Municipal professionals from across the southwest poured into the Bob Duncan Center in Arlington last week to learn various techniques for taking on the new age of marketing and social media.

Created by the Arlington and Grand Prairie Parks and Recreation Departments, the two-day digital communication conference is designed to aid municipal departments in maintaining an edge in a new age of marketing and social media. More than 200 municipal professionals representing 53 city departments attended this year's Brand-Aid Marketing and Social Media Conference.

Arlington Parks and Recreation Department's Electronic Media Specialist Justin Snasel said that with financial assistance from companies such as Clear Marketing Concepts and Huddle Productions, the conference was able to provide focus group sessions with quality speakers from private and public industries at a low-cost to the conference attendees.

"The idea of the conference was to showcase the power of social media and new-age marketing tactics to municipal professionals, from an educational perspective. As public sector communications professionals, the better we market our assets the better it is for the general public,' Snasel said. "As we become more efficient in our strategies and more effective at generating revenue, we will then be able to create new programs and amenities for local residents.'

Guest speakers from AT&T and ReachLocal Inc. provided marketing insight into how private sector corporations run marketing and social media operations, while speakers such as Texas A&M's Distinguished Professor Dr. John Crompton and City of West Sacramento's Andre Pichly spoke about public sector marketing tactics and best practices.

"It's important for new-age marketers to leverage advances in modern marketing and promotion with specific focus on social media,' Chairman of the Social Media Club of Dallas Mike Merrill said. "Conferences like Brand-Aid work to share best practices within the industry and help facilitate networking with companies that can help them achieve their goals.'

Be prepared for your next promotional launch or mend your last marketing mishap by attending our next installment of the Brand-Aid Marketing and Social Media Conference, which is tentatively planned for January 22-13, 2014. For more information on Brand-Aid, please visit www.BrandAidConference.com or visit us on Facebook atwww.facebook.com/BrandAidMarketing.