Keynote Speaker
CEO/Managing Partner, Detroit Venture Partners Josh is the Founder, Chairman and former CEO of the largest interactive promotion agency in the world, ePrize, which provides digital marketing services for 74 of the top 100 brands. Josh led the firm from inception to being ranked the #1 fastest growing and #3 overall promotion agency by PROMO Magazine. Josh spearheaded ePrize’s expansion into new industries including travel, automotive, financial services, consumer packaged goods, retail, and entertainment. He also led the firm through two rounds of financing and two recapitalizations, securing over $43 million of investment.
Chief Imagination Officer, Eight by Eight Amy Africa has been in the forefront of web usability studies, web design improvement, and successful e-commerce for over 10 years. Amy has been widely published in industry magazines and e-zines. An engaging, entertaining speaker, she has been featured at web conferences around the globe. Her depth of knowledge, backed by intensive field testing and web user studies, has earned her the reputation of a voice to be heard on Internet topics ranging from site improvement, traffic building and SEO to analytics and email marketing. Amy has pioneered many successful web marketing initiatives in navigation, email marketing, shopping carts and abandoned carts that are making her clients much more profitable. She is one of the best web marketers today because she combines incredible direct marketing skills with proven web techniques. Her clients include: American Express, Dell, Microsoft, Better Homes & Gardens, Coca Cola, and many more.
Vice President, Marketing Roaman's Susan Beckett is Vice President of Marketing for Roaman's, a plus size women's fashion brand in the portfolio of Redcats USA's OneStopPlus.com division. She is responsible for planning and leading all aspects of multi-channel marketing efforts including catalog and print, email marketing, Search, Affiliate Programs, Mobile and Social Media. Susan joined Redcats USA in 2005 as Director of Marketing for KingSize Direct. In 2007, she transitioned to the Roaman’s team as Director of Marketing. With 15 years of direct and retail marketing experience, Susan brings knowledge from a variety of industries including apparel, music and consumer goods with companies such as BMG Direct, Ann Taylor and L'Oreal USA.
President J. Schmid & Associates Lois Brayfield is acknowledged by clients and colleagues alike for her expansive knowledge, both practiced and sophisticated. She knows what works and has the experience to prove it— 20 years of studying direct marketing and catalog results. She applies this wealth of data to every project and has helped develop an integrated process that ensures campaign effectiveness. She knows the rules, and she knows when to ignore them. Lois has worked with many of the country's leading direct marketers, including Hallmark, American Express, HoneyBaked Ham, Sprint, Better Homes & Gardens, Sears (Canada) and Mark & Spencer (UK). Her expertise spans every aspect of the industry: From strategic design and customer experience, merchandise analysis, marketing strategies, brand development and catalog feasibility to start-up strategies, re-positioning and in-house training. Simply put, she's recognized as one of the best. In 2001 she was named Kansas City's Direct Marketer of the Year. The Kansas City Direct Marketing Association has proffered their AMBIT Award to her time and time again, including for Best of Show in 1999, 2001, 2002, and 2007. She has served on KCDMA's Board of Directors for six years, and was the fourth woman in the history of the 750-member organization to be named president. As a member of the ACMA Board of Directors and the DMA Conference Program Advisory Committee she works diligently to monitor and affect the industry.
Wilson & Ellis Consulting Debra Ellis mixes and matches marketing and service channels to create customer retention, growth, and profitability strategies. She uses her extensive experience in direct marketing and analytics to integrate social media with traditional marketing. This combination provides an unprecedented access to customers and their buying preferences that can be leveraged into corporate success. Debra's pragmatic view that all marketing channels must deliver real results requires that social media provide measurable results. Her tests of what works and doesn't have been widely published in trade journals.
CEO Grovo Jeff Fernandez is CEO of Grovo, an online education and training platform. Prior to Grovo, Jeff was a Product Manager at Clickable, a web service that simplifies online advertising. He worked on Clickable's flagship product, Clickable Pro, and helped integrate Facebook advertising and launch the American Express OPEN partnership. From 2006 until 2009, Jeff worked for Doostang, an online career networking community. He worked with the founding team to raise its venture financing from Shasta Ventures and launch Doostang's New York office. Jeff headed business development and sales until February 2009, when he joined the company's Advisory Board.
VP of Great Garden Plants Chris Hansen, vice president of GreatGardenPlants.com, cofounded the horticultural products website with his partner Mary Walters three years ago. Chris is an avid gardener, a wholesale/retail nursery professional and photographer. GreatGardenPlants.com grew out of the two founders’ passion for gardening and understanding of what people need and want as they create gardens that reflect their lifestyles, local growing conditions, and budgets. The site helps customers create garden solutions using an artistic approach to color, texture, soil conditions, growing seasons and even critter control—and it does everything on a shoestring budget.
President/Designer Dynomighty Design Dynomighty Design , established in 2002, seeks to create a vibrant array of products to complement and accentuate the modern urban lifestyle with the designs of Terrence Kelleman. His whimsical and innovative designs spark fascination and inspiration in their users. He aims to create new takes on old products and foster completely alternative views of traditional concepts. Having started with only 5 jewelry designs the success of Dynomighty Design , Inc. quickly grew in response to and in anticipation of customer demand. Today Dynomighty Design sells to more than 300 stores across the USA and internationally and has exclusive rights to US Patent #6,427,486 for all link-less magnetic jewelry bound only by magnetic force. Dynomighty has also expanded its line of eco-friendly consumer products including the Mighty Wallet, Mighty Tote and Mighty Tags.
CEO and Founder Elite SEM As the CEO & Founder of Elite SEM, Ben Kirshner is a best of breed search marketer and business leader with over 13 years of experience creating and building high growth search engine marketing, search engine optimization, affiliate marketing and online lead generation campaigns for multinational corporations and Fortune 1000 brands such as ideeli, Lauren Merkin, Tommy Bahama, Havaianas, Michael C. Fina, PlayFirst, Terminix, among others. Elite SEM, featured in Inc. Magazine's prestigious Inc. 5000 List of Fastest Growing Private Companies in 2010, empowers multinational corporations and Fortune 1000 brands to increase their brand recognition, streamline online processes, reduce overhead, maximize ROAS and, in turn, generate long-term revenue growth and success. Kirshner has established a successful reputation and strong track record for recruiting and retaining a pool of highly talented, passionate and innovative SEM professionals through an entrepreneurial, self-motivated leadership approach and offering continuous professional mentoring and educational opportunities. Prior to founding Elite SEM, he founded CoffeeForLess.com, where his strategic insight and unconventional leadership style led the online coffee retailer to be named among Internet Retailer's Top 500 Websites and the Inc. 5000 List in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
President Shasho Jones Direct Glenda Shasho Jones is a branding and creative consultant. She is a recognized expert and industry speaker, and author of The Identity Trinity: Brand, Image and Positioning for Catalogs. Known for her candid critiques and her strategic approach to branding, Glenda will always focus on improving catalog performance through creative applications.
Mobile and Multichannel Product Marketing Lead Demandware Gary is an experienced marketing leader with a focus in defining and launching new products or initiatives to market that drive value for organizations and consumers, particularly B2B and B2C applications focused on social software and mobile technologies. He currently works at Demandware, the leader in on-demand ecommerce, where he manages mobile, social and multichannel product marketing. He�s also held leadership roles with Saba Software, Mzinga, and Iron Mountain Digital. Gary has lived in Europe and speaks Italian, German and enough Spanish to be dangerous. He is also an avid triathlete, adventure sports athlete and coach, and has been known to hang off frozen waterfalls in the wintertime.
Ian MacDonald joined multichannel retailer The Pond Guy in November 2011, after nearly 10 years at Century Novelty where he was most recently Vice President/General Manager. While Ian was with Century Novelty, the gifts merchant won two MCM awards for its website. As Director of eCommerce at the nation's largest mail-order pond, lake, water garden and water feature supply company, Ian is responsible for growing the e-commerce business, with a focus on advertising and marketing, web site and backend systems, and conversion optimization.
Kimberly Painley is a marketing professional with over 20 years of experience in catalog and internet retail. For the past seven years, Kim has spent much of her time managing pay-per-click search engine marketing programs for a variety of clients. Previously, Kim was Director of Merchandising for AutoSport, a division of International Auto Parts. There, she was responsible for product selection, inventory management, drop-ship coordination and product performance analysis, establishing channels for direct importing from Asia and and developing private label products. She was instrumental in the launch of DrivingComfort.com, a website designed to bring the AutoSport product line to the female market. Earlier, Kim served as General Manager for Monticello Catalog, in charge of catalog production, marketing, merchandising, inventory, budgeting and call-center functions. During her eight year tenure, annual catalog sales grew from $300,000 to nearly $4 million.
Vice President, General Brand Manager for Roaman's Blanca is Senior Vice President, General Brand Manager for Roaman's, a plus size women's fashion brand in the portfolio of Redcats USA's OneStopPlus.com division. She is responsible for leading Roaman's in all aspects of a multi-channel strategy including merchandising, inventory, marketing, creative and e-commerce. Blanca has been instrumental in the evolution and modernization of this 100 year old brand, receiving several Excel awards during her tenure with the company in recognition of her tremendous contributions. She originally joined Redcats USA in 1994 and has held several key leadership positions prior to assuming her current role in 2007. With over 25 years of direct and retail experience, Blanca brings expertise and knowledge from a variety of retail companies including Federated, Gimbels and Popular Club. Blanca holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Hunter University. She is a member of the National Association of Professional Women, Hunter Alumni and a strong supporter of the Dress For Success organization.
Tom Ziter has over 35 years of direct marketing experience, particularly in planning and developing sales and profit-producing campaigns that really work. Having been a consultant, business owner, and marketing director for major companies, he understands how businesses operate, both inside and out.
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