Speakers

Karin was first exposed to the impact of positive youth development when she worked with Summerbridge, an academic enrichment program. There she learned that recognizing one's own power and potential was the first step toward taking leadership to transform lives and communities. Building on other valuable lessons learned from professional and volunteer experiences, Karin today oversees several Make a Connection programs in Central and Eastern Europe as part of the Nokia-International Youth Foundation Global Youth Development Initiative. She currently is pursuing an M.A. in Youth Development with MSU and holds a B.A. in International Relations from CND.

William manages all advertising related business for myYearbook. Over the past year he has helped grow myYearbook’s advertising revenue from a nascent start-up to a robust multi-million dollar organization while establishing relationships with many major brands and agencies. Prior to joining myYearbook, William was the Director of Internet Advertising for Scholastic, the world's largest children's book publisher, successfully helping to build the Web advertising business. William began his Internet advertising career with DoubleClick, where he helped launch DoubleClick's SONAR network.

Neelanjana is the editor of YO! Youth Outlook Multimedia, a youth development media organization based in San Francisco. YO! originated in the early 1990s as one of the first media organizations dedicated to developing youth voice. Today the organization publishes a magazine, broadcasts a weekly television show called YO!TV on the local CW Network, airs weekly YO!Radio segments on KMEL 106.1 radio and has an active Web site, where it publishes everything from in-depth news stories to video blogs. Banerjee also is the managing editor of Hyphen magazine - a national Asian American magazine.

Since the age of 17, Adisa has been reporting on hip-hop music and its global influence. That led him become a student of music, religion, and martial arts history, eventually placing him in high demand on the speakers circuit. Adisa has lectured at prestigious universities such as Harvard, Brown, Stanford and countless others. In the past 15 years, his extensive knowledge has led him to a successful career in marketing, public relations, television and radio. He founded the Hip-Hop Chess Federation, a non-profit that empowers today's youth using the positive aspects of music, chess and martial arts to promote unity, strategy and nonviolence. Adisa also orchestrated a joint licensing agreement for Chesspark.com to create the first online chess and urban social networking community, Wuchess.com.

Lauren has more than 20 years of experience leading interactive media companies that push online content, self-expression and marketing to the next level. From mobile and Web-based models, to virtual worlds and social networking communities, Lauren has a track record in emerging technology. She currently leads WeeWorld's North American growth strategy, product management and worldwide marketing. Lauren has held executive positions at companies such as Lycos, AltaVista, Mobot and SkyGo and was honored as one of the Top 25 Most Wired Women in Boston.

Juliette is an honors student attending Washington University in St. Louis. At age ten, Juliette tapped into her creative side to draw what she referred to as "cool girls." After five years of "just play," and with the help of her sister, cousin, mom and friends, Miss O & Friends was formed "by girls, for girls, featuring real girls" to fill the void for tweens who have outgrown Barbie and are not ready for Britney.

Matt Britton is known throughout the advertising and promotions community as an expert in marketing to college students and young adults. In September of 2002, Matt became a founding partner of Mr. Youth LLC. Matt currently serves the company as the Chief Of Brand Development, and oversees all sales, marketing, and public relations activities within the firm. Mr. Youth is now the fastest growing youth marketing firm the nation per PROMO Magazine. Mr. Youth's clients include Microsoft, JetBlue Airways, Kimberly-Clark, and General Motors. In 2004, Mr. Youth was awarded with the International Globes Award for the best use of Event Marketing in the world. In addition Mr. Youth was ranked as the #6 in the nation in the "quality of work" category by PROMO Magazine in 2005. Matt is a graduate of Boston University's College of Communication and resides with his wife Elyse and daughter Ella.

Carl aims to use the upsurge of web broadcast capabilities to create personal stories that highlight important social and political issues facing California residents. In 2002, Carl moved from Brooklyn to the Bay Area to start his own freelance video production company, Corduroy Media. His concern with social inequality, environmental racism and corporate control of information and media outlets motivates his projects with independent artists, non-profit foundations and educational groups in the Bay Area and New York.

At Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the media lives of kids and families, Linda oversees digital media strategy, program development and outreach to the education segment as well as the growth and operation of the organization's regional offices. Previously, Linda was senior vice president of business development and corporate planning at SyStemix, a biotechnology start-up that she helped build and then sell to Novartis. Previously, she was a strategic management consultant serving healthcare and consumer-product companies at McKinsey and worked in investment banking at Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch, where she negotiated joint ventures between U.S. technology companies and the People's Republic of China.

Caroline is on the launch team of Rothbury, a camping-destination music festival whose goal is to raise awareness and action around alternative energy and business sustainability. Previously, she was Vice President of National Alliances at Live Nation, National Director of Sales at Primedia Internet Group and Network Director of ChickClick.com.

A self-proclaimed pundit in the area of youth, culture and technology, by day Jennifer is a principal at Listen2Youth, a marketing research firm focusing on kids and technology. While shepherding The Worldwide Teen Lab for her client Alcatel-Lucent, she writes a blog helping techies stay focused on the youth user-experience. By night she morphs into cyber-mom, blogging about the strange intersection between parenthood and technology. You also can find her on Twitter, chirping about the juxtaposition of her professional and personal life.

For the last ten years, Bill and his partners and employees have developed Fuse into a leading youth culture marketing services firm. In 2002, Bill received Fast Company's Fast 50 Award for his impact on popular culture and in 2001 was awarded Sports Business Journal's Forty Under 40 Award as one of the most influential and important young executives in sports. Bill has been widely quoted in media ranging from Paper and Skateboarder magazines to The New York Times and Advertising Age. Bill provides counsel on many of Fuse's client initiatives and currently advises Yahoo!, Harley-Davidson, Mountain Dew (Pepsi), NBC Sports and others. Bill holds a BA from Gettysburg College and an MS from Michigan State University.

Karl helped launch Inner City Enterprises, a strategic communications and entertainment holding company, to develop and launch creative programs that engage urban youth audiences worldwide. The company has four integrated business segments: GTM...It Means A Lot, a youth marketing and promotions agency; Soul Underground, a live, positive entertainment platform for showcasing the best in underground urban talent; Wheat Bread Clothing, a progressive urban streetwear apparel company; and Change the Game, a non-profit community outreach initiative. Karl is responsible for designing innovative media and new business pitches targeting the youth subculture market. He holds an undergraduate degree in business administration from George Washington University, where he specialized in electronic media marketing.

Molly joined Cartoon Network New Media in 2002. CartoonNetwork.com, currently seen in more than 88 million homes in the United States, is the Internet's top destination for cartoons, with hundreds of games featuring the world's most popular cartoon stars, plus television's largest online trading community, video clips, schedule information and more. Molly oversees production of content and games as well as distribution across digital platforms at Cartoon Network New Media and has extended the reach of its shows into the online, mobile and games space. In 2005, Molly oversaw an event in support of Codename: Kids Next Door that earned an Emmy nomination. She has ten years of experience in the new media industry, including ownership of two start-up companies and seven years at TBS.

Andrew is a blogger and startup executive focused on advertising and social media. He writes the blog Futuristic Play (andrewchen.typepad.com) and recently was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV), a Silicon Valley-based firm with $2 billion under management. At MDV, Andrew pursued initiatives in digital media and advertising, and was instrumental in MDV’s $20 million investment in Hi5.com, the leading social network for international audiences with 75 million registered users.

Director Guy (aka Todd) is the creator of Midwest Teen Sex Show. In an effort to showcase his filmmaking talents and provide a fresh take on teen sexuality, Guy began shooting Midwest Teen Sex Show with high school friend Nikol Hasler. Since its debut, the show has received millions of views and has been featured in national press. When he's not busy editing episodes or duct taping Britney's nipples, Guy produces new media content for online and broadcast venues. His commercial work and consulting services can be found at H-PEP.com.

Vickie is responsible for the strategic direction, production and operations of ABC Family Digital Media, as well as efforts related to the development of direct-to-digital programming and other new media initiatives for ABC Family. Since joining ABC Family in July 2006, Vickie has led the evolution of ABCFamily.com from a marketing support site to a user focused, fan-driven entertainment site offering options that allow consumers to participate and have fun - like widgets, blogs, embeddable video, user profiles, and commenting. ABCFamily.com encourages discovery and sharing, while offering content that a fan is passionate about like video, behind-the-scenes, innovative storytelling and music from our top Millennial targeted shows. Previously, Vickie was Director, Product Management and Marketing with Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Online.

AddictingGames is part of the Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group, and with more than 20 million visitors a month, AddictingGames.com is the largest youth-oriented online game site in the United States and one of the most popular Web sites among teens. It has grown its library to more than 3,000 games. Kate manages the site's business and daily operations. Prior to joining AddictingGames, Kate launched and led product marketing for the downloadable games business at Shockwave.com and managed business development for its parent company, Atom Entertainment. She formerly was an associate at Advent International, a private equity firm, and an analyst at Volpe, Welty, a boutique investment bank.

Jaime has worked in education, politics and the performing arts in many capacities. With GenerationEngage in San Jose, he hosts video conferences with leading policy makers and elected officials designed to connect young adults to the political conversation. He also instituted a film screening initiative that creates community dialogue on pressing local, national and international issues. Jaime holds a graduate degree in international conflict resolution from St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas.

myYearbook is Geoff's third multi-million dollar Internet enterprise, all grown from zero traffic and zero revenue to significant market-leading properties. In 1997, at age 19, Geoff founded EssayEdge.com and ResumeEdge.com from a Harvard dorm room. His Wired feature story outing himself as a dorm room entrepreneur helped lead Harvard to lift its centuries-old ban on dorm room entrepreneurship. Geoff later sold his company to The Thomson Corporation. He departed Thomson in 2005 to join forces with myYearbook's teenage founders -- Catherine Cook, age 15, and David Cook, age 16 -- Geoff's sister and brother. Geoff was instrumental in raising $8 million in angel financing, venture capital, and venture debt to build the young company into the U.S. teen social networking leader.

What They Like provides parents with guides and resources about popular entertainment. John brings more than 18 years of experience in the interactive entertainment media industry to his role as president of What They Like, where he manages the daily operation of the company and directs all content generation for the brand and its products. With expertise in every major sector of videogame media, John has contributed to a variety of well respected print and online consumer and trade publications in the United States and Europe. Prior to founding What They Like, he was senior vice president and editorial director of the Ziff Davis Game Group, where he shaped and directed all 1UP Network editorial products, including 1UP.com, MyCheats.com, GameVideos.com, a suite of podcasts, and Games for Windows: The Official Magazine.

Roland is a co-founder and the vice president of marketing at Kadoink, where he is responsible for leading the company's marketing strategy initiatives and product expansion efforts. Previously, as senior vice president at Grey Worldwide advertising in San Francisco, Roland was responsible for managing engagements with global B2C and B2B firms including SanDisk, McAfee, Experian, WellPoint, Macrovision and Cisco. While at Grey, he directed the launch of the highly successful SanDisk Sansa MP3 player aimed at the Gen Y market as well as the branding and market introduction of Tonik, WellPoint's first-ever insurance product aimed at 19-29 year olds. Roland also was a co-founder of bSource.com, the vice president of marketing at Visible Interactive, and an account director at Saatchi & Saatchi.

Allison has been working with children of all ages for over 15 years. As a teacher, librarian and literacy specialist, the promotion of quality literature for children and young adults has been a central career focus. Her education and professional background reflects a consistent emphasis on addressing the issues and challenges most relevant to young readers today. As the Ypulse Books editor, Allison brings a discriminating voice and fresh approach to coverage of the young adult publishing industry. She's also a hard-core knitter and mother of a two-year-old son.

An accomplished marketing professional, business launch expert and retail entrepreneur, Nicole is also a pop culture fanatic and anime lover. Having practiced marketing, communications and business consulting for nearly 20 years, she has extensive experience in developing brands and guiding companies through multiple phases of their lifecycle. She has participated in more than 30 company launches, including four of her own. She holds an executive board seat for Chop's Teen Club. Nicole owns marketing strategy firm Turning Point Solutions, as well as Kamikaze POP, a new "community marketplace" retail and online concept where teens and people of all ages can find, buy, and enjoy anime and pop culture entertainment.

Brian oversees all aspects of strategy, finance, sales and operations of the social media advertising platform, Brickfish. He previously served as executive vice president of corporate development and chief strategy officer for Macrovision, a leader in copyright protection for the entertainment and video games industries, and was general manager of the company's digital cinema and video games businesses. Prior to that, he served as chief executive of Metavize, vice president of operations, corporate counsel and chief financial officer of Phase 2 Automation, and in financial management positions at Amdahl Corporation and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Brian, who also practiced law at Fenwick and West, holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Notre Dame and a JD from Santa Clara University School of Law. He is a certified public accountant and a member of the California Bar.

Cindy oversees Poppy, a new imprint from Little, Brown and Company Books for Young Readers that focuses on commercial fiction for teenage girls. She is the editor of several #1 national bestselling series, including Gossip Girl and The It Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar, and The Clique by Lisi Harrison, as well as the national bestselling series The A-List by Zoey Dean and Poseur by Rachel Maude. Some of her novels include Haters by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, the Secrets of My Hollywood Life series by Jen Calonita, and Betwixt by Tara Bray Smith. Cindy is also the editor of Darren Shan's national bestselling series Cirque Du Freak and The Demonata.

An authority on comic art, Andrew has developed more than 50 exhibitions over the past decade. In addition to his duties with San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum, the only museum of its kind in the western United States, Andrew has written for publications including the Comics Journal and Comics Reporter, Animation World Network and the Marvel Holiday Special. Andrew is married to comic creator and editor Shaenon K. Garrity and resides in San Francisco.

Aria oversees all marketing and business development activities at Do Something, the national not-for-profit that enables teens to convert their energy and ideas into positive action. With her extensive experience in the field of cause-related marketing, Aria oversees initiatives with the Take Action Tour, Aeropostale, JPMorganChase, Sprint and other top teen brands. Her expertise also lies in baking brownies and blondies, but she has a serious weakness for vanilla cupcakes from her favorite New York City bakery. Aria holds a BA in economics and political science from Washington University in St. Louis.

Michael is an Emmy-award winning director, photographer and youth culture expert based in Los Angeles and New York. His book, One Hundred Young Americans, was released in November 2007 by HarperCollins. The book features hundreds of his photographs of teens from every state as well as biographies and essays on teen life in America. Michael founded and, for ten years, ran Public Interest, a nonprofit ad agency that created youth-targeted advertising for MTV and other networks. Public Interest clients included organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Girl Scouts of America, Elton John AIDS Foundation, Partnership for a Drug Free America, Rock the Vote, Google and Nationwide Insurance. Previously, Michael was associate director of Cambridge Technology Partners, where he managed software development projects for clients such as Charles Schwab, Fannie Mae and Cisco. Michael holds degrees in cognitive science from Carnegie Mellon and in film production from the University of Southern California.

Liz is a staff writer at the GigaOM network, where she edits and writes for NewTeeVee.com, a publication devoted to online video, in addition to contributing stories about web software to GigaOM.com. GigaOM is a set of tech news sites combining the power of personal publishing with journalism and analysis. Prior to GigaOM, Liz was a reporter at Red Herring.

A digital media veteran, Jonas is dedicated to expanding the reach of Aniboom's content across platforms through distribution deals and strategic alliances. He has a wealth of experience in the digital content, mobile and music arenas and utilizes this experience to create partnerships for Aniboom with new and emerging digital technology as well as traditional, established companies. Previously, Jonas served as senior vice president of business development for Moderati, where he oversaw carrier distribution and relations, content licensing and business alliances, and senior business development manager for Listen.com. He began his career in investment banking, serving as a mergers and acquisitions analyst at Wasserstein Perella.

Anastasia is an award-winning blogger and often-quoted expert on American tweens, teens and early twentysomethings. Her blog, Ypulse.com, reaches a highly influential audience of agency, brand and media executives as well as social marketers trying to reach youth. The blog has been featured in several leading publications including USA Today, BusinessWeek, Forbes and Fast Company. Anastasia was one of the first graduates of the Medill School of Journalism's new media program at Northwestern University, where she earned an MSJ in 1999. Her first book about teens and technology, Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online, was published by St. Martin's Press in 2007.

Since 1994, Tracy has been a pioneer in marketing research, measurement, and information resources on the Internet. In 1998, Tracy's company Word of Net created the Visibility Index, which measured the visibility of Web sites and was published as a regular feature in AdvertisingAge magazine. Word of Net pioneered many of the search engine Internet marketing tools in use today. The company was acquired by Inceptor. Tracy is on the children's educational advisory board for the Geffen Theater in Los Angeles and co-chair of Milk and Bookies, an organization that donates books to children of low-income families. Tracy is a wife and the mother of three girls, and she lives in Los Angeles.

Nancy is the founder and chief executive officer of the groundbreaking international publication, New Moon: The Magazine for Girls and Their Dreams, author of How to Say it to Girls: Communicating with Your Growing Daughter, and host of the New Moon parents' blog. Nancy is a national leader in the movement to empower girls and foster their creativity and self-confidence. New Moon's unique model puts girls in charge of the final product, a beautiful, advertisement-free magazine with more than 100,000 readers worldwide. As put into practice by Nancy at New Moon, truly collaborative work by girls and adults is a promising counterbalance to societal pressures which lead many adolescent girls to abandon their dreams and silence their voices.

Born Stanley Kirk Burrell in Oakland, California in 1962, this immensely popular recording artist synthesized the street sounds of African-American and pop culture, earning the respect of his community and creating a global phenomenon with tours in Asia, Europe, Australia and Russia. His success led to a television adventure cartoon hero named "Hammerman" and a Mattel Hammer doll. Hammer has won a multitude of awards including three Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, The People’s Choice Award, and the Billboard Diamond Award. Hammer stayed close to his roots and is praised as a role model for youth for his community commitment and his, "Help The Children Foundation." He brings both traditional and new media expertise into the public forum and social media destination Dancejam.

All By Students was launched by two students who brought a simple and innovative marketing platform to the college market by actually understanding how you can reach them and their peers on campus. Their grassroots initiative has grown from 10,000 students to more than 1,000,000 in under two years and now has brands like Wrigley, GEICO, Ford, Unilever, and AT&T counting on it to reach the millennial demographic in the most captive, engaging, and authentic of ways. Ken was one of those two students.

Nikol is an expert of absolutely nothing with an opinion on just about everything. In the summer of 2007 she began writing for and hosting the video podcast Midwest Teen Sex Show. As a working mother of three, there is no such thing as free time. If there was, Nikol would use that time to paint, write and cook. Much of her professional focus is in encouraging people to talk about their own ideas concerning sex. She is grateful to have this opportunity to combine a warped sense of humor with a frank perspective on her own life experiences.

Sejal is a 16-year-old peacemaker who believes that all girls have the power to shape their globe and assert themselves as ambassadors for change. Galvanized by the suffering and poverty she witnessed in many girls around the world, when Sejal was 15 she founded Girls Helping Girls to empower all girls to transform their world by mobilizing them to eradicate poverty, increase access to education, improve health, and promote peace. Sejal has raised more than $20,000 to support girls' education and basic needs overseas; and has mentored, trained, and spoken to thousands of girls from over 11 countries on how to create social change and make their vision for the world a reality. Through the Sisters 4 Peace Network, hundreds of girls are being trained to launch their own ventures.

Gigya's content sharing and advertising platform helps publishers and advertisers increase reach and engagement, distributing widgets to any platform and providing social features to websites. Liza has focused on improving advertising and marketing performance since her early days as a media planner. A veteran of the world of traditional brand advertising at FCB, retail marketing as a consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton, and online marketing with QuinStreet, she has been focused on marketing accountability throughout her career. Liza earned a BA in rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

Justina is the author of Nothing but the Truth (and a few white lies), which received the 2007 Asian Pacific American Award for Literature and was named one of the ALA's Popular Paperbacks of 2008. Justina's second novel for young adults, Girl Overboard, is a Junior Library Guild Selection, and her forthcoming novel, North of Beautiful, will be published in early 2009. Justina co-founded readergirlz, the foremost online book community for teens and one of the ALSC Great Web Sites for Kids. Justina graduated from Stanford University.

Debbie spent four years leading educational filmmaking workshops in classrooms as part of Artsbridge America before moving to Southern California to work in the entertainment industry for companies including Disney Channel, NBC Universal and Warner Brothers. She returned to the Bay Area to pursue her passion for children's educational media and to create "Adina's Deck: Solving Cyber Bullying Mysteries" a 30-minute film, website and parent/teachers guide to educate nine to 15 year olds about cyberbullying: harassment via the Internet, digital technologies and mobile phones. Two sequel films about online relationships, predators, decision making online and cheating and plagiarism are being made this summer. Debbie holds a BA in film from the University of California, Berkeley and a master's degree in learning, design and technology from Stanford University.

Tina oversees complex public information partnerships with leading media companies, including MTV, MTVU, BET, Univision and Fox, to address pressing public health and social issues, notably HIV/AIDS. The driving philosophy behind the foundation's work in this area is to go where audiences of young people go already. Tina also oversees the Global Media AIDS Initiative, an effort supported by the United Nations, that works with media companies around the world to extend the reach of HIV content and make AIDS a business priority.

Debbie is the creator, artist and writer of the all-ages Bumperboy comics series which includes Bumperboy Loses His Marbles, a Xeric Award winner, and Bumperboy and the Loud, Loud Mountain, the full-length graphic novel named to Booklist's Top Ten Graphic Novels for Youth in 2007. Debbie admits that she did not purchase a comic book until the ripe age of 21, but that she has been addicted to reading and drawing comics ever since. She currently is working on several new Bumperboy stories.

In 2007, American Venture Magazine named Teemu to its list of Top 40 Under 40 executives to watch in the technology industry. Teemu is instrumental in leading the continued growth of one of world's most popular online social networking and gaming communities for teens, Habbo.com. Since its launch in 2000, Sulake's top property has grown to more than eight million unique monthly users worldwide and has been launched in 32 countries on six continents. Teemu heads the highly-trafficked North American sites, which receive over 1.6 million unique users each month. Prior to joining Habbo, Teemu spent several years in senior posts for international digital entertainment start-up companies.

In addition to serving as senior editor and community director at FastCompany.com, Lynne writes Digital Media Diva, a technology blog following Web, media, and consumer trends, and guest blogs for techPresident and Black Web 2.0. Lynne serves on the board of the Literary Freedom Project, a nonprofit arts organization that seeks to empower communities of color through literature, creative thinking and new media. Prior to joining Fast Company, Lynne was the general manager of new media for VIBE, SPIN and VIBE Vixen, where she managed marketing, editorial, production, business development and sales operations. Her personal blog, Lynne d Johnson music, media, my life, launched in July 2001 and was the recipient of the 2006 Black Weblog Awards Black Blogger Achievement Award.

Allison oversees content and community development for Girls Inc. Online, the national Web site and online community for girls ages nine to 17. An expert on COPPA compliancy and identity verification, Allison has managed the growth of both anonymous and identity-verified message board communities for the site. She has moderated tens of thousands of message board posts on subjects ranging from why Criss Angel would make a good husband to what it's like to have gay parents in a small town. Allison has been a passionate girl geek since her teenage days on AOL as SkiBum1515.

In 2007, in the middle of the spring of his freshman year, Jared took a leave of absence from University of California, Berkeley to found WeGame, a media sharing platform for online gamers. The site has been in public beta since January of this year. Jared was born and raised in the States and moved to Shenzhen, China at the end of middle school. He founded Xinjun Software, an online gaming company, in 2004 and Yaqqer, a mobile location-based social network for college students, in 2006. Jared is fluent in English, Mandarin Chinese and Korean.

Min is responsible for business development initiatives and game operations of Nexon published titles in the United States. His current professional and personal goal is the successful introduction and adoption of the micro-transaction business model in the U.S.. Prior to joining Nexon America, Min directed the successful launch of the Global Edition of MapleStory as the Vice President of Global Business Development at Wizet Corp. Today, MapleStory remains one of world's top online games supported by a micro-transaction business model. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics-Statistics from Columbia College.

Jacqueline joined C&R Research, a leading market research firm, in 2006. She leads the firm's TeensEyes division, to which she brings a wealth of quantitative and qualitative research experience in the teens and young adults market and extensive knowledge of youth culture to her work. Before joining C&R, Jacqueline worked as an independent consultant for a wide variety of clients in industries including publishing, Internet and e-commerce, automotive, fashion and consumer packaged goods. Prior to that, Jacqueline held positions assessing and developing marketing, brand awareness and research platforms at Time and Scholastic. She holds a BA in political science and sociology from Columbia University.

Jesus is the primary liaison between MTV Tr3s and MTV/VH1 Latin America and artists, record labels, management companies and talent agencies. An accomplished, creative and vision-oriented music executive with a unique understanding of the passion Latino youth have for music, Jesus has been a key member of the MTV Tr3s strategy committee. Previously, Jesus was vice president of music marketing and talent and artist relations for MTV International, where he identified and developed international music marketing opportunities. He created the first international multi-platform music initiative, MTV 5 Star, launched in 2005. Before joining MTV in 2004, he was with EMI Music Latin America, where he oversaw pan-regional marketing campaigns and led a crucial restructuring effort that resulted in EMI Music Mexico's renewed market competitiveness.

David is one of the minds behind Scholastic's The 39 Clues, launching September 9, 2008. David leads an editorial team that acquires books for a variety of Scholastic trade imprints as well as multimedia book projects around strong narrative properties. He also manages and develops the fiction list of Scholastic Press and serves as editorial director of the PUSH imprint, which he founded in 2002. He has edited several bestselling series, including Main Street, The Keys to the Kingdom, The Gatekeepers, The Land of Elyon, and The Baby-sitters Club. Outside his day job, David writes novels, including Boy Meets Boy and, with Rachel Cohn, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, the movie of which will be released this fall.

Charlene is a leading voice in the area of social computing and Web 2.0 and is recognized as one of America's most influential bloggers. At Forrester Research, she advises companies on how to use technologies such as blogs, social networking, RSS, tagging and widgets for marketing purposes. Charlene is one of Forrester's most quoted analysts and has appeared in media including CNN, NPR, and BBC as well as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and BusinessWeek. An accomplished public speaker, she has presented at Web 2.0 Expo, Ad:Tech, Search Engine Strategies, and AlwaysOn.

Courtney is an award-winning journalist, author, speaker and coach who has reached more than a million girls and women through her work and blog, RespectRx.com. Her bestselling book, RESPECT: A Girl's Guide to Getting Respect and Dealing When Your Line Is Crossed, won both IPPY and iParenting awards. Respect Rx is a social venture devoted to empowering girls and women to boost self-respect and social change. Courtney partners with national organizations to present empowering events for teen girls and women. As an expert on teens and women, Courtney's work is often featured in national media. Courtney formerly was editorial director of the groundbreaking and Webby-nominated online and radio network ChickClick.

Larry is known as an Internet safety advocate as well as a technology journalist. A syndicated technology columnist and broadcaster for more than two decades, Larry contributes regularly to CBS News, The New York Times, San Jose Mercury News and other media. He served for 18 years as a technology columnist for the Los Angeles Times, and his columns have appeared in numerous other newspapers and Web sites. Larry is the founder of SafeKids.com and SafeTeens.com and is co-director of ConnectSafely.org. He is the author of Child Safety on the Information Highway and Teen Safety on the Information Highway. His most recent book is MySpace Unraveled: A Parents Guide to Teen Social Networking, coauthored with Anne Collier.

Walter is a writer, reviewer, storyteller and school librarian with more than 30 years of experience in the world of publishing. As one of the country's foremost authorities on literature for children and teens, Walter travels the world lecturing on the importance of books and stories and bringing the love of the written word to audiences of all ages. He co-authored Valerie and Walter's Best Books for Children and is the author of Walter the Giant Storyteller's Giant Book of Giant Stories. He lives in San Francisco and is the father of a college-age son.

Angela has been running Dernier Cri for three years. It is a business operating in the virtual world of Second Life that sells digital merchandise (textures and model accessories for 3D avatars) to Second Life residents. Dernier Cri produces revenues of about $2,000 a month, selling creations designed in Adobe Photoshop, Lightwave, Blender and inside Second Life. Angela recently turned 18, allowing her to bring her business into adult Second Life. Angela also is an aspiring artist who will be attending a private art school this fall majoring in Entertainment Arts.

Lisa is the New York Times bestselling author of "Wake." Its upcoming sequel, "Fade," arrives in February 2009 and a third and final book in the series is slated for spring 2010. "Wake" is a YALSA BBYA nominee and a Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adults. Lisa grew up in Michigan. When she was a teenager, she worked as a blueberry picker, babysitter, bookstore clerk, and bindery worker in a printing company, where she used a machine to roll gazillions of labels and stickers onto cardboard cores. She still has the paper cut scars to prove it. Lisa and her family live near Phoenix, where she writes from a green chair. Sometimes she wears a cowboy hat. She's not really a cowboy. She just likes hats.

At NGT (Next Great Thing), the insights arm of Fleishman-Hillard's Youth and Mobile Marketing practice, Allison tracks youth-driven wireless trends and innovations that are changing the communications industry around the world. Allison is also a regular contributor to the trends blog at PSFK.com and has written for Radar, Glamour and Stereotype, among other publications. Before joining Fleishman-Hillard, she worked at Details Magazine as assistant to the editor-in-chief and staff writer, and at Random House in the Doubleday Broadway marketing department. Allison holds her undergraduate degree from Georgetown University, where she studied English, psychology and French, and attended the publishing course at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.

Mortified is a grassroots organization that creates comic excavations of adolescent writing, art and media. Hailed "a cultural phenomenon" by Newsweek, Mortified has been celebrated by This American Life, The Today Show, Entertainment Weekly, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe and DailyCandy. Davis produces Mortified content for the stage (nine shows worldwide), the page (he has written two books published by Simon & Schuster) and the Web (a video series at getmortified.com). His most recent book is Mortified: Love Is a Battlefield. Based in Los Angeles, he considers that city the official home of public humiliation.

Mei oversees the marketing, communications and customer service for mig33, a global mobile social network that brings the power of the Internet to anyone with a mobile phone in more than 200 countries. Since 2003, as the popularity of the company's services grew to millions of users across Asia, Africa and Europe, the founding team has secured venture capital and relocated the company to the United States. Before co-founding mig33, Mei Lin was the marketing manager with Sanford Securities, an Australian-based financial services firm. She holds a bachelor's degree in marketing from the University of Western Australia.

Also a co-founder of Crunchyroll.com, Vu has over 5 years of direct experience in consumer-facing websites that center around social networking, community, viral marketing, and virtual economies. He was previously the Vice President of Engineering at HOT or NOT, driving development of new and existing products to generate over 5 million in annual revenue. At HOT or NOT, he is coinventor on a pending patent to collect brand preference information directly from consumers to use in advertising targeting. He graduated from U.C. Berkeley with honors in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science where he was president of Eta Kappa Nu, the national EECS honor society.

Hemanshu is chief security officer for News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media (FIM), where he oversees all safety, security, education, privacy and law enforcement programs for MySpace and other FIM properties, including IGN and Photobucket. He oversees the company's global safety teams, law enforcement relations, school and education programs and partnerships with NGOs as well as the development of safety and security features and enhancements for all FIM properties. Hemanshu has championed key safety milestones for MySpace, including the launch of Sentinel SAFE, the technology that allows the company to identify and remove registered sex offenders. His career includes serving as a federal prosecutor against Internet child exploitation and computer crime for the U.S. Department of Justice, as an advisor to a Congressional commission on online child safety, and as an advisor to the White House on cyberstalking.

Antti has over 25 years experience as a senior manager in the branded goods, retail and wholesale, publishing, film and advertising industries. In 1991, Antti was appointed managing director of film and TV production at WSOY, one of the leading publishers in Finland. He has since gone on to produce documentaries, corporate and marketing films which have won plaudits in the United States and Europe. Antti also currently serves as chairman of Contra Advertising, which operates in London, Helsinki, San Francisco, Singapore, Beijing and Shanghai. He is on executive boards for numerous companies, and is often asked to lecture on global marketing and brand issues.

Stefanie covers science, technology and culture for CNET News.com. For the last several years, she has written Digital Kids, the regular feature series examining kids' unique immersion in technology.

As the Slide community advocate, Tony makes sure that the users' voices are heard as Slide develops the popular features and applications, including Slideshow, FunWall, SuperPoke! and Top Friends, that reach nearly 200 million people each month. Tony also manages relationships with celebrity Slide users, including movie stars, politicians and musicians who use Slide to market and distribute albums and videos across multiple social networks. Tony holds his undergraduate degree from Grinnell College and is also a Fulbright Scholar.

John founded Tiny Pictures in 2005 to offer Radar, a simple way to share cameraphone pictures and videos, browse friends' pictures as they happen, and join conversations through comments. Radar can be accessed from PC browsers, mobile phone browsers, and through a series of applications for mobile devices. John previously led mobile media research and design for Sony R&D in Tokyo, where he focused on developing market-enabling applications for camera phones and other media-rich devices. Earlier, he founded Meteor Studios, one of Canada's largest digital animation studios, was president and executive producer of Icestorm Digital studio, and held design and product marketing positions at Softimage and Avid Technology. John holds an undergraduate degree in cinematography from Boston University, where he later taught in the graduate film program.

Ashley has been building her teen-targeted company, WhateverLife.com, from her home near Detroit since 2004. WhateverLife.com reaches as many as 250,000 unique teenage girls each day, spreading color, design and Web knowledge within its growing community. Ashley has been featured in Fast Company, Forbes.com, Seventeen, CosmoGIRL!, and on ABC's The View and CNN. She continues to target a mainly tweens, teens and young adult community and is expanding by creating WhateverLife's own storefront.

AllyKatzz.com is a safe social networking site for tween and teen girls where girls come to talk about everything that's important in their lives: fashion, music, games, beauty, entertainment, food, parents, technology, friends and their deepest secrets. With their 24/7 "straight from their hearts and heads" conversations, AllyKatzz girls are a massive focus group, laboratory and tween-teen girl reporting authority. Denise captures their pulse-check. Often quoted as a tween-teen expert, Denise has been featured in media including ABC, NPR, More magazine and USA Today. Prior to founding AllyKatzz, Denise was vice president of sales at USA Today.

Chris is the creator of Kaimira and the co-author of the Kaimira book series, which has a multi-platform development deal with BBC Worldwide that includes television, film and gaming in addition to a five-book deal with Candlewick Press and Walker Books. The first book in the series, The Sky Village, is in store now. For the past decade, Chris has worked in the field of youth-focused virtual community, specializing in the creation and early-stage development of multi-media entertainment properties and using the internet to extend storytelling and brand, with an emphasis on the legal, safety and privacy issues concerning youth-oriented online strategies and responsible media practices.

Answer, part of the Center for Applied Psychology at Rutgers University, is a national organization dedicated to providing and promoting comprehensive sexuality education. An online and print teen destination for sexual health information, Sex, Etc. is written by a teen editorial staff and national contributors. Dan is responsible for the maintenance, development and content initiatives for the Sex, Etc. web site. He also is a trainer for its sexuality education training initiative and provides training to the Sex, Etc. editorial staff. Prior to joining Answer, Dan was coordinator of a drop-in center for LGBTQ teens and worked as a counselor for incarcerated youth and community educator in public schools. Dan holds a BA in psychology from Wagner College in New York.

In 2004, Ben founded Mobile Voter, a non-partisan organization seeking to facilitate the process of civic participation via web and mobile technologies. In 2006, its innovative TXTVOTER '06 campaign registered tens of thousands of young voters across the country. Previously, Ben co-founded Akimbo Design, a firm that created consumer Web sites for The North Face and California Pizza Kitchen, among others, and completed award-winning projects for Nokia, Sony Pictures, MGM, Calvin Klein and Macromedia. He later served as the chief technology officer at DFILM, a youth entertainment company. Ben's book, Mobilizing Generation 2.0: A Practical Guide to Using Web2.0 Technologies to Recruit, Organize and Engage Youth, was published earlier this year. He holds an undergraduate degree from Stanford University.

Jason oversees all management and creative operations for the top kids' site, Nick.com, as well as the growth and development of NickatNite.com, Nicktoonsnetwork.com, Nicktropolis.com and TurboNick.com. He guides the development of immersive sites for all Nickelodeon hit television properties, such as SpongeBob SquarePants, The Naked Brothers Band and Avatar: The Last Airbender, as well as many other online Nick initiatives such as Kids Pick the President and Kids' Choice Awards. His team focuses on developing new digital-first ways to help incubate properties and characters. In addition, Jason has played a key role in expanding Nick's online gaming efforts. He is a seven year veteran of Nickelodeon and Nick.com. Prior to joining the company, Jason held several new media management positions at the Walt Disney Company.

As the senior Web editor of Hearst-owned social sites eSPIN.com and eCRUSH.com, Holly is the sites' lead content creator and oversees the teen user experience. She is also the voice of "Advice Girl," an advice column and community dialogue dedicated to the trials and tribulations of teen angst, crushing, flirting and other relationship woes. A graduate of New York University's film program, Holly previously worked in documentary production and led video workshops for underprivileged teens and tweens in New York and New Jersey public schools.

Since 2004, Ian has overseen MTV's campaigns that build awareness of issues important to MTV's audience. He now oversees MTV's new pro-social platform, think MTV, the umbrella for MTV's on-air, off-air and online pro-social campaigns that engage, educate and encourage young people to take action on some of the biggest challenges facing their generation. Prior to joining MTV in 2004, Ian was the director of strategy and performance measurement for USA Freedom Corps, the White House office created by President George W. Bush in 2002 to promote and expand volunteer service. Ian also is a 1993 Echoing Green Fellow and spent two years at Teach For America. He holds a degree in computer science engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Liba joined MySpace in 2006, charged with developing a platform for social and civic engagement on the world's leading social network. She oversaw the launch of the Impact Channel several months later and continues to spearhead initiatives that empower MySpace users to make a difference in the world, and connect non-profit organizations and political campaigns to the online community. The Impact Channel includes profiles of major non-profits and campaigns, online tools enabling voter registration, fundraising, and volunteerism, exclusive videos, blogs, and event listings, and original programs including the Impact Awards, OurPlanet, and Decision08 (in partnership with NBC News & msnbc.com). Previously, Liba ran a major get out the vote initiative in Oregon and worked at Teach For America.

Stephen leads consumer insight and strategy for mDisney, the Walt Disney Internet Group's North American mobile content team. mDisney publishes Disney-branded mobile games, graphics and tones based on popular Disney characters and franchises such as Hannah Montana, Pirates of the Caribbean, High School Musical and Disney Fairies to wireless carriers. mDisney also recently launched a mobile Web site that allows users to access the world of Disney on their cell phones and connect with Disney.com, the No. 1 site on the Internet for kids and families. Saiz is a seasoned professional with 10+ years experience in the mobile, Internet, sports and advertising industries. He also serves as the vice president, board of directors for Self Help Graphics & Art, a non-profit arts organization in East Los Angeles.

For the Gen Y audience, 22-year-old Jake is the man. Unscripted, offbeat and at times outrageous, he's the voice of the late night talk show, The Edge with Jake Sasseville, which debuted on 40+ ABC affiliate stations around the country in February. In four short years, Jake has brought his show from its humble beginnings on Maine public-access TV by traveling the world taping shows, building a wide and diverse audience through tireless social networking and attracting big-name advertisers anxious to reach the 18-to-34 crowd. The first major project of his Xander Foundation is a school to be built in Malawi in 2008.

Jeff is among the nation's leading writers of non-fiction for children. His award-winning list of 175 books includes biographies of positive role models in sports and entertainment, current events, and historical accounts of settling the West. Jeff visits 100 schools around the country every year to motivate students to read and write. His visits are educational and fun for everyone. Jeff graduated from the University of California at San Diego in 1988 with degrees in Communications and Journalism. He won numerous awards as a sportswriter for eight years with the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Joey is responsible for all news and editorial for VirtualWorldsNews.com, the leading virtual worlds-focused news site tracking the business side of virtual worlds from enterprise services to kids' worlds. Joey recently completed a comprehensive survey of over 100 youth-oriented worlds that are live or in development and regularly tracks investment in the space. Previously, Joey worked as a reporter for both print and online media and served as a contributing editor for [H] Consumer, an online technology magazine, with a focus on consumer electronics.

Michael is a technologist, writer and programmer whose work runs the gamut from mobile social software to gestural music interfaces to big games and everything in between. He is the co-founder of Socialight, a New York-based company developing social media tools for mobile devices. His company or work has been featured by The Discovery Channel, The New York Times, Wired, The Guardian, The London Times, Business 2.0 and Engadget, among other media, and his writing has appeared in a number of publications in the United States and South Africa. Michael holds a bachelor's degree in English and law from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and a master's degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University, where he is an adjunct professor.

Bobby has been working for Neutrogena focusing on marketing to teens and young consumers for the past four years. He started his career in 1997 at Deloitte, working first in the London and then the New York office. In 2004, he completed his MBA, specializing in marketing and organizational behavior, at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Bobby then joined Neutrogena, where he has focused exclusively on the teen and young adult consumer, launching multiple lines of new products for young consumers including Deep Clean Invigorating and Acne Stress Control. Most recently he has been focusing on the direct-to-consumer channel sold via telephone and ecommerce sites including a brand new personalized acne care line called skin iD.

During business hours, Craig lives in gaiaonline.com, the teen hangout on the web where more than three hundred thousand members log in each day. Craig leads the company's strategic planning, management and technology development. Prior to joining Gaia Online, Craig served as an entrepreneur in residence at Benchmark Capital. Craig also served as chief operating officer of MyFamily.com, where he helped grow the company from $23 million to $150 million in sales and transform it from an advertising-based site to a highly profitable consumer subscription business. He held senior positions at American International Group, where he ran marketing and Internet sites for AIG in Japan and Korea, and served as chief executive officer of Cendant Japan, a joint venture founded by Cendant and Mitsubishi.

Rock the Vote uses music, popular culture and new technologies to engage and incite young people to register and vote in every election. This year, Rock the Vote will forge the largest youth voter registration drive in history, registering 2 million young people. Prior to joining Rock the Vote, Heather launched Young Voter Strategies in partnership with The Graduate School of Political Management at The George Washington University. The project registered more than 540,000 youth and helped young voter turnout increase in 2006. Previously, Heather served as the national field director for the Student PIRGs New Voters Project. She also was an organizing director for Green Corps' Field School for Environmental Organizing in Boston. Heather holds a BA in economics and public policy from Duke University. In 2006, she was named one of Campaign & Elections magazine's Rising Stars for her work with young voters. She has also been named one of Esquire Magazine's Best and Brightest of 2007.

Chloe is a 17-year-old blogger who has been blogging about the hugely popular kids' site Neopets for over two years, and some pages of NeopetsFanatic.com sport more than 3,000 comments. Chloe monetizes her 11,000 daily page views with Google AdSense. A busy girl, she blogs no more than once or twice a month, and makes between $10 and $40 per day! Early this year, Chloe launched QuizFanatic.com, full of personality tests for teenage girls such as "How Boy Crazy Are You?" Chloe is an aspiring documentary filmmaker who lived in New Zealand for eight years before returning to Wisconsin, where she resides with her parents and two sisters.

YouthNoise's mission is to inspire and empower young people to catapult their passion and idealism into movements. YouthNoise.com is a content rich social network featuring 100% user-generated content from its members. Since its launch, YouthNoise has registered more than 113,000 youth from all fifty states and more than 170 countries. The site receives an average of 500,000 unique visitors per month. Ginger, an expert in youth issues and youth-focused technology, served as a member of the YouthNoise advisory board prior to becoming its chief executive. Previously, she was the founder and CEO of DoughNET.com, an Internet transaction company that provides teens with money management tools and content to support their financial education and independence. She also was an investment banker with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and a marketing executive with MTV Networks. Ginger is a graduate of both Harvard College and Harvard Business School.

Scott has spent a majority of his life competing in action sports, including motocross, BMX and downhill mountain biking. His passion for sports and competition is matched only by his vision for business. In 2001, Scott co-founded SponsorHouse.com, the leading online destination for athletes to connect with sponsors. SponsorHouse has made more than 600,000 sponsorship matches since its inception. In 2007, Scott launched Loop'd Network, a sports social network that provides innovative solutions to athletes, brands and sports marketers. Loop'd Network already has attracted a global audience of athletes, enthusiasts and hundreds of brand partners, including Monster Energy, Oakley, PacSun and Nike. Scott holds a degree in sports medicine from Elon University and a master's degree in Internet business systems from Mercy College.

In 2005, Lance created a slideshow for a friend's MySpace page. A few weeks later, he and co-founder Jia Shen went live, growing the RockYou! user base virally into the millions who use the company's photo slideshows, glitter text, Facebook applications and voicemail accessories. Lance brings more than 15 years of software and management experience to his company. He held senior positions in consumer and enterprise Web services companies Iconix and Open Harbor, and was an early employee at Resumix, now Yahoo! HotJobs. Lance received the American Association of Artificial Intelligence Award of Innovation for work on spatial text understanding. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Hawaii and a PhD in computer science from the University of Texas.

As Kongregate's chief revenue officer, Lee is integral to the growth and monetization of one of the Web's top indie gaming sites. He is responsible for driving advertising partnerships that leverage the high user engagement of Kongregate's young male audience. Previously, Lee was a vice president of sales with MTV Networks, where he nearly tripled ad revenue over a three-year period at Atom Entertainment. He also was the publisher of the Ziff-Davis Media Game Group, which includes 1Up.com and Electronic Gaming Monthly. Lee holds a BS in marketing from the University of Delaware and an MBA from Temple University.

Melissa is a writer who has worked as the features editor at ELLEgirl and prom editor at Seventeen Magazine. Melissa's first novel, Violet on the Runway, was followed by Violet by Design. Violet in Private is coming out on August 5, 2008. All in the name of journalism, she has spent 24 hours with male models, attended an elite finishing school for girls in New Zealand, and endured other hardships. Melissa lives in Brooklyn and holds a BA in English from Vassar College.

After spending most of her teenage years making scrapbooks, collages, murals and generally a lot of mess with a lot of art supplies, Hallie went on to receive a BA from Clark University and a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. She began her graphic design career in Hong Kong and Japan, then returned to her native New York and became an art director at Scholastic. After moving to San Francisco, Hallie worked as an interactive designer for a Web based design firm. She founded Orange Avenue Publishing in 2000. In 2006, Hallie saw an opportunity in creating fun, hip advice books for teens and founded Zest Books as the teen imprint of Orange Avenue.

VIZ Media is one of the most comprehensive and innovative companies in the field of manga publishing, animation and entertainment licensing of Japanese content. Marc is editor-in-chief of VIZ's two monthly manga magazines, Shojo Beat and Shonen Jump. He also directs VIZ's online and original comics departments. Marc started at VIZ Media as the managing editor of Shonen Jump and became editorial director after helping launch the successful Naruto Collector series of magazines. Previously, Marc was an editorial director at Citysearch.com and editor at Pulse!, the magazine published by Tower Records, where he edited the comics pages and founded Tower's first online publication. He has edited comics that have appeared in such books as Adrian Tomine's Scrapbook and Justin Green's Musical Legends.

Nedra is widely recognized as an expert in the field of social marketing. She is the author of the classic book, Hands-On Social Marketing: A Step-by-Step Guide, a prominent blogger on social marketing issues at the Spare Change blog, and contributes to the Marketing Profs Daily Fix blog. Since starting Weinreich Communications in 1995, Nedra has provided effective and innovative social marketing services for clients including the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, Public Health Service, National Cancer Institute, EPA, Department of Energy and numerous state, local and international organizations. She teaches a graduate-level course on social marketing at UCLA's School of Public Health.

Having spent the past 12 years at the Walt Disney Studios as an entertainment marketing professional, Damon has garnered extensive experience in marketing, advertising, promotions, synergy and broadcast marketing for the #1 kids, tween and family label in the music industry. At Walt Disney Records, the family music label of The Walt Disney Company, Damon is in charge of all U.S. marketing efforts and is instrumental in building worldwide marketing strategies for more than 100 music releases per year, including massive hits such as High School Musical, Hannah Montana, The Cheetah Girls, Disney/Pixar Cars and Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks. He works with the Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Group, Disney Theatrical Productions, Disney Channel, ABC and Radio Disney to build strong product release and marketing plans.

Michael has worked in the fields of online community and e-commerce for more than 30 years. He joined There.com as an investor in 2001 and currently serves as its chief executive, with the goal of making There.com the premiere 3D virtual world for consumers. Previously, Michael was one of the first employees at eBay, where he was responsible for building the organization and technology for the world's largest and most successful e-commerce site. He began his career at Macy's California, where he developed point of sale and electronic credit card authorization systems, and later became the youngest senior executive in the company's history. He also held key positions at daVinci Time & Space, The Well and Well Engaged.

After obtaining her master's degree in fine art at Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design in London, Saskia moved to Los Angeles to work as an art director for music videos and commercials. She became co-director of the Silver Lake Film Festival, a showcase for independent film in Los Angeles, and created its new media arm. Since leaving the festival, Saskia has maintained her ties to the film festival world by serving as a documentary programmer, film juror and panelist. Saskia currently is the manager of global outreach for VC2, the viewer-created content arm of Current TV, where she spearheads projects designed to gain new short format documentary content for the network from international filmmakers, initiates content partnerships and oversees the development of VC2 producers.

As Premise's creative powerhouse, Gregg is an original. A little eccentric in both business and life, he is recognized in the youth fashion, entertainment and action sports communities as a specialist in marketing to tweens, teens and parents. At Premise Immersive Marketing, he is responsible for leading creative client campaign development and agency promotional efforts. Starting at the young age of 16 as a professional skateboarder and founder of the international goodtimes skateboards brand, Gregg has become recognized for his authentic, "immersive" approach to effectively market to youth, honed in by over 10 years first-hand experience understanding what motivates this cynical consumer group to action. Gregg has executed successful campaigns for clients including the U.S. Air Force, Glaceau Vitamin Water, and Cartoon Network.

Courtney is the senior online marketing manager for Penguin Young Readers Group. Prior to joining Penguin Courtney worked for Simon & Schuster Online.