GDS International's iStrategy Sydney Sets Gold Standard for Digital Marketing Success

BRISTOL, England, March 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

- Conference top trends on Twitter and delivers record-breaking attendance as well as compelling content

On 21-22 February 2012, Sydney's ANZ Stadium - home to the 2000 Olympic Games - hosted the third iStrategy ANZ, the region's leading digital marketing strategy conference. And inspired by the sporting heritage of its stunning venue, iStrategy ANZ reached new levels of excellence in terms of delivering a world-class event.

An innovative, two-day event held bi-annually at regional locations across Australia, North America and Europe, iStrategy curates invaluable content for senior executives who believe that the success of their business requires a progressive digital strategy. Combining keynote speeches, panel discussions, interactive workshops and live interviews to deliver the highest quality programme to its delegation and sponsors alike, iStrategy welcomed presenters from leading brands, both in Australia and further afield.

Nic Cola, CEO of Fairfax Media Marketplaces, delivered an electrifying opening keynote on how Australia's leading media firm is embracing the shift to digital by adopting a 'mobile-first' approach. It's a bold move for a traditionally print-dominated business, but one that appears to be paying off: in five years, digital channels have increased total media reach for Fairfax by 30 percent. Not bad for a supposedly declining industry.

Google, Twitter, News Digital, eBay, VISA, ESPN Star Sports and Canon Australia also gave engaging and insightful presentations, and over the course of the two days there were some notable highlights. Rob Bell and Darren Sutton from XCOM Media spoke about a Tourism Queensland campaign that used Facebook as the primary platform for a major rebranding effort called "passport to shine"; John Batistich from Westfield explored the idea that 'everything is broken' from a marketing perspective, and gave suggestions as to how it might be fixed; while SEOmoz's Gillian Muessig brought the house down with an inspirational talk on building engaged, proactive communities.

And saving the best for last, the conference was closed out by Andy Lark, CMO and Head of Online for Commonwealth Bank, who wowed the crowd with a keynote on how the advent of social collaboration is unlocking a number of exciting new areas for businesses everywhere - and how his firm is exploiting them.

Randi Zuckerberg, former CMO of Facebook, gave the closing keynote at iStrategy San Francisco in January, and has no doubt as to the value the event brings. "It's a great program, wonderful networking opportunities, and I have really never seen such great interaction between audience and speaker with the level of tweets and real-time facebook messages coming in," she said.

Sydney attendees also benefitted from an entirely new programme format: with over 15 new sessions, from masterclasses to case studies - and including a live Q&A from its sister IPTV channel, Meet The Boss TV - it continued to push the standards of digital conferences and became Australia's top trending topic on Twitter within the first few hours of the conference. In addition, it surpassed previous standards set at iStrategy Amsterdam last year by producing an online Twitter reach of over three million people.

Richard Owen, VP of Conferences for GDS International, feels the event was a resounding success. "Sydney was the third time we've brought iStrategy to Australia, and without question this event was our biggest and best yet. With top speakers such as Andy Lark, Nic Cola, Gillian Muessig and Claire Diaz Ortiz, our content provided attendees with great takeaways on how to implement and execute on a whole range of digital marketing strategies.

"We continue to build what we believe to be the best digital marketing and social media strategy programme in the world; one that is delivered by world-class speakers. I cannot wait for our next Australasian event in Melbourne in November, where we promise to raise the bar once more and offer attendees our best programme yet, with a speaker line-up to match.

"We fully expect to cater to another sell-out crowd, and will continue to work tirelessly with our ever-growing community of fans, followers and advocates to deliver the most compelling, engaging and relevant conference in the industry."

The next iStrategy event will take place in Melbourne on the 13-14 November, 2012. For more information, please visit: http://www.istrategyconference.com

About GDS International

GDS International is one of the most innovative events and media companies worldwide and a globally renowned producer of business-to-business summits, conferences, online information and advisory group gatherings.

Founded in 1993, GDS International specialises in meeting the B2B marketing needs of our clients. Having a strong presence in mature industrial sectors but a finger on the pulse of emerging markets - as well as up-and-coming B2B business verticals - means we are perfectly placed to capitalise on the exciting developments brought about by the advent of a globalised economy.

Our value proposition is simple: we deliver tangible business results from world-class events. http://www.gdsinternational.com

Contact: Helen Hawkins, Marketing Manager, at helen.hawkins@gdsinternational.com, +44-117-9261450