Meet the speakers ahead of Stray Ferret’s Digital Marketing Conference

Today marks the countdown to the district’s free Digital Marketing Conference hosted by the Stray Ferret and sponsored by York & North Yorkshire Growth Hub and Yorkshire law firm Ison Harrison.

The event brings together industry leaders who will deliver insights, strategies and best practices for delegates looking to grow their business through digital channels.

Not sure if this event is for you – here’s a snapshot of what’s being covered during the day.

Emma Harris of the Stray Ferret will open the conference with why it is so important to embrace digital marketing in your promotional activities as well as signpost areas to focus on throughout the day.

Head of marketing at Next Chapter, Daniel Swepson will take you through the key elements to developing a strategy to meet your business goals. Spending time working out what you want to achieve helps to save you money and succeed in the long run.

Once you’ve established what you want to achieve, Charlie Hartley, Founder of Impressions is covering how brand and digital innovation drives growth. He will give you tips on how you can stand out in a crowded digital market, ensuring you embrace the latest technology as well as provide you with success stories to inspire.

Ben Foster, CEO of SEO Works will be talking SEO strategy, how to identify keywords and how you measure success.

Social media is a vital part of any business strategy, Rachel Moore will run through platform demographics to help you identify which platforms you should be engaging with, how the algorithms work and how to create a simple but realistic content plan. Rachel will also cover when to use paid content.

Lauren Cooper and Georgie Harmer from Intandem Communications will guide you through creating content that works including video. They’ll share top tips on how to reversion content to save you time but still deliver results.

The digital world changes at pace so Chloe Byrne, Creative Director at Audience will take you through consumer trends for 2023 and how consumers are spending differently and what is influencing their buying decisions.

The day will be rounded off with a guide to influencer marketing and how and when to engage them in your efforts. Chelsea Talbot will answer questions from the floor.

Tamsin O’Brien of the Stray Ferret will be leading a question and answer session with two local business owners who have used digital to significantly grow their businesses. Fiona Martin, Founder of Best Kept Secret, a women’s clothes shop in a rural village will answer questions on how she successfully uses Meta to drive footfall to an out of town destination.

22 year old Mia Willamson has grown her business from a one woman band to now employing 4 staff with a six figure turnover. Mia, used social media and in particular Instagram to achieve this impressive growth. Tamsin will be delving into the tricks and strategies Mia adopted.

During the day, there will be the opportunity to ask questions from the speakers and browse the exhibition stands.


Thanks to the sponsorship of the York & North Yorkshire Growth Hub and law firm Ison Harrison, the event is free to attend.

To secure your place at the event, please register here.