The Women's Lunchbox 2012

A panel discussion on

Social Media: Return on Investment

Monday 20 February

About the Event

The Women’s Lunchbox 2012 saw the topic of Social Media: Return on Investment come to a head at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers on Monday 20 February 2012. An audience of 200 women from various business disciplines saw a panel of leading ladies, led by Dubai One’s Katie Fielder, debate the use of social media.

Meet our Host and Moderator

Katie Fielder

 An energetic and accomplished television presenter and producer, Katie has spent more than nine years working in the television industry. After moving from Australia to the UAE in early 2009, she worked as the presenter and producer of City 7’s daily business programme, “Inside Business” and went on to join the Dubai One team in 2010. She is currently the presenter and producer of Emirates 24/7, a daily news and business programme for Dubai One.

Katie has interviewed a number of high pro_le guests during her time at both networks, including His Highness Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Al Maktoum, former IAEA Chief Dr. Mohamed El Baradei,former British Defence Secretary Dr. Liam Fox, Masdar’s CEO Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, the IMF’s _rst Managing Director John Lipsky, Emaar Properties’ Chairman Mohamed Alabbar, Hollywood superstars Morgan Freeman and Colin Firth plus sporting legends Roger Federer and Brett Lee.

Meet the Panel

Akanksha Goel - Social Media Guru, Socialize

Executive Director at Socialize, Akanksha makes use of her outstanding leadership skills to bring together a global team that work together to achieve excellence in social media for the region, whilst maintaining relationships with some of the most prominent brands in Dubai. Her clients include Coca Cola, Samsung, and Mall of the Emirates.

Gail Potter - Editor, ExpatWoman.com

 Gail Potter is the newly appointed Content Manager at Expat Web Services for the website ExpatWoman.com in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait and for the quarterly magazine YOU! She handles all the PR and social media platforms for ExpatWoman.com and has worked with the likes of Master Card, PUMA and many others in the past.

Mahitab Hamed - Marketing Manager, Friesland Campina

 With over 12 years of marketing experience in several MNC’s,Mahitab believes that fully understanding your consumers is a pre-requisite to any successful marketing campaign. As the Marketing Manager for Friesland Campina Middle East responsible for Daily Nutrition and Digital, Mahitab has an exceptional understanding of social media tools, particularly in her role as a community manager for several brands targeting women.

Saba Wahid - Chef and TV Presenter

 Saba Wahid is mainly known for her expertise in the culinary department, yet her presence on social media platforms is second to none. Highly active on Twitter and a dedicated blogger on her own blog site, Culinary Delights, Saba keeps her fans informed as she travels the region to participate in various culinary events. Best known for her weekly recipe contribution to Ahlan! and Gourmet magazine, Saba’s left no stone unturned.

Aisha Ali - External Affairs Coordinator of The Dubai School of Government

 Aisha is the external affairs coordinator of the Dubai School of Government’s Communications and External Affairs Department. In addition to being involved in various outreach initiatives of the School, Aisha oversees the social media outreach strategy of the School, which has become a key component in expanding the visibility of its initiatives through platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The Women's Lunchbox 2012

Hosted and moderated by Dubai One's Katie Fielder, the event began with an insight into the social media success story of Coca Cola. The audience were treated to a short interview with Wendy Clark, Senior Vice President of Integrated Marketing Communication and Capabilities, Coca Cola, who revealed that they reply to all their tweets on Twitter. 

Katie Fielder, the event host , began with an insight into the social media success story of Coca Cola. The audience were treated to a short interview with Wendy Clark, Senior Vice President of Integrated Marketing Communication and Capabilities, Coca Cola, who revealed that they reply to all their tweets on Twitter. 

The debate seemed to favour a return on influence with Expatwoman editor, Gail Potter claiming ExpatWoman.com used “Facebook as an additional tool to keep people informed”. Marketing Manager of Friesland Campina, Mahitab Hamed provided in-depth insight to a product aimed predominantly at women. She also highlighted “Sharing Golden Moments in a way that can be translated to video was the way forward for Friesland Campina”. Mahitab also made it clear that social media wasn’t simply about ROI.

Akanksha Goel, founder of one of the largest social media agencies in the UAE, Socialize, revealed “social media has to be integrated with traditional marketing tools. The use of varying social media platforms differed across all industries and Return on Investment was simply a sub-set of Return on Influence”.

As the debate took on a life of its own, it soon became clear that having a social media presence was vital if organisations were to keep up with their tech savvy consumers. Organisations could not rely on inbound marketing methods solely to generate revenue, and hence advertising spend on traditional methods was still catered for, albeit reduced. Representing the Dubai School of Government, Aisha Ali told the audience that DSG were a non-profit organisation that used social media to “educate the wider international community on current issues and it wasn’t a revenue generating platform”. The Dubai School of Government, recognised for producing The Arab Social Media Report, drew on the role of women's use in social media.

Complementing the use of social media as a forum to interact in real-time was Chef and TV Presenter, Saba Wahid. She told us “having a presence on the web was imperative and she found Twitter and YouTube the best means of social media for her”.