iStrategy Continues to Raise the Bar With its Fifth Digital Strategy Conference in San Francisco

BRISTOL, England, February 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

On 31 January - 1 February 2012, the South San Francisco Conference Center played host to the fifth edition of iStrategy North America, one of the world's leading digital strategy conferences. An inspirational, two-day event held bi-annually at regional event locations across North America, Europe, Australia and Asia, iStrategy focuses its efforts on curating disruptive and invaluable content for senior executives who believe that the success of their business requires a sound digital strategy.

Opening 2012's San Francisco event to a jam-packed delegation of over 400 attendees, Altimeter Principal and a leading voice in the world of marketing blogs, Brian Solis delivered an exceptional keynote on the philosophies behind frictionless sharing and its effects on the evolution of media products. To complement the underlying ethos, iStrategy and Solis combined efforts to give away free copies of his new book, 'The End of Business as Usual', to a majority of the audience.

Combining keynote speakers, interactive workshops and live interviews to deliver the highest quality programme to its delegation and sponsors alike, iStrategy also welcomed Craig Newmark of Craigslist fame; Rick Wion, Director of Social Media for McDonalds; Neal Schaffer, President of Windmill Marketing; Sandy Carter, VP of Social Business Evangelism at IBM; and Rock Glick, Co-Founder and CEO of iNdelible Agency, as independent speakers.

Closing iStrategy's two-day event, Randi Zuckerberg, former Director of Marketing for Facebook and Founder of RtoZ Media, offered her rather timely perspective on 'The Future of Online Branding' mere minutes after Facebook's IPO announcement, with an enthralling keynote relaying her top 10 tips to maximise brands on Facebook, as well as detailing how to speak to you 'future brand' and understand communities.

Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia, gave the closing keynote at the previous iStrategy conference situated in the Park Plaza Hotel, Amsterdam. "Digital strategy is incredibly important for all kinds of businesses; lots of people need to be learning about this stuff because it really is the future for a lot of different people," he said.

As with previous events, this year's iStrategy San Francisco conference was designed to help forward-thinking executives in the digital realm take charge of their strategy in ways they never deemed possible. Unlike previous years, however, San Francisco's iStrategy attendees were witness to 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 one of San Francisco's top trending topics on Twitter within the first four hours of the conference. In addition, it surpassed its previous standards set in Amsterdam by producing an online Twitter reach of over three million people.

Richard Stirk, VP of Conferences for GDS International, cemented this notion, stating: "San Francisco was our fifth US-based iStrategy event, and without question was our biggest and best yet. With rock star speakers such as Brian Solis, Charlie Cole, Neal Schaffer, Rick Wion and Randi Zuckerberg taking the stage literally minutes after the official Facebook IPO announcement, our content and timing seemed perfectly aligned.

"We continue to strive to build what we believe to be the best digital and social media strategy programme in the world; one that is delivered by world-class speakers. As Brian Solis rightly said, "we have an audience of audiences" such is the influence of our senior level attendees hold.

"I cannot wait for our next US event in Chicago in September where we promise to raise the bar once more and offer our attendees a speaker line-up to complement our best programme yet. We fully expect to cater to another sell-out crowd, and will continue to work tirelessly through our Twitter stream and hashtag to deliver, at the very least, a fraction of the true essence of the conference to all of our followers online."

The next iStrategy event will take place in Chicago on the 11-12 September, 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, Helen.hawkins@gdsinternational.com, +44-117-9261450