenters will include franchise process, marketing, and legal experts.

Complete information and registration for this complementary event can be found at http://fdg110525.eventbrite.com.

About Franchise Development Group
Franchise Development Group was founded in Utah in 2003. After growing beyond its Utah borders, it was acquired by a New York-based firm in 2010. With 13 offices across the nation, it is the fastest growing franchise development service provider in the United States. Learn more at http://franchisedevelopmentgroup.com

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PR Contact
Bryan Waldon Pope
MSI, Orem Utah
bryan@mktgsuccess.com
(305) 747-1250