Richard Hargrave, Internet Marketing Consultant & Sales Executive at HIBU, spoke at this year’s Westchester Digital Summit

Richard Hargrave, Internet Marketing Consultant & Sales Executive at HIBU, spoke at this year’s Westchester Digital Summit with high hopes to make connections with global business owners in the Westchester County area.

“We were looking to make new connections, build new connections with local business owners who are also looking to network and educate through our workshop/breakout session with local business owners,” he said, “That was the initial goal, and we thought it was a good branding opportunity as well.”

Does he feel that these expectations were met?

Absolutely.

Hargrave believes that his preparation for the Summit completely paid off, as the succession of his presentation and interaction with the audience were better than he envisioned.

Hargrave’s company promoted the event through about 25,000 direct mail postcards that wee sent out to the local market – targeting local business owners.

They also had Elmsford, New York circulate the invitations for the event, thus promoting the event with HIBU’s customer base in the Westchester market.

“We were definitely just trying to get the word out,” he said.

For Hargrave, two moments during the Westchester Digital Summit stood out to him. -The first being the enthusiasm and level of participation from his Breakout Session.

“The room was packed, there was standing room only so I was thrilled with that,” he said.

Aside from his own personal accomplishment, Hargrave was overjoyed to speak with business expert and fellow Summit speaker, Brandon Steiner.

“I got to spend a lot of fun time with him,” said Hargrave,  “He signed a copy of his book for me and we got a picture, so that was pretty cool!”

As for next year’s Summit, Hargrave envisions a more targeted approach, with slightly less emphasis on social media and a broader position of online media and Internet marketing.

“Social is obviously a major component, but there’s a lot of commercially related services, solutions, and opportunities that should be included as well,” he said.

Along with this idea, Hargrave also hopes future Summits include the highest possible level of involvement with the local business community.

‘I’d like to see a higher level of participation of local business owners and marketing directors and people who control the budgets,” said Hargrave, “You know, let’s bring them in and educate them.”

Hargrave’s company HIBU is a rapidly evolving business, moving from traditional media to digital media at a very high rate. It is a one and a half billion dollar company, with 1.3 million customers, consisting of mostly small medium sized business owners. Going from digital revenue representing 5% of their entire profit to almost 50% in almost five years, Hargrave believes that in another five years, the digital will be an excessive 90% of their overall revenue globally.