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Updated Schedule Hosted By: Bran & Associates IT Consulting
Join us for Microsoft’s Small Business Week Business Conference
May 13 – 15, 2008 Microsoft Offices, 835
Market, Suite 700, San Francisco This interactive event provides a variety of valuable small business sessions each day. You'll get tips, advice, and secrets from experts, all designed to make the hats you wear each day fit more comfortably. Walk away with hundreds of dollars of software, services and special offers.
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1:00 – 1:15 |
Registration |
Registration |
Registration |
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1:15 – 2:00 |
Keynote: Joanne Black - “The
Power of Referrals” |
Keynote: Nigel Henry -
“Unleashing Mastery Performance in Business” |
Panel Discussion:
Financing
Your Business |
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2:00 – 2:30 |
General Session on “Day in the
Life” (Live for Small Businesses – Sales & Marketing Focus) |
General Session on “Day in the
Life” (Live for Small Businesses – Web Focus) |
General Session on “Day in the
Life” (Live for Small Businesses – Financial Focus) |
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2:30 – 2:45 |
Refreshments/Break |
Refreshments/Break |
Refreshments/Break |
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2:45 – 3:45 |
Web 2.0: Marketing to a new generation
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Keep
Business Simple:
Streamline
Business Processes with Online Banking |
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Concurrent |
Concurrent |
Concurrent |
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2:45 – 3:45 |
Automating Your Home Based
Business (What’s
a Server and What Can it do for Me?) |
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3:45 – 5:00 |
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Concurrent |
Concurrent |
Concurrent |
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3:45 – 5:00 |
Hands On Session: Easily Build
your own professional Marketing collateral in-House |
Hands On Session: Web Design
Theory, Usability, and Easy Web Creation / Editing Using OfficeLive |
Hands On Session: Microsoft
Office 2007 Tips & Tricks - Come learn what’s different &
new features in Office 2007 |
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"Helping small to medium-sized businesses and non-profit organizations in the
Bay Area meet their changing technology needs."Keynote: Joanne Black – “ The Power of Referrals”
How would you like to consistently attract your
best and most profitable customers while turning every new customer into a
source of even more business? Joanne Black’s presentation on The Power of
Referrals presents the common-sense approach to referrals that leaves people
wishing that they had started down this road years ago. It’s never too late.
Turn between 50 and 90 percent of your prospects
into new clients. Reach your market in a lagging economy with no hard
marketing, direct mail, advertising, or trade show costs. The only line item
budget and the most highly leveraged is your time.
Sell more with higher margins, accelerate your
“win” ratio and take business away from the competition.
You’ll find the latest tools and information for managing your
finances, reaching your customers, increasing productivity and improving
security. Get inspired by some of today’s small business successes, watch demonstrations
of the latest tools, learn how to take your office with you and more. Our focus will be on marketing your company;
increasing sales, new tools, finding customers, getting the most from
PowerPoint and Sales Automation Tools.
In this session, you will learn how small
businesses utilize a variety of tools to gain the competitive edge in Sales,
Marketing and Customer Service. Join us to see how you can effortlessly
keep track of and stay in touch with your prospects, customers and contacts
so they buy more from you. You will witness how quickly you can
automate your marketing campaigns and track responses so you can spend
more time building relationship with customers. Finally, we will highlight
how you can track all your customers' issues to ensure each issue
is resolved in a timely manner.
So you know how to present – right? How do you
progress from good to great presentations? In this session, you’ll learn some
quick tips to spruce up your presentation skills when presenting to one person
or an audience of 100’s, make your PowerPoint slides differentiate you from
other presenters, learn the pitfalls so you don’t go there!
In this very interactive
session learn how to meet and greet total strangers and get the most out of
that encounter whether you have 30 seconds or 30 minutes!
Easily Build
your own professional Marketing collateral in-House
90 Minute Lecture or 3.5 Hour Hands-On
Workshop
Looking for a fast and easy way to create
eye-catching brochures or newsletters? Publisher is your best bet. Publisher
contains many of the same features that you may know from using Word, with some
new tools to easily arrange text and graphics on a page. Publisher’s templates
automate the creation of your page design and allow you to test different
designs and color schemes or create your own with drawing tools and ruler
guides. Learn to customize your documents with your own digital images. Styles
and tables allow you to format text quickly and professionally and change its
appearance or position at any time. Let Learn iT!‘s
Publisher course series show you the creative potential of page layout
programs!
Leave this workshop with
the confidence to create professional materials to market your business.
Keynote: Nigel Henry – “Unleashing Mastery
Performance in Business”
In this fun and highly
interactive presentation, you will discover some subtle habitual thinking
patterns that are causing leaders and business owners to unconsciously limit
the performance of themselves and others in their organization.
You will also be introduced to a
powerful Mastery Performance™ Practice that will allow you to start attracting
great people with talent and resources, completing projects quicker with less
effort and stress, having more free time in your schedule, and transferring the
“WOW Factor” to your colleagues and customers.
You’ll find the latest tools and information for running your business
on the WorldWideWeb; update, share, and save your information
online-from anywhere, at any time. All your docs and projects can be easily
accessed, giving you a whole new way to manage files on the Web. Hear about
other small business successes, watch demonstrations
of just how to do this.
Web 2.0: Marketing to a new generation
Wikis, Blogs, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn—This isn’t the traditional way to market a product, but
neither is the way we communicate. Today
were in a world of instant gratification, “googling”, “you-tubing”, “yelping”,
where honesty, feedback, and other’s opinions mean more than anything to your
next customer. But in this world of
unified communications, how do we still give customers that personal touch they
need. You aren’t cold calling anymore,
prospects are cold calling you. How do
they find you? Where do they find
you? And how do you rise above the rest,
in a world where the web dictates your marketing success. In this breakout we
will discuss the evolution of marketing, and the most impactful ways to market
your business through social networking.
Automating Your Home Based Business (What’s
a Server and What Can it do for Me?)
A Home Server is software that enables small businesses and families
with multiple PCs to easily connect their digital experiences, providing a reliable
and familiar way to protect, organize and share documents, digital images,
music, and, video. You can access your Home Server and your home PCs through a
personalized Windows Live Internet address that you choose. That means with a
simple log in to your Web site, you can access your photos, music files, and
videos from anywhere. A Home Server not
only enables you to upload and download files stored on your home server but
also allows you to connect remotely and use your home computers as if you were
sitting in front of them.
Whether you run a home office, manage a small retail shop, or work
as an independent contractor, you know your ability to communicate determines
your success as a small business owner. You wear many hats, constantly juggling
customers, suppliers, sales calls and delivering products. You’re busy.
We’ll show you how to get more work done in more places. From
high-speed wireless mobile broadband cards, to hand-held devices that give
voice-guided directions, manage inventory, track deliveries, and even take
credit card payments on the go. Learn how easy it is to increase your
productivity and lower your costs with mobile solutions for small business. Then
you’ll have a chance to quiz the experts in a panel discussion.
Hands On Session (LearnIT): Web Design
Theory, Usability, and Easy Web Creation / Editing Using OfficeLive
A web site should be an effective business tool. It should
increase your profits! Unfortunately, many small business owners are left
without this crucial part of doing business in the new millennium. Those with
web sites often don't know what's important, what's not, and what ultimately
affects the bottom line. This course provides valuable resources and teaches
anyone the important things to think about when setting up their web site
or hiring someone else to do so.
Course Topics:
- Site set up information: Buying
a domain name and hosting with OfficeLive
- Design tips for better usability
- How to hire a good web
designer if you need one.
- Using OfficeLive to build a
professional web presence.
Leave this workshop with the confidence to create professional
materials to market your business.
Panel Discussion: Financing Your
Business
Growing businesses need capital to succeed. Our
experts will discuss the factors that are the most important to banks, SBA loan
officers and early stage investors when evaluating your business for outside
funding. Join us to learn how you can best prepare your business to overcome
any obstacles ahead. Bring your questions for our experts!
You’ll find the latest tools and information for managing your
finances, reaching your customers, increasing productivity and improving
security. Get inspired by some of today’s small business successes, watch demonstrations
of the latest tools, learn how to take your office with you and more. Our focus will be on managing your company’s
finances..
Keep Business Simple: Streamline
Business Processes with Online Banking
Have you ever thought about using financial
management software such as Microsoft Money Plus or Microsoft Office Accounting
to help you manage your business’ finances? Does your business have a lot of
transactions that you just can't imagine manually inputting yourself? Would you like to transfer funds between your accounts or make bill
payments online and all within your software?
Whether you are the sole proprietor of a
small business, or have just a few employees, Online Banking will help save you
time so you can focus on running your business. We will show you which software
best meets your particular needs; how to connect to online banking from within
your chosen financial management software; and how to retrieve your online
banking account activity. Learn how to simplify your business finances today.
So you know how to present – right? How do you progress from good to great presentations? In this session, you’ll learn some quick tips to spruce up your presentation skills when presenting to one person or an audience of 100’s, make your PowerPoint slides differentiate you from other presenters, learn the pitfalls so you don’t go there!
What’s your “Disaster Strategy”? Panel of peers and experts discuss sound Risk
Management Strategies to protect your business from risks of all types.
Microsoft Office 2007 Tips and Tricks -
Come learn what’s different and new features
in Office 2007
We will spend 3 hrs of hands-on training on what’s
different (including new features) in Office 2007. Specifically we will
look at Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. By the end of this session you
will have seen and practiced the following in Office 2007:
-Use the new features in 2007
-Improved features in 2007
-What has changed in 2007 (e.g. “where do I find
it now”)
-What has been removed in 2007