Speakers

James Andrews is the founder of Social People specializing in the creation of digital/social technology strategies, online communications, and web content production. Social People is a strategic communications agency that focuses in helping brands and individuals navigate the social media and online space to build better connections with their audiences. With offices in Los Angeles & Atlanta their clients include Lexus, The California Endowment, Lionsgate, The Grammy Awards, and Actress Jane Fonda. Before launching Social People, Andrews was Vice President, Ketchum Digital and directed global social media brand strategies for Monster.com, FedEx, GeekSquad, Nokia, Wendy's and Newell Rubbermaid. As an internationally respected digital thought leader, Andrews helped form a Social Media practice in the Ketchum Brazil office and has been a keynote speaker in Sao Paulo, London and Norway.

Andrews has been working in the area of interactive/new media and non-traditional marketing for 15 years holding senior titles at Urban Box Office, Columbia Records, Ecko Unlimited and Isobar/Carat. His experience with brands such as Current TV, Coca-Cola/Sprite, Truth.com and Proctor & Gamble places him in a unique category of entrepreneurs that understand the convergence of new media, content, social activism and digital lifestyle. James blogs at Fastcompany.com as an Expert Blogger as well as Huffington Post. Andrews can be seen as a regular contributor on CNN discussing current news and social media stories. Andrews does most of his personal blogging and “lifecasting” at www.JamesAndrews.tv where you can read his musings on life, business, social technologies and pop culture.

Our Social Times is a leading social media consultancy, run by social media consultant, Luke Brynley-Jones. Having worked on more than 40 major online and mobile services, Luke is one of the UK's most experienced social networking experts. Back in 2001 he co-founded the UK's first social networking consultancy, advising clients such as British Airways and the YMCA on how to facilitate online interaction with and between their customers. In 2005 he launched etribes, the blogging and photo-sharing network, before leaving to head up the Product Team at Trutap, the popular mobile social network. In 2009 Luke set up School for Startups with ex-Dragon's Den star, Doug Richard, touring the county teaching other entrepreneurs how to succeed in their ventures. He remains a regular speaker at social media, PR and marketing conferences in the UK and USA. In 2010 Luke founded Influence People, the social media events company. He personally hosts the Monitoring Social Media and Social Media Marketing series of conferences in London, New York and San Francisco. He also runs the popular Monitoring Social Media LinkedIn Group. In his 'spare' time Luke provides social media strategy consultancy for several large clients including Orange, Mecca Bingo, Cambridge Consultants and Essex County Council. He also teaches Social Media Marketing for several leading training organizations.

Lauren is the Editor of AllTwitter, which is dedicated to covering all angles of the emerging phenomenon that is Twitter. She explores how social media is used to communicate, market, advertise and inform from a variety of industry perspectives: political, non-profit, educational and mainstream media. She truly believes that social media is changing the world, and she wants to be part of the action. With an eclectic background in English literature, political science and media studies, Lauren comes fully armed to face the diverse and rapidly changing world of social media.

Follow Lauren on Twitter: @alltwtr

Tameka Kee is a lead researcher and analyst for Social Times Pro, the subscription insights and analysis division of mediabistro's SocialTimes.com. She has been covering the digital media industry with a focus on advertising, social media, and video games for the past four years. As a reporter for paidContent, she covered the business of digital entertainment and gaming, and broke news on companies like Electronic Arts, Playfish, Netflix, and Facebook. Prior to that, she covered social media and search marketing for Mediapost. Kee is listed by many media, publishing, and advertising execs as a source of news on social media and digital advertising.

Follow Tameka on Twitter: @geekychic

Stephanie Marx is a Social Media Marketing Manager at Cisco Systems and has over 14 years experience in high-tech and B2B marketing. As part of Cisco's Global Social Media Marketing team, Stephanie is leading the social media listening program and measurement strategies. She has provided strategic consulting to some of the largest and most successful launches at Cisco including the Collaboration launch and the Borderless Networks launch that has the most effective viral video campaign at Cisco with over 2M views.

Jennifer is a leading Social Media Management Consultant, currently working with a number of clients including the Iraqi Elections Commission. She is working on her second book, this time about Generational Marketing. Her radio program, The A-List, which is featured on BlogTalkRadio and iTunes, continues to break listener records. Jennifer is a two-time Emmy-nominated new and emerging television news media pioneer. Jennifer earned her Masters Degree in Journalism from Columbia University and holds a Bachelors Degree in English from the University of California Berkeley.

Murray Newlands is a trusted digital marketing advisor with a strong track record of success. He works with companies and individuals, developing and executing their complete digital marketing strategies, including listening (social media monitoring tools), content marketing (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging and more) as well as outreach programs. Murray is author of Online Marketing: A Users Manual (John Wiley & Sons). Murray has conducted lots of blogging outreach campaigns on both sides of the Atlantic. You can read his guide at http://bloggingoutreachbook.com/

Follow Murray on Twitter: @murraynewlands

Katie Delahaye Paine is the founder of KDPaine & Partners LLC and author of the recently released Measure What Matters, Online Tools for Understanding Customers, Social Media, Engagement, and Key Relationships (Wiley, March 2011). She is also the publisher of the first blog and the first newsletter for marketing and communications professionals dedicated entirely to measurement and accountability. Prior to launching KDPaine & Partners in 2002, Paine was the founder and president of The Delahaye Group, which she sold to Medialink Worldwide, Inc. in 1999.

Katie was an initial founder of the Institute for Public Relations special commission on measurement and evaluation and is a Founding Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research. Katie Paine was named one of PR Week's 2008 Power Players for her advocacy of PR measurement. KDPaine & Partners won the prestigious Award of Excellent from the Society for New Communications Research in both 2009 and 2010. Her firm was also awarded the 2008 Jack Felton Golden Ruler of Measurement Certificate of Merit from the Institute for Public Relations. In 2006, Katie Paine received the Business Excellence Award for Excellence in Media & Marketing from New Hampshire Business Review. Paine has also been named Entrepreneurial Venture Creator, Person of the Year by the University of New Hampshire's Whitmore School of Business.

Follow KD on Twitter: @kdpaine

Giles is the founder and CEO of Social Media monitoring company Brandwatch. After leaving Sky Interactive ten years ago, Giles used his foundation in business and tech to build Brandwatch. The enterprise has since grown from a local search engine to one of the world’s leading Social Media Monitoring companies. Brandwatch now serves businesses across the globe from FTSE 100 companies to SMEs in helping them to understand, grow and utilize their online audiences.

Follow Giles on Twitter: @joodoo9

Mari Smith is one of the world's foremost experts on using Facebook as a marketing channel. She is co-author of Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day and her new book on the topic of relationship marketing is due out in August 2011. Fast Company dubbed Mari, "the Pied Piper of the Online World." With her popular blog MariSmith.com, and her large loyal following on both Facebook and Twitter, Mari is considered one of the top resources and thought leaders in the world of online marketing. She frequently appears in media locally and nationally. Mari is also a popular Social Media Keynote Speaker and Trainer. She travels the United States and internationally to share her wisdom and provide social media keynotes and in-depth training. She has shared the stage with the likes of Sir Richard Branson, the Dalai Lama, President F.W. de Klerk, Tony Robbins, Dr. Stephen R. Covey, and Paula Abdul. A self-described “bubbly Scottish-Canadian” Mari currently lives in San Diego, California and has a penchant for turquoise and bling!

Brian Solis is principal at Altimeter Group, a research-based advisory firm. Solis is globally recognized as one of the most prominent thought leaders and published authors in new media. A digital analyst, sociologist, and futurist, Solis has studied and influenced the effects of emerging media on business, marketing, publishing, and culture. His current book, Engage, is regarded as the industry reference guide for businesses to build and measure success in the social web.

Follow Brian on Twitter: @briansolis

Marshall Sponder is an independent Web Analytics and SEO/SEM specialist working in the field of market research, social media, networking and PR. For nearly a decade now Marshall has been influencing the development of the industry, lately focusing on Social Media Metrics. He also posesses considerable in-house corporate experience as a group leader at IBM and Monster, combined with contract work atPorter Novelli PR, small businesses and start-ups. He has been consulting various B2B clients, New York Times, US Magazine, TheNewMarket, Havana Central, and many architects & digital ad agencies, including The House Designers and Alan Mascard Homes. Marsahll is involved as a Contributor Columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine, VentureBeat, and My Customer. He is also the author of three popular blogs: Web Metrics Guru, The Analytics Guru, and Art New York City. He has been a public speaker at many conferences focusing on Social Media metrics, such as Social Media Conference, Monitoring Social Media 09, Social Media Jungle, Online Marketing Forum, Social Networking Conference, and many others.

Follow Marshall on Twitter: @webmetricsguru

Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997. Her column BoomTown originally appeared on the front page of the Marketplace section and also online at WSJ.com. Previously, Ms. Swisher covered breaking news about the Web's major players and Internet policy issues and also wrote feature articles on technology for the paper. She has also written a weekly column for the Personal Journal on home gadget issues called Home Economics. With Walt Mossberg, she currently co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech conference with interviewees such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and many other leading players in the tech and media industries. The gathering is considered one of the leading conferences focused on the convergence of tech and media industries. Previously, Ms. Swisher worked as a reporter at the Washington Post. She is also the author of "aol.com: How Steve Case Beat Bill Gates, Nailed the Netheads and Made Millions in the War for the Web," published by Times Business Books in July 1998. The sequel, "There Must Be a Pony in Here Somewhere: The AOL Time Warner Debacle and the Quest for a Digital Future," was published in the fall of 2003 by Crown Business Books.

Follow Kara on Twitter: @karaswisher

Neil Vidyarthi is the Managing Editor with Social Times. He observes and reports the social, economic and technological aspects of the rapidly growing social media industry, and his coverage can be seen daily at AllFacebook.com and SocialTimes.com. Neil is passionate about telling the story about the people and passion behind some of today's most rapidly growing businesses, including social games and web video. Specifically, his work includes video interviews with key players in the social gaming space, detailed analysis of the social game mechanics within games like Farmville, the constantly changing leaderboard of popular Facebook applications, the cultural impact of social gaming and web video and the psychological aspects of social networks.

Neil has worked in leadership positions throughout the games industry, and was most recently a Producer of Social Games and Platforms with Electronic Arts Los Angeles. With EA, Neil played a crucial role in developing a social gaming and digital distribution model that would allow the company to accelerate its transition towards digital downloads and virtual goods. Previously to that, he founded two social media businesses in the areas of music and gaming; Upp Records and Level Social, respectively.

Follow Neil on Twitter: @socialtimes