The Panel

Robert Hollier, Banner’s Director of Strategy, will chair a panel session where you will have the opportunity to put your burning questions on Web 2.0 to experts from across the industry.

Robert Hollier, Director of Strategy, Banner
Robert was one of the founding members of Banner PR in 1995. Since then his role has evolved to incorporate a smorgasbord of projects, working with clients and looking at ways to exploit Banner’s resources in new and innovative directions. Robert’s previous experience includes work for a variety of PR agencies. Prior to that he wrote pieces on technology for such titles as the Guardian and Time Magazine.

Sam Sethi, MD, Vecosys and Founder, TechCrunch UK
For the last 18 years, Sam has worked in senior technical and marketing roles for a variety of IT companies including Microsoft, Netscape, Gateway Computers and CMGi. Recently he left the safety of the corporate world to become an entrepologist; successfully starting a couple of technology start-ups.

Currently Sam is running a "think tank" consultancy called Vecosys which helps companies better understand how Web 2.0 technologies (blogs, RSS, podcasting, AJAX etc) are already affecting dramatic changes to their virtual ecosystem – partners, suppliers, competitors and customers. Sam's recent consultancy engagements include helping MSN UK with their "Live" strategy and BT develop their new 21CN web services strategy.

Besides his on-going consulting work, Sam has already started work on another start-up called Liquid Lists which focuses on helping people discover information based on their "attention metadata" and that of people in their trusted social network. Liquid Lists is an example of a next generation of semantic discovery engine.

And as if all that wasn’t enough, Sam has recently launched TechCrunch UK, the UK edition of Web 2.0 blog TechCrunch, listed by Technorati as one of the world’s top 10 blogs.

Ian Jindal
Ian Jindal is an entrepreneur, corporate executive and advisor, working in eCommerce for over a decade – in integrated retail, publishing and broadcast.

Ian's expertise is in business transformation – whether at start-up and growth stages, turnaround activities or leading step-changes in large organisations.

eCommerce has been an area where marketing, engineering and technology have collided. Ian's skills in sales, business development and corporate growth have been supplemented by deep technical knowledge, analytical skills and business process engineering. Prior to his current incarnation, Ian was Group eCommerce Director for Littlewoods ShopDirect and is Non-executive Director of Business Link, Europe’s leading business support organisation.

Ian is a frequent conference keynote and chair, speaking on online marketing, e-Commerce, business change and casting a cynical-yet-enthusiastic eye over Web 2.0.

Jose Adams
Jose Adams is director of digital at Visit London, the official visitor organisation for the capital. Prior to that she has led the development and operation of several e-businesses including the launch of Yahoo! Personals in UK, FR and DE as well as sites catering to the needs of students, film and TV production professionals and travel consumers at netdecisions. Previously, she has held several senior management positions within UK publishing companies including Emap and Softbank/Ziff Davis where she launched various computer magazines plus ZDNet. She has also been divisional MD at a large media services group called Aspen responsible for, among other things, BA's inflight media and London Post post-production services. She started her career as a journalist and magazine editor at Emap.

Simon Grice, CEO, etribes/Midentity
An IT entrepreneur who has dedicated his career to the world of personal connectivity, Simon first worked at CERN, Geneva with the original team who developed the worldwide web. He returned to the UK from Switzerland in 1994 to become one of the first young IT visionaries convinced of the commercial potential of the Internet.

Putting his ideas to the test he first created Business Connections, an internet consulting and website development agency, and then two years later, The Personal Email Company to develop and market a web-based email service called PersonalMail. The company raised first round funding to develop the service and, in 1998, it was sold to World Telecom plc, a quoted telecommunications company.

Two years later, Simon co-founded etribes, the UK’s first specialist online community company, and in 2002, he set up Midentity to provide a range of secure online personal data management services. Midentity’s clients and partners have included BT and 118118.com (The Number).

Early in 2006 Midentity acquired etribes. The combined service (under the ‘etribes’ brand) offers consumers a formidable mix of user-friendly publishing, access and communication services, backed up with secure, reliable data and identity management. etribes, which been heralded as the UK’s first ‘Digital Lifestyle Aggregator’ (DLA), is backed by a number of leading Internet visionaries and private investors.CEO, etribes/Midentity

James Cashmore, Head of Technology, Industry Markets Group, Google UK
James is responsible for the expansion and development of Google’s advertising offerings to UK Technology companies. Providing education and in-depth market analysis across specific sectors including Technology Hardware, Enterprise Software and Telecoms, James and his team are responsible for increasing the adoption of search advertising, and promoting return of investment for advertisers.

James joined Google from VNU, where he worked in Corporate Sales across brands such Computing, CRN and VNU Net. Prior to that James worked at Ziff Davis for 4 years including the launch team of IT Week and on ZDNet. James has spent 10 years partnering with top Technology companies such as Microsoft, IBM and Oracle working with both offline, and online media to help them achieve their marketing objectives.