On April 17th 2012, Rakuten LinkShare UK brought together over 400 Advertisers and Publishers for their annual event, Symposium London. This Symposium, themed “Think Forward,” provided more than 200 companies with incredible opportunities to form new partnerships and grow their business.
The day started off with keynotes from Rakuten Linkshare Executives. Mark Haviland, Managing Director UK welcomed the guests before Yaz Iida, President and CEO and Liane Dietrich, Chief Operating Officer, gave an overview of Rakuten Linkshare’s growth strategy. Then Mark Kirschner, Rakuten LinkShare’s Vice Chief Marketing Officer/Executive Officer, presented a keynote on “Think Forward.”
The first of two DealMakers commenced right after the welcome and provided the Advertisers and Publishers with the opportunity to network, establish new business relationships and strengthen existing partnerships.
The afternoon sessions started with a brief industry spotlight by Polly Gowers from Give as You Live, followed by Hotwire’s UK Group MD, Drew Benvie’s keynote on “Ten Driving Forces in Digital Marketing.”
The last speaker of the day was Liz Robertson, a Jones Day Solicitor. Liz talked about the E-Privacy Directive with a focus on consenting cookies.
The second DealMaker of the day started right after Liz’s session and provided further networking opportunities for all attendees. After two and half hours of Dealmaker, the room was still buzzing! At 5.30pm, several sponsors including Bliss, Coast, Clarins, Links of London, Philip Kingsley, Radley, Reiss and Silverbean raffled off some fantastic prizes to the lucky winners.
After Party – Celebrating a great day
The event wound-down with After Party sponsored by FusePump at the Amber Bar. More than 200 attendees celebrated the fantastic day of networking and used this opportunity to continue the conversations in a casual environment. Attendees enjoyed having their photos taken at the photo booth (sponsored by 7thingsmedia), then taking a special (and funny) souvenir of the day back home with them!
A special thanks to all of our sponsors and attendees for making Rakuten LinkShare Symposium UK 2012 such a success! We’re already looking forward to next year!!!
Sakina Najmi
Marketing Manager
