Robin Gurney, Altex Marketing OÜ, talks about the Tallinn blogfests 2009-2010 and the future

Summing up after the event, founder and organiser of the Tallinn blogfests, Robin Gurney meditates on the changing role of the fest and what the future may hold. Robin can be contacted via www.altex.ee

Ott Pärna, CEO Arengufond (Estonian Development Fund)

The Estonian Development Fund (Arengufond in Estonian) is a public sector venture capital fund and strategic foresight unit, set up by the Estonian government and managed by a team headed by economist Ott Pärna. In 2018, Estonia will be marking the centenary of its declaration of independence – its birth as a sovereign country.* In [...]

Kaidi Kerdt, Sommelier and Communications Manager, Veinisõber OÜ

If you didn’t know, a sommelier is a trained and knowledgeable wine professional. Veinisõber is a small Estonian company (just 4 employees) selling fine wines to connoisseurs and trying, almost single-handedly, to educate a new generation of Estonians in the pleasures of plonk, there being little in the way of a wine-drinking tradition, so far [...]

Arno Pae, Head of Strategy, OMD Estonia

OMD Estonia is a division of OMD Worldwide, specialists in media marketing, which has more than 140 office in 80 countries. Arno says he advises his clients that there is an important role for social media in the mix of communication channels he offers, but that they are not equivalent to regular traditional advertising and [...]

Anneli Ohvril, Communication Manager, Teeme Ära!

‘Teeme Ära!’ roughly translates as ‘Let’s do it!’ in English. It is a highly successful Estonian community-based project which in 2008 managed to mobilise 50,000 Estonians to give up some spare time on a single day to help clean up their forests. An estimated 10,000 tonnes of garbage was collected. Anneli uses Facebook in particular [...]

Maria Belovas, New Media Specialist, Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Maria told the conference she has been working with the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to determine to what extent social media can be used as a communication tool for crisis management. She said the first rule for effective involvement online is to watch, listen and develop real skills in the media before contributing. She [...]

Triin Tammert, Project Manager, Estonian Air (Eesti keeles)

Triin works for Estonia’s national airline, Estonian Air. She helps the company keep in touch with its customers via Facebook and other social media. They recently had to deal with the crisis triggered when ash from an Icelandic volcano stopped all flights to and from Estonian airports. (Estonian language) Triin can be contacted via www.estonian-air.com

Robin Gurney, Altex Marketing OÜ, talks about marketing via social media

Robin Gurney is the brains behind the Tallinn Blogfest. His company, Altex Marketing, lays claim to being the first internet marketing agency established in Estonia. Speaking to conference delegates, Robin pointed out that social media are not very effective at direct selling – that clients expecting to ship more widgets as a result of, say, [...]

Toomas Toots, CEO Freqmedia Estonia

Toomas Toots is the CEO of Freqmedia, an Estonian media analysis company. Describing comments he made to the conference, he says the Estonian blogosphere has shrunk by 25% in volume in the last 12 months, from its peak in 2009, however, he says this may not be a bad thing as many ‘me too’ bloggers [...]

Helge V. Keitel, Manager of International Operations, KK-Net, Finland

Helge V. Keitel, from KK-Net, Finland, outlines what he told delegates at the blogfest, including a novel plan for tourists to contribute their home videos and snaps to a pool of media, including commercially-sponsored elements, that would provide an ever-changing and expanding ‘cloud’ of information for fellow travellers.