Shashi Bellamkonda

Shashi Bellamkonda, speaker and digital marketing expert, is the Chief Marketing Officer at Surefire Social, a company that provides turnkey integrated marketing SaaS technologies and services focused on local marketing for national Brands and Franchises. He was previously Vice-President, Digital Marketing at The Bozzuto Group. Bellamkonda is also an adjunct faculty at the Georgetown University Center for Continuing & Professional Education. Prior to joining The Bozzuto Group, he worked at Network Solutions.

Known as the "social media swami", Bellamkonda has been featured and/or published in more than fifteen books on social media. He is an experienced speaker, serving as keynote at national and regional small business, communications and marketing conferences. In addition, he has received several awards and honors for his social media prowess, including being named one of Washingtonian Magazine's Top 100 Tech Titans from 2009 through 2011, and being included as one of the 100 Small Business Influencer Champions in 2011 and 2012, by Small Business Trends. He is also a marketing advisory board member for SCORE, a non-profit dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and helping small businesses start, grow, and succeed, as well as Capitol Communicator, an online media magazine for communications professionals. Bellamkonda also contributes to publications including TechCocktail.com and the Washington Business Journal, among others.

Bellamkonda holds a Bachelor of Liberal Arts in Public Administration, Sociology and Economics from Osmania University (India); a Diploma in Business Management from Indira Gandhi Open University (India); a degree in Hotel Management from the Institute of Hotel Management & Catering Technology (India); and has completed the Essentials of Marketing at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School.