Speakers

Rafiq Ahmed is the Founder and President of Demibooks, a new digital publisher with a software platform for authoring and publishing richly interactive book apps for children on the iPad. His experience spans mobile applications & services, user-centered design and consumer electronic products. In the past he's worked at Motorola Mobility, digital agency Sapient, mobile apps startup EssTec, and management consultants PriceWaterhouse Coopers.

Jason Allen Ashlock is President of Movable Type Management, a bi-coastal author management firm that foster storytelling across platforms, devices, territories and generations.  Working with authors in a variety of categories, Jason oversees in-house multimedia development, leveraging relationships with digital start-ups and veteran producers to add value to an author’s work at every opportunity. He has done graduate work in Religion and American literature, and currently teaches digital publishing at City College.

Geoffrey Bock, principal of Bock & Company, focuses on content strategies, content management, and social publishing. A technology analyst and researcher, Geoff has authored hundreds of in-depth reports, case studies, and articles on the business impacts of emerging technologies. He tracks how publishers create, organize, manage, and distribute information to build customer experiences.

Ryan Bloom is the Senior Director of Engineering at Lulu.com, the leader in open-publishing, where he has spearheaded such initiatives as Lulu’s Open Publishing APIs (application programmer interface). With Lulu APIs, developers and businesses can build a new breed of web applications, powered by Lulu, and marketed under their own brands. Before joining Lulu in 2009, Bloom was Director of Software Development at RadarFind Corp. where he was responsible for the development and quality assurance organization. He served as the Director of Open Source Development for Misys plc from 2007 to 2008. From 2005 to 2007, Bloom worked as Director of Development at Peopleclick, Inc. While at Peopleclick, Inc. he delivered on a development initiative to improve developer productivity. During this time he also worked for Kiptronic, Inc. on a contract basis and served on their technical advisory board. From 2004 to 2005, Bloom was the Senior Software Developer at Red Hat. Bloom holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and his book, Apache Server 2.0: The Complete Reference was published by McGraw-HIll in 2002.

Paul Canetti comes from a publishing design background and has worked in the art departments of publications such as SELF and Gotham magazines. He transitioned into web and user interface design before landing at Apple Inc. in 2006, a year before the iPhone was released. He eventually left Apple to combine his passion for technology with publishing, founding MagAppZine in 2010. MagAppZine is a do-it-yourself platform that allows publishers to create and manage apps quickly, easily, and affordably.

Peter Costanzo has been producing eBooks since 2001. He was most recently the Director of Digital Content for F+W Media where he developed enhanced eBooks, apps, and other digital products. Before that he was Director of Online Marketing for the Perseus Book Group where he contributed to the production of video, audio, podcasts, apps, and enhanced eBooks. Peter began his online adventure selling autographed books on the web in 1996. Since then he has worked for a variety of online departments at HarperCollins, Random House, and Steve Brill's Contentville. He also writes a Blog about reading on digital devices called Bookcurrents, and teaches the Introduction to Interactive Media course at NYU.

Dianna Dilworth is Editor of Mediabistro's digital publishing blog eBookNewser. As a freelance writer, she has been covering technology, design and digital marketing for the last decade for publications including: The Architectural Record, The Believer, Businessweek, California Home & Design, DMNews, Dwell and PRWeek.

Noemie is a founding Partner of Wave Generation and BUDGE Studios. With over 15 years of experience in media development, Noemie drives the growth of Budge Studios. She oversees strategic partnerships and all marketing initiatives. Noemie was nominated as Quebec's 25 Women of the year 2011. Prior to co-founding Wave Generation and BUDGE Studios Noemie amassed extensive experience as a producer working in Paris for MCM Euromusique, in NYC at ATC Management and as the director of audio, video and localisation for the video game Publisher UBISOFT. Noemie has secured relationships with clients in North America, Europe and Asia including Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Eidos, NCSoft, Bioware, 2K, Fisher Price, Disney, Ludia, Leapfrog and Autodesk.

Craig Ettinger was named General Manager for TIME.com in October 2010, overseeing site strategy, business development and product development, including all mobile initiatives. Ettinger previously worked as V.P. of Marketing & Operations for TIME.com. He joined TIME's finance team in 1999. Before joining TIME, Ettinger worked at Salomon Smith Barney focusing on media and telecommunications. He has a MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from Syracuse.

Graham is a serial entrepreneur with a long history of successful ventures within the consumer tech industries. After cofounding FrogDogMedia with fellow entrepreneur Woody Sears, the company’s iStoryTime digital publishing grew tremendously leading to a merger with Germany-based zuuka! GmbH, resulting in the world’s largest publisher of mobile children’s entertainment. Under the name zuuka, the newly formed company utilizes the largely successful iStoryTime name as its flagship label and joint brand. Prior to founding FrogDogMedia, Graham was part of the founding team of Sonos Inc., which designs and manufactures a next-generation multi-zone wireless digital home stereo. Before Sonos, Graham was part of the original team at Software.com, which developed the first high-end email infrastructure servers for telephone companies and ISPs. Graham helped grow Software.com from a private company through its initial public offering on the NASDAQ in 1999, during which time he was involved in product development and testing, network design, implementation and sales. Before Software.com, he worked at WaveFront Technologies, which was one of the first industrial 3-D animation software development companies. Graham also founded and invented the BabyToupee line of wigs for babies. He attended the University of Colorado at Boulder, and is an avid traveler, music fan and environmentalist who has sat on the boards of a number of environmental organizations including Seacology and Heal The Ocean and is currently on the board of Directors of The Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation.

John Green is the New York Times bestselling author of Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, and Paper Towns. He is also the coauthor, with David Levithan, of Will Grayson, Will Grayson. He was 2006 recipient of the Michael L. Printz Award, a 2009 Edgar Award winner, and has twice been a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. In 2007, Green and his brother Hank ceased textual communication and began to talk primarily through videoblogs posted to youtube. The videos spawned a community of people called nerdfighters who fight for intellectualism and to decrease the overall worldwide level of suck. (Nerdfighters have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight poverty in the developing world.) Their videos have been viewed more than 75 million times, and their channel is one of the most popular in the history of online video. Green grew up in Orlando, Florida before attending Indian Springs School and then Kenyon College.

Amanda Havard has been telling stories since before she could write. She grew up in Dallas, Texas, where her first book was published in her elementary school library at age 7. She received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from Vanderbilt University. She currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee with her baby grand piano and more story ideas than she could tell in one lifetime.

L. C. Havard is a business and technology pioneer. The formation of Chafie Creative Group is just another in a long line of fearless moves into new fields where Havard’s vision sees a possibility to embrace new technologies. The creation of Chafie Creative was inspired by Havard’s visions for what new technologies could mean for transmedia. Chafie’s tagline, Reinventing Storytelling, is the Group’s mission statement in a single line. Where antiquated models persist in book publishing and other media production, Havard sees an opportunity for change, which is no surprise since he’s made his career in shaking things up. Before forming Chafie Creative Group, Havard spent more than 17 years in health care, another industry famous for its resistance to change. His innovative thinking led to his success in many different facets of healthcare and healthcare technology, even obtaining an intellectual property patent for his technologies. He implemented new models of health care systems for numerous entities, even such giants as Wal-Mart. In addition to advances he oversaw for leading clients, Havard has served the industry in leadership roles such as the American Association of Preferred Provider Organizations' board of directors. He retired as CEO of Ecom PPO Advisors in September 2009.

Natalie Henley has been in the Search Marketing industry for over 2 years and specializes in the Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click & Social Media Marketing fields. At the Findability Group, Natalie develops customized strategy and Internet Marketing campaigns for clients, to ensure each marketing activity is aligned to maximize business success. Natalie is a pioneer in the social media marketing space through applying Search Engine Optimization techniques to social media profiles to dominate search engines under high-value keywords. With an extensive background in market research & public relations, Natalie specializes in Internet reputation management & brand-development campaigns. In addition, she has developed quantitative & qualitative metric programs to tangibly measure success with Social Media efforts. In her lively and informative presentations, Natalie will show attendees how to develop their own search engine marketing strategy & implement easy, non-technical techniques to connect with customers online.

Daniel Hoepfner has extensive expertise in the mobile industry, with work experience that includes mobile open source startup Funambol in San Francisco and OC&C Strategy Consultants in Abu Dhabi. He has been a senior executive at VC backed companies such as Funambol (California) and public-listed Synchronica (UK) supporting service provider and carrier to developing and providing innovative service for consumer. He is a successful entrepreneur, having founded and supported several high tech companies. His passion is driving innovations with a strong analytic, strategic and customer-centered focus, that leads to develop and execute great ideas for the company’s success. He runs a successful consulting firm delivering venture and bizdev services to various high profile startups. Daniels latest venture is PressMatrix a smart publishing platform. PressMatrix is a Berlin based technology company with a simple mission: Helping publishers to deliver any publication to tablet-devices and generating additional revenue with a digital experience. PressMatrix advantages are: increase ROI, reduce time to market and highly customizable. He is mentor at Founders Institute, at TCC-Berlin and regular speaker on various aspects of entrepreneurship. Daniel has studied economics, holds several patents for SaaS computing and lives with his family in Berlin.

Ron Hogan helped create the literary Internet by launching Beatrice.com in 1995. His most recent book is Getting Right with Tao, a print edition of his popular online “translation” of the Tao Te Ching into modern vernacular. He is also the author of The Stewardess Is Flying the Plane and a contributor to several anthologies. After writing about the business side of publishing as a senior editor for GalleyCat for several years, he briefly served as the director of e-marketing strategy for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and currently collaborates with Electric Publisher in the development of e-book apps. He speaks frequently at book festivals and conferences about the impact of technology on publishing.

Adrian Hon is co-founder and CEO at Six to Start, specialising in gamelike stories and story-like games for the web, mobile, and real world. Clients have included Disney, the BBC, Channel 4, and Penguin, and Six to Start has won multiple awards including Best of Show at SXSW. He also writes about technology for The Telegraph, is writing a book called A History of the Future in 100 Objects, and is the founder of Transmedia London.

Aziz Isham is the co-founder and president of Arcade Sunshine Media, a multimedia publishing company that creates complete digital experiences around the printed page. Arcade Sunshine works with publishers, corporations and non-profits to create mobile apps that incorporate video and social media into their publications. In the summer of 2011, Arcade Sunshine released Here on Earth – a multimedia app with Grove Atlantic publishing that was called 'the benchmark for interactive books in any genre.' Before getting involved with multimedia, Aziz spent many years as a non-fiction and reality TV executive, developing and producing programming for History Channel, Discovery, National Geographic, A&E and many others – including the highly-rated series My Life is a Zoo, Digging for the Truth and American Pickers; He was VP of JWM Productions, and has been a sailor in the South Pacific, a chef in Argentina, a chess coach in New York and a teacher in Morocco. He got his BA from Yale in Anthropology and grew up in New York City.

Roman Karachinsky is a co-founder and CEO of News360, a top rated cross platform personalized news app. At News360, Roman oversees the general direction of the company, including business strategy, partnerships and management. He also heads up the development of News360’s advanced linguistic metadata analysis and scientific algorithms that sift through news sources, identify trends, and deliver personalized content. Roman is a strong believer in presenting News360 users with a varied, multifaceted news reading experience that gives the "bigger picture," rather than presenting stories from a single source or region where there might be bias. Roman studied Computer Software at the University of Waterloo in Canada and , before News360 oversaw product development for a number of B2B news analysis products. Roman currently resides in Sunnyvale, CA.

At Copyright Clearance Center, Christopher Kenneally works with his Business Development colleagues to help the company attract new customers and achieve greater penetration in existing markets. He has forged partnerships with technology providers, professional associations, and media organizations, among others. In addition, Kenneally is host/producer of CCC’s weekly podcast series, "Beyond the Book", and for OnCopyright Education, CCC's Educational Services brand, he presents a variety of programs on copyright and intellectual property issues. As a freelance journalist, Christopher Kenneally reported on education, business, travel, culture and technology for the New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and The Independent of London, among many other publications. He also reported for WBUR-FM (Boston), National Public Radio, and WGBH-TV (PBS-Boston). He is author of "Massachusetts 101", a history of the state "from Redcoats to Red Sox".

Josh Koppel is co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of ScrollMotion, a media and technology company that develops electronic platforms for the world’s leading text book, children’s book and magazine publishers. He is responsible for the creative direction of the company, as well as the driver behind ScrollMotion’s technology development. Prior to ScrollMotion, Koppel was founder and executive producer at Josh Koppel Productions/Spaceman Media, a full service branding and production firm specializing in creating broadband video for media companies. He has produced work for AMC, Adult Swim, Comedy Central and MTV, among others. Koppel received a bachelor of arts in English and fine arts from Amherst College.

Jenny is a co-founder of Jackson Fish Market, a small software startup focused on making beautiful software experiences. Their latest product is A Story Before Bed - the first (and only) service that lets parents, grandparents, and children record video of themselves reading children's books and play it back as often as they like on the Mac, PC, or iPad. Before Jackson Fish, Jenny worked at Microsoft from 2001–2007 as Creative Director of the Windows User Experience team. When she isn't running her startup, she serves on the board as Experience Director of the AIGA Seattle chapter and works on national & local organizations to foster the next generation of creative design talent headed for the tech industry. She was named one of the Top 100 Most Influential Women in Technology by the Puget Sound Business Journal and was awarded Seattle 2.0 Best Startup Designer in 2010.

Zephrin Lasker has been involved with digital advertising technology since its inception more than a decade ago. From his roles in technology investment banking to technical product management, Zephrin has always been interested in the confluence of business and technology. A serial entrepreneur, Zephrin successfully launched two start-ups prior to Pontiflex. He founded Pontiflex because he wanted to help people connect with companies they actually want to hear from. In 2011, over 35 million people will use the Pontiflex Signup Ads Platform to connect with the brands they like. Zephrin also oversees the development and execution of the Pontiflex AppLeads platform, which extends signup ad technology to the exploding world of mobile apps. Zephrin is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and is a regular contributing blogger for Forbes. When not thinking about tech stuff, Zephrin disappears into the forests and rivers of Vermont.

Nina works at Wattpad, the world's most popular story sharing community. At Wattpad, she handles marketing as well as publisher and author relationships. Working with authors and their publishers, she helps create viral audiences for new and established titles using transmedia. Before joining Wattpad, she obtained her MA at the University of Toronto and her BA at the University of King's College in Nova Scotia.

Arseny Lebedev co-founded Signus Labs, where he manages marketing and partnership strategies. Since its founding in 2009, Signus Labs grew organically to a 22-person full service development studio that delivers high quality work on multiple platforms to millions of players. Arseny follows a balanced development philosophy -- gameplay and profitability are fundamental to a successful project. Signus develops social games on Facebook, Mobile Platforms, Kindle, and HTML5. Prior to Signus, Labs Arseny worked in a marketing role at Large Animal Games. Additionally, Arseny resides on the board of a solar energy manufacturer, where he contributes to strategic decisions.

Alex LeMay is the CEO of The Shadow Gang, a Chicago-based interactive agency that recently created GoBZRK (http://gobzrk.com/ ) - a new transmedia project created for the launch of BZRK, the latest novel from best-selling author Michael Grant (to be released in February 2012). Turning the traditional book publishing model on its head, GoBZRK was visualized and developed by The Shadow Gang and Michael Grant, from storyline inception, to be a transmedia experience that deepens and enhances the narrative adventure well before, and beyond, the launch of the book series. Working across multiple channels, including community websites, social networking portals, graphic novels, character blogs, online video and mobile games, fans use clues to uncover a mystery that unfolds as a prequel to the upcoming book. Alex LeMay is also an award winning feature film, broadcast producer, director and digital innovator. Over his 17-year career he has directed a number of acclaimed feature films as well as provided commercial and interactive media for some of the world’s top-tier companies, including Johnson and Johnson, Starbuck’s Coffee Company, CVS, Harper Collins Publishing and Office Max. His award winning film, American Bullfighter caught the eye of Universal Studios, for whom he produced and directed the bullfighting sequence for the Academy Award nominated film Seabiscuit, starring Jeff Bridges and Toby Maguire.

Waynn Lue is the co-founder of Coliloquy, a new digital publisher for Kindle. He’s a Silicon Valley entrepreneur whose first startup, unwrap, inc. built a platform that streamlined social media marketing for businesses by helping them create applications on Facebook in a turn-key, non-technical way. unwrap was acquired in 2010 by Context Optional. Prior to unwrap, he worked at Google, where he spent three and a half years in the billing engineering group as a technical lead on a system that processed over 90% of Google’s revenue. He is an angel investor who advises startups on engineering architecture, social media marketing, and product vision, and is currently working on his second startup.

Rob leads Scribd’s business development strategy for Float, including relationships with major content, technology and consumer brands. Prior to Scribd, Rob was head of traditional media and strategic partnerships at Google in New York and Mountain View, where he led teams developing content partnerships with media brands such as The New York Times, Time, Inc., Hearst, Conde Nast and The Wall Street Journal. Rob has nearly 15 years of experience in business development and sales, including seven at Google and four at DoubleClick.

Ryan Marquis, COO & Founder of PixelMags Inc., is a digital entrepreneur with a track record of successfully enhancing and growing businesses through strategic online efforts. His ability to define and execute integrated web strategies stems directly from his diverse background of building massive Internet awareness and strong social networking for various brands. Prior to PixelMags, Ryan served as Director of Digital Marketing for Bunkspeed, a leading 3D rendering technology developer. There, he lead efforts for design and marketing communities that have become the standard for world-renowned brands including Gulfstream Aerospace, Motorola, LG Electronics, Hewlett Packard, Whirlpool, and others. Bunkspeed software is an integral part of design at Apple, Microsoft, RIM, and Ogilvy, and is taught at the top ten leading design and art colleges in the world. Ryan previously founded, launched, and sold two successful start-ups.

As Mobcast’s Business Development Director, Garry establishes key partnerships with network operators and device manufacturers. Mobcast is a cloud based ebook platform provider powering major brands and network operators across the globe. Mobcast Services have been awarded “Best Mobile Book Company”, and is recognized for its central role in the monetization of digital books at the annual Mobile Entertainment Awards.

Jeanniey Mullen is Global Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Zinio, the world’s foremost digital publishing products and services company, and home of the largest newsstand. She holds the same roles concurrently for VIvmag, the world’s first exclusively digital luxury women’s magazine VIVmag. Renowned as a pioneer in email marketing, she is widely credited for her pivotal role in ushering in a new era of digital marketing communications. Mullen is founder and current executive director of the Email Experience Council. She is an accomplished author with two books to her credit, as well as a regular columnist for ClickZ. Mullen is a frequent and highly sought-after speaker at digital marketing, e-tail and publishing events around the world.

Laura Owen is a staff writer covering book publishing and other topics for paidContent (www.paidcontent.org). She was previously the editor of Market Partners International's Publishing Trends, and prior to that was an assistant editor at Skyhorse Publishing. She lives in Manhattan.

At Flurry, which powers audience acquisition, insight and monetization for more than 125,000 apps in the new iOS and Android app economy, Isabelle works with leading media publishers to optimize business model and business intelligence initiatives. Prior to joining Flurry, Isabelle founded the U.S. office of Playsoft, a mobile studio that developed mobile apps for large publishing houses and newspapers. Before Playsoft, as a Global Product Manager at Gameloft, Isabelle drove marketing launches and user retention strategies for top iOS and Android games.

Rajiv Parikh serves as Director of Marketing and Digital Content at TFIM, a multimedia publishing company based in Silicon Valley. Rajiv spearheaded the creative design and managed the development of the company's debut Book App called Too Far by Rich Shapero, an app that seamlessly integrates an original novel, inspiring music and stunning artwork. Previously, Rajiv has held Marketing positions with several other companies including Warner Brothers, Netscape, Pixar and Excite. He also co-founded a start-up called PaperFly, a venture-funded company in the ASP space. Rajiv has a BS in Marketing from the University of California at Berkeley.

SiNae Pitts, PhD is Founder and CEO of Amphetamobile, a one-stop shop for web, mobile web, and native mobile application development, design, and consulting. Amphetamobile, or AMMO for short, has developed mobile publishing platforms for periodical, textbook, image bank, and Q/A content, which are customized and developed in partnership with leading international publishers. Established in iOS, Android, and HTML5 development and with subject matter expertise in scholarly, scientific, and medical content, AMMO has received critical acclaim from users, publishers, the media and iTunes. SiNae is a serial entrepreneur with a passion for creating user-centric, elegant technology that is online, mobile and good for the world. Her first independent web venture, www.sciencecircle.com, a project management tool and online home/blog for collaborations and research projects, has been active since 2004. SiNae earned a PhD in Neuroscience from Columbia University and has published in a number of peer-reviewed journals.

Evan Ratliff is the editor and CEO of The Atavist (www.atavist.net), which publishes bestselling narrative journalism in the form of e-singles and produces software tools that enable new types of digital storytelling. He is also an award-winning journalist whose feature writing on science, technology, crime, privacy, and terrorism appears in Wired, The New Yorker, National Geographic, and many other publications.

Born and raised on the mean streets of Long Island, NY, Ron Richards turned his comic collecting habit into a business with his co-founding of iFanboy.com in 2001. Since then Ron has been a pioneer in the 21st century comics media, cultivating iFanboy into one of the most popular audio podcast and Internet TV shows and thriving online communities. While working in the digital space, he spent 3 years helping to build Revision3, the leading internet television network before joining Graphicly as the VP of External Relations after Graphicly acquired iFanboy. Ron resides in San Francisco amongst the thriving startup and entrepreneurial environment there.

Colin Robinson is co-publisher of OR Books. Previously he was a senior editor at Scribner, publisher at The New Press, and managing director of Verso. He has written for a variety of publications including The New York Times, The Nation, The Sunday Times (London) and The Guardian, and has appeared on a range of broadcast media including NPR ("On the Media"), CNN, MSNBC, CBC and CSPN.

Jason Rollins is Senior Director of Product Innovation for the Scientific and Scholarly Research business of Thomson Reuters. In this role he leads customer-focused new product development efforts for major academic productivity applications including Web of Knowledge and EndNote. He has over 15 years of varied experience in software technology and holds several patent applications related to research software. He earned a PhD in Educational Technology from Drexel University. He is an avid traveler, fitness enthusiast, and modernist design buff and is a regular presenter at industry and customer events around the globe.

Claudia Romanini leads Developer Relations and 3rd Party Applications for Barnes & Noble. Her team is chartered to build an application ecosystem that enriches and expands the reading experience for the NOOK platform. Prior to Barnes & Noble, Claudia spent 5 years at Motorola, where she led the Global Ecosystem organization and was responsible for the MOTODEV Developer Program, Tools and Technical Services, and Application Delivery teams. Prior to joining Motorola, Claudia held senior product marketing positions in leading high-tech companies including Palm, TiVo, and eBay.

Carmen leads mediabistro's educational offerings, events, and video how-to content -- all with the mission of helping media people learn new skills. She began her career as an editor at a monthly arts and culture magazine and spent seven years freelancing as an editor and writer. At mediabistro, she has helped tens of thousands of media pros revamp their careers with the help of mediabistro's courses, events, and video content.

Adam Schneider joined the Microsoft Tag business development team in 2009 and has been integrally involved in all Tag related campaigns in the crucial publishing vertical. His role as primary point of contact is to advise editorial personnel, integrated marketing and the various sales teams on optimal ways to use Tag in-book. Prior to his work with Microsoft, Adam spent time as a consultant in the image recognition space and as the first VP of Sales for SnapTell where he launched the first “snap & send” campaigns in US magazines. Adam has worked at AdMob and was on the founding executive team with the mobile coupon start-up, Cellfire. Adam has also managed ad sales teams at MyPoints.com and was one of the first employees at Pointcast and web-based email pioneer Hotmail.

Alex Souza is the creator of Kwik, a Photoshop plugin that allows designers and illustrators creating comics, magazines and interactive books with animations and interactivity, directly from PSD files. Previously, he worked for Lotus, IBM and Microsoft, creating applications for customers and marketing products like Microsoft Office, Expression and Silverlight. He is one of the pioneers of the web design in Brazil, being the first developer of a Shockwave game in the country in 1995, and runner up for the Winner of iBest TOP 3 Award (Official and Popular Jury), the most important Internet award in Brazil, in 2000. Alex holds a bachelor and master degree in Digital Design, and was speaker at MIX 2010 in Las Vegas, and several international MIX events in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil.

Lina Srivastava is the Principal of Lina Srivastava Consulting LLC, a social innovation strategic consultancy. Lina works to leverage cultural expression and cultural identity for social transformation, employing strategy, planning, engagement, and transmedia design. An attorney by training, Lina practiced intellectual property law before founding her company. Lina has provided strategic consulting and project design to a group of organizations dedicated to social impact and innovation, including UNESCO (in collaboration with the Pratt Institute Incubator for Social Innovation), MobileActive and BYkids. She has taught design and social entrepreneurship at Parsons, The New School of Design, and will be on faculty in the Masters of Fine Arts Program in Design and Social Innovation at the School of Visual Arts, where she will teach on media, engagement, activism and transmedia. A first-mover in transmedia for social change, Lina has been involved in successful cross-media campaigns for several documentaries, including Oscar-winning Born into Brothels (through her work with the related nonprofit organization Kids with Cameras) and the Emmy-nominated The Devil Came on Horseback. The former Executive Director of Kids with Cameras, and the past Interim Executive Director of the Association of Video and Filmmakers, she is currently the strategist for 3Generations, the organizational strategist for VODO, and a partner in the social change strategy team for the Resist Network and its forthcoming film, Who Is Dayani Cristal? Lina is a graduate of the New York University School of Law, received her BS, Biology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and also studied at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, New York University, the Support Center for Nonprofit Management, the Hastings Center for Bioethics, and the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University.

David Steinberger co-founded comiXology, the leading US digital comics provider, in 2007 at New York University. Long time comic fan and passionate entrepreneur, David’s inspiration for comiXology came from participating in NYU | Stern’s 2007 Business Plan competition. David designed comiXology’s Guided View™ Technology, an innovative way to read comics on a small device, celebrated by Wired Magazine as "mobile comics done right." David Steinberger holds an MBA from NYU | Stern School of Business, a Masters degree from Manhattan School of Music, and an Advanced Certificate from Juilliard.

Jordan began his career in magazine publishing, as an editor at Blue and then as an international journalist writing for publications like The New York Times, Men’s Journal, and The Economist. After a stint in brand and product innovation, he co-founded gliider, a travel research tool (acquired in 2011) that matches consumer-selected content with deals from around the web. Gliider received numerous industry awards. He’s spoken at a range of digital media and travel events. Outside of work, he enjoys running marathons and travel, having visited nearly 70 countries. He has a BA in Sociology, University of Colorado at Boulder and an MA, International Affairs from Columbia.

Joshua Tallent has been an eBook developer since 2002. He is an acknowledged expert on the Kindle and ePub formats, and his book, Kindle Formatting: The Complete Guide, has been praised as the most thorough explanation of the Kindle format available. Joshua founded eBook Architects, his eBook design and consulting business, in 2008, providing services to both publishers and authors, with a focus on complex projects and enhanced eBooks. He regularly teaches at conferences and workshops about building and designing eBooks, and he is a vocal advocate for accessible, well-designed eBooks. Joshua resides in Austin, Texas, with his wife and two daughters.

Hillary Tisman is currently the Marketing Manager for Atria Books, a division of Simon and Schuster where she handles coordinates marketing campaigns for individual titles and authors as well as multi-title promotions. She previously worked at Random House, where she spent 5 and a half years in the Knopf Doubleday group, working first in marketing for Knopf, Pantheon, and Schocken, and later in both advertising, promotions, and online marketing for Vintage and Anchor Books.

Mr. Underkoffler maintains a keen sense for digital trends in the marketplace, consumer buying patterns, emerging hardware platforms, and the e-retailer landscape. He currently works in conjunction with the books and magazines content team to develop product plans, create contractual arrangements with e-retailers, and leverage DPW content to produce new digital opportunities in the marketplace. Previously, Mr. Underkoffler has served as the director, Strategy for Disney Publishing Worldwide. He was responsible for the annual Strategic Plan process and partnering across DPW business areas to analyze and help drive global growth initiatives. Mr. Underkoffler was also director of Strategy and Business Development at Zagat Survey, where he established a roadmap for growth through acquisitions, partnerships, and new ventures. In this role, he developed and executed a 3-year strategy across interactive products, both online and mobile.

Deanna Walker is a songwriter, composer, producer, and the founder of the Blair Songwriting Program at Vanderbilt University where she teaches advanced songwriting critique workshops as well as the "Intro to Songwriting and Music Theory" classes. She brings in major hit songwriters, publishers and producers each week for her adult songwriting seminar, "Blair Hit Songwriter Series," which helps make it one of the most popular ongoing classes in Nashville. She's taught songwriting and composition workshops for adults and children across the US and in England and Canada. Walker has a M.M. in Composition from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and a B.M. in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Eastern New Mexico University. Her extensive experience with songwriting and composition makes Deanna Walker uniquely familiar to how music can be a story all its own. One of Havard's mentors, she came to work on Chafie Creative's projects for FPR Records as both an executive producer and a co-writer.

Debbie Weil is an author, international speaker, veteran blogger, content marketing strategist and Web pioneer. She was named one of the Most Influential Women in Technology by Fast Company and a Washington DC Top 100 Tech Titan. She recently founded Voxie Media, a boutique imprint that publishes short, smart and stylish e-books and print-on-demand books by business authors with kick-ass ideas. Voxie Media is entrepreneurial publishing with passion and a point of view: books can spread ideas, change lives and make the world a better place. Voxie also provides consulting to navigate the new world of self-publishing. She is the author of one of the first and most definitive books about business blogging, The Corporate Blogging Book (updated edition available on Amazon Kindle). Debbie holds an MBA degree from Georgetown University, a Masters in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin and is a graduate of Harvard with a degree in English.

Stephen Welch is the Senior Vice President of Communications for the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) and serves as Executive Editor of CHEST, the ACCP’s flagship journal. His responsibilities include all the business and operational aspects of CHEST, as well as oversight of ACCP’s educational publishing efforts and internal editorial processes, IT/Web strategy, as well as Marketing/Public Relations and Social Media strategy. Steve enjoys engaging with new technologies and writes a blog for the ACCP on physicians and technology tools called, “It Ain’t Rocket Surgery”: http://www.chestnet.org/accp/blogs/steve%20welch Steve lives in the north suburbs of Chicago with his wife Beth, great danes Magnus and Daisy, and iguana Diego. When not working, he spends his time traveling, scuba diving, collecting original comic book artwork, and searching for good BBQ.

Daniel Wideman is Director of Products at Lulu.com, where 1.1 million creators from 200 countries and territories publish 20,000 titles a month. He is driving the development of the world's first truly open publishing platform, marked by the recent release of Lulu's Open Publication APIs which enable authors, publishers, businesses, and developers alike to create customized publishing solutions, powered by Lulu, and marketed under their own brands. Wideman is also a widely published author of poetry, fiction, and essays, through both traditional and self-publishing outlets.

Jim has spent over twenty years in the media and technology industries with GE’s entertainment division, NBC; Viacom’s publishing unit, Simon & Schuster; consumer health company WebMD; technology and software supplier Dendrite International and News Corporation’s publishing unit, Harper Collins. During his career, Jim has held c-suite positions handling operations, mergers and acquisitions, company restructurings, sale transactions and human resources on a global basis. “As a hands-on father of two children, I want a digital experience that not only gives them the choice to be able to select and experience stories but also allows them to use their imagination. That is Ruckus – a place where kids can count on us to give them great stories, complemented by the games, recording, and interactivity made possible by a digital format.”

As editor of Mediabistro Publishing, Jason Boog curates publishing events and shapes the digital publishing curriculum at mediabistro.com. He also edits the GalleyCat blog and hosts the daily Morning Media Menu podcast. Before mediabistro.com, Jason was an investigative reporter at Judicial Reports and a publishing blogger for Know More Media. His work has appeared in The Believer, Granta, Salon.com, The Revealer, and Peace Corps Writers.

Stewart joined the mediabistro.com team in 2010 and currently curates the live events and conferences. Previously, he played a leadership role in running the Search Engine Strategies (SES) events as part of the original content team at Incisive Media. Prior to that, Stewart worked with Jupitermedia and was responsible for launching emerging technology events such as the Jupiter/IAB Advertising Forum, Plug.IN, Game Market Watch, Enterprise Linux Forum and ClickZ Online Video Advertising. Stewart has also worked closely with the open-source Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the IT Service Management Forum (itSMF), and the Object Management Group (OMG), an international not-for-profit computer industry consortium. Earlier in the dot-com bubble, Stewart worked with 101 Communications and SIGS Publications, overseeing their object-oriented programming portfolio of events, including Java DevCon, XML ONE and C++ World.