2011 Keynotes:

Steve Case is one of America’s best-known and most accomplished entrepreneurs and philanthropists, and a pioneer in making the Internet part of everyday life. Steve co-founded America Online (AOL) in 1985, when the Internet was in its infancy. Under Steve’s leadership as Chairman and CEO, AOL became the world’s largest and most valuable Internet company. AOL helped drive the worldwide adoption of a medium that has transformed business and society. AOL’s early focus on ease of use and social media set the stage for its rapid growth, and at its peak nearly half of Internet users in the United States used AOL. In 1992, AOL became the first Internet company to go public, and was the best performing stock of the 1990s, with a 11,616% return. At the peak of the Internet boom, Steve negotiated what remains the largest merger in business history, bringing together AOL and Time Warner in a transaction that gave AOL shareholders a majority stake in the combined company. To facilitate the merger, Steve agreed to step down as CEO when the merger closed in 2001. He served as Chairman of the Board of the combined company (then known as AOL Time Warner) until 2003. Steve then went back to his entrepreneurial roots, and in recent years has partnered with more than a dozen entrepreneurs as an investor and mentor. Steve created Revolution in 2005 to oversee his rapidly expanding investments. Revolution now has four divisions: Revolution Growth, which invests in high-growth consumer companies (including Zipcar, LivingSocial, and Exclusive Resorts); Revolution Ventures, which backs early-stage technology companies (including Vinfolio, Snagfilms, and UberMedia); Revolution Health, which invests in health and wellness businesses (including SparkPeople, Extend Health and Brainscope); and Revolution Places, which develops real estate and hospitality businesses (including Grove Farm and Maui Land & Pineapple in Hawaii, Cacique in Costa Rica, and Miraval in Arizona). The success of AOL, coupled with Steve’s post-AOL track record building businesses through Revolution, led CNBC to call Steve “one of the nation’s greatest entrepreneurs.” Steve is also Chairman of the Case Foundation, a private family foundation he established in 1997 with his wife Jean. Built on the principles of leadership, collaboration and entrepreneurship, the Case Foundation seeks to tap the power of the Internet, new technologies and entrepreneurial approaches to help strengthen the social sector. The Case Foundation has invested in hundreds of organizations, initiatives and partnerships in the U.S. and around the globe. Steve and Jean joined The Giving Pledge, started by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in 2010, and publicly reaffirmed their commitment to give away the majority of their wealth to fund worthy charitable causes. Steve was born and raised in Hawaii and retains active ties to his home state, but has lived in the Washington D.C. area for more than 25 years. He was a leading voice in shaping government policy regarding the Internet, including bridging the digital divide, making the Internet a safe place for children, and nurturing civic engagement. Later, he was a member of the State Department’s Advisory Committee on Transformational Diplomacy. Currently, Steve is Chairman of the Startup America Partnership, and co-chair of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Both efforts are aimed at celebrating and accelerating entrepreneurship. He is also co-chair of The Democracy Project, an initiative of the Bipartisan Policy Center to bring bipartisan and diverse voices together to help enhance the ability of government to grapple with the nation’s challenges.

John Trimble serves as the Chief Revenue Officer of Pandora Media where he is responsible for all advertising revenue, strategic sales marketing and advertising operations. Pandora's diverse revenue streams tap display, mobile, audio that reach consumers on their computers, mobile phones and consumer electronic devices. Pandora advertising offerings utilize the super-specific aspects of internet radio: a medium that enables advertisers to reach any type of consumer, anytime, anywhere - based on a multitude of quantifiable data. Previous to Pandora, John was the EVP of sales at Glam Media where he helped guide their revenue and product expansion. Before that, John was part of the executive team tasked by News Corp. to develop and execute the creation of Fox Interactive Media where he was part of the acquisition team that brought MySpace.com and IGN.com into the Fox Interactive Media fold. He was also responsible for building out all ad marketing and operational functions while overseeing branded sales for MySpace, IGN, Fox Sports.com and American Idol.com. John has balanced his digital career with quality brands, in the role of Director of Sales for Sports Illustrated.com and with innovative starts ups in his position as Vice President of Sales with Phase2 Media. John received his BA from St. Lawrence University. When he is not on the road looking for ad partners, he is evolving his station list to keep relevant with his family of four children. His current Pandora line-up features the Counting Crows, the Dropkick Murphy's, Kanye West, U2 and Jack Johnson.

Gracia Martore is President, Chief Operating Officer of Gannett Co, Inc. Prior to that she served as the Chief Financial Officer of the company since June 15, 2009 till November 2010. She joined Gannett in 1985 as assistant treasurer. She was named vice president/Treasury services in 1993. She was given responsibility for Investor Relations in 1996, became treasurer and vice president/Investor Relations in 1998 and was named a senior vice president in 2001. She became chief financial officer in 2003 and was named executive vice president in 2006. She is a graduate of Wellesley College where she was a Wellesley Scholar. Prior to Gannett, she worked for 12 years in the banking industry.

Matthew Diamond, CEO and founder of Alloy Media + Marketing, guides the company’s strategic direction and oversees corporate development and management of its business units including Alloy Entertainment, creator of such popular teen books, TV series and films as “Gossip Girl”, “Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants” and “The Clique”. He oversees development of new media initiatives such as the recently launched Teen.com “TV” network, a premiere entertainment platform boasting a teen audience of more than 11 million online viewers. A keynote speaker for national industry events and conferences, Matt has appeared as a media expert on a number of national TV broadcasts including CNN, CNBC, and ABC World News Tonight. He has been featured in numerous high profile publications including the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Businessweek and Advertising Age. Matt leads company-wide efforts to contribute positively to the growing and influential millennial population, serving on the board of Do Something Inc, a non-profit youth organization, and as Director of Genesco, the owner of popular teen shoe retailer Journey’s.

2011 Panelists and Moderators:

Sandra Aistars, Executive Director, Copyright Alliance Sandra Aistars is the Executive Director of the Copyright Alliance, a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization of artists, producers and distributors from across the copyright spectrum. She is also the chairman of the Copyright Alliance Education Foundation, which provides copyright resources for K-12 educators and classrooms. She is a frequent speaker on intellectual property and new media topics at a variety of venues Prior to joining the Alliance, Sandra served as Vice President and Associate General Counsel at Time Warner Inc. In her role at Time Warner Aistars coordinated the company’s intellectual property strategies; served as an expert to the U.S. Congress, the Copyright Office, and various departments and agencies; and represented the company in cross-industry coalitions and technology standards efforts. Aistars has also worked as a lawyer and lobbyist on intellectual property and technology issues at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP, and served as the head of public relations and government affairs for a non-profit organization. Aistars hails from a family of talent, which includes an opera singer, authors and painters. She has provided pro bono legal counsel throughout her career to numerous independent artists and creators including singer-songwriters and non-profit arts organizations.

Rick Allen, CEO, SnagFilms Rick Allen has run successful companies in nearly every form of media, and helped to develop or extend some of the country’s most prestigious brands. Rick is the CEO of SnagFilms which he helped to found with Ted Leonsis. The two produced Kicking It, which screened at Sundance, Tribeca and other film festivals and was aired globally by ESPN; for the film and their work on homelessness, Leonsis, Allen and colleagues received the 2009 Stewart B. McKinney Award from the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. The two are producing a new documentary, A Fighting Chance, which will be released in the fall of 2010. Allen previously was President and CEO of Sporting News, the country’s oldest sports media company, leading a revitalization that saw it named twice to Adweek’s annual “Hot List” as a top-10 media property. Earlier, he served as President and CEO of the for-profit arm of the National Geographic Society, responsible for television and film; interactive products, websites and e-commerce; maps; travel; retail; catalog; and consumer products. Under his leadership, the National Geographic Channel was launched and became one of the fastest growing cable channels in recent history. Before coming to National Geographic, Rick was a senior executive at Discovery Communications, parent of the Discovery Channel, where he extended the company’s brand into filmed entertainment, education, technology and retail. He also served in the White House as a Deputy Assistant to President Clinton, helping to establish AmeriCorps (the domestic Peace Corps). Before his White House service, Allen was CEO of a privately-held group of 35 companies based in Los Angeles. He has written and lectured widely, and been active in civic affairs particularly dealing with education, including service with the advisory boards to the California State Board of Education and the Southern California Association of Governments, and as Vice Chairman of Project Exploration, a nonprofit science organization that makes science accessible to the public – especially minority youth and girls – through personalized experiences with scientists and science. He is a member of the Dartmouth Alumni Council, serving on its Enrollment and Admissions Committee, and as an elected member of the Nominating and Alumni Trustee Search Committee. Rick lives in Potomac, Maryland with his wife and three sons.

Gary Arlen, President, Arlen Communications Gary Arlen is President of Arlen Communications LLC, a Bethesda, Maryland, research and consulting firm known for its insights into the converging and sometimes conflicting worlds of media, telecommunications and interactive program content. He writes frequently on tech policy, business development and applications.

Mario Armstrong, Tech Commentator Mario Armstrong–much like the technology he loves–has always been an amalgamation of many different things: radio, TV & online media personality, motivational speaker, public servant and social entrepreneur. At his heart, Armstrong wants to better people’s lives by educating them to leverage technology to enhance their personal and professional lives. Armstrong translates technology for non-tech audiences through his radio shows, TV segments, public speaking, print and online programs. Mario covers the stories, headlines, business, issues, gadgets and news makers of the day through the lens of technology! He entertains and educates audiences as to how technology impacts our society and businesses. He appears regularly on radio and tv; on TV, his segments air weekly on CNN and monthly on The Today Show. He has appeared on the Rachel Ray Show, MPT, PBS, C-Span, TV-One & CNBC. He hosts the only daily technology talk show on SiriusXM Satellite Radio. Some of Mario’s radio and video online show guests include: President Barack Obama; Intel Chairman, Craig Barrett; Google co-founder, Larry Paige; U.S. Navy Admiral, Gary Roughhead; entertainment mogul, Russell Simmons; Sprint CEO, Dan Hesse; entrepreneur, Michael Dell; filmmaker, Spike Lee; founders of “Guitar Hero”, Kai & Charles Huang; Nintendo President, Reginald Fils-Aime; and entertainer, Stevie Wonder, just to name a few. Armstrong has worked in the tech industry for 12+ years and was the first Chief Technology Officer in Baltimore City government for then Mayor, Martin O’Malley. Armstrong also served as the IT Director for the State of Maryland’s Tourism Department. In addition, Armstrong was one of six chosen in the United States to be a part of a Technology Delegation to meet with tech entrepreneurs in Seoul Korea to discuss new international business partnerships between the United States and South Korea. As an entrepreneur, Armstrong heads Mario Armstrong Media, LLC a technology-media company that creates content for traditional, mobile & online media outlets for syndication. In addition to content syndication the company offers tech consulting, digital lifestyle events and public speaking. Additionally, Mario is considered a social entrepreneur as he is super passionate about influencing, engaging and educating youth to pursue STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) academics, careers and entrepreneurship. Mario started a new company hiring 11 teenagers to develop, design, market and manage the new online youth tech social network called TechTechBoom.com. This company will morph kids from passive users of cell phones and laptops into the next generation of digital scientists, innovators and activists by increasing their interest and knowledge in STEM. Armstrong is also a co-founder of the Urban Video Game Academy–an educational non-profit program that uses the allure, interactivity and development process of video games to increase students’ interest and academic achievement in STEM. The program has been featured in USA Today, on CNN & in Newsweek magazine. His voice is featured in a fun and educational video game entitled, “SpaceStation Sim,” developed by Vision Video games for NASA.

Jay Baage, VP of Content, Digital Media Wire Jay Baage, both a "suit" and a creative, is a Sweden-born media professional, focused on shepherding media and brand properties from an analog to a digital world. Jay plays a key role at Digital Media Wire (DMW), a leading provider of news, financial information and conferences for media professionals. He keeps tabs of the most innovative companies and manages many of DMW’s most significant advertising and sponsorship relationships across its events and publishing properties. His clients range from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups and cover such industries as games, music, film, television, publishing, mobile and internet commerce. He has furthermore transformed the company’s approach to marketing by audience and community development through social media. He has during his career established high-profile strategic partnerships with other leading industry organizations such as PGA, SAG, GDA, CTIA, E3 and Canadian Music Week and connected senior executives in the media and entertainment industries, leading to high level deals.

John Backus, Founder and Managing Partner, New Atlantic Ventures John Backus is a managing partner at New Atlantic Ventures, an early-stage VC firm based in Reston and Cambridge that invests nationally in digital media, mobile, ecommerce and the business of healthcare. Collectively the firm's partners have helped entrepreneurs start more than 100 companies including DivX, Massive (acquired by Microsoft), Mobile365 (acquired by Sybase), Solve Media and Stitcher Radio. John is a seasoned technology investor, entrepreneur and policy advocate with more than 25 years of experience investing in and managing emerging, high-growth companies. Prior to forming New Atlantic Ventures in 2007, John spent nearly a decade as a general partner with Draper Atlantic. Before his career as a venture capitalist, John was appointed as President and CEO of InteliData Technologies. He joined InteliData through the acquisition of US Order, a company he founded and led through a successful $65 million IPO in 1995. He currently serves on the board of directors of AppTap, Invincea, Qliance, Koofers, Ftrans and RemitPro. He is a past chairman of the Northern Virginia Technology Council, founding chairman of the NVTC TechPAC, past chairman of the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, and was appointed by then-Virginia Governor Mark Warner to co-chair the Virginia Research and Technology Advisory Commission. John began his career at Bain & Co. and Bain Capital and received his BA and MBA from Stanford University.

Jim Bankoff, CEO, SB Nation A fifteen year veteran of the online industry, Jim developed and led dozens of the most popular websites on the internet including AOL.com, Mapquest, Moviefone, AOL Music, Netscape and AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) as an Executive Vice President at AOL. He initiated and oversaw the drive to open up AOL's content and services onto the web and was the first executive of a major portal to embrace professional blogging with his acquisition of Weblogs Inc. and development and leadership of sites such as TMZ, Fanhouse, BloggingStocks and Engadget. His accomplishments have earned him wide recognition, most notably the first Emmy ever awarded to a webcast, for his role as Executive Producer of the Live 8 concerts online. Immediately prior to joining SB Nation, Jim served as a Senior Advisor at Providence Equity Partners, the largest private equity firm focused on media and communications. He holds an MBA from The Wharton School and a BA from Emory University.

Stephanie Bauer-Marshall, Manager, Mobile Advertising, Verizon Stephanie Bauer Marshall has more than ten years experience in the marketing, advertising and wireless fields. She leads the mobile and online advertising team at Verizon Wireless in the digital media group, where she launched the first mobile web advertising programs. She continues to drive the mobile advertising strategy and launch new advertising and marketing products, including Daily Scoop, an idle screen content and advertising services and Spend Smart, a cross-platform digital coupon service. Her previous responsibilities at Verizon include content programming for Mobile Web, messaging, and Get It Now applications. Prior to joining Verizon Wireless she was a product manager at Merchant Link, a subsidiary of J.P. Morgan Chase, where she was responsible for defining and marketing its existing products and directing the strategy for new product creation. During her time at Merchant Link, she developed a product that was awarded a patent. Before Merchant Link, she spent nearly five years at the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association's (CTIA-The Wireless Association). Mrs. Marshall’s additional experience includes roles in client-side marketing, branding and creative development. Active in the Mobile Marketing Association, she helped create the industry’s mobile advertising standards. She currently serves as co-chair of the MMA’s Mobile Advertising Committee. Mrs. Marshall is on the board of the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business Alumni Association. While at the Smith School, she co-founded and served as the first president of the Part-Time MBA Association, a student organization aimed at serving the needs of part-time students and improving the Smith community. Mrs. Marshall has a BA in Communications, Legal Institutions, Economics and Government from American University with international experience in trade relations at the Universitie catholique de Louvain in Brussels, Belgium. Mrs. Marshall received her MBA from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland.

Rohit Bhargava, SVP, Digital Strategy & Marketing, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide Rohit is a marketer, blogger, author and popular keynote speaker on the future of marketing and business. His passion is delivering entertaining and useful presentations that keep audiences interested and engaged with real life stories and examples. Rohit routinely combines humor with actionable advice and since publishing his book has delivered keynote addresses for the American Marketing Association and Blogworld, as well as many international appearances including a recent keynote at the European PR Congress in Kyiv, the Future of Social Media event in London, and presentations in Singapore, Paris, Beijing and Toronto. In addition to participating in over 100 industry events as a featured speaker, conducted private training seminars and workshops for many of the world's largest brands including Amex, IBM and Intel. His most memorable qualities as a speaker, however, are his unpretentious presence at events, ability to answer audience questions directly and dedication to sharing insights instead of obvious truths.

Richard Bloom, SVP Business Development, 5min Media Richard Bloom oversees 5min Media's content acquisition, publisher network and strategic partnership teams. Richard joined 5min Media in 2008 to build and lead the business development team that has created the web's largest video syndication platform. 5min Media was acquired by AOL in September 2010. Prior to joining 5min, Richard served as VP Business Development at UGO Entertainment, which was acquired by Hearst in 2007. Richard previously spent several years as an attorney at law firms in NY, where his practice focused on media and entertainment law.

Alvin Bowles, CEO, Grab Networks Alvin Bowles, who has led sales and multimedia strategy and execution for leading media brands at BET, Time Warner, AOL Networks and Sony Music, will join Grab Networks as Chief Executive Officer. Bowles, who will report directly to the board, will be based in New York. Bowles is joining Grab from BET Networks, where as senior vice president – brand solutions, he led customized sales and strategy efforts, including product integration, branded entertainment, original digital content, event execution and experiential marketing. He created a number of television and online properties on behalf of advertisers, including BET’s first scripted web series, Buppies, which received a number of industry awards. Before joining BET Networks, Bowles worked at AOL as Vice President and Publisher of AOL Black Voices as a key member of the strategy sales team 2006-2007. In this role, he oversaw sales and sales development for AOL Black Voices as the brand experienced tremendous growth during this period. From 2004-2006, Bowles worked at Time Warner as the vice president of the global asset media group developing cross functional sales and marketing platforms for various divisions across Time Warner’s portfolio. Before that, he served as Sony Music’s Director of business development and created strategic traditional and digital partnerships with brands on behalf of the label group. He began his career at JP Morgan where he spent three years as a corporate financial analyst, eventually moving into media. Bowles earned his MBA from Harvard University Graduate School of Business, where he was the chair of the annual HBS Alumni Conference. He received his undergraduate degree in Business Administration from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He serves on the Board of Directors for a number of civic minded ventures and an active Alumni for both Michigan and Harvard. Bowles resides in New Rochelle, NY with his wife and two daughters.

Leslie Bradshaw, President & COO, Jess3 Leslie is best known for cultivating a culture of execution and exuberance at creative agency JESS3. Named one of the top five female executives in the technology industry by Fast Company, Leslie has been described as the “operational energy” behind JESS3’s explosive growth and international success. Beyond that, The Wall Street Journal has recognized Leslie not only as a Top Woman in Tech Under 30 but also the “brains” driving the company forward. Leveraging her background in economics, anthropology and gender as a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Chicago, Leslie is a strategist in her own right and has consulted on corporate social strategies for top brands including Nike, Intel, C-SPAN and Pfizer. A sixth-generation Oregon Trail pioneer, Leslie is proud to contribute to her family's farm and vineyard (Bradshaw Vineyards) in Oregon's Willamette Valley during planting and harvest seasons.

Jon Brendsel, VP of Products, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Jon's group at PBS is responsible for the design, development, and operational support of products and services in support of the PBS stations and producers, including video, TV Schedules, content metadata, publishing tools, and the PBS.org portal. Since its launch, PBS video platform has grown to serve more than 120 million streams per month. Prior to PBS, Jon served as Director of Product Development at VeriSign where he oversaw the development and launch of VeriSign's RFID Electronic Product Code Registry. Prior to VeriSign, Jon served in multiple executive roles at America Online, including product management, member acquisition marketing, and systems engineering. Jon holds an MBA from Northwestern University and a BS from the California Institute of Technology.

Leonard Brody, President, Clarity Digital Group Leonard is a highly respected entrepreneur, venture capitalist, best-selling author and Emmy nominated media visionary. He has helped in raising millions of dollars for startup companies, been through one of the largest internet IPOs in history and has been involved in the building, financing and/or sale of five companies to date. Much critical acclaim has followed him in his endeavors. At Onvia (where he was part of the initial executive), the company was voted Canada's number one startup in 2000 and subsequently closed a $240 Million IPO on NASDAQ. In 2004, Leonard co-founded NowPublic.com which is a pioneer in the field of user generated news. The company was named by Time Magazine as one of the top 50 websites in the world, was inducted into the Newseum in Washington and was recently acquired by the Anschutz Corporation. Currently Leonard sits as the President of the Clarity Digital Group responsible for overseeing one of the largest online news conglomerates in the world including Examiner.com and NowPublic, which between them, share over 20 million unique visitors a month and over 200,000 contributors. Leonard also acts as an advisor to venture capital funds in the US, Europe and Asia. Throughout his career, has also advised several companies including, the Associated Press, Alliance Atlantis, Derby County Football Club and MTV Enterprises. In addition, he was the Senior Technology Advisor to the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs & International Trade. Currently, Leonard is a Senior Advisor to the Canadian Ministry of International Trade and a Director of Canada's largest technology association, CATA. A highly sought-after public speaker, Leonard has lectured at universities such as Stanford, the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai and the Gordon Business School in Johannesburg. His insight has been requested by companies such as Forbes, Warner Music, as well as, the governments of countries such as India, Israel, Ireland and South Africa. He has spoken at conferences throughout the world and his work has been featured in such publications as Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, the BBC and The New York Times. Recently he was given the award as one of Vancouver's Top 40 Under 40. He is co-author of the best selling books, Innovation Nation: Canadian Leadership from Jurassic Park to Java and Everything I Needed to Know About Business...I Learned from a Canadian both published by John Wiley and Sons. Leonard holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts from Queens University, a law degree from Osgoode Hall and is a graduate of the Private Equity Course at the Harvard Business School.

Philip Bronner, General Partner, Novak Biddle Venture Partners Philip Bronner joined Novak Biddle Venture Partners in 1999 and is focused on investments in information technology. Prior to joining Novak Biddle he founded a media technology company. In addition, he served as a management consultant with McKinsey & Co. in New York advising high-tech clients on corporate strategy and worked as a software engineer at IBM. At Novak Biddle, Phil serves as a director for Approva, Vision Chain, LifeShield Security, Freewebs, Clearspring, Social Gaming Network, 2Tor and SolidFire. He also leads Novak Biddle’s investment in Panasas and Infoblox. Past board or board observer seats include: Logic Library (acquired by SOA Software), AnswerLogic (acquired by Primus Knowledge Systems), N.E.W. Customer Service Companies and Clear Standards (acquired by SAP). Phil earned a BS in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University; a Juris Doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Law; and a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Phil currently serves on the Alumni Advisory Board for Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science and is a board member for In2Books, a Washington, DC-based reading and literacy program.

Janet Brown, CEO, Cinetic Rights Management / FilmBuff In her role as CEO for Cinetic Rights Management, Janet oversees a team dedicated to maximizing revenues for filmmakers from effective rights management across multiple digital platforms. She led the introduction of their flagship curated entertainment label, FilmBuff, as a resource for consumers who crave compelling online entertainment. Prior to joining Cinetic, Janet worked in business strategy for Yahoo! Media Group in Los Angeles. She started her career in Accenture's media and entertainment strategy consulting practice in London where she worked with a variety of clients including News Corp, Warner Music, Film Four, Telewest, BT and Nokia. Janet received her B.A Joint Honours in Economics and Political Science from McGill University and an MBA from Columbia University.

Robinne Burrell, Director, Mobile Product & Distribution, Match.com Robinne Burrell has been at the forefront of technology working with both entrepreneurial and established companies who have helped define the new digital age. At the height of the social networking boom, Robinne brokered the most key partnerships for MySpace mobile, and has since gone on to lead Match.com’s mobile group as the Director of Product and Distribution. In addition to the responsibilities of providing a long-term vision for Match.com’s mobile strategy and roadmap, Robinne is focused on developing partnerships that break new ground for mobile dating while overseeing the day- to- day relationships under her divisional umbrella. She is well respected for her deep knowledge of emerging technologies, creativity and identifying opportunities that move-the-dial, “Every day I get to apply my background of business, technology and social networking strategy – there’s never a stone unturned when it comes to the dynamic nature of my role at Match. For me, the key to building great apps is to be a creative alchemist- one part business, two parts product intuition, and three parts teamwork .” Robinne has also held management positions at Universal Music Group, Sony Electronics and Technicolor Digital.

Matt Callaway, CEO, AppTap Matt Callaway has 15 years experience in product strategy, marketing and online community at established companies and start-ups in the interactive entertainment and online media industries. Matt led global product strategy and marketing for AOL's Winamp, a leading media player with over 80 million monthly unique users. Prior to AOL, he worked at Electronic Arts as Director of Online Marketing and Community. Matt also worked as Director of Marketing and Community for SegaSoft's HEAT.net online gaming network. Matt was a co-creator of UGO, one of the first vertical advertising networks, later acquired by Hearst Interactive.

Sean Casey, Founder and CEO, SocialGuide.com Sean Casey is an entrepreneur and web and TV executive with 18 years of experience across both platforms. He is currently the Founder and CEO of SocialGuide.com, the first realtime social guide and social rating system for television. Prior to founding SocialGuide Sean was the SVP of Digital Products at Kidzbop.com, building it into one of the largest social networks for kids ages 5 - 12. He is also the CEO of UTVPS (www.utvps.com), a web-based solution for tracking licensed media for television productions. UTVPS is used for shows on VH1, A&E, Sundance and TruTV. Previously, Sean was a writer and producer for programs on VH1 and the Discovery Channel (including "The iPod Revolution"). Prior to that he was VP of Interactive Products for iVillage (1997 - 2002), and built Comcast's first website in 1994.

Joe Chernov, VP of Content Marketing, Eloqua Joe Chernov is the VP of Content Marketing for revenue performance management company, Eloqua. He is responsible for imagining, creating, distributing and measuring content that increases awareness and drives demand. Joe also oversees public relations and analyst relations. He joined Eloqua from BzzAgent, a word-of-mouth and social media marketing agency, where he served as VP of Communications and Associate VP of Marketing. Joe co-chairs the Word of Mouth Marketing Association’s ethics panel. He speaks at universities and conferences around the world on social media ethics and content marketing.

Peter Cherukuri, VP & General Manager, DC Bureau, The Huffington Post Regarded as a thought leader in the political information industry, Peter Cherukuri is currently the VP & General Manager for the DC bureau of Huffington Post overseeing operations and revenue as the innovative news outlet expands in the Washington market. Prior to Huffington Post, Peter was the publisher of Roll Call overseeing the business and editorial operations for the Capitol Hill newspaper and helping the company diversify via acquisitions into a multi-platform information & advocacy services company. Additionally, he led marketing and business development efforts for TMG Custom Content, a DC-based agency that develops targeted print and online content for corporations and nonprofits. He received his start in the political publishing market working at National Journal Group and Congressional Quarterly in product development and branding leadership roles. Originally from Mingo County, West Virginia, he received his BA from Colgate University and currently serves on the board for the National Press Foundation and the West Virginia University School of Journalism.

Addie Conner, Director of Advertising, SocialCode Addie Conner is the Director of Advertising at SocialCode, a Washington Post Company. SocialCode is a full-service Facebook agency that uses advanced quantitative methods, proprietary tools, and a skilled front-end creative team to create custom advertising campaigns on Facebook. Beyond helping brands efficiently grow their fan base, SocialCode offers comprehensive message testing and methods to continuously engage and monetize fans. Addie graduated from the University of Vermont with a BA in Economics.

Charles Curran, General Partner, Valhalla Partners Charles Curran has been a technology venture capital investor since 1998. Prior to that, he was an investment banker. Before joining Valhalla, Charles was a partner of Saturn Venture Partners, a $280 million early stage venture firm backed by Telecom Italia Mobile, which is located in New York, NY. He led enterprise technology investing at Saturn. He also worked as an associate with New Enterprise Associates (located in Reston, VA) working closely with Art Marks. Prior to NEA, Mr. Curran worked as a telecommunications and technology investment banker for Lazard Frères & Co. and DLJ Securities Corporation, advising premier clients on over $35 billion announced M&A and capital markets transactions. Charles received a Masters in Business Administration from the Harvard University Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics with Distinction from Stanford University. Charles is helping to drive Valhalla's efforts in data storage, mobile and Internet marketing. He led or supported the firm's investments in Jumptap, Nirvanix, LeftHand Networks, SEPATON, Active Storage, and SolidFire serving as Board member or observer at each company. Charles lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife and three children.

Brian Curtis, Senior Director, Product Management, Search & Discovery, Comcast Brian Curtis has over 15 years’ experience in digital media, leading product development for some of the world’s most successful media and advertising companies. Currently Senior Director, Product Management for Comcast’s video content discovery business, Brian oversees recommendations products across Xfinity platforms, including Comcast’s next-­generation TV, app, and online experiences. Prior to joining Comcast, Brian looked after new product development for the search and directories arm of Telstra, Australia’s leading triple-­play operator. This followed on from Brian’s experience managing music and movie recommendations products for start-­up AgentArts, now part of Microsoft. Brian has a BA from Bowdoin College, an MA from the University of Melbourne, and an MBA from Melbourne Business School in Australia. He lives in Washington DC, where he’s still hoping to bump into Toby, Josh, or CJ from the West Wing.

Kevin Dando, Director, Digital Marketing & Communications, PBS Kevin Dando is director of digital communications at PBS, and manages PBS’s digital- and online-related marketing & communications initiatives, both for its television and online properties. Kevin was recently featured in the new book “Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business,” written by prominent video blogger Steve Garfield. More at twitter.com/kdando and facebook.com/kdando.

Thanasis Delistathis, Managing Partner, New Atlantic Ventures Thanasis Delistathis is a managing partner at New Atlantic Ventures, an early-stage VC firm based in Reston and Cambridge that invests nationally in digital media, mobile, ecommerce and the business of healthcare. In the last decade, he has invested, advised or served on the boards of a dozen portfolio companies, including Mobile365 (acquired by Sybase), DivX (NASDAQ: DIVX), GlobalLogic, Stitcher Radio, Scoutmob and Moda Operandi. Previously, he led investment banking for Thermo Electron Corp. (currently Thermo Fisher). Before that, he was a business strategy consultant for McKinsey & Co. He received his B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University and M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Adena DeMonte, Director of Marketing & Social Media, Badgeville Adena DeMonte is the Director of Marketing & Social Media at Badgeville, The Social Loyalty Platform. Badgeville provides smart marketers with a powerful platform to drive and measure user behavior across their brand's web experience. Using proven techniques from social gaming and applying them to a brand's web, mobile, and social sites, Badgeville customers experience increases in key user-driven business objectives by 30% or more. These techniques, also referred to as "gamification," are easily integrated into existing user experiences with Badgeville's Widget Studio & API. The Audience Choice Award Winner at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2010, Badgeville has since become the world's leading platform for social game mechanics and analytics, with a diverse group of industry-leading content, commerce and community customers including Universal Music, The Active Network, Bluefly.com, Beat The GMAT, The Next Web, LiveMocha, and many more. Adena has deep experience in social media and journalism, having previously worked as the Social Media Manager for Diddit.com (Groupon) and Nokia Point & Find, and as a journalist covering Internet, Mobile and SaaS technologies for Red Herring Magazine, GigaOm and Mobile Marketing Watch. She is dedicated to educating marketers on the business benefits of social and game mechanics when applied strategically to a brand's user experience.

Matthew Diamond, CEO & Founder, Alloy Media + Marketing As CEO and founder of Alloy Media + Marketing, a pioneer in nontraditional marketing services with focus on the millennial market, Matt Diamond guides the company's strategic direction and oversees corporate development and management of its business units and assets. A keynote speaker for national industry events and conferences, Matt has appeared as a marketing expert on a number of national TV broadcasts including CNN, CNBC, and ABC World News Tonight. He has been featured in numerous high profile publications including the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Businessweek and Advertising Age. Matt leads company-wide efforts to contribute positively to the growing and influential Millennial population, serving on the board of DoSomething Inc, a non-profit youth organization, and as Director of Genesco, the owner of popular teen clothing retailer Journey's. Alloy contributes to several philanthropic causes such as the Ad Council, the ONDCP, and the National Heart Foundation. Prior to founding Alloy, Matt held positions in the Finance and Operations groups at the General Electric Company, also spending time at the company's Tokyo, Japan offices. Matt earned his B.A. in International Studies at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received his MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business in 1996.

Shawn DuBravac, Chief Economist & Director of Research, CEA Shawn G. DuBravac, CFA is the Economist for the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) where he directs CEA's economic analysis. He is responsible for handling analysis of the economy as it relates to the consumer electronics industry including forecasting future economic activity, econometric studies, examining trade flows, and ascertaining relative health of the industry. DuBravac also provides research into the technology trends underpinning the industry and quantitative support for CEA’s legislative initiatives. Prior to joining CEA, DuBravac was head research analyst in the Economic Analysis Group of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. He holds economic degrees with Highest Honors from Brigham Young University and George Mason University. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and is a member of both the CFA Society of Washington, DC and the National Association of Business Economists. He has published on a wide range of topics in finance, economics, and technology. Additionally, DuBravac is an Adjunct Professor in the MBA program at George Washington University. In his free time, he volunteers in the community by providing financial education through the Virginia Cooperative Extension. DuBravac resides in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and three sons.

David Dudas, Vice President of Product Management, Sorenson Media David Dudas is the Vice President of Product Management at Sorenson Media, where he is responsible for defining and executing the online and desktop product strategies. He has more than 15 years experience developing consumer and enterprise product lines, including expertise in hosted digital media platforms and software-as-a-service (SaaS). Prior to Sorenson Media, David was Co-Founder and CTO at Eyespot, which launched the world’s first web-browser-based video editing application, filed for five patents, and was granted numerous industry awards for innovation and usability. Previously, he was Director of Engineering at MP3.com, where his team developed the company’s flagship product. He has also held management positions at Universal Music Group (UMG) and DivX, and holds a Bachelor of Computer Science degree from Michigan State University.

Jay Endsley, Representative of, DLNA / Principal Engineer, Director, Samsung Jay Endsley is the chair of the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) project proposal subcommittee and representative of the DLNA Board of Directors. He is responsible for working with project proposal submitters to refine the proposal to meet the criteria necessary to become a potential project as defined by the Ecosystem Committee. Endsley is accountable for Samsung's participation in DLNA standards development where he is leading the effort within Samsung to deliver interoperable networked digital media products for both home and mobile use. Endsley’s experience spans a broad spectrum of the product life-cycle - Including R&D, advanced development, detailed product design, project management, engineering management, software systems design, new business development, financial management, partner relationship management, standards development. Prior to his work at Samsung, Endsley was the director of engineering at Concert Technology Corporation where he contributed to setting company direction as part of the executive management team. In this position, Endsley’s responsibilities included management of the Concert Technology R&D Engineering team.

Richard Fawal, Founder, WatchParty.tv Richard Fawal was a distinguished political and public affairs consultant from 1989 until 2010. He has help numerous leadership positions, including the Texas Director of the Jerry Brown presidential campaign in 1992, Vice President of Online Campaigns for Democracy Data & Communications (now DDC Advocacy), and Senior Adviser at Watts Partners, the lobby firm headed by former Congressman J.C. Watts. In 2010 Richard left politics to pursue his dream of being an entrepreneur, and utilized his comprehensive knowledge of online organizing to change the way television audiences interact. His new company, WatchParty, Inc., was incorporated in June and has since established a completely new platform that individuals, TV networks and cable providers can utilize to bring viewers together in a truly social environment.

Elizabeth Frazee, Co-Founder, TwinLogic Strategies LLP With over twenty years of government affairs and industry experience, including Vice President of Public Policy at AOL TimeWarner and Director of Government Relations at the Walt Disney Company, Elizabeth Frazee has earned a reputation of providing valuable government relations representation and strategic advice to companies and nonprofits of all sizes. Before entering private practice in 2003, Elizabeth spent over twelve years on Capitol Hill in a number of press and legislative positions. She served as a press secretary to the House Energy and Commerce Committee and ended her Hill service as Legislative Director and Chief Counsel for Representative Bob Goodlatte, current Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet and Co-Chair of the Congressional Internet Caucus. As Goodlatte’s top legislative aide, Elizabeth handled the Congressman’s work on the House Judiciary Committee and was heavily involved in many of the bipartisan cutting edge technology and intellectual property issues of the time including Internet liability, privacy, competition and digital copyright issues. She has remained focused on those issues throughout her career. While at Disney she helped craft the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and at AOL helped pioneer industry self-regulatory efforts to address emerging online privacy and child safety concerns. Ms. Frazee earned her law degree from the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America, while working full-time for Congress. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Sonny Ganguly, Chief Marketing Officer, WeddingWire WeddingWire.com, the nation’s leading technology company serving the $70 billion wedding industry, is the only online wedding planning resource designed to empower both engaged couples and wedding vendors. Sonny leads WeddingWire's marketing strategy, customer acquisition, and business development. Prior to joining WeddingWire, Sonny was in a management program at Wal-Mart where he led marketing, sales, and retail strategy development. Before this experience, Sonny spent four years at Kraft Foods where he managed numerous consumer brands, including the JELL-O business with P&L responsibility for over $800 Million. During his tenure, his brands' reached record volume, revenue, and profitability levels. Sonny has structured partnerships with companies such as NBC, MTV, Condé Nast (Modern Bride and Brides magazines), Mattel, Universal, Dole, Reynolds, Costco, and Safeway. Sonny holds a B.A. in Economics with a focus in Management and Marketing from The University of Pennsylvania and attended Harvard Business School for his M.B.A. where he served as President of the Marketing Club.

Colin Gillis, Technology Analyst & Director of Research, BGC Partners Colin is the Director of Research and senior Technology Analyst at BGC Financial, levering a decade of sell-side experience predicting the performance of publicly listed companies. His current focus is on covering and discovering companies that are creating and shaping a new class of globalized media, transaction intelligence, and payments. With the unprecedented quantity of data behaviors currently available – and increasingly captured – on the Internet, a new level of relevance for media consumption, advertising exposure, marketing messaging, and transaction-driven revenue streams is being created. An electrical engineering graduate with honors from Brown University, and academically published on the topic of computer parallel processing, Colin has 9 years of experience coding and building technology platforms including the first fax-over-IP system. With work experience that includes private startups and public multinationals, Colin has a strong grasp of the details required for small companies to grow revenue and large companies to grow earnings. After receiving his MBA with honors from New York University’s Stern School of Business, Colin joined RBC Capital Market as part of the #1 ranked services research team covering emerging digital and traditional headcount driven business. In 2004 Colin joined Adams Harkness (acquired by Canaccord) as an analyst covering Business and Internet Technology Solutions and quickly was promoted to VP then Director. As a senior analyst Colin covered 20 companies creating and hosting the dedicated Internet conference “Holiday Clicks” focused on year-end trends. An electrical engineer and also a certified Microsoft Internet professional (MCP+I), and certified Microsoft Systems Engineer (MCSE), Colin has a deep grasp of the technology driving the current revolution.

Gregory Gittrich, VP, Digital Media Content & Creative, NBC Local Media Gregory Gittrich is the Vice President for Digital Media and Editor-in-Chief of NBC Local Media's digital platforms. He's responsible for the overall product vision, content and creative, and marketing of NBC's 10 city websites (nbcnewyork.com, nbcla.com, nbcchicago.com, etc.), the company’s local lifestyle franchise The Feast, and its mobile and out-of-home platforms. He reports directly to Greg Scholl, President, Local Media Platforms. Previously, Gittrich served as the Vice President, Content/Editor-in-Chief for the digital group. He was responsible for all content across the NBC Local Media digital organization. Gittrich joined NBC Local Media as Executive Editor for the NBC Local Media digital organization in June 2008. In that role, he was responsible for the oversight of local news and information on all digital platforms, including NBC Local Media’s websites, syndicated offerings and mobile platforms. He oversaw the launch of Local Media's city sites in October 2008. Before joining NBC Local Media, Gittrich spent nearly 10 years at the New York Daily News in a variety of positions, culminating with his role as Assistant Managing Editor of News. During his tenure at the publication, he also served as Night City Editor, Deputy Metropolitan Editor and Deputy Police Bureau Chief. He was The News’ lead reporter at Ground Zero in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Gittrich also worked as an investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Daily News and a reporter for the Home News Tribune in East Brunswick, New Jersey. Gittrich is an alumnus of New York University, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, summa cum laude. He resides in Brooklyn, N.Y., with his wife and daughter.

Sean Glass, Partner, Novak Biddle Venture Partners Prior to joining Novak Biddle, Sean was the founder and Chairman of Pikum Holdings, which was backed by Virgin and First Round Capital, and which was acquired by The Football Pools. Prior to Pikum, Sean was the founding President and then Chief Marketing Officer at Higher One (NYSE: ONE), where he led the marketing and positioning strategy that helped the firm reach profitability while becoming recognized as one of the fastest growing private companies in the U.S. by INC. and Fast Company. Higher One went public in June 2010 in an offering led by Goldman Sachs. Sean co-founded Higher One while a student at Yale where he earned a B.S. in Engineering Sciences. He also has an M.A. in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. While at Yale, Sean founded the Yale Entrepreneurial Society and launched Yale’s business plan competition. Sean serves on the board of the Yale Entrepreneurial Society, and the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute which he also helped found. Sean is an active angel investor and currently serves on the board of PaperG and Affinimark Technologies.

Jeff Gomez, CEO & President, Starlightrunner Entertainment Jeff Gomez is an expert at transmedia storytelling, incubating new entertainment properties, strategic planning and production for cross-platform implementation. As CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment, an animation and live-action feature film production company and leading creator of highly successful fictional worlds, Jeff transforms intellectual properties into highly successful transmedia franchises. He also extends niche properties such as toys, animation or videogame titles across multiple platforms, evolving them into high quality persistent narratives, which in turn generate multiple revenue streams for his clients. Jeff has worked on such blockbuster universes as Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean, Prince of Persia and Tron, Microsoft’s Halo, James Cameron’s Avatar, Hasbro’s Transformers, Mattel’s Hot Wheels and Coca-Cola’s Happiness Factory. Prior to launching Starlight Runner with partner Mark Pensavalle in 2000, Jeff Gomez was a prominent figure in the adventure game and video game industries serving as a producer for Acclaim Entertainment’s comic book division. He helped create the Acclaim Comics super hero universe, in addition to adapting Valiant Comics super heroes into videogames for Nintendo and PlayStation consoles. Characters, concepts and game-play Jeff conceived, wrote and produced for Acclaim’s Turok, Dinosaur Hunter and Turok 2: Seeds of Evil helped that franchise to gross over $420 million. Turok was recently revived as a new videogame franchise from Disney Interactive and as an animated feature from Starz Entertainment. In addition to serving as a brand extension consultant to such corporations as Disney, Microsoft, 20th Century Fox, Coca-Cola, Scholastic, Wieden+Kennedy, Mattel, Showtime, Konami and Hasbro, Jeff has also delivered his seminar, Creating Blockbuster Worlds: Developing Highly Successful Transmedia Franchises, to the MIT Futures of Entertainment Conference, Game Developers Conference, International Game Developers Association, the NewTeeVee Conference, the New York State Bar Association and the Producers Guild of America. A board member of the Producers Guild of America with over 20 years experience developing, writing and producing content, Jeff has been featured and quoted in such periodicals as Forbes, Business Week, Los Angeles Times, Variety, Investors Business Daily, Publishers Weekly, Produced By, Wizard, and Animation, and he has been profiled on MTV News and American Latino. As a Latino who spent his childhood in the housing projects on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Jeff champions the concerns of young people with his Never Surrender inspirational seminars and curricula. He has also recently worked with Operation Respect, the international non-profit education and advocacy organization founded by Peter Yarrow and dedicated to instilling the values of leadership and empathy in young people. He earned a BA in Film Studies and Communication Arts & Sciences from Queens College, CUNY.

Josh Greene, VP, Marketing, 1-800-PACK-RAT Josh Greene is the VP, Marketing for 1-800-PACK-RAT. He is responsible for all of 1-800-PACK-RAT's marketing initiatives including online and social marketing, as well as their national television campaign. Prior to 1-800-PACK-RAT, Greene was the Vice President of Member Services for Shop.org where he oversaw membership recruitment and retention initiatives. Additionally, Greene collaborated with NRF's government relations staff to execute policy and advocacy strategies on behalf of Shop.org members. He also served as a liaison to Shop.org's Policy Advisory Group, developed industry initiatives, and managed Shop.org's Ray M. Greenly Scholarship fund. Greene joined Shop.org from Discovery Communications, where he was director of online marketing and business development. At Discovery, Greene oversaw online marketing, direct response television, corporate gifting, and partner programs for DiscoveryStore.com. Prior to Discovery Communications, Greene was director of e-marketing for Time Warner Cable and director of e-marketing for Road Runner. He's been a frequent speaker at industry events including ad:tech, SES, Channel Advisor's Catalyst conference, and others.

Jim Griffin, Managing Director, OneHouse LLC Jim Griffin is Managing Director of OneHouse LLC, dedicated to the future of music and entertainment delivery, and works as a consultant to absorb uncertainty about the digital delivery of art. Today, Jim is focused on accelerating the pace of scholarly research, especially through collaborative tools, sharing and open access to knowledge. He works with Mendeley, a UK company that is changing the world of research. In addition to serving as an agent for constructive change in media and technology, he is an author, serving as a columnist for magazines, and is on the boards of companies and associations. Jim started and runs Choruss LLC, incubated by Warner Music Group. He started and ran for five years the technology department at Geffen Records. Prior to Geffen he was an International Representative for The Newspaper Guild in Washington, D.C. While at Geffen, Jim led a team that in June of 1994 distributed the first full-length commercial song on-line, by Aerosmith. Geffen was the first entertainment company to install a web server, and Geffen World was one of the first corporate intranet sites. Geffen was named by Network World in 1996 as one of the world's top 25 technology companies, and one of only seven in the United States. While at Warner, Jim led a team the Choruss team that successfully built a new model for sound recordings: Sharing music with flat-fee access to unlimited music downloads for college students. Jim is co-founder of the Pho group. Named after a bowl of Vietnamese soup, Pho is an organization that meets for discussion-oriented meals in cities around the world, electronically linked by the Pho mailing list. Pho's many thousands of readers enjoy dialogue on the digital delivery of art and the new economy in music, movies, books and all media. Jim testified in July 2000 before the Senate Judiciary Committee at its oversight hearing on file sharing and music licensing. He regularly moderates video and television shows on digital entertainment. He is often a keynote speaker or moderator at conferences (Internet Summit, Giga Conference, Comdex, CES, Webnoize, and many others) and lectures annually at business schools (Harvard, USC, UCLA, Berkeley). He also serves as an expert witness in digital entertainment, and has presented many Continuing Legal Education courses. In addition to work with music, his expertise includes wireless work in Europe, including at Nokia's Research Center in Helsinki, Finland, and with numerous companies in Finland and throughout Europe. He's moderated numerous panels on wireless and given speeches on wireless issues around the world, ranging from music conferences to parliament meetings in Europe. He is a regular speaker at entertainment industry events and corporate and association meetings.

Christopher Grosso, SVP/General Manager of AOL Homepage, AOL Inc. Chris Grosso is SVP/General Manager of AOL’s homepage, where he is responsible for the overall strategy, marketing, distribution, operations, and monetization of AOL’s homepage. He led AOL.com’s November 2010 relaunch and helped drive extensive growth in overall engagement and video views. Previous to AOL, Chris spent 4 years at NBC Universal in a variety of digital roles. There he launched NBCU’s Emerging Digital Businesses group, partnering with advertisers like P&G and Hilton to create sustainable digital businesses. He also led business development for iVillage and managed several websites in the iVillage portfolio. Chris also spent several years at McKinsey, where he was an early member of the Firm’s Internet practice and helped media companies and retailers in digital and marketing strategy and operations.

Blake Hall, Co-founder & CEO, TroopSwap Blake Hall is the Co-Founder and CEO of TroopSwap.com, a daily deals platform that negotiates deeply discounted deals for veterans, service members and their immediate family members. A third generation soldier, Blake is a former Army Captain, an Airborne Ranger and a decorated combat veteran. Along with a fellow veteran/classmate at Harvard Business School, he started TroopSwap with the overarching goal of making military life better. The business model is predicated on a driving philosophy that everything TroopSwap does should create value for the community, the end result being an organization where military spouses make up the entirety of the local community outreach/sales teams and 10% of profits are donated to the Wounded Warrior Project. The site debuted May 23rd in Hampton Roads, Virginia and received over 1800 new user registrations within the first 72 hours. Blake is a frequent contributor to NPR and his writing has been featured in The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, and Forbes.

Jim Halling, Interactive Sales Manager, Comcast Spotlight Jim Halling is the Interactive Sales Manager for Comcast Spotlight in Washington, DC. Comcast Spotlight is the advertising sales division of Comcast and provides targeted On Air, On Demand, Online and On Site advertising solutions. Jim manages integrated, multi-platform sales strategies for Local, Regional and National businesses wishing to advertise in the Washington metro area – and his territory spans 3 states and over 60 account executives. With more than twenty-five years experience in sales, marketing, promotion and research, Jim’s has also served as an Account Executive for NewsChannel 8 in Washington D.C. – and as Senior Manager of Cross-Platform Sales for AOL. Former posts include Director of Marketing for the America’s Voice Cable Network, WKRN-TV in Nashville, TN and WJTV in Jackson, MS as well as on-air promotion positions at KTSP-TV Phoenix, KDFW-TV Dallas and WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, MN.

Michael Huppe, President, SoundExchange As President of SoundExchange, Michael Huppe oversees one of the fastest growing segments of the music industry relating to digital music royalties paid by services such as SiriusXM, webcasters, and other streaming platforms. SoundExchange represents an incredibly diverse group of recording industry participants, including featured artists, musicians, managers, unions, as well as major and indie record labels. Huppe’s appointment to SoundExchange’s top position follows a 12-year career devoted to protecting the cultural and commercial value of music. In directing SoundExchange’s mission, Huppe has prioritized business-positive solutions and agreements with industry services, promoting a dynamic digital music universe while ensuring much-deserved compensation for content creators. His optimism and expertise helped to place SoundExchange among Forbes Magazine’s “Top Names to Watch for 2011.” Huppe received his B.A. from the University of Virginia, and his JD from Harvard Law School. He is an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, and has lectured on intellectual property topics at various universities.

Chris Israel, Partner, American Continental Group Chris Israel joined American Continental Group in 2010. His leadership experience spans senior public and private sector executive positions; Chris began his service on Capitol Hill where he served for nearly 5 years before leaving for a senior role in a Fortune 50 media company. Chris' ability to develop and execute effective policy and communications strategies ultimately led to his appointment to several senior positions within the Bush Administration culminating with his service as the first United States Coordinator for International Intellectual Property Enforcement. In 2006, Managing Intellectual Property magazine named him of the 50 "Most Influential People on IP." Chris is a frequent international speaker on innovation issues and continues to play an active role in the formulation of U.S. intellectual property policy.

Sean Jennings, VP, Solutions Architecture, Virtustream Sean Jennings is VP, Solutions Architecture at Virtustream. Sean has over 20 years of experience enabling commercial and government enterprises of all sizes gain efficiencies and competitive advantage through the design and deployment of creative, forward looking IT solutions. At Virtustream, he is focused on initiatives around virtualization and cloud computing and the ongoing architecture of the xStream platform and the integrated suite of software tools and professional services associated with it, including the xStream Advisor and the xStream portal. Sean has been at the vanguard of the migration to x86 platforms throughout his career, designing solutions around and earning numerous certifications from industry leaders Novell, Microsoft, EMC, HP/Compaq/DEC, Checkpoint, and VMware long before they became fashionable.

Matt Jones, VP Mobile Strategy & Operations, Gannett Matt Jones is Vice President, Mobile Strategy and Operations for Gannett Digital. He is responsible for all mobile and wireless initiatives of Gannett’s 106 domestic local print and broadcast properties and USA TODAY. He manages a variety of products and applications including 100+ mobile web sites, Gannett’s mobile advertising network, award winning USA TODAY iPhone, iPad and Android applications and Gannett’s partnership with 4INFO, a leading mobile services company. He manages strategic partnerships with Apple, Google, Verizon Wireless, AT&T and other leading mobile ecosystem companies. Prior to joining Gannett Digital in 2006, Jones was Director of Mobile Products for USATODAY.com where he managed the mobile program since 2000. He joined USATODAY.com in 1998, and has worked in a variety of interactive advertising, marketing, product and business development positions. Jones received his Bachelors of Arts degree from Hartwick College. He is active in several industry associations including The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), CTIA – The Wireless Association, The Online Publishers Association (OPA) and the Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC).

Daniel Katz, Director of Product Management, Bunchball Dan is Director of Product Management at Bunchball, where he is responsible for Bunchball’s product strategy and roadmap. In his role he works closely with customers like NBC Universal, Warner Brothers Studios, Hasbro and Bravo Television to help define and deploy world-class gamification applications. Prior to Bunchball, Dan has held roles as CTO, Technical Project Manager, and Technical Advisor for financial brokerage, e-commerce, and consulting firms. He has a BS in Information Systems and Finance from Binghamton University, and likes to spend his weekend taking to the skies as a licensed commercial pilot and flight instructor.

David Katz, Executive Director, Digital Media, Starz Media David Katz is responsible for building Starz Media’s ad-supported broadband channel businesses, as well as managing original productions developed exclusively for the Web. In his role as executive director, digital media, Katz is also closely involved with the development and implementation of mobile, gaming and digital marketing initiatives. Katz is charged with taking Starz' proprietary and licensed short-form content and licensing it to Internet and mobile distributors, in addition to making it available through ad-supported partners, Starz’ own Web sites, and more. In this space, Katz’ responsibilities range from business development and sales to key account management. Katz has helped build the company’s digital ad-supported businesses by leveraging Starz’ deep libraries of anime (Manga.com), other animated content and short-form originals. He has also led Starz’ online marketing efforts in support of many of its theatrical, television, DVD, and online properties, including Anchor Bay Entertainment, Starz Media and more. These digital marketing campaign tactics have included leveraging Web sites, implementing viral and guerilla marketing efforts, and other marketing and promotional efforts with motion comics, games, clip syndication and entertainment portal promotions. Katz joined Starz from Young & Rubicam/VML, where he managed their NY digital group. Prior to joining Young & Rubicam, Katz was a digital strategist for the San Francisco based Thoughtpod. He received his MBA with honors in Media, Entertainment and Finance from NYU’s Stern School of Business and his BA in English from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Jonathan King, Senior Vice President of Business Development, Joyent Jonathan King is Senior Vice President of Business Development at Joyent. In this role Jonathan leads teams responsible for service provider sales and hardware, software, and system integration alliances. Before Joyent, Jonathan was a Client Partner Director with Verizon Business Global Solutions and before that, led Alliance Development for Totality, a company acquired by Verizon. Jonathan holds a JD from Loyola University Chicago School of Law and is pursuing an LLM in Intellectual Property Law from Washington University.

Evan Krauss, EVP, Advertising Sales, Shazam Entertainment Evan Krauss joined Shazam in November 2010, bringing more than 15 years experience in Internet, mobile and digital media. At Shazam, Evan is responsible for global advertising sales for the company and for growing its ability to deliver customised marketing solutions for agencies, brands and broadcasters who are realising that they can deliver tailored, measurable marketing campaigns into people’s hands with the ability to Shazam television programming, radio shows and commercials. Prior to joining Shazam, Evan was SVP Global Ad Sales & Business Development, JumpTap Inc. Previously, Evan spent six and a half years at Yahoo! where his last role was as Managing Director of Yahoo!’s Connected Life Business unit. Evan has built from scratch and managed some of the earliest and most successful Internet advertising teams at Excite, AOL, Looksmart and Yahoo! He has been directly responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and forging new Internet advertising products and models since 1995. Prior to his role at JumpTap, Krauss was President, CEO of online video editing service, Cuts.

Kshitij Kumar, SVP of Mobile Video, Concurrent Kshitij Kumar is SVP of Mobile Video at Concurrent. Acquired by Concurrent in 2010, TellyTopia, where Kshitij served as CEO, was a visionary start-up bringing online content to the Cable TV and Broadcasting industries. Kishitij was the Founder at TellyTopia and built a multinational team, product and business from the ground up. Truly a multinational executive, Kshitij previously held leadership, business, and software development positions at C-COR and Lantern Communications in the USA, Lantern Canada and Nortel Networks in Canada, and C-DoT in India.

Marty Lafferty, CEO, Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA) As DCIA’s CEO, Marty Lafferty is responsible for industry outreach, strategic development and management of all association initiatives. He is an accomplished new media industry leader with a track record of successful multi-business collaboration and excellence in pioneering the distribution of content via new technologies. Throughout his career, Lafferty has served in senior leadership positions for some of the world’s most innovative technology and entertainment companies. Lafferty joined DCIA from Lafferty Media Partners LLC (LMP) where he served as Managing Partner. Prior to LMP, he was CEO of Zoom Culture, which he transformed from a year-old dotcom into a thriving digital television and new media firm within 24 months, working with partners including NBC and PAX TV. He also led Zoom’s software development team and partnered with Apple engineers to serve as the first Beta client for Scale 8’s advanced global storage network and edge content distribution system. Previously he served as CMO for StreamSearch.com, where he oversaw the conversion of streaming video search engines from a technological to an entertainment market focus, working with and for major studios such as Paramount and Artisan. While there, he also led the creation of the interactive multimedia site for Sundance Film Festival. During his tenure as Microsoft TV VP of Corporate & Service Marketing, Lafferty supported the strategic refocus of Microsoft’s WebTV acquisition from a purely B2C niche subscription offering to a B2B application suite for multichannel service distributors and their set-top suppliers, in addition to introducing plans for the Xbox game console. While serving as President of FutureVision, Lafferty supervised the redesign and rollout of the industry’s first true switched digital network service offering and the company’s acquisition by Verizon. Before FutureVision, as VP of TV Answer, he led the development of numerous technically diverse simulcast interactive applications using IVDS over-the-air transmission spectrum, and secured affiliations with PBS and commercial broadcast station groups, culminating in a strategic alliance with CapCities/ ABC. Lafferty was also CEO of NBC’s Olympics joint venture, where he led multiple vendors to develop alternative security solutions for a satellite-delivered mini-subscription PPV signal, as well as oversaw cable and broadcast affiliate marketing. Prior to that, as GE Americom VP of Cable Services, he contributed to GE Astro’s new fleet development and deployment, generating $445 million in sales to television programmers in 18 months. As VP of TDBS, he led Turner Broadcasting’s internal and GI engineering teams to develop and deploy the industry’s first signal-scrambling security technology for basic programming services. Lafferty has received recognition from, and held leadership positions in, numerous industry organizations throughout his career. He was awarded the Council for Entrepreneurial Development Award as a top-fifty new company. He served as Membership Chairman of the Interactive Services Association, and was named Chairman of the International Digital Satellite Television Symposium. Lafferty also co-founded the Satellite Broadcasting Communications Association and served as its first Vice Chairman. Lafferty holds a Master’s degree from Yale University and Bachelors with honors from Williams College. He has received the NCTA’s President’s Award and a CTAM TAMI Award for industry service.

David Leibowitz, Managing Partner, CH Potomac David E. Leibowitz is Managing Partner of CH POTOMAC, working with companies at the intersection of entertainment, media and technology. Among other activities, Mr. Leibowitz serves as Chairman of Sir Groovy (an online music search, discovery and licensing platform used by movie studios, TV networks, video game developers and advertisers), as a member of the Board of Directors of ClipClash (a first-of-its-kind online application that creates a new virtual economy based on the popularity of online video content), as Chairman of the Advisory Board of FIGHTER Interactive (a publisher of celebrity and brand driven social games, LBS and applications), and as a Senior Advisor to National Datacast (a commercial subsidiary of PBS), among others. In recent years, Mr. Leibowitz served as a Senior Advisor to Motorola, as Executive Vice President of Gotuit Media (a leading provider of premium metadata based video discovery, advertising, personalization and monetization technologies to major program networks and sports leagues – since acquired by Digitalsmiths), as Chairman of Ezmo (an independent online social music subsidiary of FAST Search and Transfer - since acquired by Microsoft) and as an advisor to BMI, Gibson Guitar, Peppercoin and others in the content and technology industries. Mr. Leibowitz also is a co-founder of VERANCE, the preeminent audio watermark technology provider employed by the content industries to protect, manage, and monitor audio and audiovisual content, including Blu-Ray formatted motion pictures, and served as its Chairman and Co-CEO. Earlier in his career; Mr. Leibowitz served as: Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), as a partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm Wiley & Rein, as Policy Planning Advisor to the Register of Copyrights, and as an adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Miami Law School, and at the Communications Law Institute of the Columbus School of Law (Catholic University).

Paul Levine, Managing Director, Vector Media Strategies A broadly experienced digital, mobile and media industry veteran, Paul leads Vector Media — an advisory firm and network that provides “ecosystem consulting” services to established and start-up companies alike across the media, entertainment, publishing and communications industries. Vector Media is currently working with companies innovating in the areas of social TV and social commerce, kids digital, games, mobile, local media, interactive publishing, travel and personalized consumer products. Paul is also an active advisor to and investor in a number of startups. Prior to Vector Media, Paul was an Executive Vice President at National Geographic where he established and led Nat Geo’s Interactive Platforms Group, with global responsibility for the organization’s mobile, games, digital publishing, home entertainment and maps businesses. Under his leadership, the division grew into a top profit contributor and successfully spearheaded Nat Geo’s broad adoption of pay models for its many consumer brand offerings. Paul’s group oversaw the launch of dozens of interactive products, applications and services globally — continually building new business and product lines, and garnering a number of industry awards for the organization. Paul also led Corporate Strategy and Business Development for Nat Geo’s $1 billion-plus Global Media Group that encompassed NG’s Publishing, Entertainment, Online, Interactive, and Channel businesses. The team drove 20x growth in new revenue and strategic opportunities over a three-year period. In addition, Paul oversaw digital content and product distribution for the Nat Geo Channel, working closely with NGC and FOX executives in the US and abroad. Prior to National Geographic, Paul spent a number of years at AOL where he led strategic development, global alliances and product strategy efforts for a number of major initiatives and groups including AOL’s Digital Media Services, Mobile, Web Properties and Technology divisions. Prior to AOL, Paul was an attorney specializing in intellectual property, licensing and technology law. Early in his career, he worked for Morgan Stanley and at GE as an engineer.

Christopher Levy, CEO, BuyDRM Christopher Levy is CEO of BuyDRM. Christopher is regarded as one of the world's experts in DRM technologies and the use of DRM to market, monetize, and monitor digital media content. He regularly speaks and writes about the technology and was recently nominated to be a Digital Media MVP [Microsoft Valued Professional] with a specific focus on DRM. BuyDRM’s flagship product KeyOS is used by a wide variety of content owners and licensees. BuyDRM is a Microsoft Preferred DRM Provider and is privately held. Levy began his career in 1994 when he launched a webcast services company in Austin, TX providing on-site production and encoding technology to Mark Cuban's AudioNet. After selling the company, ClickHear Productions, to CMGI in 1999, Levy co-invented and led to market streamOS, the industry's first streaming media overlay system delivering streaming media across multiple CDNs.

Mike Lombardi, VP of Advertising Sales & Marketing, WeatherBug Michael Lombardi serves as vice president, advertising sales and marketing, for the WeatherBug brand of Earth Networks. In this role, he oversees the WeatherBug advertising sales team and drives the sales strategy for innovative advertising programs on behalf of major national advertisers across the online and mobile properties. Lombardi brings to his role over two decades of solutions-based marketing and extensive sales, sales management and strategy expertise in traditional and digital media. In 2010, Lombardi was awarded the ASPY "Old Timer" award, which is given to digital veterans based on their contributions and help in advancing the industry forward. Prior to his current role, Lombardi served the company in various roles, including vice president of East Coast sales and vice president of national sales. Prior to joining WeatherBug, Lombardi spent over five years as vice president of ad sales for Bloomberg.com, where he played an instrumental role in developing the sales organization, creating and implementing successful business plans, and streamlining the sales operations process. He has also held sales and sales management positions at Undertone Networks, iMedia Communications, Inc., Bonneville Corporation at radio stations WMXV and WDBZ, and Darcey & Darcey Advertising and Public Relations, Inc. Lombardi received a bachelor of arts in communication from Seton Hall University and a master of arts in communication from William Paterson University.

Ronald G. London, Of Counsel, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP Ronnie London represents clients regarding mass media, advertising and privacy and security matters. This includes advising clients such as broadcasters, cable networks and operators, advertisers and Internet companies in matters before the FCC, FTC and state and federal courts, and on general regulatory compliance. He also provides counsel and strategic advice on a broad range of litigation, administrative, enforcement and legislative matters related to communications, the media and all aspects of direct consumer contact by sellers of goods and services (including telemarketing, commercial faxing, voice broadcasting, text messaging, email and direct mail). Ronnie is the editor of Davis Wright Tremaine's Privacy and Security Law Blog, PrivSecBlog.com. Ronnie's clients include: A&E Television Network, CBS, Charter, Comcast, MTV Networks, Playboy, Showtime, SIRIUS XM Radio, Sundance, IFC, E!, HBO and The Los Angeles Times.

Winston Lord, Co-Founder, Venga Winston has over twenty years of public relations, marketing, and business experience. Prior to co-founding Venga, Winston was the founder of Lord & Associates, a media consultancy in Washington, D.C. Winston was a Principal at Portfolio Logic Management, a private equity firm founded by Jeff Zients, currently President Obama’s Chief Performance Officer. Prior, Mr. Lord served as the Executive Director of the Washington Baseball Club, a coalition that helped return Major League Baseball to Washington, D.C. Investors included the Founding Chairman of America Online, President Bill Clinton’s Budget Director, President George H. W. Bush’s campaign manager, General Colin Powell, and President Obama’s current Chief Performance Officer. Before directing the Washington Baseball Club, Winston built a PR and advertising firm that delivered media consulting services to select national organizations. His clients included General Powell’s America’s Promise, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, National Geographic Channel Asia, and Priceline. Winston is a Senior Advisor to the Emerging Media Research Council. Business Forward Magazine named him one of the “Top Forty Under Forty” business people in Washington, D.C. He has also been profiled in other publications including People Magazine, Washington Post, Politico, Roll Call and Washingtonian Magazine. Winston graduated from Yale University in 1990.

Jim Louderback, CEO, Revision3 Jim Louderback joined Revision3 as the CEO in July 2007. Jim has spent 16 years in various media and technology management roles, including leading editorial and lab efforts for PC Week, and being on the launch team for ZDTV/TechTV - the first 24 hour cable network devoted to technology. Prior to joining Revision3, Jim served as senior vice president and editorial director for Ziff Davis Media's Consumer group, along with being Editor in Chief of PC magazine. Prior to jumping into the media world, Jim built computer systems for Fortune 500 companies, managed the ticketing and ground operations for regional airlines, and attended various institutions of higher learning in the Northeast. He has a Math degree from UVM, and an MBA from NYU's Stern School, but don't hold that against him. When he's not working, Jim likes sailing, biking, hiking and travel -- occasionally simultaneously.

Chad Lucien, Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Hillcrest Labs Chad Lucien is responsible for Hillcrest Labs' worldwide sales, marketing and business development activities. Since joining Hillcrest in 2004, Chad has been a member of the company's executive management team where he has held positions encompassing corporate strategy, business development, and general management of the Freespace® motion computing product line. During his tenure, he has licensed Freespace solutions to global consumer electronics companies, developed a wide variety of strategic partnerships, and led numerous product launches in the Freespace product line. Chad has over 15 years of experience in corporate strategy, business development, venture consulting, and investment banking. Prior to Hillcrest, Chad was the Director of Strategic Development for TVGateway LLC, where he worked with the cable operators invested in TVGateway to execute a spin-off, reshape the strategy, and complete multiple financings and acquisitions. Prior positions also include Principal of Katalyst LLC, an operational consulting and venture capital firm, and Associate at Houlihan Lokey, an investment banking firm specializing in valuation and merger and acquisition transaction advisory services. Chad earned a bachelor of science in commerce with distinction from the University of Virginia, with concentrations in finance and marketing and is a CFA charterholder.

John McCaw, Chief Revenue Officer, Yidio.com John McCaw, Chief Revenue Officer, Yidio John McCaw joined Yidio in July, 2009. As Chief Revenue Officer, John is responsible for establishing and managing Yidio's commercial relationships with key online video partners like Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu, and iTunes. He also oversees partnerships with entertainment and television companies and develops distribution relationships with emerging web-only content networks. John has been a sales and business development leader in interactive media space for more than 10 years. Prior to joining Yidio he co-founded DOS Partners , an online marketing services organization in the online and career education category. John also held senior sales and business development positions with Performics, Claria and BeFree. John holds a B.S. from Purdue University.

Shane McGrath, VP, Head of North American Sales, RedLever Shane McGrath serves as Vice President, Head of North American Sales of RedLever, a global studio at the nexus of advertising and entertainment. He manages the North American sales team in promoting RedLever’s unique solutions, including brand integration, original series and sponsorships, that enable brands to maximize their digital entertainment investment. McGrath has helped RedLever further develop its relationships with premium brand partners including McDonald’s, TRESemmé, U.S. Army, Lactaid, Paramount Studios, Agility Studios and Grey Goose. Prior to joining RedLever in May 2010, McGrath was VP of Sales, Marketing and Business Development for Full Circle Entertainment, a leading branded entertainment company. He was responsible for creating content integration partnerships and securing media commitments in support of programs from national advertisers including AT&T, Budweiser, Dodge, McDonald’s, Nissan, Capital One and Universal Studios. Previously, McGrath was the Vice President of Development and Production at Corymore Entertainment, an independent production company founded by Academy Award nominee and Emmy and Tony Award-winning actress Angela Lansbury. At Corymore, McGrath developed the half-hour comedy series “Molly Malone” with Sony Pictures Television and Academy Award-winning screenwriter David S. Ward as well as numerous other television series and movie properties. Before Corymore Entertainment, McGrath was a member of the Television Literary and Packaging department at International Creative Management. He began his career as an account executive at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising in Los Angeles working on the global Barbie brand for Mattel, Inc. McGrath graduated from St. Lawrence University with a bachelor’s degree in economics.

Mack McKelvey, SVP, Marketing, Millennial Media As the Senior Vice President, Marketing, Erin (Mack) McKelvey leads Millennial Media’s global corporate and product marketing, external communications, and industry relations. She also serves as the company spokesperson. Mack has nearly fifteen years of business-to-business and consumer marketing and communications experience in the mobile and entertainment industries. Prior to Millennial Media, Mack was a senior director of marketing at SIRIUS XM Radio. Before SIRIUS XM, she held senior roles within VeriSign’s global Communications Services’ division, American Management Systems’ global Communications, Media and Entertainment division, British Telecom (BT Ignite), and 2nd Century Communications. She also brings agency experience from Edelman Public Relations and Alexander Communications (now part of Ogilvy PR). In 2011, she was named to the North American Board of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). She serves on the Mobile Advertising and the Networks and Exchanges Committees in the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB); and she is an active member of the Advertising Women of NY (AWNY). Mack is a frequent industry speaker, conference advisor, and awards judge; in 2010, she was a contributing author of Mobile Marketing for Dummies. In 2009, she was named one of the 50 Mobile Women to Watch in 2010, by Mobile Marketer.

Andrew Nachison, Co-Founder We Media / Co-Founder, CEO, iFOCOS Andrew is co-founder of We Media (www.wemedia.com), a consultancy and insight network that helps the world's most ambitious companies and NGOs design breakthrough innovations for a media-centric culture powered by everyone. Since 2004, We Media conferences in Los Angeles, New York, London, Washington, Miami and Buenos Aires have informed, inspired and ignited companies, organizations and individuals seeking to understand and profit from the “power of us.” Andrew is also the co-founder and CEO of iFOCOS (www.ifocos.org), the Institute for the Connected Society. That's a not-for-profit research center and lab that informs, inspires and invests in ideas to improve the human experience in the digital world. The institute's annual PitchIt Challenge has helped launch a growing portfolio of pattern-shifting media-tech startups such as SeeClickFix and The Extraordinaries, NewsIT and Audimated. Andrew is a writer, journalist and online publishing veteran who learned from remarkable teachers: the art of fiction from novelist Frank McCourt, computer programming from BASIC creator John Kemeney, and social activism from Pacific island nuclear testing witness and author David Bradley. He's now a leading advocate for using technology and applying the tools, techniques and values of journalism to make the world a better place for everyone. He has reported and edited for The Associated Press; written for The New York Times, Infoworld, Audubon and other magazines; managed one of the world's most ambitious small-market newspaper Web sites, lawrence.com; played clarinet at Tanglewood and Carnegie Hall; studied wildlife, development and environmental policy in Kenya; spoken on media convergence and business strategies throughout the world; and is a board member of the World Editor's Forum, an international association for news executives. Andrew has published two short stories, written many others (http://www.nach.com/) and swears there's more to come. He earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy at Dartmouth College and lives with his wife and two sons in Reston, Virginia.

Elise Neel, VP, Marketing Solutions, comScore Elise Neel has a fascination with digital media. After graduating from Pepperdine University, Elise began her career in online ad sales with a small Malibu-based firm. There, she worked with top brands such as HBO, Maybelline and Columbia Records to develop innovative campaigns that helped increase awareness and drive sales. She then ventured into the agency world working for RPA and Carat as the Online Media Supervisor to brands such as Honda, Acura, Hyundai, Kia, and Pioneer Home Electronics among others. Elise lead the emerging media bandwagon as she launched the first interactive online video campaign, pioneered the advergaming space, and hand-held clients through their first experiences with Podcasts, mobile technology, CRM database collection and search engine marketing. After four years of agency life, Elise returned to her ad sales roots working as the Manager of West Coast Client Strategy and Services for cars.com. Working on accounts such as Honda, Acura, Toyota, Lexus, Hyundai and Kia, she teamed with the editorial and production staff to develop new products for consumers and advertisers. Through her agency and publisher ventures, Elise developed a love for analytics and joined InsightExpress in 2006 to develop the West Coast. As Director of National Sales, Elise oversaw advertising effectiveness research sales to publishers, agencies and marketers across all industry verticals. Elise joined comScore as VP, Marketing Solutions in 2009 where she originally focused her time on the West Coast, strategic accounts and the mobile sector. In early 2010, she moved to the comScore headquarters in Reston, VA to lead the East Coast Media & Publishing team. Servicing clients with comScore’s entire suite of solutions including syndicated measurement, advertising effectiveness, surveys, segmentation, behavioral profiling and online/offline transactional measurement, Elise’s clients include media publishers, ad networks, data provides, exchanges and DSPs

Daniel R. Odio, CEO, Socialize, Inc Daniel R. Odio is CEO and co-founder of Socialize, Inc (previously PointAbout, Inc.). Socialize is a cloud-based, turn-key social service distributed through APIs and SDKs with a focus on mobile integration. There are massive communities of users hiding inside each mobile app. Socialize is the first platform to leverage each app’s interest-graph, “turning on the lights” and letting passionate users rally around the app’s core content. Socialize also created AppMakr, the largest Do It Yourself mobile app creation platform for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone apps. AppMakr is used by brands like PBS, Newsweek, PGA TOUR, Harvard Business Review, US Congress, MacLife, Accenture and thousands of others. Over 1.5% of all apps in the iTunes App Store were created using AppMakr. Previously, Daniel earned his Series 22 & 63 securities licenses and real estate broker’s license to start Cardéa Commercial Real Estate Advisors, a commercial real estate brokerage specializing in tax-efficient real estate investments, and DROdio Real Estate, Inc, a residential real estate brokerage. Daniel also served on the Board of Directors for the Virginia Association of REALTORS and his real estate endeavors were featured on the cover of the The Wall Street Journal’s Marketplace section in July 2004. Prior to real estate, Daniel was the VP, Sales of AcceleratedServers, a Beowulf supercomputing cluster company whose customers included the Department of Defense and Paramount Pictures. Daniel has been featured on CNN, CNBC, TLC, Forbes, BBC and many other publications for his innovative use of technology in industries ranging from real estate to computer servers and mobile phones. Daniel was a member of General Electric’s Technical Leadership Program. Daniel worked for GE in Latin America, including Brazil and Argentina. Daniel graduated from the University of Virginia with a BS in Commerce, speaks Spanish and Portuguese, and resides in San Francisco, CA with his wife.

Rob Pegoraro, Tech Writer/ Former Washington Post Tech Columnist Rob Pegoraro writes about computers, consumer electronics, telecom services, the Internet, software and other things that beep or blink. He did so from 1999 to 2011 as the Washington Post's personal-technology columnist and now writes for a variety of clients, including Discovery News.

Luke Peterschmidt, Designer of The Bakugan game Luke is an alcoholic, wants to be a cowboy, and hates writing Bios. He has spent the last 16 or so years working by playing. He is an award winning game-designer, an accomplished Brand Manager (Hasbro) and a successful entrepreneur. He starts most of his sentences with the word ‘He.’ Except this one. Luke’s current venture is Geek Dynasty, a company founded on the idea that geek gamers are first to find powerful activity patterns – they are the ultimate early adopters. Geek Dynasty focuses on utilizing geek-discovered activity patterns to the benefit of its clients. Luke is best known as the designer of the hit game Bakugan (See “goofy headshot” for images of game pieces). Bakugan has won all sorts of awards (toy of the year, etc…), and logged in an impressive NDA protected quadzillion dollars of sales. In addition to designing the gameplay, Luke also wrote the non-traditional marketing plan for the product, assisted in the plan’s implementation, and worked with almost every branch of the publishing company to assist them in speaking geek. Luke’s client list has included companies as diverse as the geek industry itself; from a high school teacher with an idea in a box, to Mattel, to a Las Vegas night club (they have their own geek-like culture). Other highlights of Luke’s past include selling the company he cofounded, Sabertooth Games, to Games Workshop (London: GAW) earning his investors a 500% ROI in 9 months, and finishing this Bio.

Michael Petricone, SVP, Government Affairs, Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) Michael Petricone is the senior vice president of government affairs for the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). In his position, Michael has been responsible for representing the CE industry’s position before Congress and the FCC on critical issues such as digital television broadband, driver safety and home recording rights. Mr. Petricone is a frequent speaker on policy issues impacting the consumer electronics industry, and in 2003 Michael was featured by Dealerscope Magazine as one of the technology industry’s “Top 40 Under 40". Mr. Petricone received his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center and his undergraduate degree from Tufts University. CEA represents more than 2,000 U.S. manufacturers of audio, video, accessories, mobile electronics, communication, information and multimedia products that are sold through consumer channels. CEA also sponsors and manages the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the world’s largest annual trade event showcasing consumer electronics products.

Jules Polonetsky, Director and Co-Chair, Future of Privacy Forum Jules serves as Director and Ch-chair of the Future of Privacy Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that seeks to advance responsible data practices. FPF’s current projects to advance transparency and control in a business-practical manner focus on online data use, smart grid, mobile data, apps and social media. As AOL’s former Chief Privacy Officer and SVP for Consumer Advocacy, Jules was responsible for ensuring that AOL’s users could trust the company with their information and for educating employees about best practices for advertising, content, and product development. Jules previously served for four years as Vice President, Integrity Assurance, at America Online Inc. The Integrity Assurance team was responsible for a wide range of consumer protection and risk management issues for AOL’s brands (America Online, AIM, Netscape, Compuserve, Mapquest, MoviePhone, Spinner, WinAmp, ICQ, Advertising.com) including privacy, advertising policy, content and community standards, product standards, parental controls, safety and accessibility for users with disabilities. From March 2000 through April 2002, Jules was Chief Privacy Officer and Special Counsel at DoubleClick, the advertising and marketing technology company that at the time was the largest internet company in New York City. In that role, he worked with DoubleClick clients to institute and police their privacy policies and managed compliance with data protection requirements for DoubleClick subsidiaries world-wide. In his Special Counsel role, Jules oversaw DoubleClick’s government affairs activities and consumer related advertising practices. From January 1, 1998 until he joined DoubleClick in March 2000, Jules served as the NYC Consumer Affairs Commissioner for Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. As New York City’s chief consumer law enforcement official, Jules was responsible for ensuring that all consumer advertising and sales complied with City, State and Federal consumer protection laws. Jules served as an elected member of the New York State Assembly from 1994 to 1997. From November 1992 through 1993, Jules was a legislative aide to Congressman Charles Schumer and was a District Representative for Congressman Steve Solarz from 1990 to 1992. Jules practiced law in the New York office of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan from 1989 to 1990. He is a graduate of New York University School of Law and Yeshiva University, and is admitted to the Bars of New York, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. Jules is also a Certified Information Privacy Professional. Jules has served on the boards of a number of privacy and consumer protection organizations including TRUSTe, the International Association of Privacy Professionals, the Privacy Committee of the Direct Marketing Association, the Children’s Advertising Review Unit of the Council of BBB’s, the Better Business Bureau (NY Region), and the Network Advertising Initiative. From 2000-2002, Jules chaired the CPO Council of the Internet Advertising Bureau. In 2001, Crain’s NY Business magazine named Jules one of the top technology leaders in New York City. Jules is a regular speaker at privacy and marketing industry events and has testified or presented as an industry expert before Congressional committees and the Federal Trade Commission.

Athena Polydorou, Director, Wireless Internet Development, CTIA Athena Polydorou has 15 years of experience in the telecom industry and has been Director of Wireless Internet Development at CTIA since September 2004. Athena facilitates strategic cross-carrier and cross-industry collaborations in the areas of mobile content and applications, with special focus on the development of classification and ratings guidelines. Additional areas of expertise include mobile web, mobile apps, mobile marketing, mHealth and the use of mobile in retail environments. Athena earned her Master's degree in Telecommunications from George Washington University and her Bachelor's degree in English from the University of Maryland at College Park. She is co-chair of the Women in Wireless Communications & Outreach Task Force.

Jon Potter, Principal, RPG Strategies Jon Potter is an entrepreneurial attorney and advocate who has been helping clients accomplish business and public policy goals for more than 20 years. In January 2010 Potter launched RPG Strategies, a boutique consulting firm that develops advocacy campaigns and organizations and provides strategic public and government affairs support. From 1998 until 2009 Potter founded and led the Digital Media Association. On behalf of Amazon.com, iTunes, Rhapsody, Pandora and many other members, Potter led successful industry efforts to modernize copyright law and ensure – through negotiation, arbitration, legislation and the SaveNetRadio campaign – fair royalties for Internet-based entertainment services. Prior to DiMA, Potter represented technology companies with regard to copyright and related legislation, including the Audio Home Recording Act, the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and the Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act. Potter is an accomplished public speaker who has testified before Congress and regulatory agencies many times. He was named a Top Technology Lobbyist by Legal Times and an “Unsung Hero of the Internet” by Interactive Week magazine.

Daniel Punt, VP of Business Development, AnyClip, Ltd. Daniel Punt, VP of Business Development for AnyClip, Ltd. has over 11 years managing strategic, operational, and creative teams. Prior to his work with AnyClip, Daniel served as VP of Business Development for GMX at Ascent Media as well as Director of Business Development at ABC Family/Disney Networks. Before working in the entertainment space, Daniel managed a team of 33 IT technicians in the US Navy. Daniel received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and earned his MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Hooman Radfar, CEO/Co-Founder, Clearspring As chief executive officer and co-founder, Hooman actively drives platform marketing and strategy initiatives at Clearspring. Last year, Hooman was called to visit the White House, where he, along with a handful of other successful, young technology entrepreneurs, discussed the economy with Obama administration officials. He was also recently named one of the Washingtonian's Tech Titans, Tech's Best Entrepreneurs in BusinessWeek and a finalist for Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year. Radfar is a sought after speaker and has shared his expertise with captive audiences at high-profile events such as ad:tech and Web 2.0 Expo and was recently a guest expert on the nationally syndicated Diane Rehm show on NPR. When he is not busy building a better Web, you can find him writing his blog Hooville (http://hoomanradfar.me/). Radfar graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with degrees in Economics and Computer Science. He also earned an M.S. from Carnegie Mellon University where he researched Social Networking Theory.

Don Rainey, General Partner, Grotech Ventures Don Rainey joined Grotech Ventures as a general partner in September 2007. With over $1B US under management, Grotech focuses on early stage information technology companies. Don currently serves on the boards of Grotech portfolio companies Clarabridge, HelloWallet, LivingSocial , Personal, SnappCloud, and Zenoss, as well as the Northern Virginia Chapter of the March of Dimes. In Fall 2008, Don was appointed for a second term as an emerging technology consultant to the Chief Information Officer of the US Department of Defense through the DeVenCi Program. The DeVenCi Program consists of a handful of venture capitalists who research and nominate companies to solve the US Department of Defenses's unmet technology needs. Don is also an Organizing Board member of the prestigious MindShare forum. In this role, he helps CEOs from the Greater Washington Metropolitan region’s most promising start-ups build long-term sustainable companies. This invitation-only group provides its annual CEO class with an opportunity to meet peers, Organizing Board members and prominent speakers in an intimate setting to exchange ideas and discuss current issues facing start-up companies. To date, more than 400 CEOs have graduated from the program, including some of the area’s most notable entrepreneurs. Don's long history in the tech industry includes serving as president at Attitude Network, one of the first online entertainment networks, which was sold to TheGlobe.com in 1999. He also managed channel distribution and brand marketing in 50 countries for IBM's $2 billion network hardware division and served as COO of DaVinci Systems where he spearheaded the company’s acquisition by ON Technology. Don designed and launched Novell’s much-emulated global Authorized Dealer Program in the late 80's. He currently heads the Capital Formation Committee for the Northern Virginia Technology Council. Don earned a B.B.A. from James Madison University and a M.S. in Bioscience Management from George Mason University. He serves on the Executive Advisory Council for the College of Business at James Madison University and he is an adjunct professor at American University where he teaches graduate courses entitled "New Venture Finance" and "Venture Capital and Private Equity". Don previously served on the Enterprise Investment Advisory Committee for the State of Maryland, and the Investment Advisory Board of the State of Virginia’s Growth Acceleration Program (GAP) as well as the board of the Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties Foundation.

Lee Rainie, Director, Pew Internet & American Life Project Lee Rainie is the Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a non-profit, non–partisan "fact tank" that studies the social impact of the internet. The Project has issued more than 250 reports based on its surveys that examine people's online activities and the internet's role in their lives. Lee is a co-author of Up for Grabs, Hopes and Fears, and Ubiquity, Mobility, Security, a series of books about the future of the internet published by Cambria Press and based on Project surveys. He is also co-authoring a book for MIT Press about the social impact of technology with sociologist Barry Wellman that will be published in mid-2011. The working title is Networking: The New Social Operating System. Prior to launching the Pew Internet Project, Lee was managing editor of U.S. News & World Report. He is a graduate of Harvard University and has a master's degree in political science from Long Island University.

Martin Ringlein, Co-founder & Senior Consultant, nclud Martin is a veteran creative director & passionate entrepreneur. Striving to bring together creativity and innovation, Martin has coined himself a business-oriented-designer. His enthusiasm for design is complemented by his progressive web-standards and industry best-practices mentality. Seeking inspiration in all that surrounds him drives this creativity and inspires his innovation. Martin has extensive experience building and managing web teams; creating innovation through design by advocating best practices in usability, accessibility and user-experience design complimented with semantic and extensible standards based development. With several years experience in a Creative Director role and a wide array of highly diverse skill sets and experiences; Martin has worked with and helped grow organization large and small, including Discovery Communications, Inc. and The Motley Fool to name a few. Martin is a member of the 9Rules Network and writes his successful blog on business-oriented-design at MarylandMedia.com. Martin is Co-Founder and Senior Consultant for nclud™

Joe Sabia, Creative Director, Get Whirled Joe Sabia is a creative director, video remix artist, and interactive storyteller. His career started in launching a digital lab at HBO, whereafter he created a start up subsequently acquired by NewsCorp. Currently, he is the co-founder of ad agency, Whirled, where he has spearheaded campaigns and video production for Interscope Records, NOKIA, BBC America, including Google's Zeitgeist and Google Goes Gaga videos. He is also a video curator and producer for Boing Boing Video and TV. His videos have been seen more than 32 Million times. He is also the 2007 International Pun Champion, can communicate in morse code, and once drove a tiny car from England to Mongolia.

Tige Savage, Managing Director & EVP, Revolution LLC Tige Savage co-founded Revolution LLC with Steve Case and serves as its Managing Director, where he oversees all of Revolution's venture capital efforts. Tige has been named one of Washington, D.C. area's 100 "Tech Titans" and serves or has served on the boards of Revolution portfolio companies LivingSocial, Revolution Money (American Express), Flexcar (Zipcar), UberMedia, Personal, Clearspring, SparkPeople, Snagfilms, and Qloud (Buzznet). From 2001 to 2003, Tige was vice president of Time Warner Ventures, where he led a team of investment professionals focused on equity investments in technology and next-generation media companies for AOL, HBO, Time Inc., Time Warner Cable, Turner, and Warner Bros. From 1998 to 2000 Tige was the executive vice president of Riggs Capital Partners, targeting investments in companies and funds at the intersections of technology and media, where Tige was responsible for all the administrative functions of the fund. From 1990-1996, Tige was an executive at Riggs National Bank, ultimately reporting to and serving as chief of staff to the Chairman and CEO, Joe Allbritton. During this period, Tige was also named to the board of Allbritton Communications Company, advising on its new media strategies. Allbritton ultimately launched such new media successes as Politico. Tige received his MBA with highest distinction from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business and his BBA from James Madison University.

Peter Scott, VP of Emerging Media, Turner Sports Peter Scott is vice president of emerging media for Turner Sports. Scott oversees digital operations and technology for delivery of NCAA and SI Digital live streaming in addition to Turner’s current portfolio which includes TNT OverTime on NBA.com and TNT RaceBuddy and PGA Championship Live. In addition, Scott oversees the strategic partnership with Yahoo! Sports. Prior to his current role, Scott was the executive director of digital partnerships for Turner Sports where he managed Turner’s digital rights for NASCAR.COM, NBA.com, PGA.com and PGATOUR.COM, as well as broadband channels TNT OverTime on NBA.com and TBS Hot Corner on MLB.com. His responsibilities included managing the day-to-day programming of interactive content on each of the sites, which includes live streaming coverage, widgets and downloads, interactive TV and wireless platforms. Since joining Turner Sports new media team in 2001, Scott has aided in developing NASCAR.com into one of the leading sports league Web sites on the Internet and diversifying Turner’s unique new media portfolio. For the past seven years he has helped to create a digital media team with diverse expertise that has attracted attention from other professional leagues and their peers throughout the digital media industry. His unique hybrid background of TV and digital platforms has helped Turner Sports develop into a leader in the digital sports business. Previously, Scott served as a senior video producer for FoxSports.com where he produced and directed the first live college football game streamed online. Prior to joining Fox, he served as a senior production manager of remote operations for Turner Sports, coordinating logistics for the production of NBA, NFL and MLB telecasts on TNT and TBS. Scott also spent six years as an editor and cameraman at CNN, covering such major events as the war in Bosnia and the U.S. invasion of Haiti. Scott earned his bachelor of arts degree in film and television, with a minor in business, from Boston University.

Daniel Sepulveda, Senior Advisor, Office of Senator John Kerry Sepulveda serves as a Senior Advisor and member of Senator Kerry’s senior management team while also handling the Senator’s extensive commerce, trade, and business portfolio including his work as chairman of the Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet. In the past year, the Subcommittee successfully moved legislation to increase access to the Internet for people with disabilities and conducted critical oversight over the evaluation of the Comcast-NBCU merger, retransmission consent disputes, and broadband policy. Senator Kerry led support in the Senate for the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement and continued to serve as a leader on innovation and competitiveness including introduction of the Start Up Visa Act. The Senator is turning his attention to spectrum reform and commercial privacy issues. Prior to joining Senator Kerry’s office, Daniel led a team that manages relations with Congress for the U.S. Trade Representative. The Office of Congressional Affairs acts as a point of contact for staff and members of Congress to ensure that our trade policy is responsive to their needs and interests. He successfully helped manage the transition team and helped secure the confirmation of the Ambassador. Daniel also managed trade, immigration, interstate commerce, labor, and ethics and lobbying reform issues for Senator Barack Obama from 2000-2004 and helped advise his campaign for President. He assisted Senator Obama on the Senate floor during the debate on CAFTA, the immigration debates in the last two sessions of Congress, and on the floor during the debates on ethics and lobbying. He also assisted him on labor issues as part of the Senator's responsibilities on the HELP Committee. In the four years before joining Senator Obama's office, Daniel worked for Senator Barbara Boxer, a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, advising her on trade, technology, telecommunications, media regulation, and consumer affairs. He also advised her on immigration and labor issues. Daniel also assisted Senator Boxer with her responsibilities as co-chair of the Democratic Technology and Innovation Working Group. Additional prior work experience includes service in the Clinton Administration in the Office of Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor and advocacy at the nation's largest Latino organization, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR). Mr. Sepulveda received a Master of Public Affairs from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in Public Policy and International Affairs. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History from Emory University.

Elizabeth Shea, President & CEO, SpeakerBox Communications Elizabeth Shea is president and CEO of SpeakerBox Communications, the firm she cofounded in 1997. In the decade since founding her own firm, Elizabeth’s passion for technology public relations has grown stronger and more finely tuned with the arrival of new communication strategies. Her biggest sense of accomplishment comes when her clients exceed their business goals. Elizabeth spent the first part of her career in Silicon Valley, working for Apple Computer, SuperMac Technologies and Momenta Computer. She relocated to the east coast to work for top-tier government integrators Falcon Microsystems, EdgeMark Systems and I-Net—companies that delivered Oracle, Apple, Silicon Graphics, Compaq, Sun Microsystems solutions and more. Elizabeth prides herself on being active in the community, giving back to the organizations that groom entrepreneurs and future business leaders and connecting people with shared interests. She serves as chair of the board for the Technology Marketing Alliance, a group she co-founded with other industry partners. She serves on the board of SECAF, the preeminent organization for small and emerging contractors. She also serves on the advisory council of George Mason University’s Communications Department, and on the leadership committee for Women In Technology. Elizabeth has received industry and peer accolades, including the prestigious SmartCEO Brava Award in 2009 and the 2008 Women Who Mean Business Award from The Washington Business Journal. Other awards include Women In Technology’s 2005 Entrepreneurial Leadership Award and Washington Women In Public Relations’ (WWPR) annual Women of the Year Award in 2001. She speaks on topics such as social media for CEOs, the new rules of engagement in marketing and PR, content marketing strategies, business-to-government (B2G) communication strategies, social media ROI, and more. Elizabeth is a graduate of Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business with a degree in marketing.

Ned Sherman, CEO, Digital Media Wire As CEO, Publisher and Executive Editor of Digital Media Wire, Inc., Ned Sherman works at the center of the rapidly growing digital media industry, where he brokers relationships and keeps a tab on the most important developments shaping the industry. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Publisher Ned Sherman is more than the average pundit: He is an attorney and has an inside grasp of what is happening." Ned has established Digital Media Wire as a leading online media company that provides daily news, information and community to tens of thousands of executives and professionals at entertainment, media and technology companies throughout the world and owns and produces nine annual conferences. The advertising, sponsorship, client, partner and subscriber relationships that Ned has brokered make Digital Media Wire one of the best known media and entertainment industry brands to emerge in the digital age. Ned is a frequent speaker at industry events in the U.S. and overseas and has been quoted in publications including American Lawyer, The Los Angeles Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and Crain's Mermigas on Media, interviewed and featured on C-SPAN, National Public Radio (NPR), NY1 Evening News and nationally syndicated radio shows, Inside Digital Media and WebTalk, and recognized in the Wall Street Journal. Before co-founding Digital Media Wire, Ned spent seven years as a corporate and entertainment attorney practicing at several of the leading law firms in the world. Ned is active in alumni affairs for Brown University and is currently Los Angeles Chair for Brown University's Alumni Interview Program. He has traveled extensively from Europe to Asia to South America to Northern Africa. Ned is married and lives with his wife, son and daughter in Los Angeles, California.

Paul Sherman, Editor-in-Chief, Potomac Tech Wire Paul Sherman is the editor and publisher of Potomac Tech Wire, which he co-founded in 1999. He also serves as the president of Tech Wire Media, which consists of five regional technology publications: Potomac Tech Wire, New England Tech Wire, Southeast Tech Wire, Tri-State Tech Wire and Bay Area Tech Wire. He has moderated over 40 seminars on various technology topics, ranging from venture capital to mobile technology to government technology procurement. He is the co-chair of the annual Digital Media Conference held each summer in Washington, D.C. Prior to founding Tech Wire, he worked for three years as the news assistant at The New York Times bureau in Mexico City, and wrote for the Economist Intelligence Unit, Latin Finance and Time magazine for two years. Paul received an M.B.A. from The Wharton School in 1999 and a B.A. in political science from Brown University in 1992.

Kurt Smith, Group Vice President of Sales, Verizon Digital Media Services (VDMS) Kurt Smith is group Vice President of Sales for Verizon Digital Media Services (VDMS), overseeing the division’s client acquisition, globally. Kurt’s organization consists of worldwide sales professionals including industry partners and architects, all with vertical expertise. His organization delivers an integrated end-to-end solution to content creators, digital retailers, and advertisers. In his previous position as Senior Manager of Business Development within Deloitte Consulting’s Media and Entertainment practice, Kurt was responsible for delivering strategic sales and support for Deloitte’s largest media customers throughout North America. Kurt began his career in 1986 with EMC, and held leadership positions at SAP, Scient, and BearingPoint. A native of New Jersey, he holds a Bachelor of Arts and Masters in Business Administration from Babson College.

Matt Spielman, GM Northeast/VP Strategic Partnerships, Eventful Matt Spielman is Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and General Manager for the Northeast Region for Eventful, Inc., the leading digital media company connecting over 20 million consumers with live entertainment and local events. Spielman enhances and builds key strategic business partnerships with leading brands and entertainment properties for Eventful. Spielman comes to Eventful from MTV Networks, where he worked as a Vice President in MTV Networks’ Generator Enterprise Solutions division. Working as a strategic implementer alongside senior marketers and content creators, he looked to deliver measurable business results. From the vantage point of sitting across the organization, Matt utilized the entirety of the MTV Networks portfolio of properties, brands and assets and looked to incorporate and leverage all appropriate mediums and platforms. He initiated and cultivated senior-level client relationships at many Fortune 500 companies, as well as young, emerging technology companies. During his 4 years within the group, Matt executed multi-platform campaigns for such companies as The Hershey Company, Nestle – Dreyer, Cisco, Pepsi, Samsung, Hewlett-Packard, and the New York Stock Exchange. In 2008, Matt was honored with the President’s Award for outstanding achievement within the MTV Networks Ad Sales division. He previously worked for mtvU, MTV Networks’ college television network which serves as an incubator for next-generation sales and marketing strategies for MTV Networks. During his two years at mtvU, Matt successfully built over a dozen new partnerships for the network that directly contributed to mtvU being one of the fastest growing networks within the MTV Networks portfolio. An entrepreneur at heart, Matt worked in a series of start-up or early-stage companies prior to entering Viacom. He served as VP of Account Management for IAG Research, which measures the effectiveness of TV advertising and engagement to TV programming. Managing a team of researchers, Matt advised senior level marketing executives on their television campaigns, and provided recommendations on how to make them more efficient and effective (IAG was acquired by Nielsen). He was VP of Sales and Marketing for Threshold Sports, an event planning and marketing firm, where he sold multi-platform sponsorship packages and worked with a variety of media partners. He also served as Director of Sales & Organizational Strategy for email marketing company Return Path, primarily working with Doubleclick, a strategic partner and investor in the business, and as Senior VP of Sales, Marketing, and Business Development, for web hosting company Virtualis where he built successful business partnerships that helped lead to the company’s acquisition by Allegiance Telecom. A graduate of Harvard Business School and Columbia University, Matt began his career as an analyst and Associate in Morgan Stanley’s Fixed Income Division.

David Steinberg, CEO, SnappCloud David Steinberg is the CEO of Washington, DC-based SnappCloud. SnappCloud is a “cloud and app broker” that delivers distribution to thousands of cloud services and app developers through large PC and platform OEMs. David Steinberg has over 30 years of high technology leadership experience in sales, operations, technology and executive management. He is a leader in cloud and app marketing and sales; most recently, he was CEO of one of the most successful cloud companies through its founding and sale to Symantec for $124M in 2008. Steinberg has been active in the technology communities of Washington, DC and Silicon Valley and has grown many early stage technology companies by developing focused marketing and leveraged channel sales programs. During his career, he has been Vice President of BioNetrix Software for global market development, Director of worldwide distribution for Check Point Software, and a founding officer of SynOptics, which became Bay Networks after merger. As SwapDrive CEO he helped their channel partners (Dell, Symantec, Intuit, HP, Best Buy, Time Warner Cable, et al.) deliver over five times the number of paid subscribers as all their competitors combined. Steinberg is active advising many young companies. He also serves as an advisor to Core Capital Partners, a Washington, DC based venture capital firm, and sits on several corporate and non-profit Boards' of Directors.

Sean Sullivan, Media Industry Architect, Verizon Digital Media Services Sean Sullivan is the Media Industry Architect for Verizon Digital Media Services. Sean joined Verizon Business in early 2005 (formerly MCI) to start-up its Media & Entertainment initiatives. An industry veteran with over 20 years in broadcast transmission and media delivery services, Sean has served in many roles addressing satellite transmission, media file, and fiber optic delivery solutions to the broadcast community for news, distribution, and syndication. Sean graduated from New York University Film Institute and attended the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. He spent over a decade on the client side of the media business working at Hollywood Studios and Television production companies creating Film and television productions. Sean worked at WOLD Communications on the vendor solutions side of the transmission industry in California before returning to his roots on the East Coast to join Teleglobe and build its broadcast media delivery business in 1997. Sean was one of the pioneers integrating teleport services with fiber optic networks and creating seamless transport for US and Japanese broadcasters from Canadian gateways to major cities around the world.

Paul Sweeting, Principal, Concurrent Media Strategies / Analyst, GigaOm Pro Paul Sweeting has covered the home entertainment and technology industries for more than 15 years for such publications as Daily Variety, Billboard, Video Business and Publishers Weekly. His widely read weekly column in Video Business focuses on technology trends, intellectual property issues, Internet and technology policy, and business and financial developments in the home entertainment industries. In 2006 he developed and launched ContentAgenda.com, an online business-to-business news portal and blog site focused on the intersection of entertainment content and digital technology. The Web site is part of the Variety Group of Reed Business Information. Sweeting is based in Washington, DC and has a Bachelor’s degree from Columbia University.

Michael Tavani, Founder, Scoutmob Michael is co-founder of Scoutmob and leads their business operations, strategy and marketing. Scoutmob is a venture-backed & nationally recognized flash commerce company: Mashable Awards Top 5 Best Mobile App in 2010, Webby Award for Top 5 Mobile App in the shopping category, Rolling Stone Top 10 Tech Trends for 2011 and Forbes 21 Cool Products & Services You Can Get For Free. Michael was recently awarded Mobile Marketer of the Year by the Tech Marketing Awards and has been quoted in/on CNN, NBC, The Washington Post, Mashable, NPR, Fox News, Travel + Leisure, National Geographic, CBS, The Clark Howard Show and The Huffington Post. He's also spoken and presented to business schools and at technology, social commerce, email, social media, mobile marketing and startup panels. Prior to Scoutmob, Michael co-founded SkyBlox, a local Wi-Fi marketing company that became the first company to ever raise financing via Twitter. SkyBlox was named to Network World's list of 2009 mobile/wireless companies to watch. He previously worked in professional sports marketing for the Atlanta Hawks, Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA) and Major League Soccer (MLS). Michael lives in Atlanta with his wife, Stephanie and son, Jarrett and received a Juris Doctorate from Barry University School of Law and a BA in Journalism from The University of Georgia.

Jeff Tennery, Senior Vice President, Publisher Services, Millennial Media As Senior Vice President, Publisher Services, Jeff is responsible for the growth and development of the company’s industry-leading mobile publisher and developer portfolio. Jeff brings over 20 years of sales and marketing experience in the wireless telecommunications industry, including executive roles at Verizon Wireless, SunCom (Telecorp PCS), nTelos and AT&T Wireless. In 2001, as the Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Telecorp PCS, Jeff was a key member of the executive team that facilitated AT&T Wireless’ acquisition of the company. In addition, Jeff served as vice president of wireless sales and operations at nTelos where he played a pivotal role in the company’s IPO in 2006. Jeff has also achieved great success as a mobile application advisor throughout his career, consulting venture capital firms (Edison Ventures, Sycamore), and start-up companies in the mobile imaging (dotPhoto), mobile payments (First Data Corp.), mobile gaming (Sonic Branding, AirMedia), and mobile entertainment business (ESPN).

Justin Thorp, Director of Publisher Happiness, Clearspring As the Director of Publisher Happiness, Justin Thorp supports all the publishers using Clearspring's AddThis sharing platform. During his time at Clearspring, Justin has seen the AddThis community grow to over 1 billion unique visitors, 9 million domains (ranging from The White House to Budweiser) and sharing capabilities to over 320 online services (including everything from Twitter to Netherland-based Hyves). Before joining Clearspring, Justin helped advise the Library of Congress on the future of its Web strategy. In his spare time, Justin enjoys sitting in coffee shops and trying the world’s craft beers.

Alex Vetter, SVP, Cars.com As senior vice president of advertising for Cars.com, Alex Vetter oversees the company's various sales channels, including local dealer sales and national manufacturer accounts. Prior to this role, Vetter served as vice president of network sales and has been responsible for dealer product development, client services and network operations. He joined Classified Ventures, LLC, Cars.com's parent company, in September 1997 as business development manager. From the formation of the original Cars.com business strategy to the rollout of Cars.com into its first 80 affiliate markets, Vetter has been a driving force in the business. Since taking the helm of dealer sales in 1999, he has helped grow the network to more than 16,000 dealers. Vetter has extensive experience in sales, marketing and product development, including international development and promotional experience. From 1993 to 1994, he was a market development officer for the English Lacrosse Union in Europe, where he handled international marketing expansion for the 1994 Lacrosse World Cup. Vetter moved to Chicago in 1994 and worked in a variety of sales and marketing roles before joining the Tribune Co.'s database and direct marketing group in 1995. He later was named business development manager for Tribune Interactive/Tribune Media Services, where he was responsible for building new online services, managing syndication partnerships with America Online Inc. and developing a custom website-building business. Vetter received a bachelor's degree with concentrations in history and psychology in 1993 from Rhode Island's Providence College, where he was a four-year Division I lacrosse athlete.

Mike Vorhaus, President, Magid Advisors Mike Vorhaus is President of Magid Advisors, and founded the Magid Internet and New Media research and consultation practice in 1995, with AOL and Excite as his first two clients. Mike’s team has completed over 2,500 engagements with over 100 Internet clients. Mike began the Magid Gaming Practice in 2001 with EA and Sony Online as his first two clients. The Magid Game Practice now works with most of the major game publishers. Mike provides research and consulting services to a number of major traditional media companies in regard to their new media initiatives, as well as consulting a number of leading Internet and gaming companies. He has also provided advice to venture capital and private equity firms in regard to investments in the media space. Mike has been involved in strategic and tactical consulting, including the launch of new services and programming, as well as development and implementation of online and offline marketing programs. Mike has also been extensively involved in video and PC gaming strategies for a number of our companies, as well as the development of game concepts. Mike has consulted on a number of film projects such as You’ve Got Mail and The Matrix. He holds a B.S. in psychology and sociology from Wesleyan University and has worked as a fundraiser and transfer of technology officer at the California Institute of Technology and the University of California. Mike also worked for the U.S. House of Representatives, The U.S. Senate, and for two Administrations in the White House.

Brenda Walker, Managing Publisher & VP of Marketing, The Zumobi Network Brenda is a seasoned creative executive with extensive experience negotiating partnerships, acquiring content, managing talent and crafting marketing campaigns. She is the Managing Publisher and VP of Marketing for The Zumobi Network, a top mobile media publishing company that works with media brands such as the TODAY show, msnbc, MOTOR TREND and Marvel. Previously, she was lead principal of Rebel Content, a marketing and content consulting firm for digital music companies, startups and artists. Prior to her work at Rebel, she was Director of Content Development for Starbucks Coffee Company, acquiring music for the chain’s stores worldwide. Brenda also spent six years as a business development and ecommerce consultant, helping labels, artists and nonprofit organizations launch businesses on the web. Her recording industry experience includes Island Records, A&M/Perspective Records and Virgin Records where she worked as Director of Artists & Repertoire and Senior Director of Marketing & Artist Development, negotiating promotional partnerships with Adidas, Delta Airlines, Compaq and the FIFA Women's World Cup. A Harvard College graduate, Brenda is a Recording Academy governor, leading advocacy initiatives for the Pacific Northwest Chapter.

Heather Way, Research Analyst, Parks Associates Heather Way studies digital media advertising services and platforms as well as consumer research focusing on digital entertainment, digital media habits, and consumer purchase processes. Prior to joining Parks Associates, Heather worked in the Dallas-Fort Worth media market for thirteen years, holding positions as Director of Advertising, media planner and buyer, national sales representative, and training coordinator. Most recently, Heather taught as an adjunct professor in the Department of Radio, Television, and Film at the University of North Texas. Heather earned an MS degree in Radio, Television, and Film from the University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, and holds a BS in Mass Communications from East Central University, Ada, Oklahoma.

Gayle Weiswasser, VP of Social Media, Discovery Gayle Weiswasser is the Vice President of Social Media Communications at Discovery Communications, where she oversees social media strategy for Discovery and its networks and corporate initiatives. This includes managing the networks’ Facebook and Twitter strategy and implementation, as well as social media outreach, partnerships with social TV services, and social media monitoring. She also handles PR for the company’s digital group. Prior to her position at Discovery, Gayle worked at Arlington-based crisis communications firm TMG strategies, where she advised Fortune 500 companies on using social media during times of crisis. She has a law degree from Harvard Law School, and formerly practiced both intellectual property and transactional law in Washington DC and San Francisco.

Mike West, Chief Technology Officer & Co-Founder, GenosTV, the Genos Corporation Mike West is the Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of GenosTV and the Genos Corporation. He is a graduate of The University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, holding Masters and Bachelors degrees in Electrical and Natural Sciences. He has 25 US patents issued with several more in process, plus numerous other inventions and publications. He is a subject matter expert in Consumer Electronics, including Multimedia, Video Games, Digital TV, Mobile Media, Mobile Games, and Digital Camera platforms. Mike held a broad range of technical leadership positions in engineering, architecture, R&D, strategy, business development and client consulting during 28 years at IBM, both in the United Kingdom and the United States. He was a pioneer in the IBM initiative that led to custom IBM processors in every major video game console available today. He has directed multi-disciplined development and client-facing technical teams in international and multi-national environments. Prior to Genos Corporation, Mike had his own high-tech consulting practice while also serving as the Chief Technology Officer and Director of Innovation at SMARTtv and SMART Holding USA.

Vyqué White, Director of New Media, USO Vyqué White is the Director of New Media of the USO (United Service Organization), a private, non-profit organization dedicated to lifting the spirits of America's service members and their families by providing a touch of home though centers at airports and military bases, quality entertainment and innovative programs and services. She is responsible for developing the organization's social media strategy and initiatives, as well as coordinating the communication efforts of the USO's 150+ centers worldwide. In support of the White House, she's currently managing the social media strategy and tactics of the Joining Forces campaign, as well as the the processes for vetting the thousands of messages of thanks submitted through JoiningForces.gov and the USO's own site. Previously she served as the Interactive Marketing Manager at Sallie Mae, where she built their social marketing department from scratch, creating a comprehensive engagement strategy spanning all major social media platforms, including a scholarship search Facebook App and customer service account on Twitter. She has more than five years personal experience in social media, having developed a small fashion blog into an internationally visited site, which in turn has led to engagements with Conde Nast, Hachette Filipacchi Media, Coveted Media and IMG Fashion. Vyqué received her Bachelor of Science degree in Media Arts and Design from James Madison University.

Michael Winter, VP, Digital Strategy Director, Initiative Michael Winter is the Vice President, Director, Digital Strategy for Initiative. A strategist with expertise in emerging and digital media, product marketing, organization development and business development, he joined the agency in 2010 and serves as the lead for accounts. With more than 16 years of experience in the media and marketing industries, Michael has proven himself to be a successful multidisciplinary strategist through his work with clients including American Express, Apple, Procter & Gamble and Volkswagen. Working in both freelance and agency positions, Michael has held a variety of responsibilities including research, planning, execution and optimization of all media formats as well as client-side product development and marketing. Prior to joining Initiative Michael was the Associate Media Director at Digitas from 1999-2001. He oversaw a variety of accounts including Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Delta, Seagram’s, Allstate Insurance and American Express, where he helped launch Blue by American Express, one of the most successful new card launch in American Express’s history. After leaving Digitas, Michael honed his skills in analytical insights to create innovative and break-through approaches to clients’ marketing and communication challenges, working for companies including Improv Technologies, Beyond Interactive, Agency.com, and Zenith Interactive/Moxie Interactive. Michael first pursed his passion for creativity in problem-solving at the University of Pittsburgh, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Film Studies along with a minor in both Economics and Asian Studies. He now makes his home in Westchester, NY with his wife Maggie, daughter Dylan Emma and son Hudson Jack.

Phil Wiser, Co-Founder & President, Sezmi Phil Wiser is co-founder, chairman and president of Sezmi. Prior to Sezmi, formerly known as Building B, Wiser served as chief technology officer of Sony Corporation of America (SCA). In this role, Wiser led SCA's overall digital media business and technology strategy and was responsible for coordinating these efforts across Sony's content and electronics companies. Wiser joined Sony Music in 2001 as the leader of their digital media group. He forged the ground breaking deals with iTunes and pioneered the mobile music space during his tenure at Sony Music. Prior to joining Sony Music, Wiser co-founded Liquid Audio, Inc. and served on its board of directors and as chief technology officer. At Liquid Audio, Phil created the first commercial internet music distribution platform and led the creation of key technologies that now enable the digital music marketplace. Wiser holds a series of patents in digital music distribution, audio compression and processing and security as a result of these efforts. Prior to Liquid Audio, Wiser worked extensively in Silicon Valley developing audio algorithms and audio processing systems for several professional and consumer audio organizations including Chromatic Research, Studer Editech Corporation, Sonic Solutions and Euphonix. Wiser holds a summa cum laude bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland and a master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University. He spent time at the world-renowned Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) during his tenure at Stanford.

Charles Worthington, Manager, Altman Vilandrie & Co. Charles Worthington is a Manager with Altman Vilandrie & Co., a boutique management consulting group that focuses exclusively on the communications, media, and related technology and investor sectors. At AV&Co., Charles has led dozens of engagements involving new product development and business case modeling, pricing optimization, primary customer research and investment due diligence. His areas of expertise include emerging technologies and services such as OTT video, cloud computing, mobile applications and targeted digital advertising. In 2009, Charles took a leave of absence from AV&Co. to serve a term appointment at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) where he helped develop the National Broadband Plan, released in March of 2010. Charles received his B.A. from Harvard University in Social Studies.

Kevin Yam, Director, Mobile and Interactive Products, National Geographic Kevin is the Director of Mobile and Interactive Products at National Geographic, where he leads strategy and planning for all of the Society’s digital products. He is responsible for developing new, interactive digital experiences across all of National Geographic divisions including magazines, the Nat Geo Channel, maps, books, kids, travel, games and digital media. Kevin has played a key role in launching and growing mobile as a division which has produced a variety of mobile and interactive products including apps for phones, tablets, e-readers and interactive televisions, video services, personalization and mobile-optimized websites. Prior to National Geographic, Kevin worked for a number of leading companies including AOL, Lucent Technologies and Siemens where he helped to create and bring innovative products to market through his expertise in product management, marketing, product development, and business development. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and a MSE in Biomedical Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University.