SMEs / SMBs are not the next billion dollar opportunity | Local Social Summit

One of the sessions at Local Social Summit 2013, that I am most looking forward to is our Small & Medium Sized Enterprise set of flash talks (also called Small & Medium Size Business). During these session we will be treated to 3 talks from three amazing speakers, each will gives us a different perspective and view of the challenge facing SMEs and digital services providers targeting this huge market segment. The great thing, is many the insights, case studies and views shared will be based on real reports from the field and from outside of the UK and US. Think of it as a partial world tour of the current state of online for SMEs!

First up we will have a thought-leadership keynote form Neal Polacheck. Neal is a long time industry advisor who currently works with vSplash, and formerly was the CEO of the Kelsey Group. His talk is titled: “SMEs: What Is the Real Addressable Market?”

Conference presentations often tell us there are millions of small businesses (ie – SMEs, SMBs) that represent the addressable market for digital advertising. But recent survey data suggest that many SMBs are lifestyle businesses whose owners don’t want to grow. If accurate the implications for the market fare potentially radical. This session will explore the “real, addressable SME market.” It also asks whether the products being sold to SMEs are truly aligned with their needs.

Next up we will have Faisal Laljee, Global Head of Digital Product Strategy, Telefonica. Faisal will give us a world tour from markets often ignored in the UK and US, such as Spain and some from Latin America. He will share his view that many of the businesses we call small are actually micro, nano and pico meaning they will never be served by mainstream suppliers.

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