Speakers

SMOC: Social Media Optimization Conference features a diverse lineup of top marketers, thought leaders, industry experts, business executives and hands-on practitioners. Sharing best practices, actionable takeaways and real-world case studies, our speakers foster a setting for innovation, creativity, networking and open dialogue.


Evan Bailyn
EVAN BAILYN
Founder, First Page Sage
@ineffable111
Evan Bailyn is an entrepreneur and the author of two books, Outsmarting Google and Social Search: Profiting In the Age Of Friendship Marketing published by Pearson. After graduating from Columbia University in 2003, Mr. Bailyn taught himself about search engines, quickly discovering how to rank at the top of Google for any search term. He then established a network of education-related businesses, which he later sold. In 2006, he founded Cartoon Doll Emporium, which was backed by Allen & Co and became one of the largest children's websites in the world, reaching 70 million unique visitors in 2009. Mr. Bailyn is the founder of First Page Sage, an SEO and social media company serving Fortune 100, celebrity, and political clients. The web series he created, Digits, has been viewed over 16 million times on YouTube, and his Facebook page has over 87,000 fans, making him one of the most popular non-celebrity people on Facebook. Mr. Bailyn has been interviewed on ABC and Fox News and featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, Advertising Age, and Money Magazine.
Rohit Bhargava
ROHIT BHARGAVA
SVP, Ogilvy & Author of Personality Not Included
@rohitbhargava
Rohit is a founding member of the Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence team, the world's largest global network of social media strategists. He is author of the best selling book Personality Not Included, a guide on how to use personality to reinvent your marketing that has been published globally in 8 languages. Commonly recognized as the "father of SMO" - he first introduced the concept on his blog in 2006, and wrote a popular revised post on the "5 New Rules of SMO" exactly 4 years later in 2010. He writes the Influential Marketing blog, ranked by AdAge among the top 25 marketing blogs in the world, and has been featured on the covers of MarketingChina and PRWeek UK and interviewed as a marketing expert for NPR, BusinessWeek, PBS, SkyNews, and Fast Company. Rohit teaches Global Marketing at Georgetown University and is a frequent and "non-obvious" keynote speaker on marketing and business at events around the world.
Michael Boland
MICHAEL BOLAND
Senior Analyst and Program Director, BIA/Kelsey
@BIAKelsey
Michael Boland is Senior Analyst and Program Director for BIA/Kelsey, covering online and mobile media. Mike is a frequent speaker at top industry conferences such as BIA/Kelsey events, Search Engine Strategies, ad:tech, and Digital Hollywood. He has authored in-depth reports on the changing local media landscape including online video, social networking and mobile. He contributes regularly to highly read online news sources such as Search Engine Watch and the Huffington Post. A trusted source for reporters covering the interactive media space, his comments have appeared in major news and trade media, including the Wall Street Journal,Fortune and Forbes. Before joining BIA/Kelsey, Mike was editor of Innovation World's TechAlert, a monthly journal of emerging tech companies. Previously he was a San Francisco-based freelance writer for business and technology magazines, such as Red Herring, Business 2.0, Mobile Magazine and Digitalife. Mike began his career in business analysis and journalism as a staff reporter for Forbes magazine, where he covered technology, online media and telecommunications.
Duane Brown
DUANE BROWN
Strategy Director, Creative Traction
@DuaneBrown
Duane Brown is a gamer, strategy director and snowboarder. He has done work for clients including Proximity Canada/BBDO, Hill & Knowlton, NATIONAL and Marshall Fenn Communications. He uses his knowledge and passion to help launch digital marketing campaigns all over North America and around the world…on 5 of 7 continents to be exact. His background includes education in marketing and public relations. Duane has been featured in a number of publications including PSFK's Good Brands Report 2010, Gamasutra, Age of Conversation 3 and Join The Conversation. He has spoken at North By North East Interactive, Search Engine Strategies Toronto and private corporate events. He writes & shares his thoughts at CreativeTraction.com, runs www.GameCensus.ca (a list of gaming companies across Canada), and has a few other ideas in the works.
Daniel Brusilovsky
DANIEL BRUSILOVSKY
Founder and CEO, Teens in Tech Labs
@danielbru
Daniel Brusilovsky is currently the founder & CEO of Teens in Tech Labs, a company dedicated to providing tools and resources to young entrepreneurs world-wide. Daniel also works at JESS3 as a Strategist, working both with clients, and internal strategy, business and corporate development. In the past four years, Daniel has worked at startups including Qik (acquired by Skype), TechCrunch (acquired by AOL), atebits (acquired by Twitter), Apture, andWonder Warp Software. Daniel also advises Tatango and Taptivate on strategy and business development. Daniel is currently a freshman in college at College of San Mateo.
Adele Cehrs
ADELE CEHRS
President, Epic PR Group
@EpicPRGroupDC
Adele Cehrs is President of Epic PR Group, a full-service public relations agency based in Old Town Alexandria, Va. As President of Epic, Adele has overseen the development of numerous award-winning local and national PR campaigns. Epic's clients include Fortune 500 companies, regional businesses, non-profits, associations and high-profile individuals. A recognized PR expert, Adele has been featured in Voice of America, Washington Business Journal, PR Week, Bulldog Reporter and the Washington Post. She has also appeared on CNN Headline News, NBC4, WUSA9 News, NPR and Fox Business Network Happy Hour. Earlier in her career, Adele worked for TSI Communications, a Madison Avenue PR Firm, specializing in technology. She was also an executive at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, where she worked on clients such as DuPont, Maxwell House Coffee, Select Comfort, My Library DV and Yum Brands.
Andy Chen
ANDY CHEN
Vice President Social Media Strategy and Distribution, Match.com
@Match
Joining the Match.com family in 2010, Andy brings a wealth of experience and a passion for emerging media. He and his team are focused on building new products and marketing programs on social platforms and technologies. Responsible for managing Match.com's social channels, Andy also oversaw the launch of Stir, a new Match.com experience built for Facebook users. He continues to develop innovative ways to keep Match.com members engaged and connected to the larger online community. Before joining Match.com, Andy served as Co-Founder and President of Traxo.com, an award winning next generation social travel service. He has also held a variety of Internet marketing and business development roles with True.com, Travelocity.com, and Sabre Holdings. Andy started his career with Northrop Grumman as an Aerospace Engineer and an Associate in the company's Leadership Development Program. He holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University and a M.B.A. with distinction as a Sord Scholar from the University of Texas at Austin.
Grant Crowell
GRANT CROWELL
Videologist, ReelSEO.com
@grantcrowell
Year-round analyst covering the latest and time-tested "best practices" with online video. Grant Crowell is the senior media analyst, podcast show host, and vlogger for ReelSEO.com – an online magazine dedicated to video news and marketing strategies. Grant's regular coverage for ReelSEO includes video in SEO (VSEO), social media optimization (SMO), legal issues, and tutorials. Grant has been a featured speaker at Search Engine Strategies and PubCon on Video SEO, along with providing extensive coverage of the video marketing space at conferences throughout North America. His upcoming publications scheduled for early 2011 are, Online Video Marketing, Explored and You Sued? Why We Need A Legal Guide for Online Video Marketing. Grant is also the Founder of Grantastic Designs, an online marketing solutions firm established in 1996, specializing in search-optimized, user-friendly web design and multimedia content, including video and usability solutions for commercial enterprises, non-profits, academia and government organizations.
Kris Duggan
KRIS DUGGAN
CEO and Founder, Badgeville
@kduggan
Kris Duggan, CEO and founder of Badgeville, is a remarkable force in the gamification industry. A serial entrepreneur with a deep understanding of SaaS, sales and sales management, Kris has had extensive experience in start-ups and offers a relentless approach to building companies. At the age of 25 Kris founded his first internet startup, and a mere 18 months later sold it to a public company for $5 million. In 2010, Kris was busy founding his 3rd startup focused in social media. This company became cash-flow positive within three months after engaging with customers. Today Kris is dedicated to helping brands on the web increase user engagement by leveraging proven techniques in social gaming and loyalty. Kris believes the next decade of the web will focus on loyalty, user segmentation, and motivation techniques linked to deep engagement analytics, and leads in the creation of innovative ways to incorporate game mechanics and real-time loyalty programs into web and mobile experiences. Prior to founding Badgeville, Duggan worked in leadership roles at a variety of successful companies, including WebEx, and across a wide variety of verticals.
Sally Falkow
SALLY FALKOW
President, PRESSfeed
@sallyfalkow
Sally Falkow, President of PRESSfeed and co-developer of the social media newsroom, is a veteran of the PR industry and has been active in digital PR and social media for 12 years. She is an adjunct Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at USC and a Sr. Fellow with the Society for New Communication Research, a think tank on new media based in Palo Alto. Sally is the author of Mastering Social Media: a practical handbook for PR professionals and is currently working on a book about the social graph and social media intelligence.
Jon Fougner
JON FOUGNER
Associate - Ads Product Marketing, Facebook
@jfougner
Jon Fougner leads local ads product marketing at Facebook, working on the market analysis that informs the product roadmap for brick-and-mortar advertisers. Prior to Facebook, he was an investment banker in the Financial Institutions Group at Goldman Sachs. Prior to Goldman, he was a Fulbright Fellow in Norway. He took his B.A. in economics from Yale.
Julian Gay
Julian focuses on new product development, strategic initiatives and partnerships at Orange San Francisco and is responsible for R&D and strategic anticipation projects in the fields of SocialCRM, VRM and Personal Data Stores. Prior to Orange, Julian founded Filobite, a collaboration solution for SMB, and held technology leadership positions at PRN-Technicolor, ZEFER, a digital-strategy consultancy. He was a founding member of NEC's Financial Services practice, where he led engagements at Fortune 500 companies including Wells Fargo and Charles Schwab. Julian is an active contributor and curator on Twitter.
Benjamin Goering
BENJAMIN GOERING
Software Engineer, Livefyre
@bengo
Benjamin first jumped into the world of tech blogging at the age of 15, but eventually sold the small site to focus on his schooling. Ironically, he left the University of Kansas' Computer Science and Philosophy programs a few years later to focus more on his love for startups and the tech industry. Ben is currently working to reinvent conversation and community online as a Software Engineer at Livefyre, and spends his free time reading about Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy, and the escapades of hilariously photographed kittens.
Harry Gold
HARRY J. GOLD
Founder and CEO, Overdrive Interactive
@ovrdrv
Harry is the Founder and CEO of Overdrive Interactive, an award winning digital marketing firm in Boston, Massachusetts that serves top companies such as Harley-Davidson, Dow Jones, John Hancock, AAA, Vistaprint, EMC and Progress Software. Harry's primary mission is to create innovative online marketing programs based on real-world success and to ensure that the marketing and technology best practices that drive those successes are continually institutionalized into the culture and methods of the agency. He is also a frequent lecturer on search engine marketing, social media and online media for The American Marketing Association, The New England Direct Marketing Association, Search Engine Strategies and Harvard University. Harry is also an expert columnist for ClickZ whose email newsletters are sent out to over 100,000 subscribers.
Aaron Goldman
AARON GOLDMAN
Chief Marketing Officer, Kenshoo
@AaronGoldman
Aaron Goldman is Chief Marketing Officer at Kenshoo, a global leader in search marketing and online advertising technology. In this role, Goldman oversees corporate marketing, product marketing, trade marketing, and public relations. Kenshoo customers include Barnes and Noble, CareerBuilder, Facebook, Havas, LendingTree, Omnicom, Starcom MediaVest, Sears, Zappos, and many more. Goldman is also the author of “Everything I Know about Marketing I Learned from Google” published by McGraw-Hill in August 2010. Goldman graduated with honors from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Bachelor of Science degree in Advertising. When he’s not Googling himself, Goldman enjoys spending time with his family in Chicago.
Leslie Grandy
LESLIE GRANDY
CMO, R2Integrated
@R2Integrated
Leslie Grandy, who was named one of the 15 most influential women in social media by Technorati, serves as CMO and executive vice president of products and services in the R2i's Seattle office. Best-known for authoring the blog "The Consumer Matters" under her Gearhead Gal brand, Ms. Grandy's insights are syndicated through websites including MocoNews, Newstex, Alltop, and Technorati, where she serves as lead technology writer. Recently, Ms. Grandy was named to TechFlash's Puget Sound Top 100 Women in Technology list, and she has served as a GLG Educator on the Telecom, Media and Entertainment Council for the Gerson Lehman Group. Previously, Ms. Grandy served as online store director, Americas for Apple and the vice president of product development at T-Mobile, where she led the launch of T-Mobile G1 and the release of the iconic Sidekick device. Ms. Grandy has been a consultant to companies like Turner Broadcasting System and DivX.
Scott Gulbransen
SCOTT GULBRANSEN
Director of Social Media & Digital Content, Applebee's
@sdgully
Scott Gulbransen is the Director of Social Media & Digital Content at Applebee's in Lenexa, Kansas. In his role, leads the social media marketing efforts for the world's largest casual dining chain. Prior to Applebee's, Gulbransen was a member of the TurboTax PR and social media team. Scott has helped launch and sustain the brand's social media platform including interacting with customers and journalists on a daily basis. Recently, he launched one of the most significant social media campaigns in the brand’s history with the @TeamTurboTax Twitter project. He also was instrumental in developing and executing the successful “Freeloader Nation” campaign for TurboTax in 2009. The campaign, which was aimed at attracting new and younger customers to TurboTax's free product via social media, included a series of MySpace Secret Shows with acts like Lily Allen, Fall Out Boy and Metro Station. He is a graduate of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and is the married father of four kids.
Doug Hay
DOUG HAY
Principal and CEO, Doug Hay & Associates
@doughay
Doug Hay is the founder and CEO of Doug Hay & Associates, an Internet Marketing and Social Media agency. Doug was an early adopter of these new digital marketing technologies while leveraging his multi decades of experience in marketing, public relations, sales and business development. Doug is a sought after speaker and has presented at: Search Engine Strategies (SES); E-Tourism Summit; Gilbane Content Strategy Conference; City of Los Angeles Community Development, Business Service Training; Yellow Pages Association PR Summit; SES Travel; PACE (Pacific Asian Consortium in Employment); FIDM/The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, Los Angeles; Marketing & Advertising Club of Michiana at Notre Dame University, Sonoma County Tourism Board and SearchFest Portland.
Shreya Indukuri
SHREYA INDUKURI
Co-founder, SmartPowerEd
@AppleCider94
Shreya Indukuri is a 17 year old junior at The Harker School in San Jose. She is the co-founder of SmartPowerEd, an organization that assists student leaders in implementing smart energy at their schools. Thus far, SmartPowerEd has facilitated smart energy projects at Harker, Los Gatos High, and Saratoga High. Shreya and her co-founder, Daniela Lapidous, have spoken about climate change, green energy and the local youth green movement at "Teens in Technology" Conference, Bay Area Schools Environmental Conference, SDForum Conference "Tech Titans of Tomorrow: Teens Plugged in" and the California Academy of Arts and Sciences. A firm believer in social media, Shreya and her co-founder actively use Facebook, blogs, and Twitter to spread the word about their organization. While Shreya is not working with dynamic local high students through SmartPowerEd, she enjoys writing for her local youth magazine, playing piano, painting and blogging.
Ron Jones
RON JONES
President and CEO, Symetri Internet Marketing
@ron_jones
Ron is an Internet marketing consultant, trainer, columnist and owner of Symetri Internet Marketing, which provides strategic consulting and Internet marketing solutions for medium to large organizations. Ron has been an avid proponent of the Search Engine Marketing industry by hosting and speaking at seminars and conferences. Ron's training courses and workshops are available to anyone interested in learning basic or advanced Search Marketing Best Practices. Ron's 18 years of experience working with traditional advertising agencies around the country make him one of the industry's leading authorities on converging offline and online initiatives into highly effective, performance based, multi-channel marketing campaigns. Ron has served on the Board of Directors for SEMPO and is also one of the authors for the SEMPO Institute Insiders Guide and Advanced courses. Ron is a columnist for ClickZ and Search Engine Watch. Ron is currently writing a book on Keyword Research for Wiley Publishing.
Gui Karyo
GUI KARYO
President, IWON
Gui Karyo serves as President of IWON, one of the fastest growing casual gaming destinations on the Web, and a top 20 online gaming site. The site is operated by Mindspark Interactive Network, an operating business of IAC. In this role—a position he’s held since July 2010—Gui oversees the day to day operations of the business, provides strategic direction on product development, acquisition and expansion. Gui's proven expertise in the gaming space allows IWON to provide unique and compelling new experiences for its core audience while also reaching new users.
Tameka Kee
TAMEKA KEE
Lead Researcher and Analyst, SocialTimes Pro
@geekychic
Tameka Kee is a lead researcher and analyst for SocialTimes 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.
Brad Klaus
BRAD KLAUS
CEO and Founder, Extole
@extoleinc
Brad Klaus is the CEO and Founder of Extole. Klaus has deep experience in online and social marketing, and has founded several technology and online marketing companies. As the founder and CEO of Extole, Brad is building upon his online marketing experience to help brands tap into marketing opportunities in the social channel.
Rob Leathern
ROB LEATHERN
Founder and CEO, XA.net
@robleathern
Rob founded XA.net in early 2008. Recognized as an expert in the field of online advertising and e-commerce, Rob has built scalable technology-based media businesses and advised Fortune 500 companies and startup firms alike on their online revenue-generating strategies. Rob was previously chief operating officer for Consorte Media, an online advertising company focused on the Hispanic market. Before that, Rob was vice president of business development for Root Markets and general manager of advertising at LinkedIn. Before LinkedIn, Rob was at NexTag where he built up NexTag's display advertising lead generation and media business, propelling the firm to a position as a top 5 US online advertiser according to Nielsen//NetRatings. He led the creation of the firm’s advertising server systems, yield management, media buying and creative creation tools, which enabled an unprecedented automation of media buying and management. Rob began his professional career as an investment banking analyst in New York with ING Barings/Furman Selz, and then in 1999 joined Jupiter Communications as an e-commerce research analyst. Rob left Jupiter in 2003 and joined Nielsen//NetRatings as the company's director of commerce analytics, where he delivered custom analysis and led strategic engagements for Nielsen’s financial services, retail and Internet clients. Rob holds an AB degree in computer science and economics from Dartmouth College, and received the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst®) designation in 2003.
Khris Loux
KHRIS LOUX
CEO and Co-founder, Echo
@khris
Khris is CEO & Co-Founder of Echo, the first Real-time as a service offering , giving publishers the power to build highly social real-time applications. He is also co-author of the Synaptic Web & BackPlane. He lives in the San Francisco area with his wife and four children. His playtime includes kiteboarding, snowboarding, and listening to Southeast Asian electronic music.
Eric Ludwig
ERIC LUDWIG
Senior Director of Online Marketing, Rosetta Stone
@thesemninja
Eric Ludwig is the Senior Director of Online Marketing at Rosetta Stone. Before joining Rosetta Stone, Ludwig was President & COO of Peekyou.com, a People Search start-up based in NYC. Prior to that, he led AOL's Search Engine Marketing (SEM) program, where he managed one of the largest PPC budgets in the world. Since 2007, he’s leveraged hundreds of millions of dollars in Search and Social spend to drive growth and engagement at AOL sites like MapQuest, Moviefone, and AOL News. Ludwig also led AOL's Renewal and Payment Marketing team, a $200 million P&L tasked with retaining AOL's most-at-risk customers. Early in his career he worked in research and product management at NASA's NTTC and at VeriSign, and led marketing efforts at start-ups such as CustomInk.com, ThinkGeek.com, and Procapslabs.com.
Clay McDaniel
CLAY MCDANIEL
Managing Director and a Co-founder, Spring Creek Group
@SpringCreekGrp
Clay is the Managing Director and a Co-founder of Spring Creek Group, a social media strategy, marketing, and analytics agency located in Seattle, Washington. Clay is an experienced digital marketer with more than 15 years working in technology and online marketing. His areas of focus include guiding clients through the process of benchmarking and tracking brand engagement online, as well as designing and implementing social media channel strategies for established and emerging consumer brands. Prior to co-founding Spring Creek Group in 2006 with Kellogg classmate and business partner Ben Straley, Clay was the Senior Director of Product Management for RealArcade at RealNetworks, Inc.; the Consumer Product Marketing Manager for Windows XP at Microsoft Corporation; and previously worked at Vitria Technology in San Francisco, and at the Whitney Museum of American Art and Deloitte Consulting in New York City. Clay holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where he graduated Beta Gamma Sigma with majors in Marketing, Operations, and Technology Management. Clay also holds an AB in Economics from Princeton University.
Justin Merickel
JUSTIN MERICKEL
Vice President of Marketing and New Product Development, Efficient Frontier
@jmerickel
Justin Merickel serves as Vice President of Marketing and New Product Development where he is responsible for corporate marketing and the company’s expansion into new business areas. Justin joins the company after almost 5 years at Yahoo!, where he served as Managing Director, Category Development focused on building revenue from performance marketers across both search and display advertising. Justin began his career at Yahoo! in their search marketing division leading sales and marketing efforts in the financial services category. Prior to joining Yahoo!, Justin launched and led the financial services practice for Compete Inc., a web analytics and competitive intelligence company now part of TNS Media. Before Compete, Justin spent seven years in interactive marketing and analytics consulting which included founding an interactive marketing agency that was purchased by Arnold Communications in 1999. He began his career in advertising with McCann Erickson.
Mary O'Brien
Mary O'Brien is the founder of the Internet Marketing Institute and chairman of the PPC Summits. She has trained over 7000 advertisers how to use Search Engine Marketing at advertiser workshops sponsored by Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter and at PPC Summits since 2007. Before that, she was the Sr. Director of Training & Organization Development for Overture Services (Yahoo! Search Marketing). She was also responsible for the sales and account management teams, working with and optimizing campaigns for many leading advertisers such as eBay, Amazon, Expedia etc. She currently trains advertisers online through online seminars like www.SEOandSocialMediaSuccess.com
Keith Privette
KEITH PRIVETTE
Social Business Analyst, KeithPrivette.com
@keithprivette
Keith Privette is a Senior Business Analyst Consultant by day at Analysts International, but by night he is a Social Business Analyst developing a whole new social paradigm on how advertising and marketing is integrates itself in the new social paradigm that involves technologies, data gathering, observing customers, increasing productivity from marketing to buying, and efficiently tracking, connecting to real results. A digital sherpa, a digital sociologist, and technology practitioner helping non-profits and fellow colleagues learn and understand this new world of social business. He has over 12 years of experience making different technology platforms, make marketing, customer service, non-profits, and financial service departments work more efficiently for the customer and employee. The last couple years he has been running the social strategy for Free Arts Minnesota. A nonprofit locally based in Minneapolis/St. Paul. This included establishing social properties, email campaigns, digital operations along with CRM platform integration to increase awareness and donations for the organization. Keith has has vast experience with effectively deploying wide variety of technology platforms from salesforce.com to a behavioral financial quiz website.
Jodee Rich
JODEE RICH
Founder, PeopleBrowsr
@jodeerich
Jodee Rich believes Social Media is creating a global collective consciousness that is rapidly shifting the power base from Big Business, Religion and Government to the Global Consumer. Rich is a digital anthropologist and technology entrepreneur who, in 2007, founded PeopleBrowsr, a service provider of social media data and analytics to Fortune 500 companies. Jodee has consistently identified major industry trends. He started writing code on punch cards in 1972. In 1979 he wrote software for the Apple II 64k microcomputer and founded Imagineering to market and distribute microcomputer software and hardware. In 1987 he took Imagineering public, grew the company to over 1000 employees and in 1990 it was acquired by First Pacific. He founded One.Tel in 1995, a mobile and Long distance network operator. He is also a Pilot, Mad Scientist, Skier, Blader, Kite surfer, Husband (of banker) and Father of three.
Chad Richards
CHAD RICHARDS
Director of Social Marketing, Firebelly Marketing
@chadrichards
Chad Richards is Director of Social Marketing at Firebelly. As Director of Social Marketing, Chad is responsible for the development, execution and management of social marketing programs for Firebelly clients. He spends his time planning, optimizing, and measuring engagement in social spaces with the goal of generating conversation and building community that is sustainable. Chad has a degree in Media Arts and Technology from Indiana University. He co-founded the Film Commune in the early 2000s and ran the Indianapolis Underground Film Festival for 4 years. In his spare time he enjoys connecting with new and old friends on Facebook, blogging and watching the latest homemade masterpieces on Youtube.
Caroline Rodehau
CAROLINE RODEHAU
Publisher, New York Girl Style LLC
@NYGirlStyle
As CEO of New York Girl Style, Caroline has built the brand to reach a global audience by delivering fashion news and entertainment news to both national and international audiences. Through strategic media partnerships, Caroline continues to drive innovation in the arena of digital publishing, social media marketing and online advertising. Recent Twitter and YouTube campaigns have successfully highlighted fashion, style, beauty, entertainment, fitness, tech buzz, and lifestyle. Some of the leading media companies that Caroline has partnered with include VH1 (The FABlife), NBC Universal (iVillage), AOL (StyleList.com), and FTV.com.
Preston Rutherford
PRESTON RUTHERFORD
Director of Partnerships, Cooliris
@PrestonR
Preston Rutherford is the Director of Partnerships at Cooliris, a Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers funded consumer internet startup. Cooliris creates best in class products that further the media discovery, navigation, consumption, and sharing experiences on internet connected devices. Cooliris is re-imagining the way people share media and communicate on mobile devices with their new social communication and content discovery service called LiveShare and also revolutionizing the mobile monetization experience with their truly immersive, 3D mobile ads product. Preston focuses on partnerships across the spectrum from carriers/OEMs to content creators - brands, agencies, media companies of all kinds, sports leagues, touring artists, and celebrities - to bring the power of highly real-time, relevant and engaging LiveShare experiences to more people.
John Sherrod
JOHN SHERROD
Director of SEO, Search Discovery, Inc.
@john_sherrod
John Sherrod began writing Web Applications in 1999 and has specialized in SEO and Web Visibility since 2002. As the former Director of SEO and Emerging Technologies at Primedia, Sherrod has developed SEO strategies for multiple high traffic websites such as Rentals.com, Realestate.com and Apartmentguide.com. Sherrod is currently the Director of SEO for Search Discovery, Inc., a full service Digital Marketing Agency based in Atlanta, GA. His wide range of responsibilities at Search Discovery includes the development of organic growth strategies, effectively integrating Social Media and educating clients about Search Marketing.
Roland Smart
ROLAND SMART
Director of Product Marketing , Involver
@Involver
Roland Smart serves as the Director of Product Marketing and leads product strategy for Involver. In this role he is responsible for innovating in three key product areas including the Audience Management Platform, the Social Markup Language, and the Application Suite. Smart has a broad range of experience with social technology and advertising having led the marketing team at Sprout/AdVine a leading social/mobile ad creation platform. In addition, he led the marketing team at Adaptive Path, where he pursued his passion for bringing great user experience to enterprise level technology platforms. Previous to that he was on the start up team of Adina For Life, a successful San Francisco based beverage company. He also writes a blog at www.rolandsmart.com about social marketing practices for small and medium sized brands.
Brian Solis
BRIAN SOLIS
Author, Engage
Pricipal, Altimeter Group
@briansolis
Brian Solis is the author of Engage, the complete guide to build, cultivate, and measure success in the social web. 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 influenced the effects of emerging media on the convergence of marketing, communications, and publishing. He is principal of Altimeter Group, leaving a position as principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning New Media agency in Silicon Valley, and has led interactive and social programs for Fortune 500 companies, notable celebrities, and Web 2.0 startups. BrianSolis.com is among the world's leading business and marketing online resources.
Chloe Spencer
CHLOE SPENCER
Founder and Owner, NeopetsFanatic.com
@chloespencer
Chloe Spencer is a 19-year-old blogger who started her first blog, NeopetsFanatic.com, at 14 years old, a fan site on the hugely popular Nickelodeon-owned site Neopets. Some pages of her blog sport more than 5,000 comments. Chloe monetizes her page 1 Google rankings and thousands of daily pageviews into cold hard cash with Google AdSense. She’s a busy girl and being not so much a Neopets fanatic anymore, she hires bloggers to contribute to her site, as well as page editors, graphic designers, etc. She has made 5 figures passive income from NeopetsFanatic.com — money while she sleeps! Right now Chloe is working on several new projects, including a training program on how to make money online, a Facebook application she designed, and IHeartCute.com, a fashion blog to-be. She also has a personal blog, ChloeSpencer.com.
Dilip Venkatachari
DILIP VENKATACHARI
CEO and Co-founder, Compass Labs
@compasslabs
Dilip Venkatachari is the CEO and co-founder of Compass Labs. Previously, Dilip led Google's mobile monetization business and had responsibility for all of PayPal's risk and fraud management, card and bank processing relationships, and regulatory compliance. Dilip is a successful serial entrepreneur who has co-founded and led two successful start-up companies – CashEdge and CommerceSoft – after stints at McKinsey and Goldman Sachs. Dilip has an MBA from the Harvard Business School, M.S. in electrical engineering from Rice University, and a B.Tech in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.
Gary Ware
GARY WARE
Director of Media Operations, Covario
@garyware
As the Director of Media Operations for Covario, Gary is responsible for overseeing the Media Operations team in the development of SEM strategy and paid media execution to meet client's marketing objectives. Prior to joining Covario, Gary served as Web Marketing Manager for Overland Storage, where he was responsible for developing and implementing strategic marketing plans, internal paid search programs, executing SEO plans, and overseeing web site development. Under his leadership, Overland Storage realized an increase in their search marketing conversion rate from 0.45% to 8% within a twelve month period. Gary is a graduate of the Art Institute of Los Angeles, where he received a Bachelor of Science in Interactive Media Design.
Brian Wong
BRIAN WONG
Founder, kiip
@brian_wong
Brian is the founder of kiip (pronounced "keep"), a stealth startup focused on mobile in-game advertising, backed by True Ventures. Very recently, Techcrunch and the Wall Street Journal called him the "youngest person to ever receive funding by a venture capital firm". Last year, at only 18-years-old, he was an early Bachelors of Commerce graduate from the University of British Columbia, after skipping four grades in elementary and high school. Before starting kiip, Brian was responsible for key publisher and tech partnerships at the social news website Digg.com. He also launched the Digg Android mobile app, adding to the company's rising mobile presence. He began his career after University by creating the world's first categorized Twitter discovery tool: Followformation.com. Followformation was touted as one of the best Twitter user discovery tools in Mashable, The Huffington Post, Fast Company, and more.
Dennis Yu
DENNIS YU
Managing Principal of Facebook Marketing, Webtrends
@dennisyu
Dennis Yu is Managing Principal of Facebook Marketing at Webtrends, helping brands grow and measure their Facebook presence. He is an internationally recognized lecturer in Facebook marketing, having been featured on National Public Radio, TechCrunch, Fox News, AllFacebook, CBS Evening News, and KTLA-TV. He has spoken at Search Marketing Expo, Search Engine Strategies, Web 2.0, The American Marketing Association, PubCon, Conversational Commerce Conference, Pacific Conferences, HostingCon, Affiliate Summit, Affiliate Convention, UltraLight Startups, and other venues. Yu has also counselled the Federal Trade Commission on privacy issues for social networks. Dennis has held leadership positions at Yahoo! and American Airlines. His educational background is Finance and Economics from Southern Methodist University and London School of Economics.

Hosts


Stewart Quealy STEWART QUEALY
Director of Content, Events/Conferences, mediabistro.com
@stewq

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.

Todd Tweedy
TODD TWEEDY
Managing Director, Audience Machine
@audiencemachine
Todd has more than 16 years business experience in dialog marketing, community practices, and public affairs. Recognized by Forrester Research as a leading Instant Messaging industry expert, Todd has been widely praised for his groundbreaking work in real time communications. His study on the challenges businesses face in implementing customer-facing communication strategies was downloaded over 150,000 times. His main focus is on identifying circumstance-based insights that are linked to motivation and interest combined with the social readiness of a firm and their digital technology platform to create relevant communication campaigns and opportunities for business growth. His industry knowledge covers strategic marketing, data-driven communication strategies and participation models, organic search marketing and SEM as well as being a husband and parent to three tech-savvy kids.

To submit a speaker for consideration, please email the following materials to stewart@mediabistro.com:

  • Biography and headshot of proposed speaker
  • The event you are submitting the speaker for, and reason why he/she is a good fit
  • Links to any appearances, previous speaking gigs, video, podcasts, or press
  • Appropriate contact information

Speakers should be submitted 90+ days prior to the event.

Please note that, due to the overwhelming number of submissions we receive, only individuals who are selected to speak will receive a reply. Although we truly appreciate all your ideas and proposals, it is simply not feasible for us to respond personally to every submission.