Salon Summit – Inspiring, Motivating and Talking all Things Tech

Presented by What Salon, the inaugural Salon Summit took place last weekend at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Birmingham, and here at iSalon we were delighted to be involved with the first event of it’s kind.

Over 100 hairdressers attended the conference to learn how the latest innovations in social media, apps, video and technology could help them grow and develop their business and become more visible to an engaged and relevant audience.

Attendees were welcomed to the event by What Salon founder, David O’Flynn, who promised the audience an insightful and informative day. Host for the day, Bruce Masefield came on stage and introduced the first speaker, renowned session and red carpet stylist, Keith Harris whose presentation entitled Rebirth captivated the audience with his story of how he reinvented his career through instagram after a long illness. Bruce then introduced Jo Robertson, a brand artist who specialises in coaching and education. Jo’s presentation, which covered developing and building your social media status was called, From Stressed to Blessed and the audience certainly felt more enlightened and less stressed as to what they should be doing to make social media work for them and help them engage with the clients they desire.

After summarising Jo’s presentation, Bruce introduced Balayage expert, Jack Howard to the stage. Jack’s presentation was all about collaboration and how to get the most from relationships in business on social media, with influencers and like-minded companies.

After lunch, Bruce welcomed everyone back and introduced the panel that were taking part in the Let’s Get Social debate.  Let’s Get Social was all about Salon Summit’s team of experts sharing their knowledge and expertise with the audience in a fun and engaging Q&A session. The panel consisted of our very own Marketing Manager Alice Smithson, who appeared alongside Jack Howard, influencer Jay Birmingham, Jo Robertson and Naomi Woodyatt, Marketing Manager at What Salon. Bruce asked questions from the audience along with topical questions such as ‘does social media make people less or more social’ and ‘what’s your favourite app?’ Answers were diverse and interesting, creating a lively discussion between the panel and lots of laughter from the audience.

Naomi stayed on stage and started her presentation, which demonstrated the way What Salon approach their marketing and shared with us the process they go through from brainstorming to discussing KPIs and bringing a campaign to fruition. After summarising Naomi’s presentation, Bruce stayed on stage, as it was his turn to present his story. His presentation started with a beautiful video showcasing his work before he went on to share his journey from working with one of the iconic names in the industry to opening his own boutique salon in Edinburgh’s West End.

He shared the highs and low’s the lessons learned and his plans for the future in a very honest presentation, before handing the mantle to Antony Davies of What Salon, who shared with salons how they could fill their white spaces and gain new clients by using the new What Salon app.

The final presentation of the day was from original cool girl, Zoe Irwin. Zoe had the audience enraptured as she brought them into her world and inside her head. She explained how to take an idea and make it into a profitable salon service.

The day was almost over and Bruce returned to the stage to summarise what had been an insightful and fun day, full of interesting and motivating stories highlighting how we can integrate technology into our working lives and help develop strong client focused businesses.