Conny Kalcher joined the LEGO Company in 1985, and has held key management positions in departments ranging from toys and software to publishing, theme parks, and innovation and marketing. She is currently global leader of Consumer Experiences, ensuring that the company constantly improves the understanding of the LEGO consumer and uses insights to create even better experiences for all LEGO fans. Before this role, Conny was Vice President - People, Culture and Corporate Communications, orchestrating the turnaround of HR strategy in cooperation with the LEGO board. She has also served as Vice President for the Global Marketing & Innovation department, responsible for lines including LEGO City, Harry Potter, Spiderman and Star Wars. Before joining the LEGO Company Conny taught secondary school children in Denmark for eight years. She holds a degree in International Marketing and has attended senior development programs at both Insead in France and London Business School.

Professor Alex (“Sandy”) Pentland is a pioneer in organizational engineering, mobile information systems, and computational social science. Sandy's focus is the development of human-centered technology, and the creation of ventures that take this technology into the real world. He directs the Human Dynamics Lab, helping companies to become more productive and creative through organizational engineering, and the Media Lab Entrepreneurship Program, which helps translate cutting-edge technology into real-world impact around the world. He is among the most-cited computer scientists in the world, and in 1997 Newsweek magazine named him one of the 100 Americans likely to shape this century.

Using traditional and non-traditional tactics, Burger King has been getting people talking, thanks to the efforts of some pretty brave brand managers and the folks at CP+B. Steve has been managing the US Burger King business and advising on the brand's expanding efforts globally for the past four years. He is now taking the reins as the director on the Volkswagen and the Microsoft accounts. Prior to his coming to CP+B for the re-launch of Burger King's "Have It Your Way" campaign, Steve worked at creative shops Chiat/Day, The Martin Agency, TBWA and VitroRobertson managing a host of consumer brands, including Timberland, Oakley, Jack in the Box, Taco Bell, Baskin-Robbins, Newcastle Brown Ale, Ketel One Vodka, Cobra Golf, Penn Tennis and Kyocera Wireless.

The best way to describe Scott is "Renaissance Man." Friends and colleagues that know Scott from one facet of his life are very frequently surprised to learn of his interests and talents in other areas. Scott is a marketing and communications professional focused on the digital industry - specifically on social media. His career spans a number of industries such as healthcare, pharma, biotech, travel, automotive, tech, and communications, and includes a wide range of clients, from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Some of Scott's clients include American Airlines, Audi, Starwood Hotels, IBM Healthcare & Life Sciences, Boston Scientific, The Coca-Cola Company, Millipore, Motorola and Kraft Foods, as well as numerous small-cap and start-up ventures. Scott is currently the head of social media for Ford Motor Company, where he holds the title Global Digital & Multimedia Communications Manager. While his role is based in the Corporate Communications area, he is a strategic advisor on all social media activities across the company. From blogger relations to marketing support to customer service to internal communications and more, social media touches many facets of Ford business, and Scott is there to ensure it is consistent across all of them. As Consigliere for crayon, LLC, Scott served as the primary point of contact for clients, representing their interests. But his role elevated his connection with the client beyond a typical account service role, counseling clients with a firm understanding of their industry, a breadth of knowledge of the landscape of new marketing, coupled with a personal approach to deepen the relationship. Scott joined crayon after three years with PJA Advertising + Marketing, a BtoB shop that specializes in the high tech and health sciences industries, where he helped clients with integrated brand campaigns and led an e-newsletter practice for a major client. Previously involved in the managed care and biotech/pharma/medical device consulting space, he has served in a variety of sales, marketing and communications roles. In addition to his marketing background, Scott is an active blogger and podcaster. He writes about issues relevant to the intersection of advertising, marketing and PR at The Social Media Marketing Blog (www.scottmonty.com) and also writes The Baker Street Blog, a literary undertaking, at www.bakerstreetblog.com. Scott has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, has guest-hosted the podcast Marketing Over Coffee, has been interviewed on numerous marketing podcasts, and is a recognized thought leader in the marketing industry. Scott received his Master's in Medical Science from Boston University's School of Medicine concurrently with his MBA from BU's Graduate School of Management. He lives in the greater Boston area with his wife and two young sons, golfs all too infrequently, and has a hidden talent for voice over work.

Stevens was the first MySpace executive recruitment outside the US when he joined in February 2006, and became well known in London in his role as European vice-president. He transferred to News Corporation-owned MySpace's head office in LA in August last year to become senior vice-president of audience. From this month, Stevens will be international vice-president and general manager for the Rubicon Project as it expands its business outside the US. The two-year-old Rubicon Project sells proprietary ad targeting systems that allow publishers to make money from unsold advertising space, which they claim can account for as much as 80% of a website's total inventory.

Richard Owen is President and CEO of Satmetrix, responsible for all aspects of strategy and day-to-day operations, and co-author of Answering the Ultimate Question, which defines how to deploy a Net Promoter strategy based on case studies and findings from more than 80 companies. Prior to joining Satmetrix, Mr. Owen was Chairman and CEO of NASDAQ-traded AvantGo, Inc., the leading provider of Enterprise Mobility Solutions to Fortune 1000 companies. AvantGo was successfully sold to Sybase, Inc. Before running AvantGo, Mr. Owen spent eight years at Dell Computer Corporation in various executive positions, most recently as vice president of Dell Online Worldwide. Mr. Owen was responsible for all aspects of Dell's Internet strategy and online business revenues on a worldwide basis–building Dell's online business to cover 50 percent of the company's sales volume. Mr. Owen began his career as a consultant for KPMG Management Consultants, where he worked for European high-technology manufacturers in the EMEA region on marketing strategy and business development, including Hewlett Packard and Apple. Mr. Owen holds a Bachelor's degree from Nottingham University in England and a Master's degree from MIT Sloan School of Management.

Charlie Schick is Editor-in-Chief for Nokia Conversations . His career at Nokia also includes kick-starting Ovi.com, launching Nokia Lifeblog and the Series 60 Platform, and providing Internet strategy consulting throughout the company. Prior to joining Nokia, he was an editorial consultant for various online and print publications. In addition to having written numerous articles for online and print telecom publications, he has written various research papers in leading journals and co-authored a book on advanced phone systems. One of his dark secrets is that he spent 12 years in basic Molecular and Cellular Biology research, reaching the level of Research Fellow and Instructor at Children's Hospital Boston, part of the Harvard Medical School. He has a graduate degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Eric Paulos is the Director of the Living Environments INTEL Lab and an Assistant Professor in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute with a secondary faculty appointment in the Robotics Institute both within the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Previously he was Senior Research Scientist at Intel in Berkeley, California where he founded the Urban Atmospheres research group - challenged to employ innovative methods to explore urban life and the future fabric of emerging technologies across public urban landscapes. His areas of expertise span a deep body of research territory in urban computing, sustainability, green design, environmental awareness, social telepresence, robotics, physical computing, interaction design, persuasive technologies, and intimate media. Eric received his PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley where he helped launch a new robotic industry by developing some of the first internet tele-operated robots including Space Browsing helium filled blimps and Personal Roving Presence devices (PRoPs). Eric is also the founder and director of the Experimental Interaction Unit and a frequent collaborator with Mark Pauline of Survival Research Laboratories.

Martina Zavagno is the digital marketing and e-commerce manager of Nike Italy. She is responsible of all brand connections activities through digital media as well as online retail marketing projects to support Nikestore.com and NIKEiD.com. Previous to Nike, she was with Diesel, where she took care of several successful digital projects such as the multiple award winning Diesel Heidies and the launch of Diesel's loyalty program, The Cult. Martina is also the editor and founder of Adverblog.com, one of the top European's blogs dedicated to interactive marketing and digital creativity.

Foe joined Nokia in 2003 and currently serves as Producer in the Nokia Games Business Unit, where he is responsible for pushing the limits of connected mobile gaming.As Producer of Sega's Pocket Kingdom ("The Ultimate Online Game" - GameSpy, "Top Ten Games To Play While Standing in Line" - The Escapist), Foe helped to bring massively multiplayer online gameplay to a handheld device for the first time.Other titles that Foe has worked on include Chu Chu Rocket, Phantasy Star Online, NFL 2K1, Bomberman Online, and Resident Evil Outbreak.Foe was also instrumental in creating Sega's (now Nokia's) SNAP network middleware technology, and Nokia's N-Gage Arena global mobile community.Foe is an active member of the IGDA, serving as a member of the Mobile Game Development Special Interest Group Steering Committee, and also leads the Academy of Interacive Arts & Sciences Cellular Peer Panel.He has spoken at industry conferences, including: Game Developers Conference, Mobile Content World, and CTIA IT Wireless.Foe earned Bachelor of Science degrees in both Mathematics and Computer Science from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, OH. In addition, Foe earned a certification in Japanese from Kyoto Seika University in Kyoto, Japan.

Simone Brunozzi is a technology enthusiast, involved in IT and computing since an early age. He joined Amazon.com in may 2008 in the role of Web Services Evangelist, traveling across Europe and vicinity to showcase the innovative new solutions by Amazon Web Services and help developers build businesses and applications. He is following the "Cloud Computing" paradigm shift since 2006, and believes that it isgoing to replace the traditional computing model in a few years.
Of Italian origins, Simone loves travelling, meeting people and connecting with them. He is a Linux and Ubuntu passionate, loves blogging on www.brunozzi.com, and has interests in the environment, clean energies, and technology in general.

After his studies of media informatics, Sven Markschläger started working at a well known German brewery in the department for innovative brands. During his activities he was responsible for the digital brand management of domestic brands and drove external and internal projects. Since spring 2007 he started working at the Mast Jägermeister Incorporated Company in Wolfenbüttel. Since then he is in charge of the department Digital Marketing and cares for all national and international digital measures for the company. Considering the digital approach to the consumers, Jägermeister doesn't pursue a global strategy, but carries out an exceedingly effective local niche policy in over 80 countries. This offers various possibilities in regard of the digital universe.

Mary Beth contributes to Forrester's research offerings for Marketing Leaders. She lends a global point of view on the challenges facing marketers: increasingly fragmented media, the pervasiveness of new technologies, changing consumer behavior, and the growing accountability of marketing. Her current research touches marketing strategy; integrated and ubiquitous marketing; and the changes required of advertising and of agencies. Mary Beth is based in Paris. Before joining Forrester, Mary Beth spent over 20 years as an international marketer, advising and coaching blue-chip brands and organizations. She has worked on both the client and agency side. Mary Beth was CRM director at Dassault Systèmes, designing and championing its customer-centric business strategy. She also chalked up 10 years in the Ogilvy network, in Paris and New York. There, she developed interactive and relationship marketing strategies with Nestlé, Unilever, IBM, and Air France. She began her career in direct marketing, working with clients American Express and AT&T.

Stephanie recently joined Atomico as an Investment Associate. In her role, she helps to evaluate and source investment opportunities. She also works closely with portfolio companies to help evolve their products and services on a global scale. Her primary focus is on ecommerce and consumer internet companies.
Prior to joining Atomico, Stephanie was a Senior Product Manager with Skype with a spotlight on building communities. Stephanie was responsible for innovating and implementing many exciting customer facing features for the Skype for Windows client which are seen online every day by millions of people.
Stephanie began her career at Netscape over 10 years ago. Having amassed experience with internet companies worldwide she has successfully rolled out and managed next generation digital media products and services. These include large-scale e-commerce platforms, content personalization, search, digital rights management and localisation for key European markets. In addition to her contributions at Netscape and Skype, her in-depth knowledge has helped grow Sega, PeoplePC and Private Media Group.

David Armano is both an active practitioner and thought leader in the worlds of experience design and digital marketing. Author of the popular Logic + Emotion blog, he has been invited to speak at events hosted by organizations such as Google, Microsoft, O'Reilly and Ad Age. David currently works for Critical Mass, a veteran digital agency focused on the creation of extraordinary experiences. He also writes industry perspectives for Ad Age, BusinessWeek and is best known for his distinct brand of visual thinking, which can be found both on the Web and in presentations all over the world.

Georges-Edouard DIAS is currently heading, a position that he has occupied since 2001. With his team, he is supervising the worldwide development of L'Oreal sales online, which includes operations from every L'Oreal division in Europe, Asia, North and South America. The team is equally responsible for empowering brand communication and advertising through digital : from setting content partnership with leading web portals such as MSN or Sina.com in China, to rethinking the role of direct communication and customer interaction in the marketing mix, thanks to an integrated CRM & Media approach. Dias was previously VP of Interactive Development at L'Oreal USA, where he defined L'Oreal's policy related to digital commerce and launched the first selling sites in L'Oreal's history.
Dias interactive career commenced when he was promoted as project manager in charge of launching L'Oreal corporate web site in 1997, an important change from his previous positions in the group that were mostly marketing focused; from product manager at Garnier International when he joined L'Oreal after he graduated from HEC in France in 1983, to VP of Marketing at Vichy International before he was moved to corporate.

Barney Pell, Ph.D. For over 15 years Barney Pell (Ph.D. Computer science, Cambridge University 1993) has pursued groundbreaking technical and commercial innovation in A.I. and Natural Language understanding at research institutions including NASA, SRI, Stanford University and Cambridge University. In startup companies, Dr. Pell was Chief Strategist and VP of Business Development at StockMaster.com (acquired by Red Herring in March, 2000) and later had the same role at Whizbang! Labs. Just prior to Powerset, Pell was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Mayfield, one of the top VC firms in Silicon Valley.

Rolf Skyberg is a Disruptive Innovator at eBay Inc., developing innovative methods to improve on and off-platform businesses as well as buyer experiences. While at eBay he has also performed quality assurance and contributed to the efforts of eBay Research Lab. His particular interests include forming socio-retail spaces and leveraging adopted technology to reduce buyer frictions. Rolf has been a featured speaker at the Web 2.0 EXPO, OSCON, Emerce e.day and IBM Research Labs. Rolf has a BS in Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis with additional studies in System Science. He has worked in technology since before the first dot.com bust and hopes to continue thinking up great ideas through the second boom.

Jan Borgstädt is a Principal at BDMI. Before joining BDMI Jan Borgstaedt was a member of the Bertelsmann Entrepreneurs Program, working as a consultant on several digital media projects throughout the divisions of Bertelsmann AG. Prior to that he founded a professional publishing house and later sold it to a major German media group. Mr. Borgstädt graduated from the University of Münster in Germany specializing in Finance & Controlling. He also holds a Masters of Marketing from EADA Business School in Spain. He is currently involved in different start-ups among them BuyVip one of Europe's exclusive Social-Shopping platforms.

Nicolas Beauchesne, 34, an ESCP graduate (Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris), has been devoting his career to the Media industry since 1997. After three years in TV production at TF1, Coyote Productions and Canal+, he joined CanalSatellite's Interactive Programs Business Development group in 2000. At the end of 2002, he joined Vivendi-Universal Net to launch the French division of MP3.com. He spent 6 years total in the Vivendi Group. Following a successful endeavor as Deputy General Manager of a leading digital photo processing start up in France, he joined Google France in August 2005 as the Leader of the Media & Entertainment Industry. He looked after the Media & Entertainment Google business growth on both France and Pan European levels from 2005 to end of 2007. From January 2008 on, Nicolas has been involved in refining the "engaging" Google & YouTube value proposition for the benefit of users and brands. He is currently leading the Google efforts regarding YouTube and Display businesses in France.

Geoff Ramsey is one of the Internet's most exciting digital marketing visionaries. As CEO and co-founder of eMarketer, Geoff is on the cutting edge of new research statistics, trends and best practices, covering every aspect of marketing in the digital age. He is frequently quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNN, BusinessWeek and Advertising Age. A highly regarded speaker with an engaging presentation style, Geoff speaks at major digital, media and corporate events around the globe, including the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), Association of National Advertisers (ANA), Magazine Publishers of America (MPA), the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), The Conference Board, Economist Conferences, Google and Yahoo!. Prior to starting eMarketer, Geoff worked at several large New York ad agencies, including TBWA and Ogilvy & Mather, where he ran multinational accounts for brands including Procter & Gamble, Kraft Foods, M&M Mars and AT&T.

It's a fact. WOM is highjacking one of mass media's largest domains. But what if you're not interested in reaching the masses. What if your sights are set squarely on the deep-pocketed, ever-so discerning, platinum keyboarded, silver spoon-birthed Surfer? Just how does one WOM the select few? Sven has certainly navigated this yellow-brick road. He's responsible for planning, designing and implementing integrated communication measures for the web sites of Mercedes Benz and the incomparably grand Maybach. Sven is also the man behind the innovative Internet presence of several internationally relevant "digital" products and brands, including the "Mercedes Mixed Tape" free downloads and the "Mercedes Text Tracks" audio books. As well, he's headed internationally lauded Internet projects such as the adventure game "Become a Men in Black agent!", the online Christmas game "Wunschwald" and the first interactive film "7 Years Later".

Olivier Hascoat, 40 ans, est Directeur Général de MySpace en France. Sa mission principale est de développer, dans l'hexagone, l'activité de l'un des premiers réseaux sociaux dans le monde. Diplômé de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC) et titulaire d'un MBA d'Harvard, Olivier Hascoat bénéficie d'une expérience de 15 ans dans l'univers des médias, du mobile et de l'Internet. Il débute sa carrière en 1992 au sein du cabinet de conseil McKinsey & Co, en France et à New York. En 2000, il rejoint Vivendi Universal Net, où il est en charge du lancement européen puis américain de MP3.com, un des premiers sites de diffusion musicale sur Internet. Il poursuit alors sa mission à Los Angeles, où il participe par la suite aux développements d'emusic, l'un des premiers services de téléchargement en ligne et de Rollingstone.com. En 2006, OIivier Hascoat intègre le Groupe Orange/France Telecom, tout d'abord en tant que Directeur des services multimédias puis au poste de Vice-président de la division Marketing mobile grand public, où il est responsable notamment du développement et de la coordination des " offres jeunes " sur le territoire Européen. En Juillet 2008, il rejoint MySpace en tant que Directeur Général France.

Christian Clawien is Creative Manager at construktiv GmbH, agency for public relations, advertising and online services in Bremen and Berlin.
construktiv founded and runs several web 2.0 services, among them the social bookmarking portal Mister Wong. This portal has been online in Germany since march 2006, currently counting more than 4 million unique visitors a month. Mister Wong portals have also been introduced in Spain, France, China, Russia and an international version in English, with each language having it's unique site. Christian Clawien is in charge of coordinating Mister Wong's international communication, marketing and the forming of relationships with network partners. After having worked in the fields of distribution and sales (WOM, Gravis), consulting (nextpractice) and PR, Christian Clawien now lives his passion for internet issues and communication at construktiv.

Freddy Mini is the CEO of Netvibes, the leading personalized startpage and widget marketing platform, serving more than 1000 of the world's top agencies, brands and publishers. Prior to Netvibes, he was the co-founder of musicMe (the first music search service), the CEO of Ziff-Davis (France), and the Senior VP and Managing Director of CNET Networks Europe where he was responsible for creating and building their operations to over 150 people while exceeding all profitability goals.

Whilst at the BBC, Euan Semple pioneered the use of weblogs, wikis and online forums to enable staff to work more collaboratively across the organisation. Euan also worked on the BBC's award winning leadership programme, gaining experience in how to engage and inspire people with the possibilities of social computing as a business tool. He is now independent advisor on social computing for business, and a well known writer, thinker and public speaker. His unique experience enables him to provide inspiration on this wired-up world of work and strategies for how business can prepare themselves for the challenges and opportunities presented by new technologies.

Damien Vincent is Facebook Director of sales for France. His mission will be to implement online campaigns on Facebook and to develop new marketing and advertising tools to support agencies and brands in their online strategy. Damien has eight years experience in online sales and advertising. Prior to joining Facebook, Vincent was the sales director for MySpace in France. Vincent began his career in business development in AOL's Interactive Marketing Group, and then joined Advertising.com as sales director where he led a team of sales people and account managers, and also developed and marketed advertising and marketing solutions to augment visibility and traffic for brands and advertising buyers. Damien graduated from IPAG and is fluent in English.

Mark Kingdon left for Second Life in 2008. Before that Mark Kingdon joined Organic as CEO in 2001 and has led the company to its current position as a leading digital marketing agency. Prior to Organic, Mark worked for Idealab and provided strategic guidance to emerging companies. Earlier, he was a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he led the America's retail and distribution industry practice and managed the PWC and Lybrand merger and was a leader in the e-business practice globally. Mark is a member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences and serves as a Webby judge. He's also a regular contributor to Three Minds, Organic's blog. Mark received his MBA from the Wharton School of Business and a BA in Economics from UCLA.

Michael Wall, one of the founding partners of Fallon London, is known for his outstanding work on Word-of-Mouth oriented advertising and marketing approaches for such clients like Sony and Lee. His approaches are always interaction oriented. With Fallon's campaigns he won several awards and was honored by various marketing journals for his outstanding work.

A pioneer in the brave new word-of-mouth marketing world, in late 2001 Dave brought humankind (and any aliens secretly inhabiting the place) BzzAgent. It was the first company to provide diligence around the concept of word-of-mouth marketing. BzzAgent's process and platform – the BzzEngine – was created to help companies harness the power of their own consumers. It's become a leading WOM marketing and research firm that utilizes a network of over 90,000 volunteer brand evangelists. BzzAgent's clients include IBM, Lee Jeans, Anheuser Busch and Kraft Foods. Dave was voted a promotional marketing "top 40 under 40" in 2001 by A.S.I. He holds a degree in Psychology from Skidmore College, which just means he knows what you're thinking. Or thinks you think he thinks he does...

Graduated from ISG Paris, Xavier des Horts has started his professional life in different communications agencies, managing events or multimedia projects, after a military service at the SIRPA – French Army Communication service. In 1988, Alcatel Mobile Communications called him to manage multimedia sales tools and Alcatel participation to many Telecom exhibitions. In 2000, Nokia offered him to manage Marketing and Press Relations for Nokia Networks. Following 2004 Nokia's reorganization, a communications platform was created and led by Xavier des Horts to manage the communications for all Nokia activities: devices, software and services. This central organization inside Nokia France manages Press Relations, External relations with authorities, lobbying, Buzz, WOM, actions of Corporate Social Responsibility.

The biggest crowd pleaser at TechCrunch50 in Sep. 2008 was a demo by the Japanese startup Tonchidot for a mobile social tagging product it is developing called "Sekai Camera". The Japanese CEO Takahito Iguchi overcame a very noticeable language barrier and deflected serious questions from the judges through sheer will of character. He had the audience roaring in laughter and rooting for him, as he answered lengthy questions about how his service would actually work with brief responses such as "Imagination!" and "We have a patent." When judge Rafe Needleman suggested that Google would buy Tonchidot, he objected: "Never!"

Tommy Ahlers founded ZYB in 2005. ZYB (zyb.com) is leading the innovation around the mobile phone book. It started with backup and online management of mobile data and has evolved into the ZYB Phonebook connecting real friends stored on the mobile to social communities, photos, location etc. As CEO of ZYB, Tommy brings more than six years experience in strategy and management partly from the mobile industry. He was previously with McKinsey & Co for more than four years, where he served as an engagement manager working with mobile operators to shape their strategies. In addition to ZYB, he also founded another start-up which provided a global SMS-service to mobile users. Tommy holds a master degree in law from the University of Copenhagen.

Jackie Danicki joined Qik as marketing director with more than a decade of experience in online communication and emerging internet technologies in both Europe and the US. Jackie was one of the world's first recognized leaders in the area of blogging for business and non-profits, starting with the London-based Big Blog Company in early 2004. Later the head of marketing for Europe's largest search engine marketing agency, Latitude, Jackie's work has been singled out for praise by British Vogue, the New York Times, Allure, the Sunday Telegraph (London), the Sunday Times (London), Women's Wear Daily, and many others. She is a frequent presenter at events in the US and Europe.

Stefan Lechere is in charge of alliances, partnerships and new relationships with major online and offline players in EMEA. Netvibes is a leading personalization service and widget platform that pioneered the personalized homepage as alternative to traditional web portals. Netvibes lets individuals assemble all in one place their favorite widgets, websites, blogs, email accounts, social networks, search engines, instant messengers, photos, videos, podcasts, and everything else they enjoy on the Web. Today, netvibes is a global community of users who are taking control of their digital lives by personalizing their web experience. Users have created more than 50 million personal pages in more than 76 languages and 200 countries. Netvibes (http://www.netvibes.com) has offices in Paris, London and San Francisco.

Internet entrepreneur & strategic advisor for high-growth companies, Yann is working closely with innovative leaders of tomorrow (internet, media, investors). Yann is the CEO of Mutual Benefits, a business advisory network, managing the french operations of www.b-to-v.com (pan-european business angel network). Yann is also Director France, Amiando and Partner France, Blacksocks, "The Sockscription Company". Executive Director of the Web & Communities Summit (European TechTour Association) in 2007, Yann operated the french branch of XING/openBC during 3 years and started FON operations in France. He previously managed operations such as Club-Internet (ISP sold to T-Online), Studio Grolier (web agency) and NewsAlert/Inlumen (CMS sold to DowJones). He's been lucky to manage start-ups in several countries US, UK, China, Taiwan, Hong-Kong & Singapore. Currently located in Paris, France with his family, Yann holds a Master of International Affairs Management and practices Yoga.

In 1996, Greg joined BackWeb Technologies (NASD: BWEB), a mobile infrastructure software company, as one of the first employees and spent seven years working between the US, Germany and Israel, most recently as a member of the Executive Board and Principal Architect of the Business Development group in charge of IBM, Microsoft and SAP. Previously, he was the Director of Business Development in charge of BackWeb's relationship with SAP, the company's largest source of revenue. Greg also acted as the Principal Architect for SAP integrations, responsible for creating software solutions and leading the development teams that brought them to realization. Greg has co-organized the Drobny Global Hedge Fund Conference for several years, been a frequent speaker at SAP's SAPPHIRE conferences in Europe and the US, and managed sales, partnership and implementation projects in 25 countries. He holds a MBA from HEC Paris and a BS in Civil Engineering from Bucknell University.

As Senior Business Development Manager of Lifeblog team in Nokia Multimedia, Jian Ni is responsible for creating new business opportunities and developing strategic partnership around Nokia Lifeblog application and services. Jian Ni joined Nokia in February 1995. He held various positions of product development and technology management in Nokia Group’s mobile handset divisions. Before joining Nokia, Jian Ni was a research assistant in Tampere University of Technology, Finland and worked as a software engineer in Beijing Keli Co., China. Jian Ni received his MBA from Rutgers University, USA, and M.Sc & B.Sc. from Tsinghua University, China. He is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma and holder of 3 patents. He is married and has one child. In his spare time, he enjoys nature photography.

Fiona McDonnell , Senior Analyst, Consumer Markets at Forrester Research, states: “Consumers today are tired of the brand bombardment of almost identical products, marketed through TV ad blocks that they increasingly skip. Meanwhile, CPG firms and retailers pump tens, sometimes hundreds, of millions into realizing their CRM visions.

Mission confiée par les investisseurs : Développement d'une équipe dédiée à la création d'une offre media contenu & publicitaires : Sales, OPS, Traffic, Marketing, Projet e-business. Equipe lancée le 02 Juillet 2007. Responsabilité des revenus en France et à l'international. Développement des marché US, UK & CAN, LATAM, Europe du Sud. Equipe à Paris, Londres, New-York, Barcelone, Berlin.

Wolfgang Lünenbürger-Reidenbach joined Edelman Hamburg in August 2006 as Director Online Conversations. In November 2007 he was promoted to oversee Edelman Europes online practice. He has special expertise in monitoring online communities and acting in the new so-called "web 2.0" environment – and has several years of experience in both of these areas as well as in building online programs and leading online development. When Wolfgang started his own blog Haltungsturnen (http://haltungsturnen.de) in early 2003, he was one of the first German PR professionals to blog. To date his blog is well-known and of some influence in Germany�s blogosphere and uses all social media applications. His experience with consulting companies and organizations in how to deal with bloggers goes back to 2004. In the past few years he has written many essays about blogs, web 2.0 and communication. Wolfgang often holds seminars about these issues with journalists and PR-professionals and is much in demand as a speaker or moderator. He was in charge of several local and international social media projects, e.g. corporate blogs (Daimler AG), social networks (Dove), or online relations. Wolfgang graduated with a degree in Theology and worked as a journalist and radio DJ for several years, before he founded a professional journal, where he was editor-in-chief. For six years, he was Business Development Manager for the German wire service News Aktuell and evolved its strategy for "web 2.0". Recently he led the sales department of German media monitoring service Ausschnitt Medienbeobachtung.

As the Slide community advocate, Tony makes sure that the users' voices are heard as Slide develops its popular features and applications -- like Slideshow, FunWall, SuperPoke! and Top Friends -- that reach nearly 200 million people every single month. Tony is responsible for leading creative/product marketing and managing artist relations with celebrity Slide users, including movie stars, politicians and musicians who use Slide to market and distribute their albums and videos across multiple social networks. Tony graduated from Grinnell College and is also a Fulbright Scholar.

Tim Wragg, global director of GFK NOP World's customer management centre of excellence concentrates on Word-of-Mouth Marketing and analyzes new forms of strategies and tactics. Tim is world-wide known for his research in academic papers and journals. In his research he concentrates on new measures to understand the underlying motives of Word-of-Mouth much better.

Caught a case of digital diphtheria? Feeling a bit like Fred Flintstone? Synaptic overload? If one more person talks about the "latest" tech buzz are you going to look for a big fat analog rock and hide under it? Well, Suresh brings a wealth of both industry and academic knowledge that helps audiences and clients understand how leading edge research and initiatives can be applied creatively to solve today's problems. As the Chief Information Architect of Golden Mean, he focuses on the semantics of information to help global clients utilize the structured as well as unstructured information available to revolutionize business practice. He's been a key instigator leading the embracement of digital technologies in curriculum development since 1995. His work has included the handling of insider trading information, operational risk and sophisticated competitive intelligence systems. As a Senior Vice President with Reuters, he developed new business opportunities for advanced technologies across Asia, including China and India.

Dr. Peeter Verlegh is Associate Professor of Marketing at RSM Erasmus University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, where he teaches Consumer Behavior in the MBA and MScBA programs. His research has primarily focused on word-of-mouth and other forms of persuasive communication. His research uses surveys and experiments to study the questions of how and when consumers talk about products, how marketers can stimulate this, and how word of mouth affects consumers. His work has been published among others in International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of International Business Studies, Marketing Letters, and the British Journal of Management. He has guest-lectured in Consumer behavior at Copenhagen Business School, ESADE (Barcelona) and Prague University of Economics, and was a visiting scholar at University of Colorado – Boulder.

Laurent Florès, PhD is the original founer of crmmetrix a customer-listening company that builds relationships and drives innovation. Crmmetrix serves Fortune 1,000 clients globally from its NY, Cincinnati, Paris, & Singapore based offices. Laurent is currently an Associate Professor of Marketing at Université of Paris II. Laurent speaks and publishes regularly in both professional and academic conferences and journals ranging on the topic of innovation, social media, and "marketing 2.0" at large and appears regularly in the international press (NY Times, International Herald Tribune, Les Echos, La Tribune, etc.). He currenty seats on the Esomar & Adetem boards and was on the first elected board of directors of WOMMA, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association in the US.

John Bigay is VP Marketing at BzzAgent, the international word-of-mouth media network that helps companies to organize and manage honest, real-world conversations among everyday consumers. BzzAgent's innovative process, platform and programs enable the acceleration and measurement of word of mouth as a marketing medium. John Bigay has 17 years of experience in the media and entertainment industries, with more than 7 years in digital and non-traditional media. Before joining BzzAgent, he was the vice president of marketing for Gannett's Captivate Network where he directed the media company's marketing and on-air programming efforts. Bigay previously held various marketing positions with PRI's Public Interactive, Atmosphere Entertainment, Universal Music and MCA Records.

As the General Manager of EMEA, Olivier Creiche is responsible for business operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Olivier has rich experience in sales and marketing at such companies as Danone, Pepsico, BBDO and DDB. He cofounded two companies, one of which was Ublog, a French blogging service acquired by Six Apart in 2004. Olivier joined Six Apart as the Business Development Manager for EMEA in 2004 and recently stepped up to the General Manager position. He received his Bachelor of Business Administration at the University of South Dakota and is a graduate of the Institut dEtudes Politiques de Paris.

Impact. Just how in the world does one quantify this difficult to define yardstick of consequence? How does one gauge a message's effect? Precis might be precisely the answer. Precis is one of the leading Media Analysis and Evaluation systems. And, during the last twelve years Fergus has completed its development. Since 1991, he has worked with all the major PR consultants in the UK and many large corporations on a wide variety of projects with Precis, ranging from product launches to complex pan-European and US-based Issue Management assignments. Fergus has an Honours degree in Social Psychology and international Marketing experience that spans over 20 years, focusing in Business-to-Business expertise. He's also a founder and past Chairman of AMEC, the Association of Media Evaluation Companies.

Claus Moseholm has 10 years of experience from the advertising and communication business. He has a Master in Economics and worked in the mid nineties as a PR consultant with clients like LEGO. He has been running PR and communication in the Nordics for the real estate design company YOO as their communication manager. In 2001 he ventured with the award winning advertising agency Home Sweet Home which he was directing for two years until he set-up GoViral together with Balder Olrik in 2003 pioneering the field of viral marketing.

Generally, Jeeves knows it all. But curious minds wanting to know the best and most successful way to expand across the globe might also want to Ask Miguel. He will pilot this leading provider of world-class information retrieval technologies, brands and services as it broadly expands across the European continent, adding to its US and Japanese saturation. Additionally he will evaluate other options for market penetration including acquisition and JV partnerships. Miguel Acosta is a CFA Charter holder and holds a B.S. in Economics and a Master's Degree in Finance from the Universidad La Laguna. He started his career at GBS Finanzas, a Spanish Investment Bank, in 1995, where he became Vice President. In 2000, he joined Yahoo! Europe as Business Development Director for Finance. Appointments as Strategic Development Director and Head of Monetization and Business Development for Search followed.

Do actions speak louder than words? New technology is making two types of consumer interactions increasingly important: word-of-mouth learning from others' words (online product reviews posted by existing users) and observational learning from others' purchase actions (revealed through recommendation agents at seller's website). Which of these, words or actions, is most persuasive? How do they jointly impact consumer purchase behavior and product sales? Dr. Chen, an expert in on-line product information, offers answers to these questions based on his extensive studies of various online information sources and markets. Dr. Chen received his Ph. D. in Marketing from the University of Florida. He currently teaches marketing strategy and international marketing at the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona. His current research investigates strategic implications of different consumer social interactions and how various product reviews are changing the landscape of marketing strategy. His research has been published in leading academic marketing journals such as Marketing Science and Marketing Letters.

The verb "buzzen" has recently become a "buzz" word in The Netherlands. Willem launched Buzzer end of 2004 and is currently looking to expand into other European markets. Before jumping into the brave new world of WoM, he worked for good old Michael E. Porter's Monitor Group, and launched an incubator in 1998 to start his first WoM-related venture in 2000. Ever since, he has been involved in product & marketing innovation, both as a consultant and an entrepreneur. The exposure to new products and its ambassadors, the taste of the raw power of the consumer's opinion left him wanting more of it. Better harnessed, managed and stimulated. Buzzer was something lurking in the shadow of his thoughts and has now become a fantastic reality. He just might stick to this for more than one year... Willem holds a Master of Laws which he uses to sue companies that refuse to work with Buzzer and fully adopt WoM as a marketing tool.

Fingers nimble? Mouth primed for Multi-Culti trash talking? Ready to get Medieval on the world? Then get your game on, gamers. You're up. Thanks to Alexander and Scott, the world is your playing field. Magna cum laude Harvard Law School graduate Alexander co-founded Themis Group in August 2001 and has served as its President & CEO since its inception. Prior to Themis, he was CEO of WarCry, which he led to become the game industry's second largest massively-multiplayer community network, before integrating it into Themis. As Producer of Sega's Pocket Kingdom, Scott helped to bring massively multiplayer online gameplay to a handheld device for the first time. He was also instrumental in creating Sega's (now Nokia's) SNAP network middleware technology and Nokia's N-Gage Arena global mobile community. He is an active member of the IGDA and holds a certification in Japanese from Kyoto Seika University in Kyoto, Japan.

Until recently, Christian Wolf, aged 30, was employed at Deutsche Telekom Laboratories, the innovation development unit of Deutsche Telekom AG. There he headed a number of high-level development projects with a focus on mobile social networking and mobile web applications. In 2006 together with his colleague, Dr. Nischal Piratla, he decided to spin-off one of these projects into an independent company and license the project results exclusively from their former employer. Wolfs previous experience includes a Master's Degree in Consumer Marketing and International Management and positions in Sales and Marketing in various industries.

Once upon a time, a good son was born in Canada. He learned something of the ad game on his father’s knee. Scott was quick to graduate from Western University, and even quicker to hop the pond to Sweden to jumpstart his career.In the 80s his first international client Ericsson played cupid between Scott and a sweet muse called technology. He knew how to tell a story and in the process became the lead writer for the global Ericsson brand.In the early 90s Scott heard something about the ‘Internet’ through the old fashioned grape vine. He got connected and immediately recognized the Internet for what it would become: one MASSive medium for media.In Stockholm, Scott was owner of an ad agency that focused on building brands by taking advantage of all these ever-new possibilities and in the process the agency won numerous awards for effectiveness, design, international and cultural relevance.In the late 90s, Scott sold his agency and moved over the pond, serving as Executive Creative Director for JWT Canada.In 1999, he returned to Europe to found StrawberryFrog, a company that would grow into the voice of a new generation of innovative modern agencies.StrawberryFrog's DNA is Cultural Movements. StrawberryFrog develops Cultural Movement strategies for its clients. StrawberryFrog has become a global company doing business where its clients do business.Scott has worked internationally for some of the world's most iconic brands such as Coca Cola, Google, Heineken, Frito Lay, Morgan Stanley, Mitsubishi Motors, Microsoft, Old Navy, and Smart.Scott served as Chairman of the Global Future Marketing Summit in New York and London. He has given keynote addresses in New York and around the world, such as GoaFest in India. He has received numerous international awards and acted on many juries including the Cannes Lions Titanium jury and DA&D. Scott was on the board of the Art Director’s Club of America and has lectured at the Cambridge University School of Business.Scott loves his work, loves building brands, love sparking cultural movements for brands. But he loves his family more. His most precious time is spent with his wife and his two sons. He is an avid water skier, surfer, skier, wind surfer, amateur chef and traveler,
Scott resides a few miles outside New York city.

As a marketer, speaker, and author, John Moore shares business and marketing advice with companies seeking to earn unwavering devotion from customers. From 1994 through 2004, John had the extraordinary opportunity of working deep inside the marketing departments of Starbucks Coffee and Whole Foods Market. At both brands, John focused his teams on activities that were less about using traditional advertising, and more about using the influential power of devoted customers as the advertising vehicle. In 2005, John began the Brand Autopsy Marketing Practice to share the many lessons he has learned about marketing with passion and purpose. Working as a marketingologist, he helps companies of all sizes to diagnose and treat common marketing ailments, including: anemic sales, ideation fatigue, poor brand complexion, and contagious employee apathy. A long-time believer in word-of-mouth marketing (WOM), John is currently putting his experience to good use as a WOM Enthusiast with the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. In this role, he educates and motivates businesses to use word-of-mouth marketing effectively and ethically. Through speaking engagements, John brings a sense of urgency and innovation to audiences, creating new ideas and spurring on business and brand advancement.He has been recognized by Fast Company magazine as a “leading practitioner of the arts of customer service and marketing” and is often quoted in business publications.

Matt Rhodes is head of Client Services at London-based social media agency, FreshNetworks. One of the founding members of FreshNetworks, Matt oversees the production, management and analysis of branded online communities for brands such as BSkyB, British Telecom and UK leisure firm Butlins. He has a background in market research, customer experience and strategy consulting, specialising in digital innovation and product and proposition development. Matt runs both professional and personal blogs and is a prolific author of social media best-practice articles for a range of publications both on and offline. He is a regular speaker at Web 2.0 and research conferences across Europe, most recently appearing at ESOMAR in Dublin and Online Information in London. He has also appeared as a social media marketing expert on Sky News and BBC radio. Matt has an MA in Modern and Medieval Languages from the University of Cambridge and conducted post-graduate linguistic research at the Université de Provence in France. Matt blogs at blog.freshnetworks.com and can be followed on Twitter @mattrhodes.

Director EMEA, mCommerce at Sybase 365, a subsidiary of Sybase, is the global leader in mobile messaging interoperability and mobile content delivery via SMS and MMS. Processing more than 8 billion messages monthly, Sybase 365 reaches over 700 mobile operators and 2.2 billion subscribers around the world. The company is solidly positioned between operators, financial institutions, enterprises, global brands, and mobile content providers providing global reach with local presence and expertise. Sybase 365 offers a full spectrum of services for delivery of content, deployment of marketing campaigns and mobile advertising, secure and direct mobile commerce, mBanking, mobile remittances and payments.

A double background in Engineering and Marketing has made Cédric passionate about the Web. He successfully launched Vente-du-diable.com and played a lead role in several other marketing projects as a freelance consultant. He has a passion for international business and inter-cultural approaches, especially when it comes to French-German collaborations, since he has lived in Germany for 2 years. He is currently Marketing Manager at Goojet, a young French start-up specialized in the mobile web. The company is based in Toulouse and Paris and employs 20 people. Goojet was launched in December 2007 and received the award for the most promising start-up at LeWeb3. It is currently in private beta and is scheduled for public launch in May 2008. In parallel to Goojet, Cédric is blogging on www.cedricgiorgi.com about the Web, mobile and marketing trends and acts as a new-media evangelist. He also participates in several international conferences and teaches classes at French Engineering and Business schools about the new trends of the Web, Mobile and Marketing. Cédric holds an Engineering Degree in Computer Science from the INSA and a Specialised Master Degree in Marketing and Communication from the ESC Toulouse Business school.

Stepford wives back off and clear the way. There is a whole new formidable breed of opinionated married women inhabiting the domestic digital landscape. And Inus knows all about their remarkable muscle. As president of Azoomma Marketing Lab, Korea's leading agency in buzz marketing, she manages a cyber community membered by 500,000 married women. Her group has worked wonders for CJ, a leading food manufacturer, employing tools such as KitchenForum, Value Sampling and GuerillaPaper. Equally impressive are the brand achievements realized for Daehan pulp's Bosomi diapers and Seoul Milk's milk, juice and yogurt products. Inus also has a radio program and is a committee member of Seoul City. She lectures frequently and was recently honored with an invitation to present to the Korean Ministry of Government Affairs and Home Affairs.

A few years ago Matt and some other guys thought; "why is it that ads and sales reps are focus of everything we do, when it's really word of mouth recommendation that's makes healthcare tick?".
Based on this they founded Central, a consultancy that challenges the accepted healthcare marketing 'wisdom' with word of mouth marketing science. The result is a pioneering, tailored approach to healthcare marketing that refreshingly no longer mimics out of date consumer models. In fact, much of what Central does is now ahead of consumer practice, especially in the area of Opinion Leadership. Clients they've pushed the boundaries with include GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Roche and Pfizer. Matt has worked with over 50 healthcare brands; from multi-billion dollar blockbusters to medicines for rare diseases you hopefully will never hear of. Prior to Central he ran a couple of agencies in the Publicis Groupe, and before that he worked in global marketing for GlaxoSmithKline.

Frédéric CAVAZZA, a specialist in new technologies since 1997, has been working as a freelance consultant since 2006. After studying marketing he worked on numerous website and e-business projects for major clients. He is an innovation freak and shares his passion for the web and his favourite topics (e-marketing, web 2.0, usability, rich interfaces and virtual worlds) on different blogs: www.FredCavazza.net, www.RichCommerce.fr and www.MediasSociaux.com.

Anthony Hamelle is CEO of linkfluence, a market research agency that analyses trends and opinions on the social web for Governments, NGOs, major brands and agencies such as L'Oréal, Ferrero, Publicis or Havas. Previously a corporate communications and public affairs consultant with Euro RSCG (Havas Group) and head of the corporate communications research department of Occurrence, he holds a Master's degree in Media & Technology Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science. A member of ESOMAR, he's an expert in online communications and opinion research.

Based in New York, Max is presently co-founder and CEO of Mogulus (www.mogulus.com).. Max is an expert in user generated content, broadcast technologies and workflow, he previously founded ICF (www.icf.tv) a media asset management platform which was sold to Verizon Business in 2005. He held positions as VP of Digital Media at Verizon Business and Senior Vice President at IMG Interactive. Max is a recognized digital content industry pioneer and is regularly invited to speak and contribute at industry events/forums for the broadcast, broadband and mobile industry.

Gabriel Yoran, 31, war schon vor aka-aki Technologie- und Medienunternehmer. 1997 gründete er mit zwei Freunden die Sicherheitssoftware-Firma Steganos, deren Produkte von Millionen sicherheitsbewusster Anwender weltweit genutzt werden. Er studierte Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftskommunikation an der Universität der Künste Berlin und schreibt regelmäßig zu Fragen des Managements und strategischer Kommunikation. Bei aka-aki ist er Co-Geschäftsführer für Produktentwicklung und -management.

Jill was awarded a PhD in marketing in 1995. Her academic research focuses on services marketing as well as brand equity, relationship marketing and word-of-mouth. She has published widely including in the Journal of Retailing, the Australian Journal of Management, Psychology and Marketing and the Journal of Service Research. Jill was state Chair of the Australian Marketing and Social Research Society until recently and on the National Council of the same body. She is on the Australia and New Zealand Marketing Academy Executive and was co-chair of the ANZMAC 2005 conference held in Fremantle in December 2005. Jill is currently the Associate Dean of Research and Research Training at the University of Western Australia Business School.

René Algesheimer holds the chair of marketing and market research at the University of Zurich. After his highschool years at the Stefan George-Gymnasium Bingen/Rhein (Abitur 1992), he studied mathematics, business administration and music (classic piano, jazz sax) at the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz. René Algesheimer holds a degree in mathematics (2000, “magna cum laude”, thesis topic: "Elliptische Kurven als alternatives Public-Key Verfahren im Homebanking-Standard HBCI"), and a doctorate (Dr. oec.) from the University of St. Gallen/Switzerland (2004, “summa cum laude”, thesis topic: "Brand Communities"). From 2004 and 2007 he worked as an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Zurich, and thereafter between 2007 and 2009 as an associate professor of marketing at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce Montpellier (Montpellier Business School). In the recent past René Algesheimer has received six job offers as marketing professor from national and international universities and business schools (University of Zurich [assistant professor], University of Passau [W3], Ecole Supérieure de Commerce Montpellier [Associate], Euromed Marseille [Associate], WHU Vallendar [Full], Universität Zürich [Chair]). In 2009 he accepted the offer as chaired professor of marketing at the University of Zurich/Switzerland.

Paul Dholakia is a William S. Mackey, Jr. and Verne F. Simons Distinguished Associate Professor of Management at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management, Rice University in Houston, Texas. He has a master's degree in psychology, and a Ph.D. in marketing
from the University of Michigan, a master's degree in operations research from the Ohio State University, and a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from the University of Bombay. His research interests lie in studying motivational psychology of consumers and online marketing issues such as virtual communities and online auctions. He also studies relational aspects of consumer behavior. He has published in a number of marketing and management journals, and consults with firms in financial services, energy, health-care and other industries.

Hugh Mac­Leod is a car­too­nist, who makes his living mostly dra­wing “Cube Gre­na­des” for clients and publishing fine art prints via the inter­net. His first book, “Ignore Every­body” is published by Port­fo­lio, an imprint of Pen­guin. Also known for his ideas about how “Web 2.0″ affects adver­ti­sing and mar­ke­ting, after a decade of wor­king as an adver­ti­sing copyw­ri­ter, Hugh star­ted blog­ging at gapingvoid.com in 2001. He first star­ted off just publishing his car­toons, but as time wore on he star­ted blog­ging about his other main inte­rest i.e. mar­ke­ting.
In 2004 he wrote “Ignore Every­body” and “The Hugh­train”, which both got widely read in the blo­gosphere, down­loa­ded over million times in total.In 2005 he sco­red his first major blog mar­ke­ting suc­cess with EnglishCut.com, a blog he star­ted with Savile Row tai­lor, Tho­mas Mahon. It tri­pled Tho­mas’ sales within six months. Since mid-2006 Hugh has also been hel­ping a small South Afri­can winery, Stormhoek “rise above the clut­ter” in the wine mar­ket by using Web 2.0 tools to get the word out. Sales have gone up five­fold since then, thanks to Hugh’s mar­ke­ting efforts.Since 2006 Hugh has been cons­tantly enga­ged as a public spea­ker, giving talks in both Europe and the US, tal­king about Web 2.0 and the rami­fi­ca­tions it has on busi­ness.

Hugh’s basic man­tra about blog and Web 2.0 mar­ke­ting is “It’s a good way to make things hap­pen indi­rectly”, a point lost on many cor­po­rate types.

Kristine de Valck is Assistant Professor of Marketing at HEC School of Management, Paris. She earned her PhD from the RSM Erasmus University. Her dissertation research investigated the influence of virtual communities of consumption on consumer-decision making. Her research continues to focus on interpersonal influence, word-of-‘mouse', and the role of new communication technologies (blogs, podcasts, mobile phones, etc.) in marketing.

I´m Lois Kelly, a partner in Beeline Labs, a Boston-based marketing innovation firm that helps companies innovate business practices, programs and culture to realize the benefits of social media. Our clients include FedEx, Intuit, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, Boston Coach/Fidelity, EMC and Monster. The “Labs” part of Beeline Labs focuses on researching how social media is changing business, media and culture. Our most recent study, The Tribalization of Business Study, conducted with Deloitte, exploring the effectiveness of online communities in businesses, non-profit and educational organizations. Other work from our “Labs” is my book "Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word of Mouth Marketing," which has been praised for helping people understand how to move from a “talk at” to a “talk with” social media world, and has been awarded several awards, including the 2008 gold prize in the Axiom/Inc Magazine business book awards and the prestigious 2008 Berry-American Marketing Association Book Awards. A graduate of the University of New Hampshire and Harvard University, I started my career as a journalist, worked in corporate communications for AT&T, and then as a public relations agency executive, co-founder and president of a pioneering interactive agency acquired by McCann-Erickson, and marketing/communications strategist to CEOs of high-growth public companies. I speak at conferences around the world blending “how to” advice and emerging best practices with fresh views on how to burn down obstacles to innovate marketing and communications. (I especially love running hands-on experiential learning workshops; they're so much more fun and interesting.) Last year I spoke at conferences sponsored by the American Marketing Association, The Conference Board, and Web 2.0 Expo, at Harvard University and Columbia University business schools, and at many private company events. I blog at Foghound (www.foghound.com), am a founder for the Marketing 2.0 Community (www.marketingtwo.net). When not wearing my marketing hat, I work as a trustee for Trinity Rep Theater, and am finishing a book for caregivers, "Mum´s on the Roof: Caring for a Loved One with Cancer or Other Terminal Illnesses."

Bill Flitter is founder and chief marketing officer of Pheedo.
Prior to Pheedo, Flitter founded Email Shopping Network and directed its sales and marketing activities until its acquisition by eUniverse in 2002. In addition to Pheedo and Email Shopping Network, Flitter has started and helped build numerous early stage companies, developing hundreds of innovative products and services. He is also cofounder of Fastlane Ventures, a boutique management consulting firm focused on early-stage investments.
Flitter is the chairperson for the Blogging and RSS special interest group of the East Bay IT Group (eBIG.org).

David Fletcher, the head of MediaLab, a research division at Mediaedge:cia, explains: "Identity tends to be used simultaneously to show similarities and difference. Many Asians, for example, would consider themselves as English and Indian, so they are not automatically differentiated among their peers but are seen as bringing something unique to the table that no-one else does. It's not as simple as one or the other."

Idil Cakim is a VP of Interactive Media in GolinHarris’s Web Relations Group. She specializes in social media and word of mouth communications and has worked with clients from a wide array of industries, including technology, automotive and healthcare. Ms. Cakim is the author of numerous industry briefs and articles on online corporate communications, targeting valuable customers on the Net and e-commerce. She has also been a public speaker on issues regarding online crisis communications, word-of-mouth, ethnic minorities’ use of the Internet, and e-CRM. She has been widely quoted in trade journals and newspapers such as CNet news, DM News, CBS Market Watch, Min’s New Media Report, San Jose Mercury News, Chicago Sun Times, Harvard Business Review, and the New York Times. Idil Cakim is a blogger who regularly writes about online communication and word-of-mouth marketing trends. She is a contributor to GolinHarris’s The Next Fifty Years blog (www.nextfiftyyears. com). Previously, she wrote for the e-fluentials blog (http://blog.efluentials. com) and the Guidewire Group (www. guidewiregroup.com). She holds an M.A. in Communication from the Annenberg School at University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in Sociology from Bryn Mawr College. Ms. Cakim is a member of the World Future Society and serves on the board of Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA).