In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee developed a technology to help physicists in universities and institutes around the world share information. On April 30, 1993, the European science agency CERN -- where Berners-Lee worked -- officially made Berners-Lee's W3 software public domain, letting the public at large access it. This was the birth of the Internet as we now know it. In 1989, I was playing with my Fireman Sam fire engine aged 4, and in 1993 I was winning a silver medal (this still haunts me!) in my school sports day, aged 8. Back in these simpler times I had no idea of the impact that the internet would play on my later life. I started using the internet in the days of dial up. In 1998 I was selecting my GCSEs when Google opened their first office and taking my mock GCSEs when the dotcom bubble burst in 2000. I started university in 2004 the year Facebook launched and as online spending reached a record high of $117 billion. When I graduated there were 50 million active users and 100,000 business pages on Facebook. When I joined brandformula in October 2009 Facebook had reached 200 million active users and Twitter had recently hit 7,196 Tweets per second when Michael Jackson died. It was obvious that social media had reached such a position of power that the financial services industry could no longer ignore it as a communication channel. Now, having grown up using these channels and seeing the digital world develop, I am applying that knowledge to head up the digital team at brandformula and Lamb to help clients of all sizes make use of the range of tools that are out there. This has included developing social media strategies to engage with clients/prospects/journalists, creating marketing leading websites & developing apps that nurture and build customer relationships. I have given talks about the power of digital marketing for BIBA, the CII, Insurance Age and Panacea IFA and been quoted in publications including Post magazine & Insurance Age.