Speakers
WOMMA events always feature the best and brightest minds in the business. These are the true experts who have mastered word of mouth and all are eager to share their wisdom and expertise with you.
- Brant Barton, Co-Founder/VP of Business Development, Bazaarvoice
- Idil Cakim, Director of Knowledge & Development, Burson-Marsteller
- Harald Eltvedt, Solution Consultant, Informative
- Brad Fay, COO, The Keller Fay Group
- Sean Glass, Founder/CMO, Higher One
- John Goodman, Vice Chairman, TARP
- Steve Hershberger, Principal, ComBlu
- Howard Kaushansky, Founder, President & CEO, Umbria
- Karen Kraft, Senior Account Executive, Decision Analyst
- Matt McGlinn, Director, Campaign Analytics, BzzAgent
- Ted Morris, Senior Vice President - Global Alliances, Brandimensions
- William Mosher, Founder/Director, Echopinion!
- Jim Nail, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, Cymfony
- Joe Pilotta, Vice President, BIGresearch
- Felicia Rogers, EVP, Client Service, Decision Analyst
Brant Barton, Co-Founder/VP of Business Development, Bazaarvoice
Bio to come
Idil Cakim, Director of Knowledge & Development, Burson-Marsteller
In her position as Director in the Knowledge Management Group, Idil Cakim specializes in interactive marketing and custom research. She manages Burson-Marsteller’s Internet related proprietary studies, including the e-fluentials.
Ms. Cakim is the author of numerous industry briefs and articles on online entertainment, transitioning offline companies online, targeting valuable customers on the Net and e-commerce. During her tenure at Cyber Dialogue, Ms. Cakim has also been a public speaker on issues regarding ethnic minorities’ use of the Internet, e-CRM and digital music. She has been widely quoted in trade journals and newspapers such as the Industry Standard, Inter@ctive, CNet news, CBS Market Watch, Min’s New Media Report, San Jose Mercury News, Chicago Sun Times, NY Post, and The New York Times.
Ms. Cakim holds an M.A. in Communication from the Annenberg School at University of Pennsylvania where she concentrated on cross-cultural communication and media intervention campaigns, and a B.A. in Sociology from Bryn Mawr College. She is a member of National Association of Minorities in Communication.
Harald Eltvedt, Solution Consultant, Informative
Bio to come
Brad Fay, COO, The Keller Fay Group
Brad Fay is the Chief Operating Officer of the Keller Fay Group, a company he founded with partner Ed Keller in January 2006. The Keller Fay Group brings best-in-class research techniques and strategy consulting to the fast growing field of world of word of mouth marketing. The firm’s signature product, TalkTrack™, provides continuous monitoring of the brands and companies being talked about in everyday consumer conversations. Clients of TalkTrack™ use the service to develop marketing strategy and to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing and advertising campaigns.
Brad previously served as managing director at RoperASW and NOP World, where he supervised a variety of business units, including Roper Public Affairs, Starch Communications, Financial Services, Technology, Media and Omnibus Services. During his tenure at Roper and NOP World, Brad launched numerous market and opinion research products and methods, including the Fortune/Roper Reputation Index™; Green Gauge™; Cone/Roper Cause Branding Report™; Newsflow™ and PharmaNewsflow™. He also led the effort to introduce new "return on investment" tools into the Starch Ad Readership methodology.
In 2005, Brad led the R&D effort for development of "Category Influentialism" for NOP World, co-led the company's word of mouth marketing initiative and served as member of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association's Research & Metrics Council.
Quoted on NBC Nightly News and in publications including The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Fortune, Advertising Age, PR Week and PR News, Brad was formerly editor of Roper's Public Pulse newsletter and a columnist in AMA's Market Research magazine. His articles have appeared in publications including Public Perspectives and Pharmaceutical Executive, and in papers at industry conferences for the Advertising Research Foundation, Word of Mouth Marketing Association and American Association of Public Opinion Research. Brad is a member of the Communications Council of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, and he lectures about survey research at the Rutgerís University Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.
Sean Glass, Founder/CMO, Higher One
Bio to come
John Goodman, Vice Chairman, TARP
In 1972, Mr. Goodman became a founding member of TARP, a research and consulting organization that specializes in customer service and quality improvement.
Throughout his career John has managed more than 800 separate customer service studies, including TARP’s White House sponsored evaluation of complaint handling practices in government and business; studies starting in 1978 quantifying word-of-mouth, and the bottom-line impact of consumer education. He has also supervised more than a dozen benchmark studies of best practices for customer service, escalated complaint handling, Voice of the Customer processes, Web service and customer education. He has taught courses on quality measurement and improvement for Wharton Business School Executive Education and the American Society for Quality.
Mr. Goodman graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a B.S. in chemical engineering. He received an M.B.A. from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.
Steve Hershberger, Principal, ComBlu
Steve Hershberger is a founding partner of ComBlu a specialty agency focused on delivering, managing and measuring community marketing programs. ComBlu’s primary focus is on advocacy based programs.
Hershberger’s experience with loyalty and advocacy programs extends back to the mid-1990’s when he headed a software firm that worked with Apple Computer on several products that actively leveraged brand loyalty, customer advocacy and word of mouth. Through this work, he formed a consulting division focused on using the web to deliver tools to better empower consumers, deepen their relationship with the brand and give the brand a new venue to collect preference and use data.
In 2000, Hershberger sold his business to a national consulting firm, after which he left to join fellow tech entrepreneur Jeff Alholm in successfully acquiring a medical device product line from Medtronic and worked to raise the capital necessary to re-launch the business. Today, Symbios Medical is a leader in pain management solutions.
In 2003, Hershberger launched ComBlu as a reincarnation of the work he had done in the mid to late 1990’s. ComBlu is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
Hershberger is a trustee for Indiana University’s Graduate School of Business Entrepreneurship Scholarship and is also an active committee and board member for several tech and healthcare early stage companies, as well as, not for profit groups including WOMMA.
Howard Kaushansky, Founder, President & CEO, Umbria
A serial entrepreneur and data mining authority with 20 years of experience starting and operating emerging growth companies, Howard Kaushansky speaks and writes frequently in the areas of data mining, word-of-mouth measurement, predictive analytics and customer relationship management. Howard is Founder, President & CEO of market intelligence company Umbria, Inc. which analyzes the unaided opinions, perceptions, attitudes and behaviors of the online world (comprised of blogs, message boards, Usenet, product review sites, etc.) and distills them into actionable market insights. Prior to founding Umbria, Howard played key leadership roles in several emerging technology companies, including co-founding and serving as CEO for Athene Software, which developed enterprise predictive analytics software, and was ultimately sold to CSG Systems (NASDAQ: CSGS) in 2001. An attorney by trade, Howard has represented numerous public and private companies and holds several patents. He received his B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles and received his J.D. (Order of the Coif) from the University of Southern California.
Karen Kraft, Senior Account Executive, Decision Analyst
Bio to come
Matt McGlinn, Director, Campaign Analytics, BzzAgent
Bio to come
Ted Morris, Senior Vice President - Global Alliances, Brandimensions
Ted is primarily responsible for building Brandimensions global alliances and business partners. Ted has authored a number of Brandimensions WoM white papers for the BrandIntel business unit including case studies on global brands for the automotive industry, packaged goods, pharmaceuticals, consumer electronics and capital markets.
Ted is a specialist in marketing, CRM and strategy. With 15 years of experience in marketing research mostly with tier one US firms, Ted has had roles in business development, product development and marketing within the US, Canada and Europe. His business consulting focus while with IBM Global Services included being a member of a global teach team for CRM strategy and vision. He also co-led advanced executive development sessions at IBM's Advanced Business Institute in New York.
Ted has been a presenter at a number of industry events in Chicago and New York, including WOMMA "Measuring Word-of-Mouth" conference, ESOMAR "Brandmatters," and Robert Francis Group's Enterprise Risk Summit. He has been quoted in various publications including Forbes, CNN Money and the Financial Post.
William Mosher, Founder/Director, Echopinion!
William Mosher is Founder and Director of Echopinion, a New York word of mouth marketing and research firm specializing in the use of consumers to launch new products and services. Mr. Mosher has 20 years of marketing experience and started his career in advertising creating print/ad materials for companies such as The American Dairy Association, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Crouse-Hinds, Carrier Corporation, Eureka Tents, Pass and Seymour, Welch Allyn and others.
In 1996 his interest quickly turned to the Internet and Bill left a secure career in advertising to hold a position as Senior Strategist for Internet development firm Rway Communications where he has successfully combined the use of the Internet with sound marketing strategies.
Today, Bill and Echopinion hold the distinction of being the first paying member of WOMMA and he played a role in creating the organization’s first ethics document that established a stance against deceptive and stealth marketing. He has given several interviews and keynotes on the topic of word of mouth marketing across the country. He has won many awards, most notably the Distinguished Sales and Marketing Award (DSMA) from the Sales and Marketing Executives (SME). The recipients are cited for excellence in the Sales and Marketing Profession.
Jim Nail, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, Cymfony
Jim Nail is the Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer of Cymfony Inc., an award winning market intelligence and media analysis company. Jim has an extensive background in integrated marketing through his 22-year career that spans online marketing, market research, brand advertising and direct marketing.
Prior to joining Cymfony, Jim was an analyst at Forrester for eight years, leading their coverage of how marketing strategies and tactics must adapt to technology-driven changes in consumer media consumption habits. His research addressed best practices in integrated marketing with a focus on how online media can augment the impact of television, print and other traditional marketing tools.
Prior to Forrester, Jim helped launch Web advertising network AdSmart, where he served as director of marketing. He spent 15 years planning and managing integrated marketing campaigns at leading advertising agencies including Ogilvy & Mather Direct, Draft Worldwide, Bates USA and Hill Holliday. Jim is a frequent participant in marketing conferences and executive forums including the Forrester Consumer and Executive Strategy Forums, AD:Tech, ANA Marketing Accountability Conference, and New Media Council and has been published and quoted extensively in top-tier media.
Joe Pilotta, Vice President, BIGresearch
Joe Pilotta is both the Vice President of BIGresearch and a Professor at Ohio State University, School of Communications. Joe has expertise in contemporary research methodologies, consumer behavior, consumer taste and preference, and globalization of political economy. Joe has conducted over 60 online studies in consumer behavior over the last 3 years. With BIGresearch, Joe launched the first Simultaneous Media Study and a database of over 65,000 observation has been developed.
Joe is currently launching the Simultaneous Media Planning, and a Return on Customer Investment System, and has launched BIGresearch in China. He holds two PhDs from Ohio University (Communication Research)and from University of Toronto (Sociology), Canada. Senior Fellow, Midwestern Universities Consortium for International Activities (BigTen) and Co-Founder of the Center for Globalization, Guatemala. Joe also serves on the ARF, Long-Term Advertising Effectiveness Committee, and the Standard and Measures Committee of WOMMA.
Felicia Rogers, EVP, Client Service, Decision Analyst
Bio to come