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Fantastic Speakers!Featured Keynote
Amazing Authors
Experienced Experts
BiosDave Balter, Founder and President, BzzAgent
Linda Bennett joined Yahoo! in 1999 and is responsible for leading the company’s buzz marketing and promotions initiatives. Bennett and her team spend their days thinking about how to stop consumers in their tracks when they run across Yahoo! marketing programs. Additionally, her team develops co-branded buzz programs for Yahoo! adverting partners.
Before surprising and delighting consumers at Yahoo!, Bennett spent five years working on clients including Intuit, Absolut Vodka, Duracell, L’OREAL, Lexus, Coach, and Tropicana at Manning, Selvage and Lee, and Ogilvy PR.
On any given day, you can find Bennett scoping out corn fields, taxi yards, train depots, checking local FDA food service guidelines, bonding laws and a number of very odd things that don’t require a college education.
Bennett holds an M.S. in Communications from Syracuse University Newhouse School of Public Communications and a B.A. in English from The Colorado College. Recent honors for her team’s work include the 2004 Ad:Tech Award for Best Branding Campaign, 2004 PRO Promotion of the Year Award, 2003 PR Platinum Award and 2004 & 2002 PMA REGGIE Bronze winner.
John is a graduate of The Ohio State University, where he earned both his B.S. and M.B.A. And, he currently serves on the Alumni Advisory Board of its Fisher School of Business.
Buczaczer’s work helped create and define the broadband media market structure, setting industry precedents for measurement, pricing and content integration opportunities. Beyond his digital duties, Buczaczer is also leading SMG activities in the emerging contact of word of mouth. He has developed an internal expertise group which helps clients build marketing programs designed to spread communications virally. Buczaczer joined Starcom IP in 2000. He began operating out of San Francisco, providing media communications solutions for Excite@Home, E! Networks, and Peoplesoft. He relocated to Chicago’s IP operations in 2002 and ahs since worked on a wide spectrum of clients, including Kellogg’s, Disney Studios, Coca-Cola and Showtime.
Buczaczer spends his free time updating his iPod and traveling to locations with little or no electricity.
Eileen leads Millward Brown's global development initiatives which include evolving the company's established solutions, development of new solutions and management of key global accounts. She also oversees the company's Global Business Insight Group charged with ensuring that Millward Brown is tapping into innovations and responding to client needs from around the world.
Eileen's extensive experience in brand identity, brand equity, advertising, new product development, Internet and youth marketing positions her as a thought leader in the marketing research industry.
Prior to joining Millward Brown in 1999, Eileen was the executive vice president of Angus Reid Group (now part of IPSOS). She has also held senior positions at NFO Research (now a TNS company) and Maritz Market Research.
Throughout her career, Eileen has worked extensively both in qualitative and quantitative research. She has provided marketing consultation to a wide variety of Fortune 100 companies in the consumer packaged goods, financial services, automotive, technology, entertainment, and advertising industries. Leading clients, with whom Eileen has worked, include General Mills, IMAX Corporation, 3M, Pillsbury, and Capital One.
Eileen serves on Millward Brown's Global Board. She also serves on the CASRO Board of Directors and is a member of AMA, MRIA, and ESOMAR.
Eileen holds a bachelor's degree in economics and business administration from Heidelberg College, Tiffin, Ohio.
Jonathan Carson is a recognized authority on important online trends with a history of internet business accomplishments. As President and Chief Executive Officer of BuzzMetrics he manages the company’s operations and client relationships. Prior to BuzzMetrics, Jonathan founded and served as President of Intercities, Inc., an interactive development and consulting firm that worked with clients including Intel, Disney, National Institutes of Health, Cendant and the state of Arizona. Previously, Jonathan worked as a lead researcher for the Georgetown University Center for Business-Government Relations. Jonathan is a co-founder and director of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, and has served on the boards of Adamsmith.net (an Internet spinoff of Adam Smith Global Television) and Sharpflat, Inc. He co-authored a chapter about the effect of the Internet on corporate governance for a Euromoney/Institutional Investor textbook with Jim Felton, the Central Michigan University professor whose Journal of Finance paper proved that the Enron scandal was first leaked on the Yahoo stock message boards.
Since 2003, Jon has spearheaded several marketing initiatives for the rapidly-growing super-premium ice cream concept. He was instrumental in their systemwide store redesign, numerous large-scale design ventures and now the company’s word-of-mouth marketing initiatives. Prior to joining Cold Stone Creamery, Jon handled marketing, design and communications efforts for the City of Mesa, Ariz. (pop. 400,000), and IPS-Sendero Corporation, a leading provider of asset and liability management software. Jon is a summa cum laude graduate of the prestigious Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University and a former submarine NCO in the U.S. Navy.
Ben McConnell is a writer and speaker who examines the effects of word of mouth on customer loyalty. He is the co-author of the book "Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force" (Dearborn 2002), which the New York Times called "the new mantra for entrepreneurial success" and Harvard Business School called "compelling." Creating Customer Evangelists has been translated into five languages. As a business advisor, McConnell has worked with Starbucks, Microsoft, Ulta, General Mills, Discovery Education, Eli Lilly, PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and others. He also sits on the board of advisors to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. He is a contributing writer to MarketingProfs.com, the online journal of marketing practices and know-how. Forbes has called McConnell's blog and podcast, Church of the Customer, the "word of mouth gospel."
“Play with, not Sell to” is the philosophy behind the Lifestyle Marketing initiatives led by Gaylene Nagel at Electronic Arts. “Connecting with our customer is critical” says Nagel who has been with EA since 1998. “We know that kids don’t find out about cool stuff from TV. Influencers and WOM are the main sources of credibility for teen males.” Electronic Arts is a leader in this area of marketing, starting with hosting video game tournaments on college campuses over 6 years ago. EA has continued to support the evolution of the program to where it is now institutionalized. “When we set up events to engage passionate consumers, we create a personality for our brand and a relationship with the consumer. This is the start of a powerful WOM, loyalty campaign that you can’t buy.”
Gaylene gained her extensive experience in Lifestyle marketing through living it. Active in windsurfing and snowboarding, she turned her passions into careers. From 1991 to 1996, Gaylene was Director of Marketing at Sims Snowboards, where she was instrumental in developing the worldwide personality and identity for the Sims brand. She managed all marketing and promotional activities for the company and worked closely with the product development teams to determine new market trends and opportunities, particularly in the women’s market. She was also a member of the SIA Task Force which was instrumental in negotiating guidelines as to how snowboarding would be represented and marketed by the Olympic governing body.
After leaving Sims and a brief stint in the music industry, Nagel became involved with snowboarding in the ‘digi world’ with Electronic Arts, the leading publisher in the video game industry. She worked on the development of EA’s first PlayStation 2 snowboarding game, SSX. Her experience in the action sports and music industries has provided a wealth of parallels to the gaming business as it to breaks from a core culture consumer base into mainstream entertainment. “I know this kind of marketing works.” says Nagel. “Entire industries like surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding and many successful bands were built on key influencers, smart product placement and WOM. No one had TV budgets, yet snowboarding experienced 100% growth for 3 consecutive years in the mid 90’s.”
Gaylene is currently developing a Global template for Lifestyle Marketing at Electronic Arts as EA rolls out similar programs in the UK, China, Asia and Japan regions.
Mike is CEO of Intelliseek, a marketing intelligence firm that helps marketers promote and protect brands through real-time monitoring and analysis of Consumer-Generated Media (CGM). Prior to Intelliseek, he was a founding member of PlanetFeedback, which grew from Internet startup company to a leading consumer feedback management company in two short years. Before cofounding PlanetFeedback, Mike spent several years in executive positions at the Procter & Gamble Company, where he was responsible for running several of P&G's largest brands including Charmin, Bounty, and Pampers.
Based in New York, Andy oversees Marsteller's U.S. operations in New York, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh and Chicago and coordinates with Marsteller operations in London and Milan.
Marsteller's major clients include McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Merrill-Lynch, the U.S. Treasury, Old Navy, Transitions, Quintiles, AstraZeneca and the World War II Memorial.
Previously, he led Vivendi Universal's music portal activities on a global basis. He was also President and CEO of Rollingstone.com and President and CEO of Getmusic, a joint venture between Universal Music Group and BMG -- at the time, the country's two largest music labels. Before his position at Vivendi, Andy co-founded Reuters NewMedia Inc. Under his leadership, Reuters became the No. 1 provider of news on the Internet. During this time, NewMedia was responsible for a number of lucrative investments for Reuters, in companies like Yahoo, Infoseek, Verisign, Digimarc and Sportsline.
Terry Pittman is Executive Director of America Online, Inc.’s Digital Services Market Research Group, which creates and markets AOL’s new initiatives including Security & Computing Tools, Education and Entertainment Services, Multimedia Services, VoIP, Wireless Services, and Voice Services. In this role, Pittman is responsible for consumer insights and learning to guide decision-making.
Before joining AOL, Pittman was the Founder and President of Postmodern Media, a boutique consulting business, which has worked with major corporations. Prior to that, he was co-founder and Group President of BrightStreet.com (now E-Centives), and was responsible for all sales and business development activities. Prior to joining BrightStreet.com in 1999, Pittman was General Manager of Online Advertising and eCommerce at Netcom where he had P&L responsibility for the Web site, including content and audience development responsibilities. Pittman’s research experience includes extensive work with consumer markets, media audiences, and segmentation. He was President of the Media and Telecom Group at Claritas/VNU with responsibility for segmentation and new product strategy supporting leading television networks, including: ABC, NBC, and Discovery Channel, as well as major telecom providers and cable operators.
Pittman is a graduate of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, with additional studies in Music and Philosophy.
Paul has 20 years of strategic communications experience, with expertise in corporate, industry analyst, financial, crisis, employee, business-to-business, media and marketing communications. As the founder and CEO of Corporate Technology Communications (CTC), Paul led CTC into becoming the Midwest’s largest independent corporate and technology communications firm and among the most respected in the nation. Ketchum acquired CTC in June 2001.
For ten years, Paul served as an adjunct faculty member at DePaul University’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business and has been featured and/or quoted on business and communications issues in media including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Business Week, National Public Radio, The Chicago Tribune, PRWeek, AdWeek, Advertising Age and numerous other outlets.
Early in his career, David gained valuable experience in marketing and media. As head of publicity at the Miss Universe Organization (a partnership of CBS Television and Donald Trump), David integrated online and traditional media in innovative ways, including mobilizing social networks, both off, and on-line. His efforts resulted in a dramatic increase in the popularity (and profitability) of the Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA pageants and led to the highest ratings in the history of The Miss Universe Organization.
Prior to Miss Universe, David also spent several years in the development side of the movie industry, working with such notables as Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Kathleen Kennedy, Mel Gibson, Tom Hanks, and Jim Carrey.
David graduated Magna Cum Laude from UCLA with a degree in Political Science and winning UCLA’s prestigious CAPPP Fellowship, entered the political realm as an Assistant Director of Television Services for the White House. David incorporated the internet into his PR responsibilities while maintaining close ties with traditional media. He produced and publicized television interviews, and wrote briefings and press releases, for key government figures, including President Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Vice President Gore.
David went on to complete USC Business School’s Entrepreneurial FasTrac program. David Reis balances his corporate experience with a 2nd Degree Black Belt in Hapkido and world travels.
Steve Sarner brings over 15 years of sales and marketing experience to Tickle with an emphasis in online e-commerce and media sales since 1998. Steve has been instrumental in developing many of Tickle's major brand advertising and marketing relationships. His career began in the travel industry including 4 years at Reno Air where he was Vice President Marketing and Sales prior to the airline's acquisition by American Airlines. Steve then served as Vice President of Business Development for Travelscape.com which was subsequently acquired by Expedia. Steve also served in Sales and Marketing for the successful health assessment site - RealAge prior to joining Tickle Inc (then known as Emode) in November 2000. Steve is a Graduate of California State University at Long Beach.
Andy Sernovitz, a ten-year veteran of the interactive marketing business, is the co-founder and CEO of WOMMA, the official trade association for the word of mouth marketing industry. Previously, he was the founder and CEO of GasPedal, a strategy consulting firm which helped traditional companies use the Internet to increase profitability. He was also a Visiting Scholar at the Wharton School of Business, where he taught Internet Entrepreneurship, and is Founder and President Emeritus of the Association of Interactive Marketing (AIM), the world's largest association of Internet companies.
Andy specializes in building relationships with high-power industry players. In 1993, he began pulling the Internet industry together under AIM, which grew to represent more Internet companies than any other organization. At AIM, Andy led early Internet policy efforts on privacy, spam, and taxation. In 1999, he sold AIM to the Direct Marketing Association, where he led their efforts to help traditional marketers effectively use new technologies.
Andy holds degrees in Marketing from the Wharton School of Business and in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania.
Marc Sirkin is currently the VP eMarketing for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and is responsible for extending society’s mission to fight blood cancers through online mission programs and event fundraising. He is responsible for creating and executing both an international online marketing strategy and in creating tools that local chapters can utilize to reach their constituents locally. Before joining LLS, Marc was with The March of Dimes and spent his time creating and launching an online community for mothers of premature babies and developing content syndication strategies.
For almost 10 years, prior to working for non-profits, Marc worked as a consultant, information architect and graphic designer, product manager and in business development at various Internet start-ups including iXL, Kinzan and Appgensys.
Marc is a graduate of both Florida State University and the Art Institute of Atlanta.
Gary Stein is the Senior Analyst for online advertising and marketing for Jupiter Research; he also focuses on the Consumer Packaged Goods industry. Topics that Stein covers include advertising formats, rich-media, media purchasing tactics, marketing strategies, and consumer behavior online.
With more than 15 years of experience, Laurie Weisberg has managed world-class technology and service engagements for market leading companies. Most recently as SVP of Informative, Laurie has managed Voice-of-the Customer engagements for many Fortune 50 and privately held global organizations including Bose, Citibank, GlaxoSmithKline, LEGO, Masterfoods, Mercedes, LEGO, Pfizer, and Procter & Gamble.
Laurie is a proven thought leader in developing brand advocacy programs for her clients that leverage the most innovative technologies including Informative's patented Adaptive Conversation Technology. Lending this expertise to companies worldwide, her clients have been able to successfully launch new products, gain entry into new markets, introduce new insight collection tools throughout their organization and build and strengthen relationships with brand loyalists who act as ongoing advisors to the organization. Under her stewardship Informative has developed new behavioral and attitudinal profiling solutions that enable organizations to profitably build customer loyalty and brand advocacy - increasing positive word-of-mouth and delivering measurable business results.
Prior to Informative Laurie has held senior positions at various cutting-edge technology and consulting firms such as Tivoli, CrossWorlds and Recipio.
As Vice President of Interactive Strategy, Troy Young helps generate the vision that enables Organic to help clients and their customers create more meaningful, productive experiential dialogues.
Troy originally joined Organic in the fall of 1999 to launch its Canadian presence in Toronto. In his role as Vice President and Managing Director of the Toronto office, Troy oversaw Organic's day-to-day operations in Canada and provided strategic consulting for many clients, including Bell Canada, CIBC, and Bank of Montreal.
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