Flavours of Success

We had a fantastic programme for our India General Meeting. On this page you will find an overview of the programme and the speakers.

If you would like more information about a certain speaker, just click on the link and this will bring you to a short biography of this speaker.


Thursday 10 November

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12.30 - 13.30	Meet and Greet Lunch
14.00 - 18.00	Rickshaw Treasure Hunt through Old Delhi
19.00 - 22.00	Welcome Reception and Dinner in the Hyatt Regency Delhi

Friday 11 November

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09.00 - 10.00	Keynote Presentation - National Classifieds Online (and for a billion people…)
	The Times of India is one of India’s best-established newspapers and certainly one of the most innovative when it comes to its classified offering. In this keynote presentation, one of its leading classified executives analyses the strategy behind its success, particularly in its sophisticated online activities, and charts its future developments in the rapidly developing largest democracy in the world.
	Speaker: Rajagopalan Sundar, Director (Corporate), The Times Group (India)
10.00 - 10.30	Coffee Break - continue in parallel sessions
PUBLISHERS MEETING - 'Managing your costs'
	Chair: Rob Paterson, Group Managing Director, Friday-Ad (UK)
10.30 - 12.30	What are you doing to address the “Free-Free” threat?
	A round-table discussion on what actions ICMA publishers have taken to tackle the low-cost challenge of Craigslist and other “free-ads, freeaccess” competitors. How has this sector developed in your market in the last six months? What has been the consumer/advertiser take-up? And what tactics work (and don’t) to enable classified media publishers to compete more effectively. Rob will be detailing what Friday-Ad has completed from their “To Do” list so come prepared to share!
12.30 - 13.30	Lunch
13.30 - 15.30	Counting the pennies… cost-saving ideas through outsourcing and other initiatives (twin-track)
	India is one of the world’s favourite destinations for outsourcing or off-shoring business processes to save money, improve efficiency and enhance management focus. Learn from an expert consultant about how outsourcing can benefit you, and the real-life lessons from two classified media outsourcing pilot studies. Or participate in a quickfire cost-saving idea session – prize for the best idea shared!
	Speakers: Ajay Sethi and Sateesh Kulkarni, Corporate Directors, Corporate Catalyst (India)
15.30 - 16.00	Coffee Break
16.00 - 17.30	Getting the most out of your resources
	Cost-cutting is an excellent objective in its own right but the smartest and most successful publishers are often those who know how to leverage their resources best. This final session will allow publishers to break into smaller workgroups to ask each other what they’re doing to go that extra mile, get that additional sale, squeeze a little more profit from current activities, get more from their people, and re-use their content most creatively and cost-effectively.
ONLINE REVENUE GENERATION FORUM
	Co-chaired by: Peter Zollman, Founding Principal, Classified Intelligence (USA) & Jill Armer, Director of Operations, Buy & Sell (Ireland)
10.30 - 12.30	Spotlight on sales
	What's the best way to sell an online classified product? The case for the integrated sales team is strong but what can a dedicated specialist approach offer? Participants will compare these two approaches and debate their advantages. If online is packaged with print (and should it be?), how can online targets be set and incentivised effectively? And how can you simplify the online proposition to make it more attractive to advertisers?
12.30 - 13.30	Lunch
13.30 - 15.30	A walk online...
	Online pure-plays keep their costs low by making their customers do most of the work, when was the last time you spoke to a real person at Amazon.com? But as research tells us that over 60% of shopping carts are abandoned, how can you make sure that your self-service page delivers on usability as well as maximising the upsell? Peter will walk the group through the best and worst ad-taking pages around and help you identify the winning features.
15.30 - 16.00	Coffee Break
16.00 - 17.30	Online sales clinic
	What's your biggest challenge in generating revenue online? The three most relevant issues submitted by delegates will be analysed by Peter and Jill, and then thrown open to the group so that all participants can contribute their thoughts and experiences. Here's your chance to get expert help to tackle those online challenges and win!
18.30 - 22.30	Open-air BBQ at traditional Indian farmhouse

Saturday 12 November

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09.00 - 10.30	SESSION ONE
	- Maximising revenues in a multi-channel business
	With packages and bundled sells, teams that cross-sell print and web, and online and offline channels competing for attention, how can the average publisher make sense of the myriad opportunities available, and decide where to focus their efforts? Trader Classified Media operates 56 classified websites in 20 markets, hear how they make these decisions and make revenue generation their number one priority.
	Speaker: Peter Rees, VP Marketing, Trader Classified Media (France)
	- Online Business Models - the best and the rest...
	Are there viable alternatives to the move to the "free-free" model and the focus more on monetising the web through upselling from a free-ad basis? Peter Zollman will conduct a timely review of the options available to classified publishers and assess their various merits.
	Speaker: Peter Zollman, Founding Principal, Classified Intelligence (USA)
10.30 - 11.00	Coffee Break
11.00 - 12.00	SESSION TWO
	- How do I upsell? Let me count the ways...
	Upselling is becoming an increasingly important part of most publishers’ revenue generation. And especially now that a lot of the talk is about the free-free model, where an effective upsell strategy is the principal revenue stream. This panel will revisit the topic in New Delhi with a new twist, a focus on upselling via the many channels and across the whole portfolio. It'll be chaired by David Waghorne, MD of one of Northcliffe Newspaper Group’s business units in the UK who's come up with some great angles and topics to discuss, and so expect an hour packed with ideas and insights.
	Chair: David Waghorne, Managing Director, Lincolnshire Echo Group, Northcliffe Newspapers Group, (UK) Panel member: Vladimir Makaron, General Director of Call-Centre, Pronto-Moscow, (Russia) Panel member: Beverly Crandon, Senior Contact Centre Manager, Trader Media Corporation, (Canada) Panel member: Laszlo Gyenge, IM Digital Manager, Inform Media Hungary - VMH/Quoka Verlag, (Germany)
12.00 - 13.00	Lunch - Introduction to Toronto
13.00 / 13.45	WORKSHOPS
	- Adding value online
	How can you improve the online user experience whilst maximising exposure for advertisers? Sally Winfield explains the rationale behind the recent developments at LOOT.com, and discusses the different online marketing tactics open to publishers.
	led by Sally Winfield, Managing Director, LOOT, (UK)
	- Keeping it local
	How to combine global breadth and depth with the relevance of local classifieds? An overview discussion of the possibilities and approaches...
	led by Bernhard Neubauer, General Manager, ISV GmbH, (Germany)
	- The journey from paid to free...
	Making the switch from a user-pays model is not an overnight affair. This workshop will discuss some of the strategic and tactical issues involved and Kaisa will share some of the lessons learned from the Finnish experience.
	led by Kaisa Ala-Laurila, V-P Classified, Ilta-Sanomat (Finland)
14.30 - 15.00	Conference Wrap-up and Close
15.00 - 15.30	Coffee Break
15.30 - 17.00	ICMA Business Meeting
Evening	Gala Party

Sunday 13 November

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08.00 - 19.00

Day trip to Agra and the world famous Taj Mahal

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Speakers at the India General Meeting:

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Kaisa Ala-Laurila
V-P Classified, Ilta-Sanomat, Finland

Kaisa is Vice President (& Editor-in-Chief of free ad papers) of Ilta-Sanomat Inc., which publishes the following free ad papers, Keltainen Pörssi, Palsta and Kuldne Börs. In Finland she is responsible for developing Ilta-Sanomat's classifieds business models, products and private ad sales. As Chairman of the Advisory Board, she is also responsible for Ilta-Sanomat's Estonian operations, where AS Infesto publishes the paper Kuldne Börs.

The major brands of Ilta-Sanomat Inc., in addition to Keltainen Pörssi, are Ilta-Sanomat, the market leader in tabloid papers and one of the largest national newspapers and IS Veikkaaja, the biggest sports newspaper in Finland. Ilta-Sanomat Inc. is part of SanomaWSOY, which is Finland's leading media group and the largest media company in the Nordic region. The Group operates in versatile fields of media within 20 European countries. SanomaWSOY is among the top five European magazine publishers and has, in addition to Finland, strong positions in the Netherlands, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Russia.

Kaisa started with classifieds when she joined Keltainen Pörssi in 2000. She joined the paper in order to build and develop the company's online services. In 2002 she became responsible for the business development of both print and online. Before joining Keltainen Pörssi, Kaisa worked as a radio journalist and started with internet journalism in the year 1997.
www.iltasanomat.fi


Jill Armer
Director of Operations, Buy & Sell, Ireland

This is the story of a student of psychology, who wanted to be a clinical psychologist and ended up over 20 years in publishing, is this the same thing I wonder? I was born and raised in Northern Ireland and enjoyed a happy if not brilliant school life. I then spent 4 years completing an honours degree at the University of Ulster, which was exciting as it meant a year of work experience in both Birmingham and Exeter on diverse projects including studying community relations with the local police, which involved surveying the attitudes of many disgruntled teenagers in the Midlands area of England, then 6 months studying the role of 'Play' in developing learning abilities with kids who had mental and physical disabilities, some great kids!

On graduation I decided to find work and fell into publishing straight away, as Editor of a glossy magazine in Northern Ireland. I got married in 1984, had my son in 1986 and moved to Cyprus for 4 years, where I fell in love with the beach, brandy sours and water-skiing, and my daughter was born there in 1989.

When we returned to Northern Ireland I had a varied career with an insurance company, a nursing home and a government youth training scheme, before I eventually fell foul of publishing once again. I was Group Sales and Marketing Manager of a local company and whilst we published a variety of titles we had major success with a 'mega tourist map' of Belfast shortly after the first major peace initiative in Northern Ireland. We had a blaze of publicity, and continued to publish more for different areas.

In 1995 Buy & Sell NI offered me a position in the Northern Ireland office - and despite reservations as to how working with a classified title could be interesting, (having come from the world of colour glossy magazines) I accepted - and the rest really is history!
www.buyandsell.ie


Beverly Crandon
Senior Manager Contact Centre Operations, Trader Media Corporation, Canada

Beverly Crandon is a Contact Centre Senior Manager with Trader Media Corporation and has held this position for the past three years. In Beverly's current role she holds the responsibility for private party interactions across all mediums for approximately 35 of Trader Media Corporation's suite of publications.

Prior to Beverly's time at Trader Media, she has spent seven years in the Contact Centre Service industry, in Centre Director roles, with varied fortune 500 clients as partners. Beverly brings with her a great understanding of private consumer interaction through multi-channel mediums. Her ability to remember the conventional methods of customer service and embrace and enhance the new e-channels of customer maintenance, has allowed her to be an intricate part of the local contact centre industry.
www.trader.ca


Laszlo Gyenge
IM Digital Manager, Inform Media Hungary - VMH/Quoka Verlag, Germany

Originally I studied trade and catering at college in Budapest. After I returned from Germany, where I spent eighteen months on a management trainee programme with Sheraton Hotels, I thought I have to find myself a challenge, so I joined to the Inform Media Group - Hungary in September 2003 as a management trainee. Since April 2004 I am working on Classified Developments within the company.

In October 2004 we introduced the www.onlineapro.hu regional classified portal, which includes 45.000 fresh classified ads weekly. The product is operating as a reverse publishing model. The 4 papers appear in 4 counties of Hungary and reach about 1,8 Million inhabitants weekly. Since July 2005 am I responsible for the IM Digital Team at Inform Media. IM Digital consists of all online portals (News portals and Verticals, Job portals, Real Estate portals, Car portals) and focusing on common sales strategies, marketing activities and business development.
www.onlineapro.hu


Sateesh Kulkarni
Director, Corporate Catalyst, India

Sateesh Kulkarni is a director of Corporate Catalyst India. Mr Kulkarni is a management graduate from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade and heads the Market Research and Market Intelligence team. He has wide experience in assessing of the performance of the Indian economy and its prospects. He has conducted research studies across a range of products and industries in Indian and foreign markets. Additionally has extensive experience in undertaking evaluation studies for internationally funded social sector projects in India. Has developed significant expertise on Automobile, FMCG, Retail and Food Processing. Member SME Sub-Committee of CII.
www.ccindia.com


Vladimir Makaron
General Director of Call Centre, Pronto Moscow, Russia

Born in 1981 in Moscow, Russia. In 1991 moved to the United States for 8 years. Lived in Philadelphia, graduated Princeton Hun School in 1999 and attended Drexel University. A year later decided to return to Russia. Attended Publishing University of Moscow and graduated in 2003 got accepted for Ph.D. While studying in University started working for Pronto Moscow as Manager in the marketing department and during the next 3 years worked in Trader International Media. In 2004 started working in Call-Center as Assistant Director, and in February 2005 became Director of Call-Center Astra Paige.
www.izrukvruki.ru


Bernhard Neubauer
General Manager, ISV GmbH, Germany

Bernhard Neubauer is co-founder and general manager of ISV GmbH. ISV is a software company providing solutions for the classified media industry. The company has acquired international renown with the AVUS 21 product suite and extensive classified media know-how.

Bernhard holds a degree in computer science, and from the start has been a leading figure in developing ad taking systems for classified papers. In the last couple of years he has moved the focus of his work to sharing his knowledge with ISV's customers and to consulting. His accumulated know-how includes development and optimization of workflows for print and online publications, e.g. classified ad papers, shopper publications, and photo ad magazines.

"When I started working for the classified ad industry in 1985", says Bernhard, "I never imagined how dynamic and complex the classified market would become. Constant changes in the market and new ideas coming from all over the world pose an exciting challenge for the industry. But that's exactly what we enjoy at ISV: to be inspired by new developments and to meet the challenges of the ever evolving classified media market."
www.isv-gmbh.de


Rob Paterson
Group Managing Director , Friday-Ad, United Kingdom

Rob Paterson has over 20 years publishing experience all of it gained with Friday-Ad. After deciding that University was too much like hard work he joined Friday-Ad in the pre-press department and has gone on to undertake pretty much every role in the business from delivery driver to sales person to systems management.

For the past 12 years he has been Managing Director helping to grow the business to the point today where it publishes over 60 editions and a million copies every week.
www.friday-ad.co.uk


Peter Rees
VP Marketing, Trader Classified Media, France

Mr Rees joined Trader Classified Media in January 2000 as Vice President Marketing. Prior to that he held a number of senior sales and marketing positions in IBM Europe, Middle East and Africa.

He has a post-graduate Diploma in Marketing and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
www.trader.com


Ajay Sethi
Director, Corporate Catalyst, India

Ajay Sethi is a Director of Corporate Catalyst India. Mr Sethi is a chartered accountant with significant experiences in taxation and financial service sectors. His experience and expertise include determining the optimal route for investment into or outside India through efficient tax jurisdictions, handling complex expatriate tax and transfer pricing issues. Additionally, has wide knowledge in carrying out due diligence, business valuations and financial modeling. Has developed significant expertise on IT, Media, Lifestyle, Education and Welfare. He is also a member of tax sub-committees of CII, FICCI and IACC.
www.ccindia.com


Rajagopalan Sundar
Director (Corporate), The Times Group, India

An Economics graduate from the University of Madras (now Chennai), he did his Masters in Marketing Management (MMM) from the prestigious Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Business Management (JBIMS).

This year, Mr. Sundar would enter the 26th year working with The Times of India Group. In these eventful years, he has worn different hats - those of Sales, Publishing and Brand Management. He is credited with the introduction of the concept of Classifieds in India and especially the auto, property and matrimonial sections. Other publications have been quick to emulate this concept and today one cannot dream of a newspaper without a Classifieds Section. Under the stewardship of Mr. Sundar, Times of India- Delhi and Economic Times-Calcutta attained their respective city's Numero Uno status for the first time.

Besides his current responsibilities, Mr. Sundar also presides as a Director of the Times School of Management (TSM) and Times Centre for Media Studies (TCMS).Even after so many achievements in his kitty, he has a gleam of excitement in his eyes when he speaks of TimesJobs.com - India's fastest growing Job portal and currently his pet project.

49 years of age, Mr. Sundar is an enthusiast of Carnatic Music and loves traveling. He is a resident of Delhi and is married to Jayshree who sits on the Board of Leo Burnett in India. They have a daughter called Tarini who is a student.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com


David Waghorne
Managing Director, Lincolnshire Echo Group, Northcliffe Newspapers Group, United Kingdom

David Waghorne began his career in Thomson Regional Newspapers in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1976 where he held several management positions. He became responsible for all classified advertising in the Thomson Regional Newspapers Group in 1985 after being Classified Director in Cardiff.

In 1988 he headed up the classified activity as General Classified Director for Ingersoll U.K. before joining T. Bailey Forman in 1992 as Circulation Director. 1n 1994 he became Classified Director of the Nottingham Post Group for Northcliffe Newspapers upon their acquisition of the title before becoming Managing Director of Alderton, publishers of Ad-Mag in 1998. He became Deputy Managing Director of the Nottingham Post Group, which encompasses the Ad-Mag titles and Bargain Pages titles, and has recently moved to the position of Managing Director on the Lincolnshire Echo Group.
www.admag.co.uk


Sally Winfield
Managing Director, Loot, United Kingdom

Sally Winfield, Managing Director of Loot, joined Associated Newspapers 17 years ago in the Classified Department of the Evening Standard. She started her career as a Telesales Executive and was promoted through the ranks of Field Sales and management to become Ad Director of the Evening Standard in 1996.

Four years later, she was promoted to her Group Classified position where her remit covers UK, London and free titles - the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, Ireland on Sunday, Evening Standard, Metro and Loot.

Then, last year, her role moved away from day-to-day operations to one focused on strategy and business development, with the establishment of a Business Intelligence team. This team provided Associated Newspapers with a genuine forum for strategic planning, tracking and research, ideas and innovation. It reported developments, trends, opportunities and threats to Classified around the world, but particularly in the UK.

In December 2004, Sally was appointed Managing Director of Loot, Associated's brand-leading free ads newspaper which publishes 15 editions each week in London, Manchester and Liverpool. Its Contact Centre receives over 10,000 calls a week - not to mention thousands of e-mails, faxes and web-ads. Consequently, each edition features thousands of business and private advertising in over 600 classifications. Online, Sally is also responsible for Loot.com.
www.loot.com


Peter Zollman
Founding Principal, Classified Intelligence, United States of America

Peter M. Zollman is founder of Classified Intelligence, LLC, a consultancy that helps newspapers, broadcasters, dot-coms and technology providers develop services in the fast-growing world of interactive classified advertising.

He is a dynamic speaker who presents frequently at conferences and corporate events, and writes regularly for industry publications about interactive classifieds and interactive media. He's executive editor of Classified Intelligence Report, a continuous advisory service about interactive classifieds that is read by top executives and strategy leaders at major media companies worldwide. He has been quoted in The New York Times, Business Week, The Wall Street Journal and many other publications.

Zollman has more than 30 years of experience in interactive and traditional media - newspapers, television, radio, cable television and news services. He has been a reporter, editor, manager and senior executive with news and sales responsibilities. He was Director of News at the world's most advanced interactive media project, Time Warner's Full Service Network. He spent more than 14 years with United Press International as a reporter, editor, sales executive and director and five years with Reuters news service, and has won 13 journalism awards for his reporting and photography.

Zollman is also founder of the Advanced Interactive Media Group, LLC, a consulting group affiliated with Classified Intelligence that helps build successful interactive-media services in conjunction with traditional media.
www.classifiedintelligence.com