Digital Professional
Creative Mode proprietor, Alicia Laing, is an MBA qualified digital marketing professional who has worked in the web industry since 1997.
A massive addiction to business books and online content means she is always updating her knowledge and 23 years hands-on experience in small business marketing, operations and management ensures the knowledge is grounded in reality.
Experienced
Alicia attended the Queensland College of Art in Morningside studying a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Commercial Photography) before leaving in 1997 to take on a full-time position as Financial Controller / Administration Manager at Hub Communications (The Hub) in the Brisbane CBD.
The Hub employed more than 30 people across its four main areas of business: web development, internet training centre, internet cafe and local Internet Service Provider (ISP) and was the first internet cafe in the southern hemisphere. The experience gained across all facets of the www made it an exciting time and a very cool place to work.
Playing with HTML in a text editor whilst reading the book ‘Creating Killer Websites’ by David Siegel was the seed that grew into a full-blown career in web design and digital marketing. A uni lecture by Terry Eiler around digital photography sealed the deal. A career focussed on ‘digital’ was the way to go.
Interested in pursuing web development (the reason for taking the position) but unable to transition from admin to webdev, Alicia left The Hub, just as it was sold to OzEmail, to pursue a career as a web designer independently. She spent the next few years helping small business owners implement digital solutions including computerised bookkeeping, online banking and internet marketing services whilst learning web design and development at night.
Alicia began trading as Creative Mode in 2002. Experience working across the board for retail, wholesale, service and manufacturing businesses provided a unique perspective that quickly distinguished Creative Mode as one of Brisbane’s leading professional web design studios for Australian small business websites.
Alicia completed a Master of Business Administration (Marketing Management) with the research topic “Understanding customer value to deliver competitive advantage for SMME’s in disruptive business environments.” Creative Mode has now been operating more than 20 years.
Notable Web Projects
Before transitioning to a small business focus, notable projects were the redevelopment of the Pillow Talk website for ecommerce, resulting in a 40% increase within weeks of its launch placing Pillow Talk at the forefront of retail ecommerce in Australia.
Creating and hosting multiple websites for Crime Stoppers Queensland including the Schoolies Volunteers Website, Graffiti Stop and Crime Stoppers Youth Queensland.
WordPress Brisbane Contributions
As a long term WordPress user, Alicia decided it was time to give back to the community and became an organiser at the 2019 WordCamp Brisbane conference. Managing marketing for the WordCamp Brisbane event Alicia worked social media channels and with the team grew ticket sales almost 40% making it the largest WordCamp in Australia. More importantly, we attracted more diverse groups to include business owners, content creators, copywriters and graphic designers, as well as programmers and developers.
Alicia’s WordPress Meetup talk SEO is Easy attracted well over 100 attendees at River City Labs, also making it the largest WordPress meetup attended in Brisbane.
Small Business Brisbane
‘Basically, I live and breath business and marketing. I’m always reading and learning to stay ahead of the curve. You just have to do that in this industry. It’s a good feeling when I get to put that knowledge to use and get better results for my clients.’