Spotlight Keynote
Don Tapscott is one of the world's leading authorities on business strategy. Don emphasizes how information technology changes business, government and society. He is the author or co-author of 13 widely read books, including Wikinomics, which was the best selling management book in the United States in 2007 and is translated into 22 languages. Don is chairman of nGenera Insight, an Austin, Texas-based technology company that serves Global 2000 customers. Don also is an adjunct professor at the J.L. Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto. His most recent book, Grown Up Digital, explores how the current Internet generation is changing the world—and all of its institutions.
Speakers
Ashoka’s Youth Venture is building a global movement of young changemakers by helping teams of young people start new organizations in 14 countries and five continents. Prior to joining Ashoka’s Youth Venture, Adam was the founder and executive director of icouldbe.org, the Internet-based career mentoring program that has served more than 20,000 teens and e-volunteers in the U.S. and Tanzania. He also is the founder and principal of The Learning Collective, a consulting organization that strengthens the practices of youth-serving organizations. Prior to establishing icouldbe.org, he was a regional coordinator for the New York City Department of Education. Adam began his career in education as a Spanish bilingual public school teacher in Los Angeles.
Niels has lead the digital marketing group for LG Mobile US since 2004. He is responsible for strategic planning and execution for all mobile product launches as well as the voice of customer initiatives. Niels has more than 15 years of Internet industry experience, driving leading strategies delivering growth and brand awareness. Before Joining LG, Niels was the director of Internet development for Wolters-Kluwer in France, where he led the transition of the second largest publisher in the world into the digital space.
Jason is a native Minnesotan and has been working in the area of youth marketing for nearly a decade. As the director of marketing at Campus Media Group, his responsibilities include positioning the firm as a leader in youth media and marketing, following trends in the ever-changing landscape of pop culture and youth media usage, and consulting advertising agency and national brand professionals on how to develop integrated marketing programs that reach youth.
Neelanjana has worked in mainstream, ethnic and independent media for the past nine years. For the past five years, she has been the main editor of YO! Youth Outlook Multimedia, a project of New America Media, where she helps young people tell their own stories across multimedia platforms — web, radio, television and print. She works closely with young at-risk men and women and inaugurated a multimedia training summer internship in partnership with the Reentry Unit of the San Francisco District Attorney's office. As a volunteer with The Beat Within, she leads writing workshops inside the Santa Clara juvenile hall with incarcerated youth. She also is an editor with Hyphen, an Asian American magazine.
An award winning lecturer and author, Adisa has been reporting on hip-hop music and its global influence since the age of 17. As a student of music, religion and martial arts history, Adisa has lectured at Harvard, Brown, Stanford and countless other universities. His knowledge also has led to a successful career in marketing, public relations, television and radio. He founded the Hip-Hop Chess Federation, a non-profit dedicated to providing an inclusive setting for individuals to interact, play and develop life strategy skills with people they perceive as mentors. Federation events draw a tech savvy youth and adults who are immersed in web 2.0 activities from the music, chess, martial arts and education communities. Adisa also orchestrated a joint licensing agreement for Chesspark.com to create the first online chess and urban social networking community, Wuchess.com.
Kevin is co-founder and CEO of Context Optional, a premier social marketing firm leading brands in marketing and consumer promotions across social networks. Over 20 Fortune 500 companies, including Absolut, Digitas, Hearst, Microsoft, Ogilvy and OpenTable have partnered with Context Optional to connect with customers across Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and the iPhone.
Amy is responsible for operations and management of meth programs at the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, where she oversees communications with coordinating agencies, lead law enforcement agencies, and treatment and prevention partners. She also is responsible for spearheading coordination of the Partnership’s integrated content development process for Meth360 Online Learning. Prior to joining to the Partnership, Amy was the museum educator and manager for a traveling exhibit for the Association of Former Federal Narcotics Agents Drug Enforcement Administration Museum. She also founded Project Teen Talk: Giving Our Youth a Voice in Dallas, Texas. Amy holds a BA in psychology from Westminster College and a master’s degree in educational psychology from Texas A&M University.
David premiered the feature film "Dare" at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. David also is the writer-director of three short films, including "Twenty Dollar Drinks," which premiered at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival, and wrote and produced the award-winning short version of "Dare," now available on DVD as part of the Boys' Life series. Recent credits include the off-Broadway productions “Sandra Bernhard: Everything Bad and Beautiful,” “Cady Huffman: Live” and the 2006-08 editions of “The A-Train Plays.” Upcoming film projects include the adaptation of non-fiction book Harvard’s Secret Court. David holds a BA from Yale University and an MFA from Columbia University’s Graduate Film Program.
parallelMVMT helps individuals and organizations utilize the broad range of knowledge needed to transform thoughts into actions. A marketing, technology and business development consultant, Rolando has helped launch new products for over a dozen clients. As a vice president for August Bishop, he played an instrumental role in the agency's launches for L'Oréal, Turner Broadcasting, Sprite, the New York Knicks and Def Jam University, among others. A social entrepreneur armed with a commitment to creating economic and social advances in underserved communities, he works to develop processes of innovation and problem solving. Rolando holds a degree in leadership and management studies from New York University.
Daniel is a 16 year old media producer, entrepreneur, consultant and student living in the Silicon Valley. Daniel is the founder and CEO of Teens in Tech, a media platform and community for teenagers empowering teenage media production. Daniel also works as a evangelist for live mobile video streaming startup, Qik. In addition, he does consulting on side under his firm, T-Cast Media Consulting—all while still in high school.
For the last ten years, Bill and his colleagues 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. In 2001, he was received 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) and NBC Sports, among others. Bill holds a BA from Gettysburg College and an MS from Michigan State University.
Dan is the founder of SurveyU, an online community and data collection platform targeting North American students. He was vice president of sales for Polimetrix, vice president of SPSS Online and a co-founder of PlanetFeedback.com. A pioneer of interactive technologies within the marketing community, the first decade of Dan’s career spanned the founding of interactive divisions at Burke, Millward Brown and the Angus Reid Group.
Vickie is responsible for the strategic direction, production and operations of ABC Family Digital as well as the development of direct-to-digital programming. Under her leadership, ABCFamily.com won its first Emmy in 2007 for creative achievement in interactive media and was an Emmy finalist in 2008. Vickie led the evolution of ABCFamily.com from a marketing support site to an ad supported, fan driven entertainment site that offers consumers the ability to participate and have fun. ABCFamily.com encourages discovery and sharing, while offering content for passionate fans including video, behind-the-scenes, innovative storytelling and music.
AddictingGames is part of MTV Networks’ Kids and Family Group. With more than 20 million visitors a month and a library of more than 3,000 games, AddictingGames.com is the largest youth-oriented online game site in the U.S. and one of the most popular Web sites among teens. 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 was formerly an associate at Advent International, a private equity firm, and an analyst at Volpe, Welty, a boutique investment bank.
Andrea is an assistant Personal Finance editor with MarketWatch in San Francisco. Her stories on workplace issues, credit and debt, taxes and other personal-finance topics appear on MarketWatch.com and in The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo Finance and newspapers nationwide. Coombes has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Association of Consumer Advocates. She ghost-wrote a personal-finance book aimed at entrepreneurs, and updated and revised a book on credit repair. Andrea holds a master’s degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
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 his sister and brother, myYearbook's founders, Catherine, age 15, and David, age 16. 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.
Ed is the strategy director at BSSP. The agency’s accounts include BMW MINI, Priceline, Chipotle and Lucas Arts. Prior to joining BSSP, Ed headed up account planning at McCann-Erickson Seattle, where he worked on a number of brands including Coca-Cola’s Powerade. Prior to leaping across the Atlantic, Ed founded and created Magic Hat, a youth marketing unit of McCann-Erickson Europe, where his clients included Nestle, Motorola, MTV and 19 Management. Ed also edits the popular branding blog, Influx Insights. In his spare time, he enjoys running, hiking, movies and reading about the ongoing struggles of his favorite soccer club, Queen’s Park Rangers FC.
Jason is vice president of the Disney.com Network, the number one community-family and parenting destination on the Web. Jason is responsible for strategic operations and creative execution of Disney.com. Since joining Disney Online in 2005 as a senior art director, he has held multiple leadership roles, including serving as vice president of online creative services and director of sales programs for Disney Online’s advertising sales team. Previously, he was senior interactive art director for T3 Advertising in Austin, Texas, where his clients included Dell.com, JCPenney.com, Nortel Networks, MTV, MSN and Samsung. Jason holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and graphic design from Louisiana State University.
Peter is the principal of mass+logic, a consultancy focused on digital marketing and social computing. He has consulted with global brands to define there social media marketing strategies. He has more than 10 years of interactive experience including: search marketing (Reprise Media and iCrossing), enterprise integration and content management (Software AG and Astoria Software), digital strategy (Microsoft, The Coca Cola Company and Turner Broadcasting) and start ups (The Cancer Social Network, SlideShare and Dabble). Peter co-founded and serves as partnership director of the Social Media Club Atlanta.
Donna is the author of the upcoming book Upstarts! How GenY Entrepreneurs are Rocking the World of Business and 8 Ways You can Profit From Their Success, due out from McGraw-Hill in August. She also is a contributing editor at Inc. Magazine and the author of Alpha Dogs: How Your Small Business Can Become a Leader of The Pack. A business journalist for more than 20 years, Donna also is a community leader at Work.com, a featured expert on SBTV, a blogger on Inc.com and an experienced speaker. She was a correspondent for The Associated Press in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 1988 to 1992.
George Mason University, located in suburban Washington, D.C., has over 31,000 students and was named the number one up and coming university in the nation by U.S. News and World Report. Dean Flagel is a featured columnist for Monster.com, and has presented at the Presidential Youth Inaugural, National Young Leaders and Washington Journalism Conferences. He previously directed admissions at the University of Michigan-Flint and for the Congressional Youth Leadership Council, and served as regional director of admissions at George Washington University. He received his Ph.D. in education from Michigan State University.
Jon serves as CMO and head of business development for SmartyPig, an online piggy bank that helps individuals, families and organizations save for specific goals. The company also offers a unique social saving capability that enables friends and family to contribute to their savings goals through the SmartyPig Website or social networks like Facebook and MySpace. An accomplished journalist and an author, Jon's experience in the media industry includes the formation of a publishing company that was acquired by a group led by the former president of NBC News.
Deborah is an account director with the west coast office of Alloy Media + Marketing, a leading provider of innovative media and full-scale marketing programs focused on the youth market. Her expertise spans Alloy’s dedicated business units focused on digital media, campus based media, sampling and experiential programming. She has worked with a range of high profile clients, including Electronic Arts, Nike, Ubisoft, Nestle and T-Mobile to develop effective marketing campaigns that connect with the millennial audience. She began her career more than a decade ago at Weider Publications, representing ad sales for Shape and Cosmopolitan magazines. Prior to joining Alloy in 2004, she held a corporate development position with Gen Art, an organization showcasing emerging designers, filmmakers, and visual artists.
Anastasia is an award-winning blogger and often-quoted expert on American tweens, teens and early twenty-somethings. She has worked in media for the past 15 years and has helped launch youth oriented web and television properties for brands including Oxygen, AOL and Current TV. She will never forget her roots having begun her career in the non-profit youth media space at Teen Voices. 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 & Tweens Are Really Doing Online was published by St. Martin's Press.
Martin runs Meebo’s business activities, including business development, marketing and revenue generation. Prior to Meebo, Martin spent 10 years at CNET Networks in a variety of strategic, financial and general management roles, and was a member of the company’s executive committee. He launched performance ad programs for CNET's tech clients which delivered over $100 million in annual revenues, led the development of CNET’s in-house ad server, inventory management, business planning and forecasting functions and led several acquisitions to expand the company's reach and revenue capacity. Before CNET, Martin was an analyst in Morgan Stanley's investment banking group, both in New York and Menlo Park. He grew up in England and Canada and lives in San Francisco.
Jim has 15 years of marketing and product experience at some of the industry's biggest brands. Most recently he was vice president of consumer product at Monster, where he led efforts to innovate the consumer job search experience. Before Monster, Jim spent a decade at AOL, driving strategic planning, product marketing and, most notably, direct marketing. Jim was an early team member of the industry-leading AOL direct marketing group that propelled the company to its commanding market share position. Jim holds a BA in communications from the University of New Hampshire and an MBA in corporate finance from the Virginia Tech.
As senior editor of iMedia Connection, Jodi surveys the dynamic landscape of the interactive industry, helping marketers keep pace with its techniques, technologies, key players and shifting trends. In addition to developing content direction and reflecting cutting-edge news and information for the domestic media property, Jodi also oversees content and production for iMedia's editorial expansion projects, including iMedia U.K., iMedia Asia and the iMedia blog. Prior to joining iMedia, Jodi developed and managed content for healthcare and biotechnology publishers. She also served as a trustee and promotions director for an independent film festival located in Red Bank, New Jersey.
Jean is the general manager of the online chess community Chesspark.com. In 2008, Chesspark partnered with RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan to launch WuChess, the world's first hip hop and chess community. Prior to joining Chesspark, Jean served as the co-founder and executive director of 9 Queens, a non-profit organization dedicated to extending the benefits of chess to underserved and underrepresented populations. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a master’s degree in education from Harvard University.
Chinese. Taiwanese. Japanese. English. Advertising. Marketing. Julia is fluent in all of them, and day in and day out she strives to make the complex international language of advertising a little bit easier to understand. Julia’s candid personality and ability to rally a diverse team has helped interTrend lead the charge in educating Fortune 500 companies in the intricacies of marketing to Asian Americans. Julia stresses the importance of community, and takes on pro bono projects that benefit local communities. Julia presided as president of the Asian American Advertising Federation from 2006 to 2008, and she has been honored by Avenue Magazine as one of the 500 most influential Asian Americans.
John is a digital media and entertainment entrepreneur. The third company he has had a hand in founding, Real Content Group provides digital online and mobile distribution and marketing services to entertainment content owners, agencies and consumer brands. Previously, John co-founded Real Hip Hop as a direct-to-consumer mobile content company with m-Qube. John’s first venture, Maximum Networks, spun off several online innovations before being sold. John has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and Ad Age and was named one of the 30 Under 30 two years in a row by European based “Digital Distribution In The Music Industry.” He is a founding chairman of the Mobile Marketing Association's Urban Special Interest Group.
A seven-year veteran of Walt Disney Records, Kelly oversees development of product and marketing strategies for all WDR releases including infant, children, tween and adult focused content across artist titles, soundtracks, catalog and compilation releases. She also manages traditional and online marketing efforts and works closely with other divisions of The Walt Disney Company to develop cross-marketing campaigns. Her responsibilities also include internal business unit alliances and third party alliances and sponsorships. She has also spearheaded a new business model and process for digital and mobile promotions. Prior to joining Disney in 2003, Kelly was with Payless Shoe Source.
Guy is a founder and Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures. He also is the co-founder of Alltop.com, an "online magazine rack" of popular topics on the web. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer. Guy is the author of eight books including The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. He holds a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.
Brian is responsible for leading the execution of day-to-day company activities and operations for Loopt, a Palo Alto-based company that is building a revolutionary social mapping service to change the way people use mobile phones to keep in touch with friends. Prior to earning his law degree, Brian held senior positions in business development and marketing with companies such as Barnes & Noble.com, Dun & Bradstreet and AllBusiness.com. Brian holds a BA in business administration from the College of William and Mary and a JD from the University of San Francisco School of Law.
Even though she's not as writing inclined as the other board members, Nina is the youngest of the group and may share an opinion with a younger audience. Nina is very interested in fashion, new technology and teen culture. Having three and a half sisters (an exchange sister for the year) she knows a lot about how teenage girls interact with each other and their parents. Nina ‘s biggest love is music, either classical or contemporary, it doesn’t matter. She cares about all of it.
Jacqueline brings nearly 15 years of experience in youth marketing and research and a wealth of knowledge and experience in the tween, teen and young adult market to SurveyU. Over her career, Jacquie has conducted qualitative and quantitative projects for clients including Axe, Doritos, MTV, State Farm, eBay, AOL, Nickelodeon and many others. Prior to joining SurveyU, Jacqueline led the TeensEyes Division at C&R Research, working for a wide variety of clients and industries including publishing, internet/e-commerce, automotive, fashion and consumer packaged goods. She also held positions at Time Inc. and Scholastic assessing and developing marketing, brand awareness and research platforms.
Pangea Media is a casual entertainment and online advertising company that operates a network of sites focused primarily on quizzes. Seth has more than a decade of experience in the online advertising space with expertise in lead generation, branding and affiliate marketing across target markets. Under his leadership, Pangea has become one of the largest aggregators of youth data and has run advertising campaigns for a brands including Kohl’s, Obama for President, MTV and the University of Phoenix. Prior to founding Pangea, Seth was CEO and co-founder of Focalex, an online advertising and direct marketing company that was sold to Intermix (parent company of MySpace). Earlier, he was an investment banker in the technology group with Credit Suisse First Boston.
SoCal native Jun is the founder and CMO of Future Delivery, where he is building Viralogy, a place for people to discover and rate new and exciting personal blogs. He is the host of Awesome Bloggers, where he interviews the most interesting bloggers in the community, is a contributor for several blogs including Mashable, and works closely with a VC firm. His own blog, Become a Young Successful Entrepreneur, gives an unfiltered view of the startup life so that aspiring entrepreneurs can learn from his successes and mistakes. Jun graduated from UCLA with a degree in economics and philosophy.
Jessica started her first internet company at 13, finished high school at 15, and is now a junior studying computer science at UC Berkeley. Through speaking engagements and side projects, she’s been teaching young people how to get a jump start in entrepreneurship and their careers. In the fall of 2008, with fellow students Arielle Patrice Scott and Andy Su, she founded internshipIN.com to help students find internships and explore their passions through real life experience. She’s also the founder of a web-based startup that helps companies manage and track their money.
Ross' group drives programming innovation through new formats and partnerships, including branded entertainment, original long and short form content and music-related programming for MTV, MTV2 and mtvU. He also oversees all programming for MTV's Emmy and Peabody Award winning college network, mtvU. Prior to MTV, Ross founded Plant Film, a Los Angeles based production company partnered with Fox, VH1 and Dimension Films; was a development executive for Spike Lee's 40 Acres and A Mule Filmworks; and taught poetry at Washington University, the Rhode Island School of Design and The New School. He lives in Brooklyn.
Rebecca is a trend analyst and market researcher at The Intelligence Group, where she contributes to major syndicated studies including The Cassandra Report, Tween Intelligence and Latino Intelligence. She also is a lead writer for TrendCentral.com, IGs daily newsletter, and serves as the editor of proprietary client newsletters. She identifies shifts in consumer attitudes and lifestyles and helps clients to forecast the types of products, content and marketing that will resonate across industries including media, entertainment, fashion, beauty, technology and retail.
Jeff is the founder of The Reason, a multicultural marketing agency specializing in reaching Gen X. Leveraging Jeff's years of brand marketing experience, The Reason offers two proprietary services: The Voice of Reason and The Reasoning. The first is a consumer panel comprised of multicultural Gen X’ers, providing brands access to candid consumer insights. The Reasoning is a planning framework designed to create meaningful connections between brands and their target consumers. The Reason’s client portfolio includes 20th Century Fox, Activision, Honda and Villa.
Paul joined C&R Research in 1999, where he has developed and managed its youth divisions – KidzEyes, TeensEyes and MomsEyes make up one the largest online panels in the industry. Paul has helped conceptualize and develop a suite of kids' research services that leverage the panels and has consulted with nationally recognized clients in the entertainment, packaged-goods and retail sectors. An expert in research design and quantitative analysis, he has extensive experience in the areas of brand strategy, advertising assessment and product development. Previously, Paul worked at The Quaker Oats Company and began his career at M/A/R/C. Paul holds a BA in psychology from Northwestern University and an MS from the A.C. Nielsen Center for Marketing Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Carisa is a seasoned marketing professional who directs sponsorship programs at Youth Marketing Connection, a strategic marketing resource that connects brands with the 14- to 24-year-old youth demographic. Carisa has spent the last decade working with leading brands to deliver engaging and relevant marketing campaigns. With her expertise in leveraging authentic student peer networks, on- and off-campus events, spring break marketing and WOM programs, Carisa is a valuable youth marketing resource servicing agencies and brands on activations featuring American Eagle Outfitters, AXE, Gatorade, JC Penny, MAXIM, MTV, Playstation, ROCKSTAR Energy Drink, T-Mobile and Wm. Wrigley.
Although it was 1996 when Daniel first began thinking about how cell phones, kids and families best mix, it was fatherhood that set him on the path to founding kajeet, a pay-as-you-go cell phone service for children and teens. Before kajeet, Daniel served as CEO, vice chairman and director of VCampus, a provider of e-learning applications and services. Before that, he was a member of the USinternetworking team that pioneered the delivery of software as a service and the director of national partnering for Global One Communications, a joint venture of Sprint, Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom. He holds an AB in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business.
Matt is executive vice president and general manager of Stardoll, a premier virtual fashion entertainment destination on the Web that empowers users to express their creativity within a unique “social play” environment, blending childlike play with social networking to deliver a fun-filled approach to fashion, celebrity and dress-up. His role at Stardoll is to develop innovative, integrated partnerships with advertisers, brands, music labels, film studios, television networks, celebrities and musicians that will ultimately expand the user base and increase traffic to the website. Prior to joining Stardoll, Matt was named Advertising Age’s 2006 Entertainment Marketer of the Year while serving as senior vice president of marketing for Disney Channel at the Disney ABC Cable Networks Group.
Gonzalo partners with marketers and advertisers who seek to connect with today’s youth, urban and Hispanic consumers. He most recently collaborated with brands such as MTV, MTV Tr3́s, ESPN and Pepsi on key consumer insights initiatives. Motivo Insights also partnered with Alma DDB, the award winning Hispanic advertising agency, and co-directed The Intelligence Group’s 2008 Latino Intelligence Report, which provides marketers and advertisers with an in-depth look at today’s Latino youth consumers. He began his work in branding and consumer research over 10 years ago at The Bravo Group, a Young & Rubicam subsidiary specializing in advertising to the U.S. Hispanic market, while managing accounts including AT&T, Citibank and the U.S. Army.
Laurie is general manager of Minyanville Family Media, a division of Emmy Award winning Minyanville Media, and ringleader of MinyanLand, a virtual world for kids ages 6-12 that teaches earning, spending, saving and giving. Developed with the Council for Economic Education, MinyanLand.com is part of the Betawave network. Laurie first went online in the 1980s as an editor at pioneering ventures for CBS and The New York Times Company. She held senior roles at Mediacentral.com, the women's community iVillage, BarnesandNoble.com and financial portal TheDeal.com. She also directed interactive media coverage and the OMMA Awards as executive editor of MediaPost.
Alloy Access is a specialty division of Alloy Media + Marketing. As its founder, Tru is passionate about providing fresh ideas and identifying emerging platforms to make products and brands relevant to today’s urban and multicultural consumers. Tru and his team travel around the country observing and immersing themselves in culture at basketball courts, nightclubs, music stores and barbershops. In educating his Fortune 500 clients, Tru provides a reflection of today’s multicultural world. Tru started his career performing as one half of a Los Angeles-based rap duo. He executed promotions for Converse, which led to a position with Houston Herstek Favat. He later joined AMP Agency’s Triple Dot Communications (acquired by Alloy) and co-founded its consumer insights division.
Joi leads the integration of interactive/online strategies into Ludorum’s television, publishing and toy properties and is currently is focused on Chuggington. Previously, at Star Farm Productions, Joi helped to build, manage and scale online communities for young people and to develop and implement the systems and infrastructure needed to make those communities viable. Before joining Star Farm, she championed and implemented COPPA compliance and monitored networks at Kidfu, a safe online community for children that she co-founded, and FreeZone, one of the first safe online communities for children. Joi holds an MA in social science from the University of Chicago and undergraduate degrees in math and women’s studies from Arizona State University.
Lauren is a strategist at Undercurrent, a digital think tank based in New York City, where she works with Pepsi. She is a people person: she likes listening, observing and talking to them. She also is fascinated with the differences between subculture and pop culture and technology's role in speeding up the trend cycle. Prior to joining Undercurrent, Lauren worked at Deep Focus, where she led innovative digital strategies for entertainment, lifestyle and fashion brands including HBO, Dewar's, Havaianas and Vitaminwater. Lauren likes to split her time exploring the globe via her laptop screen and using her feet. She is very, very afraid to unplug. Her personal blog is fortheartofit.
Megan is a college student, freelancer and hardcore bookworm. She began writing fashion articles for her hometown newspaper at age 15, and her work has since appeared in publications including Boston magazine, Mountain Living and CosmoGirl. Meg also loves theatre and the arts, and if she's not sending postcards, devouring YA novels or reading up on 19th-century cultural studies, she's probably dragging someone along on a late-night ice cream or Starbucks run. Meg has lived in three (soon to be four) countries and five states. She currently resides in Arizona.
Caralene is responsible for the planning and execution of consumer marketing and entertainment extensions at Boost Mobile. In addition to developing all national advertising campaigns, she drives integrated marketing platforms through print, online, radio and nontraditional outlets. Her team also leads product placement and national talent relationships in film, television and music. Prior to joining Boost in 2005, Caralene held brand and marketing positions with Colgate-Palmolive, The Coca-Cola Company and Cox Enterprises. She earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration at Howard University and holds an MBA in marketing and finance from New York University’s Stern School of Business.
GTR Consulting is a qualitative research and strategic planning firm targeting youth. Gary is the author of the acclaimed gTrend Report, a national survey of young people that examines the complex relationship between teens and technology. He has worked with clients including Addicting Games, American Express, Bauer, Coca-Cola, Colgate, Disney, eBay, ESPN, Gatorade, Gillette, Jamba Juice, Xbox, MTV, Nickelodeon, Nike, Oxy, Sesame Street, UbiSoft, Unilever, Virgin Mobile, Visa, Wal-Mart, Wrigley, and Yahoo! GTR’s work also includes the national “truth” anti-tobacco campaign for the American Legacy Foundation. Prior to founding GTR, Gary worked with Foote, Cone and Belding, J. Walter Thompson and Teenage Research Unlimited.
DARE, an official selection into the prestigious U.S. dramatic competition category of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, marks Adam's feature film directorial debut. Hailing from New York City, Adam has directed several award-winning shorts, which have screened in dozens of film festivals around the world. He graduated from Emory University as a creative writing major and completed his MFA at Columbia University's Graduate Film Division. In his second year, Adam was the recipient of a grant from Kodak and Panasonic, the latter for his work as director of "Panasonic Kids Witness News," a program that teaches filmmaking to under-privileged inner-city kids.
J searches for talent at MySpace Records, and he has signed artists featured on the wildly popular social networking site including Mickey Avalon, Kate Voegele, Sherwood, Meiko, Polysics and Pennywise. Prior to joining the company in 2006, J spent six years building and overseeing the artist development department at Hollywood Records, where he collaborated with artists ranging from Hillary Duff, Jesse McCartney and BB Mak to Los Lobos, Duran Duran, Polyphonic Spree and Breaking Benjamin. Earlier, he spent seven years in artist management, including stints with his own Sellout! Management, Bill Graham Management and Worlds End.
Josh is a speaker, blogger, marathon runner and guitar hero who is dedicated to entertaining, inspiring and empowering teens. He has helped write books, has shared the stage with Bill Cosby, and has appeared on MTV’s TRL, Comedy Central, NBC, FOX and TLC as well as in the Los Angeles Times. Still in his twenties, Josh already has established an international reputation as an inspiring youth speaker with a simple and entertaining, yet challenging message. Hey Josh is an integrated media platform providing advice, entertainment and community to teens through the Web, films, mobile, live events and published experiences. Based on the old-school principles of Dear Abby, HeyJosh.com provides digital advice to a digital generation that is “in your face, but on your side”.
As manager of community relations for Best Buy, Tim implements charitable giving, employee citizenship and community engagement strategies for the global retailer of technology and entertainment products and services. He leads a team that manages local and national initiatives supported by the Best Buy Children’s Foundation. In addition to corporate and foundation grant making, Tim oversees an international employee giving program, a dollars for doers employee volunteer program and a store-led grant program. His primary responsibility is execution of the company’s philanthropic platform focusing on teens called @15. Through @15, Best Buy gives voice to teen perspectives and invests company resources – including the energy and talents of employees – to support teen efforts to lead social change.
Doug leads all marketing communication for the iconic Levi’s brand in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Latin America. Since 2007, Doug has put Levi’s on the map, using non-traditional media to reach elusive 18-24 guys. Levi’s viral programs have gained traction in pop culture and have been featured by the media including the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Good Morning America and the Wall Street Journal. Prior to Levi’s, Doug was the managing director of TBWA\Chiat\Day’s San Francisco office, where he ran the global business for adidas “Impossible is Nothing.” Earlier, he was the vice president and account director leading the Saturn “Different Kind of Company. A Different Kind of Car” business at Hal Riney & Partners.
Denise is a recognized leader and authority in permission and identity management and is at the center of dialogues regarding children’s privacy issues across the globe. She created the PrivoLock system to fill the niche of online registration of kids and families in compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Privo strives to make the Internet a safer place for children by providing companies with a turn-key outsourced solution that enables them to build legally compliant and socially responsible online relationships. Denise also conducts private workshops to help companies understand the intricacies of COPPA and how to maintain customer relationships within legal boundaries.
Throughout her 20-year career, Nancy has perfected her role as a Hispanic target expert. Her experience has been with prestigious advertising agencies including Messner, Saatchi & Saatchi’s Conill, J. Walter Thompson and Siboney, where she worked with clients such as Colgate, MilkPEP, Intel, Ford, Toyota, McDonald’s, Kraft, Sears, Procter & Gamble and British Airways and across media planning, research and account planning. Nancy joined MTV Tr3s in 2008 to focus on the Latino youth segment, one of the fastest growing and most influential demographics in the United States today. Understanding the unique space bicultural Latino teens and young adults inhabit is priority #1.
A globe-trotter and sub-cultural anthropologist, Kembo’s strength lies in his creativity and ability to identify with youth sub-cultures, and to harness the positive power of diversity. With offices in Atlanta and L.A., GTM is a lifestyle marketing company with expertise in trendsetting global, urban and popular culture. Clients include truth, Tag Body Spray, Current TV, Verizon and Nissan, among others. Kembo got his start by producing some of Atlanta’s hottest music and entertainment events, including involvement with the annual Montreaux Jazz festival. He also established Elevation, the event platform that served as the Apollo Theater of Atlanta for seven years. Kembo was honored with an AdColor Innovator award in 2008. A native of St. Thomas, he majored in economics at the University of the Virgin Islands.
Mike joined the Partnership in 1989 as deputy director and subsequently served as its director of communications. Mike became director of operations in 1997 as the Partnership expanded its message delivery into digital communications and started to grow its interactive media activities. In 2002, he was named CMO, with responsibility for the marketing of programs and a focus on cause marketing efforts and the development of strategic partnerships with leading national advertisers. He currently leads the Partnership’s new program to combat the spread of methamphetamine, including new campaigns and initiatives such as Meth360®. He holds BA and MBA degrees from the University of Michigan and served as an officer in the U.S. Navy.
Ari manages Nokia Games Publishing catalogue, roadmap and leads the games concepting process. He drives Nokia Publishing towards open innovation in the search for mobile platform sellers. Ari has held various international marketing and brand management positions over last decade at Nokia and British American Tobacco. He is also a keen gamer, a wannabe surfer and an avid rock climber living in San Francisco. He holds a master's degree in business from University of Vaasa in Finland.
CultureofFuture.com provides strategic content at the intersection of consumer lifestyle choices and brand direction for clients such as IDEO, Apple, Microsoft, MySpace, HGTV, Nike, Gap, Samsung, Dell, Starbucks and Adidas. Jody also works with Reinier Evers of Trendwatching.com on briefings such as Generation Generosity, serves on the board for the Los Angeles Architecture and Design Museum and is a blogger at Fast Company.com. Jody recently presented at DesignBoost Sweden and in Copenhagen on branding trends; keynoted on global design in Brazil; mentored at the Hatch Creativity Film Festival; worked with Samsung on color and lifestyle in Seoul; and finished a major report for Dell on China, India, Russia and Brazil.
Kevin has more than 15 years of experience in sales, marketing and ad agency account management. During the course of his career, he has developed multicultural advertising initiatives for DaimlerChrysler, Coca-Cola Classic, AT&T and Blockbuster Entertainment. As a keen observer of pop culture and emerging youth trends, Kevin co-founded CultureLab to help clients more effectively utilize insights in order to better communicate to young diverse adults. He is passionate about researching and sharing his insights with clients. Kevin holds a BA in marketing from Morehouse College and an MBA in marketing from Southern Methodist University.
Carly, a high school senior, presents throughout the Bay Area at schools and festivals as well as to businesses, congregations and other large groups. She takes great pride in educating her audiences about harmful chemicals in the products that we use daily and the steps we can take to become informed consumers. Carly has written and produced videos for the campaign, including Lips Against Lead. She plans to study environmental toxicology when she heads to college.
Gregg is a niche-marketing adventurist who specializes in building positive connections between brands with youth. In 1991, at the age of 16, he created the influential Goodtimes skateboards brand. By 1999, he co-founded Premise, a full service youth marketing services agency celebrating it’s 10th year. In 2007, Gregg was honored with the San Diego Metropolitan 40 under 40 award for his achievements in advertising and marketing to young consumer groups. As a Premise partner, he is responsible for overseeing strategic campaign development and agency marketing efforts. Gregg helps contribute to the success of many client projects for leading national brands, some of them include: Skatewave by Landscape Structures, The Partnership for a Drug-Free America, U.S. Air Force, ISIS (Internet Sexuality Information Services), NMFA’s Operation Purple and Six Flags Theme Parks.
Paul Yanover has global oversight of all strategic, creative, technical and marketing initiatives surrounding the Disney brand on the Internet and mobile Web, including the flagship site, www.disney.com; a large portfolio of divisional Web sites for The Walt Disney Company; and a network of family-targeted sites including Disney Family.com, FamilyFun.com, Wondertime.com and iParenting.com. Disney Online is the business unit of Disney Interactive Media Group that produces the number one entertainment destination for kids and families on the Web. Paul also oversees Disney’s acclaimed suite of premium online products and virtual worlds including Disney Club Penguin, Pirates of the Caribbean Online, Disney Fairies Pixie Hollow, Disney’s Toontown Online and the upcoming Cars virtual world. He was awarded a Walt Disney Company Inventor Award in 2007.
Kit is co-author of Gen BuY: How Tweens, Teens and 20-Somethings are Revolutionizing Retail. She is also an award-winning consumer research psychologist and a professor at Golden Gate University. She has taught consumer behavior at universities around the world, from Slovenia to Malaysia, including the Helsinki School of Economics and UC Berkeley. As a recognized consumer expert, Kit has made frequent appearances on ABC World News, Good Morning America and Marketplace and is quoted in publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and US News & World Report. Kit’s clients include General Electric, Del Monte and Nokia.
Youth Marketing Mashup Advisors
danah's research focuses on how American youth use networked publics for sociable purposes. Recently, she has focused on the role that social network sites like MySpace and Facebook play in everyday teen interactions and relations. This work is funded by the MacArthur Foundation as part of a broader grant on digital youth and informal learning. At the Berkman Center, danah co-directs the Internet Safety Technical Task Force, which works with companies and non-profits to identify technical solutions for keeping children safe online. danah received a bachelor's degree in computer science from Brown University and a master's degree in sociable media from MIT Media Lab. She has worked as an ethnographer and social media researcher for Intel, Tribe.net, Google and Yahoo!
For the past 11 years, Bill and his colleagues 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 quoted widely in media ranging from Paper and Skateboarder magazines to The New York Times and Advertising Age. He provides counsel on many of Fuse's client initiatives and is currently advising Yahoo!, Harley-Davidson, Pepsi's Mountain Dew, NBC Sports and others. Bill holds a BA from Gettysburg College and an MS from Michigan State University.
AddictingGames is part of MTV Networks’ Kids and Family Group. With more than 20 million visitors a month and a library of more than 3,000 games, AddictingGames.com is the largest youth-oriented online game site in the U.S. and one of the most popular Web sites among teens. 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 was formerly an associate at Advent International, a private equity firm, and an analyst at Volpe, Welty, a boutique investment bank.
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 magazine, SPIN and VIBE Vixen, where she managed marketing, editorial, production, business development and sales operations. Her personal blog launched in July 2001 and was the recipient of the 2006 Black Weblog Awards Black Blogger Achievement Award.
Allison has been working in media and marketing for six years and was part of the launch team for Mobile Behavior. As the Director of Trends and Insights, she manages Next Great Thing, the group’s insights lab, leads behavioral research efforts, and guides thinking on youth trends, mobile innovations and consumer behavior. She also runs NextGreatThing.com, which has readers in more than 400 cities around the world.
Steve is the founder and executive director of The National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS). In 1994, Steve founded NSCS to recognize students who had done well academically during their first years in college and to provide members with an opportunity to be honored and involved in an organization devoted to scholarship, integrity and service. NSCS has more than 225 chapters in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Its membership consists of 160,000 current undergraduate students and 400,000 alumni members. Steve was recently elected president of the Association of College Honor Societies, the only certifying organization for collegiate honor societies.
Stephen leads mobile consumer insight and strategy for Disney Interactive Studios’ global mobile content team. Disney Interactive Studios publishes and licenses a broad spectrum of interactive entertainment including video games and mobile games, graphics and tones for wireless carriers and content aggregators such as the iPhone App Store. Mobile phone content is based on popular Disney characters and franchises including Hannah Montana, Pirates of the Caribbean, High School Musical and Disney Fairies. Stephen is a seasoned professional with more than a decade of experience in the mobile, Internet, sports and advertising industries. He also serves as the president of the board for Self Help Graphics & Art, a non-profit arts organization located in East Los Angeles.
