Lorrie Thomas is part of a fast-paced industry that moves about as rapidly as she does.

The former Santa Barbara City College student and web marketing consultant is speaking from 4 to 6 p.m. on Oct. 9 at the Fè Bland Forum, an event sponsored by the Scheinfeld Center for Entrepreneurship. She will be hosting four workshops to help those interested in marketing use the latest technology more effectively.

“It’s a newer, stronger industry and we have so much to look at now,” Thomas said. “But there are still no rules. There are tons of uncharted territories.”

Thomas has been up close with the revolution the Internet has had on marketing. She attended City College for three years starting in 1996 before lured away by the local Saks Fifth Avenue store, being put in a management position. It was there that she was introduced to how lucrative the online industry could be and left Saks to join Valueclick in 1999.

“I became one of those dot-com kids,” she said.

Thomas left Valueclick in 2002 after the company went public. She moved back to Santa Barbara and earned her master’s in marketing from Antioch College, later starting Web Marketing Therapy.

“I’m in the business of teaching people how to think,” she said. “The true meaning of marketing is maximizing exchanges.”

Thomas, who also teaches City College’s mobile marketing online class, is getting students, in addition to her own clients, to better understand what the Internet can do for them and how much of energy is required to maximize the benefit of sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

“What organizations don’t understand is that these mediums aren’t free,” she said. “They require management. You can’t go back to your office and make a Facebook page and think it’ll run itself. Content is the heart and soul of what social media is.”

At the Oct. 9 event, Thomas says she’ll be motivating the attendees, putting her focus on the entrepreneurs and how they’re so important to small business.

“Entrepreneurs change the world,” Thomas said. “They work 16-hour days because they really care about what they’re doing.”

What Thomas specializes in with her company, and will feature at the Fè Bland Forum, is healthy marketing.

“I’m going to talk about making your marketing healthy so you can be wealthy,” she said.

That theme will also carry into the four, already booked-to-capacity, workshops being given on Oct. 30 and Nov. 6 at Cit College. Thomas said topics such as video marketing and search engine optimization for marketing will be extensively covered.

Melissa Crawford, director of the Scheinfeld Center, believes Thomas’ events are important to all students looking to sort their way through the steps of becoming entrepreneurs.

“It’s mind-boggling how effectively marketing can be done through the Web,” Crawford said. “I think small business is slow to climb onto the social media bandwagon because they don’t know the effects.”

Crawford says that more than 100 people have reserved spots for the Oct. 9 lecture in the hall that seats about 150. Those interested in attending can still RSVP by going to the Scheinfeld Center’s Web site.

The Scheinfeld Center will be hosting an event in November with speaker Wayne Rosing, the former vice president of engineering for Google who is still an adviser for the company.