Keynote Speakers:
Carol Kruse Vice President, Global Interactive Marketing for The Coca-Cola Company.
As Vice President of Global Interactive Marketing for The Coca-Cola Company, Ms. Kruse is responsible for developing interactive marketing programs and experiences for key global brands around the world. Under her leadership, the Global Interactive Marketing team is responsible for driving the evolution and implementation of the Coca-Cola global digital marketing technology platform, driving innovation and consumer relationship marketing, building knowledge and capabilities, sharing best practices throughout the Company and creating the performance mindset and metrics to measure the impact of the Company’s interactive marketing investments.
Ms. Kruse is also responsible for driving the Company’s strategies for emerging digital communications such as mobile and virtual environments.Ms. Kruse has more than 17 years of consumer marketing and technology experience including jobs in brand management at The Clorox Company, Vice President of Marketing at Storm Technology, a digital imaging company, and Executive Vice President and co-founder of RocketCash LLC, an online payments and consumer promotions company that Coca-Cola acquired in 2001.
At that time, Ms. Kruse joined Coca-Cola North America responsible for online advertising, brand websites, consumer relationship marketing, mobile and gaming strategy and implementation and innovation. As VP Interactive Marketing, Ms. Kruse recently has led the team responsible for developing the “My Coke Rewards” program which debuted in 2006. My Coke Rewards, the largest program ever launched for the Coca-Cola Trademark, is a multiyear, online driven, mega-rewards program that allows consumers to choose from a pool of experiences and rewards. Ms Kruse holds a BS from Pomona College and an MBA from the University of Southern California.
Dan Siroker recently founded CarrotSticks, a startup focused on using technology to help kids learn.During the presidential transition, Dan was the Deputy New Media Director where he was responsible for strategic planning of the administration’s use of the internet and technology. He led several online initiatives on change.gov including a way for the American people to publicly comment on proposed policy, ask a question, or submit an idea— all of which could be voted on by others and went directly to President Obama and his cabinet.
Prior to working on the presidential transition, Dan was the Director of Analytics for the Obama presidential campaign and served as a senior member of the larger New Media team. He led a team of software engineers and analysts responsible for optimizing the effectiveness of the campaign’s online operations that ended up raising over half a billion dollars, registering over 2 million new voters online, and helping persuade millions more to make phone calls and go vote on election day.
Before joining the campaign, Dan was a Product Manager for Google Chrome, the open-source web browser from Google. He worked previously as a Product Manager for Google AdWords. Dan graduated with Honors from Stanford University with a B.S. in Computer Science.
Breakout Session Leaders:
Bert DuMars is Vice President E-Business and Interactive Marketing for Newell Rubbermaid (NYSE: NWL) a global marketer of consumer and commercial products that touch the lives of people where they work, live and play. Mr. DuMars joined Newell Rubbermaid in 2007 and is responsible for directing and coordinating eMarketing, eCommerce and Social Media Marketing initiatives for Newell Rubbermaid’s externally-facing online efforts. Overseeing the eBusiness shared services that include a global, enterprise web platform, and standard processes, technologies and metrics across the company’s brand sites. He also coordinates and integrates eBusiness efforts between business units, Corporate IT and strategic outsource partners.
Jeff Haynie founded Appcelerator to enable web developers to create mobile applications using the HTML and Java skills they have today. A long-time serial entrepreneur, technologist and blogger, Jeff previously co-founded Vocalocity and was CTO of eHatchery, a digital incubator and off-shoot of Bill Gross’ idealab!. Jeff has worked on numerous standard committees such as IETF and W3C as well as core contributor to a number of important open source technologies such as JBoss and OpenVXI. Jeff served with distinction in the U.S. Navy. Jeff blogs at http://blog.jeffhaynie.us and can be found on twitter @jhaynie.
Sherry Heyl is the founder and CEO of Concept Hub, Inc. Since 2005, she has been very active in growing the social media landscape in Atlanta. She was the co-founder of SoCon07, the first Social Media un-conference in Metro Atlanta and Co-Chair for SoCon08 and SoCon09. Sherry is the Chair of the Technology Association of GA Enterprise 2.0 society, and serves as the Social Media Director of Digitainment, a conference and related events celebrating Georgias digital entertainment industry. Over the years, Sherry has presented to over 50 different trade organizations and has designed dozens of customized social media training courses. As the premier social media agency in metro Atlanta, Concept Hub, Inc has implemented social media strategies for B2B, B2C, Nonprofit, Entertainment, Media, Government, and Higher Education organizations.
Pamela Adams, Regional Development Director for Constant Contact, is the local marketing expert for the Georgia area and leads email marketing seminars, interactive training workshops, and industry-specific programs. Pam is a technology expert with more than 18 years of experience helping small businesses, entrepreneurs, and non profits achieve success. Pam uses her technology know-how and training skills to help small businesses, associations and non-profits in Georgia to maximize the power of relationship marketing. She has designed programs and trained numerous clients on how to enhance and improve their businesses through innovative and affordable Internet marketing strategies. Her mission is to help businesses realize significant profit growth by empowering them with the knowledge needed to increase their productivity through the effective use of technology.
Amani Channel, an award-winning video producer and a specialist in traditional and new media, is the Founder and Sr. Producer of Visual Eye Media, a video relations company, and he is the content manager at Public Broadcasting Atlanta for Lens on Atlanta, the first regionally-focused online community in the country to be sponsored by public broadcasting. Prior to joining PBA, Amani worked as a journalist. His content, commentaries, and reports have been featured on on NPR, APTN (Associated Press Television News), CNN, Headline News, Fox News Channel, BET, Black Family Channel, HDNews, and across the Web. Amani also founded a vlog/podcast called www.MyUrbanReport.com , where he’s produced more than 170 podcasts. He shoots, edits, and is the talent for the citizen journalism-styled videos. Amani speaks at conferences, workshops, and universities across the country about traditional and new media. He’s taught video production at Kennesaw State University, Hillsborough Community College and the Connecticut School of Broadcasting in Tampa, Fl.
Grayson Daughters is the founder of WaySouth Media, Inc. – an Atlanta-based company that, despite Daughters’ traditional mainstream media background, produces and promotes mostly online media nowadays. “Be the media you want to be.”
Toby Bloomberg is passionate about helping people (not companies) create initiatives that leverage the power of social media communications to build and nurture “digital corner grocery store relationships.” From 2004, when she chaired AMA’s first Hot Topic on social media/blogs, Toby has been speaking, teaching and consulting on the topic at conferences for organizations such as BlogHer, PRSA, BlogWorldExpo, M/A/R/C, Chick-Fil-A, CDC, Cox Communications and Purina. Her blog Diva Marketing is considered by Ad Age (Power 150) to be one of the most respected marketing blogs in the world. She is profiled in the books on social media Naked Conversations, Now Is Gone, Twitterville and the The Digital Handshake.
Selah Abrams, Engineer at Turner Studios (Atlanta) and CIO of PartyRepublik (Germany, South Africa, USA) began life as an entrepreneur in 1991 by building a bricks and mortar retail and wholesale activewear and accessories line that grew from an $1800 investment to several million in annual retail sales, franchised retail locations, and online sales before “e-commerce” was a foregone conclusion. Following the sale in 1998, he moved to New York to work at Grey Worldwide, the 3rd largest Ad and Branding Agency in the world, specializing in interactive marketing, online branding, and breaking open the Latin American market before it was recognized as the current powerhouse that it is. Currently, Selah splits time between a day gig at Turner Studios, post-production house for the Turner Networks, CNN and outside clients, and managing an international entertainment promotions and production company, with locations in Atlanta, Germany (6 cities), and Durban, South Africa. Selah is a partner in several other ventures, having accrued ’sweat equity’ as a VC that leverages skillsets, relationships and resources rather than simple funding. Selah Abrams is a regular speaker at events and conferences and is deeply involved with the local Atlanta Digital Entertainment industry, by chairing and/or sitting on the board of Audio Engineering Society, Digitainment Georgia, TAG Entertainment and WLS societies, and involved in the creation of a Georgia Film Workforce Development Program, Workforce Readiness Region, and mobile media teaching lab.
David Eckoff is co-founder of Spitter, a real-time social news network for sports fans; and president of Revolutionary Ventures, a consulting company that specializes in taking revolutionary ideas from the drawing board to market. For the past three decades, Eckoff has been an innovator in start up companies and Fortune 500 alike. Previously, he served as Vice President, New Product Development & Innovation at Turner Broadcasting (CNN, TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network); Senior Director at RealNetworks; Senior Vice-President at Rivals.com ; and Founder of Inside Carolina. In his consulting work, Eckoff helps businesses create new growth through innovation. Clients have included Kleiner Perkins backed Zazzle.com, live interactive broadcasting platform Ustream.TV, 3D Virtual World innovator Kaneva, and more. David has spoken at numerous events, as a keynote speaker and panel speaker, including SXSW Interactive; Perot Innovation Lab: Innovation Insights; Charles River Ventures CEO Leadership Summit; Video on the Net; Streaming Media East and West; and more. You can read his thoughts about innovation and new media on his blog at www.DavidEckoff.com and follow him on Twitter at @davideckoff
Asante Bradford is the Digital Entertainment Liaison for the Georgia Film, Music and Digital Entertainment division of the Georgia Department of Economic Development. Asante helps promote the growth of the video game industry as well as identify initiatives that will help grow businesses for the state of Georgia in video game development, film & music. He also helps educate potential prospects and provide clients with information about the Georgia Entertainment Industry Incentives Act. Asante was the founder of a game center entertainment arcade which provided gaming, training, and web access on state-of-the-art equipment in a LAN environment. He was also responsible for establishing educational programming, game licensing and acquisition as well as planning video game tournaments in the southeast for companies such as EA Sports, Red Octane and Microsoft. His area of concentration with the Georgia Film, Music and Digital Entertainment office is to increase the impact of video game development for the State of Georgia as well as being a dedicated liaison to assist with promotions, logistics and business development for attracting game development companies outside the state to relocate in Georgia.
Kristin Parrish, a digital strategist in Ogilvy PR’s 360˚ Digital Influence practice, has led digital influence strategy and execution for well-known and emerging brands including VTech Learning Products, Select Comfort – maker of the Sleep Number bed, NHBLI’s The Heart Truth Campaign, American Chemistry Council, Ford, Slim-Fast and the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Through digital strategy development, Kristin has helped clients improve their online reputation, increase traffic to and participation in branded online locations, develop valuable content and increase volume of branded conversations. Most importantly, she has helped clients identify, engage with and activate their brand ambassadors. With nearly four years of broad agency experience, Kristin is well-versed in the print, broadcast, interactive and strategy components that make a campaign successful. She regularly contributes to the 360° Digital Influence blog – www.360digitalinfluence.com – and authored the hugely popular Twitter for Business seminar.
Jenny DeVaughn specializes in strategic corporate and professional growth via social media consulting. Her scope of experience is focused on creating customized social media webinars, presentations and social recruiting training. Jenny’s clients include: small companies to large corporations who are seeking to leverage free social media tools to increase revenue, discover new clients, gain a competitive advantage, demonstrate value, engage talent, genuinely connect with target prospects and monitor their brand online. Prior to starting her own consulting company, Social Precision, Jenny gained vast experience using social media as an Executive Recruiter. Her primary focus was to increase business and contacts which was aided via social media initiatives. Jenny’s pay-it-forward approach has afforded great opportunities to work with non-profit organizations. She is actively involved with various Atlanta organizations and associations. She is the Executive Vice President of Member Services for the Society for Human Resource Management – Atlanta Chapter (SHRM-Atlanta); the Director of Career Advancement for the National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP). She also serves on the sponsorship team for NAAAP Atlanta’s Chopstix for Charity as well as volunteers for the American Cancer Society. Jenny is a member of ProWIN, the Professional Women’s Information Network. Additionally, Jenny participates in the Recruiting Society of the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG), Legal Marketing Association (LMA) and the Association for Accounting Marketing (AAM). Read Jenny’s latest blog post at http://socialprecision.com
James Andrews (jamesandrews.tv) is a managing partner at Everywhere specializing in the creation of social media strategies, online communications, and web content production. Everywhere is a strategic communications agency that focuses in helping brands and individuals navigate the social media and online space to build better connections with their audiences. Their clients include Delta, CNN, Macy’s, Actress/Author Jane Fonda, Music Producer Jermaine Dupri, Actress Sanaa Lathan and Recording artist Macy Gray, and Georgia Public Broadcasting. Before launching everywhere, Andrews was Vice President, Ketchum Digital and worked on global social media brand strategies for Monster.com, FedEx, GeekSquad, Wendy’s and Newell Rubbermaid. Andrews has been working in the area of interactive/new media and non-traditional marketing for 15 years holding senior titles at Urban Box Office, Columbia Records, Ecko Unlimited and Isobar/Carat. His experience with brands such as Current TV, Sprite, Vibe Magazine and Proctor & Gamble places him in a unique category of executives that understand the convergence of both new media, content and digital lifestyle. James blogs at Fastcompany.com as an Expert Blogger. He also maintains a blog at www.thekeyinfluencer.com where he covers the “business of pop culture” via news and interviews that span technology, new media, music business and youth/urban culture. Andrews is also a regular contributor to CNN as an expert in social media.
Stephen Hom, Analyst at RTM&J, has been studying Gen Y all his life, all 21 years of it that is. For the past two years, Stephen has focused in researching and better understanding what makes Gen Y tick, and what that means for today’s marketers. His work has culminated in his authorship of Ystory® – The Real Truth About Gen Y. A student of Goizueta Business School at Emory University, Stephen will graduate in May 2010 with a B.S. in Business Administration with a focus in marketing and organization/management. An avid guitarist, you can find Stephen jamming in his spare time.
Rhonda Harper, RTM&J Managing Partner & CEO, has led some of the world’s biggest and best brands. With client side experience in retail, consumer package goods and other industries, Rhonda has been instrumental in driving brand innovation and marketing performance, developing more effective brand and marketing organizations, and creating powerful global brand portfolios. Rhonda founded RTM&J Real Truth Marketing and Joy in 2001. Previously, Rhonda was one of approximately 150 officers and the Vice President of Marketing and Strategy, reporting to the CEO, for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Prior to Walmart, Rhonda was an officer and Vice President of Marketing for VF Corporation, the world’s largest apparel manufacturer. She has served as SVP and Managing Director of Ketchum, a top five global public relations firm. Rhonda earned her marketing stripes during her decade with Warner-Lambert and Nabisco in the areas of national brand management and promotional marketing. Rhonda has served as an adjunct MBA marketing professor and is the founding Advisory Board Member of Leadership Worth Following, a talent identification, assessment and development firm. Rhonda has also served as a National Board Member for Promotion Marketing Association. She is a member of: The Business Round Table; The CMO Club; The CMO Council, and; MENG. Rhonda holds an MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta School of Business, where she is on the Board of Directors.
Travis Allen is an 18 year college student with a big idea. He believes Apple’s iPod Touch can be a cost effective teaching tool in schools. After sharing his iSchool concept with teachers, students and eventually the principle of his high school, he realized this idea had tremendous potential to save schools money and at the same time dramatically reduce their carbon footprint on the environment. Travis quickly realized there would be only one way to make this vision into a reality. He knew it would take a small army of people demanding cost saving, environmentally conscious solutions in school systems before School Boards and companies like Apple, Microsoft and their development teams would take on such an ambitious project. Travis started a campaign with a YouTube video that began to build global support for his idea. He now has a Facebook group, a twitter page, a website and his own non-profit group called the iSchool Initiative, dedicated to bringing technology to the classroom.
James Harris is co-founder, chief executive officer and chief storyteller of Elemental Interactive Design + Development (EIDD), a leading interactive communications firm with a unique focus in purposeful corporate storytelling. Founded in 1994, Atlanta-based Elemental is one of the oldest and largest, minority-controlled interactive agencies in the country. Harris has more than 17 years of experience in the interactive industry. After co-founding Elemental in 1994 he served as its chief executive officer until the company’s purchase by Grey Global Group in December 1999. In 2001 Grey Global Group created an in-house interactive agency, GCI Interactive. Elemental Interactive subsequently continued to operate as the chief interactive division of GCI Interactive. In May 2003 Harris repurchased Elemental Interactive from WPP, which retains a minority ownership stake in the new company, Elemental Interactive LLC. Elemental Interactive continues to operate under the Elemental Interactive Design and Development (EIDD) brand. Over its 10-year history Elemental’s client list has included AFLAC, Ameritrade, AT&T, Avaya, Center for Black Women’s Wellness, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Cingular Wireless, Canadian National Railroad, The Coca-Cola Company, Compaq, General Motors, Georgia-Pacific, Holiday Inn, IBM, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Pfizer, Rayonier, Triarc, Turner Network Television, UPS and Worldspan, among others. Harris’ interest in interactive media was sparked in the multi-media laboratory at Tennessee Technological University where he obtained his B.Sc. in Management Information Systems. He launched his own consulting business in 1992 and began working with such clients as Turner Broadcasting and BET on new media strategy and converting video content into new media properties. He also worked with Floyd Design (which later became IXL) as a programmer and project manager, and with A.D.A.M. Software developing consumer CD-ROMs for retail. As part of leading Elemental, Harris helped prototype IBM’s first Intranet and develop The Coca-Cola Company’s first Web site. He also led the team responsible for the design of the UPS Web site during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and developed the initial Web site for the launch of Pfizer’s allergy drug Zyrtec. Harris is regularly selected to judge awards competitions in the interactive industry, particularly annual report competitions. His firm has won more than two dozen design awards, including two Standard of Excellence awards from the Web Marketing Association; three Gold Awards from the International Academy of Communications Arts and Sciences; Distinction in Technology Communication Award from American Graphic Design; the Applied Arts Annual Design Award; and a Silver Medallion from the New Media Invision Awards. In 1999 Harris was recognized as Tennessee Tech’s Outstanding Young Alumnus. He is working to develop Camp Freedom, a camp for inner city children that will specialize in teaching nature, mathematics and technology.
Chris Turner is Co-Founder of Regator. Since his early days programming online text games and recreating classic Atari games, Chris Turner has had an obsession with the act of creation, digital or otherwise. Whether it’s home brewing his own beer or assembling his own computer, if it’s possible to do something yourself, he does it. Figuring that if he was going to do everything himself, he should at least learn to do it correctly, Chris obtained a B.F.A. in Studio Art from Truman State University. He has also been active in the independent video game development community as both an artist and a programmer. This background gives him an appreciation for the cost of every byte and pixel, and a passion for optimization. That being said, if something doesn’t work right after he’s taken the optimization hammer to it or you just wonder why in the name of all things holy he coded something the way he did, you can berate him at chris@regator.com.
Scott Lockhart is CEO and Co-Founder of Regator. He was frustrated because he couldn’t find a site that would help him easily find info he was looking for in blogs that didn’t suck. So he dreamed up a better blog aggregator in 2007. Regator is the result. Scott’s previous roles have included Chief Technology Officer at one of the U.S.’s largest real estate companies, RE/MAX Greater Atlanta. Recently, in addition to Regator, Scott has been working as an independent consultant, helping his clients find better ways to use the internet and technology. Scott comes from Australia, which means he speaks in a strange accent and enjoys bizarre sports like cricket way too much for his own good. You can email Scott at scott@regator.com.
Kimberly Turner is Editorial Director at Regator. Kimberly is a bit of a word nerd, which is why she’s in charge of deciding whether or not your blog is good enough to be part of Regator. If she rejects your blog, you should not send her nasty hate email because she really is a pretty nice person and didn’t mean to offend you personally. Instead, you should make your blog better and try again. Kimberly has an M.A. in Applied Linguistics from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and has edited and/or written for a number of Australian magazines, including ADB, Roost, Massive, and Outdoor. She’s currently a senior staff writer for Atlanta magazine. Kimberly finds writing about herself in the third person very disquieting. You can contact her at kimberly@regator.com.
Jon Gatrell is the vice president of product management at Stonebranch, a provider of secure communications and data exchange solutions. Jon has launched multiple new products to market globally and actively integrates social media into every initiative, including his most recent product launch – Scribbos. He is a published author and frequent speaker. Additionally, Jon blogs on best practices in product management and marketing @ www.spatiallyrelevant.org.
Lance Weatherby is co-founder of Socialytics, a comprehensive social media analytics application; president of Enfuse Group, an Internet marketing company; and a startup catalyst at the Advanced Technology Development Center where he helps entrepreneurs launch and build technology companies. In addition, Lance spearheaded the effort to bring Startup Weekend to Atlanta, is a managing director of Atlanta Startup Weekend, board member of Skribit, and an advisor to Twitpay. Previously Lance led CipherTrust’s marketing efforts, started EarthLink’s wireless business group, and directed business development, marketing, product development, and product management at MindSpring. Lance is quoted often in the press, speaks at numerous events, and is quite active online. You can read these thoughts on entrepreneurship, the Internet, marketing, and more at Force of Good.
Dan Greenfield is a veteran communications executive and principal of Bernaise Source Media, a new and traditional media consulting practice. He also organizes PR+MKTG Camps across the country to ignite connections for PR and marketing professions. A former EarthLink corporate communications vice president and Congressional press secretary, Greenfield is a respected industry blogger and award-winning video producer.
Susie Riordan was recruited into the mobile market as Business Development Manager for The Weather Channel Mobile after working for The Weather Channel Network as a Affiliate Sales Manager in 2002. Over the years, her interaction and ongoing relationships with clients include; AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, Third Screen Media, MobiTV, SmartVideo, Coca Cola, MSNBC.com, NBC Universal, The Weather Channel, AOL, Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft. Susie created and launched a new business model for MSNBC.COM Mobile – the first ad-supported model underwritten by Universal McCann and Windows Mobile via SmartVideo and Action Engine in 2006.
Her Mobile experience also includes the Director of Emerging Trends for Moxie Interactive, Digital Sales and Marketing for Citadel Broadcasting, VP of the Hispanic content distribution for LSN, Inc. and Global Interactive Brand Manager for Sprite at The Coca-Cola Company. Susie is now Business Development Executive at Definition6, an interactive agency that creates immersive brand experiences that drive business results.