About the speaker (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikealnaji/)

Mike is a digital marketing consultant with over 6 years of experience in digital marketing, influencer marketing, and social media. Having worked at both agency and client-side roles, Mike has delivered campaigns ranging from integrated digital campaigns, to viral content and pretty much everything in between.  By fully understanding a brand's business combined with the market situations and consumer behavior, he enables brands to use digital products and marketing as a means to deliver on their business objectives. Mike has worked for a wide variety of global and regional clients from various industries. He has engineered the influencer marketing strategies for several brands across the region and executed dozens of campaigns with influencers that have proven to be ROI positive.

In this episode

The Influencer Marketing landscape in the Middle East

About the speaker - Stewart Morisson - https://www.linkedin.com/in/stewart-morrison-0662419/

Stewart comes with 20+ years in commercial and marketing operations, experience in the sectors of entertainment, FMCG, consumer Tech and consulting; and an experienced negotiator on a wide variety of complex commercial agreements and strategic agency partnerships, both from a selling and buying perspective, Stewart has held the country, regional and global roles, What excites him are the challenges each country can bring and the cultural differences. He has worked in Unilever, Nokia, Microsoft, and Sony Music amongst others.

Topics covered

About the speaker (https://www.linkedin.com/in/latikavieira/)

Latika is the Marketing Head of Kaya Skin Clinic for the Middle East markets. She comes with 15 years of experience in Marketing and Innovations, in Skin Care/Services, spanning India and Middle East Markets.

* Experience of leading multicultural and multi-functional teams, including internal departments and

About this episode

About the speaker (https://www.linkedin.com/in/shibuthomas-businesstransformation/)

A result-oriented, strategic professional with a proven track record of navigating businesses through this volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world. He now leads E-commerce in VanityKart.com.  The salesperson in him was born when he sold a liquid stain remover to his school teacher in 1988. The world has seen continuous improvements and updation in technology in the last two decades through which he has evolved and upgraded his skills to keep himself ahead of the pace. He has had the opportunity to lead P&L, marketing, sales, merchandising, and product management functions in online, offline, and omnichannel retail and distribution businesses.  He specializes in reviving businesses impacted by the recession and turns them around into profitable strategic business units. He has showcased the ability to blend organizational vision with tactical considerations to achieve sustainable growth and maximize profits in challenging market environments.  If you’d like to know more about him or discuss about digital transformation, especially in the post COVID19 era, just drop in a message.

What to expect in this episode?

About the speaker (https://www.linkedin.com/in/shibuthomas-businesstransformation/)

A result-oriented, strategic professional with a proven track record of navigating businesses through this volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world. He now leads E-commerce in VanityKart.com.

What to expect in this episode?

About the speaker (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sona-nambiar/)

Sona Nambiar is Founder and Editor-at-Large @Kimiyaa. She was recently accepted as Research Contributor with the Dubai Future Foundation.

She started her career in journalism with the Free Press Group and then moved to BusinessWorld in Mumbai where she worked as sub-editor and writer.

She left India in 1991 and worked with Gulf Daily News in Bahrain. The next year saw her shift to Dubai - where she worked with leading publishing names like Gulf News, CPI Media, Gulf Research Centre, Dubai Media Inc.

During this part of her life, she launched two architecture magazines in Dubai - Architecture in 2001 and The Big Project in 2006.

Her last publishing stint was with Thomson Reuters where she was part of the core stakeholder team to launch Zawya Projects and Thomson Reuters Projects. Hence she understands the realities and complex needs of online publishing after having dealt with business analysts, IT heads, product and commercial heads as well as UI/UX specialists and raising JIRA tickets :)

In her words, after interviewing 1000s of global and regional CEOs, consultants and founders, she realized after 20+years in journalism that she needed to pivot her own life and use her experience in editorial strategy to take the road less traveled.

Hence, in 2016, Sona founded Kimiyaa, her own online editorial solutions firm to catalyze busy business heads to take a pause from making money and start revealing their secret sauce online. No. She does not ghostwrite.

Her own secret sauce is that she uses the business journalism expertise and edge to help business Thought Leaders create original content for organic SEO, which is the bigger challenge.

She actually warns her clients to sign the cheque only if he or she loves challenges.

Else don't risk the journey with her. Because she is a deconstructivist by nature and loves disruption.

Sona speaks five languages - English, Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam, Urdu, and very basic Arabic, which gives her an additional editorial twist in understanding and bridging cultural sensitivities.

She is a member of the Dubai Startup Hub, Oxygen Mastermind, and Photowalk Connect Alumni.

Sona's personal passion is to create 1-minute video stories and have adrak chai with samosas and jalebis - she is a huge foodie..

She is also a huge advocate of sustainable urban planning that is inclusive of communities and enjoys e-learning on EdX.

Her out-of-the-box experiences:

-   Dubai CSR lead for Thomson Reuters (2015-2017) fundraising and community initiatives

-   Editorial curator for the Architecture conferences - Cityscape 2002, 2003 and 2004

-   Presented the theme of Fire (Varanasi) as part of the Photowalk Connect Alumni session at Xposure Sharjah, 2017 (The Five Elements)

-  Presented her Varanasi travel film and talk on “Why Women Must Travel Alone?” at Mojjtama3

-  Attended several workshops courses in filmmaking and street photography 

About the Speaker - Bijay Shah (https://www.linkedin.com/in/bijayshah/)

Currently, the Master Franchisee for BNI (the largest offline networking organization in the world - Business Network International) in the UAE, Qatar, Kenya & Uganda, BIjay supports over 1,000 business owners and have helped them generate over US$500 Million in business referrals between themselves over the last 15 years in the 4 markets he is Master Franchisee in.

What this episode covers

About the speaker (Shyam Sunder - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shyam-sunder-21431a5/)

Shyam Sunder is one of the leading marketers in the region with rich experience in building brands across sectors and regions. Shyam started his career within advertising with DDB Mudra launching several brands including Citibank, Henkel, and Apple in India. He was the Country Head of one of the largest Brand Activation agencies in India before moving to the marketing side of the table in Dubai

After a successful stint in Real Estate, he joined the Landmark Group which saw him lead the turnaround of their shopping malls and jump-start their hotel businesses before being moved to head the marketing of the single biggest business of the group - Centrepoint. In the 6 years which followed, Shyam helped transform the brand with new event properties, path-breaking creativity, tech innovations, ECommerce launch, and successful collaborations which won both mind and market share.

Today, Shyam is considered one of the most influential and accomplished marketers in the region, a regular speaker and writer, and an Industry Tutor.

In this Episode

About the speaker - Nousheen Mukhtar (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nousheenmukhtar/)

Nousheen Mukhtar is a personal branding strategist, Media visibility, PR and advertising consultant. She has been help brands build and manage commendable reputation over the years. She is the CEO of Nousheen Mukhtar International - a Dubai based Marketing and PR Agency. She also runs YesGulf, a business social community and a women's digital magazine Stylfemina. She believes that every story is unique therefore, every brand needs to tell its own story in its own style. She is a business mentor who has helped various budding business owners with setting up the various strategies for growth and empowerment.

What to expect

Strategies for an SMB business owner

How important it is to out there looking for opportunities

Brands that care and being human will succeed in the long run

It's important to make it a habit for brands to build a core group of loyal consumers who help us survive tough times

About the guest - Siddharth Sharma (https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthsh/)

A seasoned marketing leader with 12 years of experience helping organizations build and deliver on marketing.

What to expect in this episode?

Why Growth marketing is a mindset of an organization, no matter how big or small the organization it

What's the difference between digital marketing vs performance marketing vs growth marketing

What the various levers of Growth marketing

How to bring the growth mindset in an organization

How retention is important