East Mids businesses address AI and digital marketing best practice at conference

Held at East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham on 6th June, the event was aimed at businesses and charities seeking to take advantage of AI opportunities.

The conference featured a wide range of speakers sharing insight into areas like machine learning, search engines, content creation and automation.

TEDx speaker and digital entrepreneur Joyann Boyce was the keynote speaker and gave a talk on how to best drive change through AI. CEO of AI technology agency InClued.ai, Joyann has been a consultant for major brands like Coca-Cola and Nationwide. 

East Midlands Chamber Vice-President Dr Cham Kang opened the conference. Speaking afterwards, he said: “AI is about competitive advantage. As a region the East Midlands, irrespective of sector, competes with the rest of the world. Opportunities present themselves from time to time, like AI, which if you can adopt, can get you ahead of the curve. It allows you to be competitive with the rest of the world. It starts with learning; understanding what you hope to achieve and then getting the expertise to help you.

“The Chamber can give the expertise and support to conquer, manage and utilise AI for competitive advantage on a global scale.”

inClued.ai Founder and CEO Joyann Boyce was the keynote speaker and gave a talk on the differences between AI models and user prompts.

Speaking after the conference, she said: “This is the time to be curious. As a business owner, if you're already considering AI, you're ahead of the majority of your market. You should take time to step into whichever tools are closest to you - I recommend starting with whichever your email provider gives. If you're on Google, you've got Gemini; if you're on Microsoft, you have Copilot. Play around with it, get excited and curious and step away from the fear.

“Having businesses gather at a conference like this helps them see they’re on a journey with everyone else, that have the same questions they have and the worries they have. As a community, being able to grow together and learn together means the economy benefits.”

NetMonkeys Managing Director Nick Gall said: “With AI moving at such high speed and really transforming the way businesses operate, already improving efficiencies, workflow and so many processes – personal productivity gains are there for everyone to benefit. From note taking, organising your ideas into a plan or a presentation to managing all your business comms. It’s been great to hear how companies in the East Midlands are finding AI ways to speed up progress.

“Having representatives from a wide range of industries in one place has meant there’s a floor to share all thoughts, overcome any challenges anyone has and fully embrace the opportunities ahead.”

LikeMind Media CEO Paul Ince gave a talk on striking the right balance between human and AI-produced content.

Speaking afterwards, he said:  “People want to know how to get better at AI and what they should be using it for. There are AI tools that are fantastic and can help small businesses in particular do things faster, reduce the cost of producing things like graphics and video. It's great for helping with corrections of things and makes things more accessible.

“People should see AI as a team member or tool to help them - some ideas for this, ideas for a blog or answer some questions, for example, but if we gave AI too much agency to act on behalf of an organisation when the groundwork hasn't been done to train AI to accurately reflect, it's like giving a crucial piece of work to a new employee with no experience of your organisation. They may produce something that looks great but doesn't have the essence of the brand.”

Digital Consultancy Owner Ian Lockwood gave a talk on best use of SEO with AI. Speaking afterwards he said: “The value of conferences like this is enormous because you rarely have the opportunity to see businesses speak live, be able to ask questions of them and share information with other firms, who are almost certainly going to have similarities in their situations, requirements and challenges – you’re sharing knowledge and experience.

“If you’re new to AI, the best thing is to dive in - have a play with ChatGPT or Gemini, see how you can use them for your own business.  Maybe you have data you’d like processed, content in spreadsheets that could be a chart, or want to draw analysis and get systems to do something for you. From there, AI will open your mind to what else you might be able to ask.”