Chris Dessi believed Westchester had everything a business could need to succeed, including wealth on a nationally recognized level. Then he had an epiphany; something was missing: a digital summit.
Dessi, CEO of Silverback Social L.L.C., a social media marketing company in White Plains, and John Zanzarella of Ossining-based Zanzarella Marketing Consultants will host the Westchester Digital Summit at the Westchester County Center May 14. The digital summit is billed as a chance for businesses both big and small to learn more about navigating the digital age.
Dessi came up with the idea when he heard about a successful Long Island digital summit and wanted to host one closer to home. He noticed no one had registered the domain name westchesterdigitalsummit.com. He registered it and the event was born.
“I thought, ”˜OK, I guess I am producing it,”™” Dessi said. “I couldn”™t believe there was nothing like this in Westchester.”
After finding a partner in Zanzarella, he set out finding a keynote speaker, focusing on best-selling oenophile and social media pioneer Gary Vaynerchuk, who runs winelibrary.com. Dessi had an inside connection, having worked with Vaynerchuk at Buddy Media, a software company. Once Vaynerchuk said yes, the floodgates opened.
“We had 67 applications to speak,” Dessi said. “We were able to create a really diverse roster of speakers. It”™s a global digital summit that just happens to be held in Westchester.”
Speakers besides Vaynerchuk include representatives from Westchester companies like Heineken USA Inc. and IBM Inc., as well as from Facebook and FOX News. Forbes Magazine named the gathering “a conference to attend” in 2013.
“We want to get people excited and shake things up,” Dessi said. “I want to expose these businesses to digital marketing and show them that there are vendors outside of Westchester.”
Dessi said it was a thrill to get speakers like Brandon Steiner of Steiner Sports Marketing Inc. and Josh Glantz of Publishers Clearing House Online.
“We are a premiere county, the seventh-wealthiest in the nation and there is nothing like this here,” Dessi said. “I am excited to get people thinking. I don”™t do conferences for a living; I just wanted to bring this exposure to Westchester.”
To date, 350 people have signed up for the conference, from high school and college students to entrepreneurs, small business owners to CEOs of major corporations.
“We”™ve got everybody, which is part of the idea,” Dessi said. “Everybody is affected by digital media. Businesses don”™t know what they don”™t know.”
Dessi expects the summit to become an annual event while also hosting smaller conferences throughout the year discussing issues like search engine optimization, email and social media.
For Dessi, the light-bulb moment came when he attended a conference in 2008, as part of his former job in ad sales. “I was bored out of my mind and on my fourth cup of coffee,” he said. A presentation by Vaynerchuk stirred him to action.
“Vaynerchuk said that if you”™re into Smurfs, blog about Smurfs,” Dessi said. “Find a way to monetize it. It was like being hit in the head with a 2 x 4. That”™s the way I want people to feel when they leave the summit. I want people”™s heads to be spinning.”
Too many small businesses have a myopic view of social media, Dessi said.
“You need to have an understanding of search engine optimization and how it works,” Dessi said. “You need to know about cost-click advertising. It”™s more than just posting a status.”
The digital summit is also a chance to spotlight Westchester. A team from Georgia is flying up for the event and many of the attendees will come from outside of the county. In the future, Dessi is hoping to make the event a three-day event to allow attendees a chance to explore Westchester.
“We are Westchester County, New York,” Dessi said. “We need to own the fact that there is a pedigree to that. There are cache businesses in Westchester. We are not second fiddle to New York City, we are a premiere suburb. I”™ve been to conferences in Silicon Valley that were held in the suburbs. Why can”™t we replicate that in New York? I”™m shocked no one has done this before.”
Dessi, a Chappaqua resident, said that Westchester is the best place to host a convention.
“We”™re a 35-minute train ride from a major world city,” he said. “We have the space, the talent, the companies, the business councils and the media. There is absolutely everything here to do this on a global scale.”
The Business Council of Westchester is an event sponsor. John Ravitz, Business Council executive vice president, said digital savvy is important for businesses.
“Businesses need to learn to improve their brands,” Ravitz said. “Digital media has influenced so many different types of businesses. It”™s so important for businesses to have a strong social media component in their portfolio.”
