2008 First-Round of Confirmed Speakers
Have a suggestion for a speaker or topic for this year? Contact Emily Warren - Emily at IADAS dot Net - with your suggestions.
Keynote Speakers
Confirmed Speakers
Susan Bonds
President / CEO, 42 Entertainment2008 Webby Winner
Since then, she has produced the most groundbreaking of 42's projects, including 2005's Last Call Poker alternate reality game for Activision/Neversoft's FPS "GUN", 2006's Dead Man's Tale interactive game for Disney/Microsoft, 2007's The Vanishing Point, the first global puzzle game with clues to online puzzles embedded in spectacular events held in a dozen cities around the globe designed to celebrate the launch of Windows Vista and Year Zero alternate reality experience for the launch of NIN's album in April 2007, and the current Why So Serious? alternate reality experience for Warner Bros' The Dark Knight.
Directly prior to joining 42, Susan was Chief Design and Production Officer for Cyan Worlds, where she was responsible for the multiplayer online interactive game URU: Ages Beyond Myst. Susan led the design, production, technology integration, marketing, publishing, music development and project management for the initiative, working with Rand Miller, CEO and co-founder of Cyan, and also produced realMyst, a three-dimensional world version of the popular PC game. Prior to this, Susan worked for ten years as Creative Director/Senior Show Producer for Walt Disney Imagineering, where she directed the design and development of major attractions, themed architecture, Internet entertainment projects, and proprietary new ride systems. Her portfolio spanned Tokyo, California, Florida, and New York, and included attractions such as "Indiana Jones Adventure" for Disneyland, "Alien Encounters" for Walt Disney World, "Mission: SPACE" for Epcot and ABC Times Square Studios Exterior in New York.
Susan started her career at Walt Disney in 1980 as an industrial engineer, and then worked for seven years at Lockheed as an Aircraft and Systems Engineer on Advanced Development Projects. Susan has an Engineering degree from Georgia Institute of Technology, and an MBA from Georgia State University.
Mark D'Arcy
Chief Creative Officer, Time Warner Global Media GroupAcademy Member
Ken Eklund
WriterguyCreator, World Without Oil
2008 Webby Nominee
Ken's career spans twenty years and over two dozen game titles plus more than a dozen educational Internet projects. He has helped develop game designs and narratives as commercial entertainment, for universities and non-profits, and for clients in the private sector. His passion is to help games, especially online social games, realize their potential to affect people artistically and promote the public good.
Arlene Fairfield
Principal, Global Change NetworkFounder, DDB BIG
Arlene began her career at DDB focusing on environmental and health-related and clients including the US Environmental Protection Agency, Genentech, Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) and New Organics. Her work has resulted in a gold EFFIE, Cannes Lion, Emmy, Silver Anvils, and Clio on campaigns that Arlene oversaw.
Her community involvement includes her position as founder of the Pacific Northwest Corporate Social Responsibility Network, board member and former board president of the Women's Funding Alliance, and advisor to the Northwest Women's Law Cente. Arlene has a B.S. in Marketing from Georgetown University and a Masters in business and environmental management from the University of Washington. Arlene lives in Seattle, WA with her husband and two-year-old daughter.
Matt Freeman
CEO, GoFish2008 Webby Winner; Academy Member
Freeman also started and scaled specialized business units in Search (SEM & SEO), Hosting, Database development & Analytics (including proprietary econometric modeling applications), Digital Healthcare Marketing, Gaming, Mobile, iTV and Strategic Consulting.
In January 2006, AdWeek named Tribal DDB Worldwide its Interactive Agency of the Year and in January 2008, Adverting Age awarded it Global Agency Network of the Year. Both publications cited Freeman's leadership as a critical factor in Tribal's enduring success.
In 1997 and 1998, Freeman was Executive Creative Director Modem Media / Poppe Tyson (since then acquired by Digitas, Inc.; now a Division of Publicis Group). There, he led efforts on IBM & other key clients and was part of the merger integration team with Modem Media and Poppe Tyson. Before that, he was Partner, Executive Creative Director at Poppe Tyson (formerly a division of True North, now Interpublic Group) from 1995 to 1997. Earlier in his career, Mr. Freeman was a writer at MTV working on Beavis & Butthead and MTV Beach House and he was a private school English teacher.
Freeman, a graduate of Dartmouth College and the NY School of Visual Arts, has been inducted into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Achievement; is the Founder of the Interactive Agency Board of the IAB, is an active Board member of the Advertising Club and the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As) and is a member of the Marketing Advisory Board of the Modern Museum of Art (MOMA).
Mike Geiger
Chief Digital Officer, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners2008 Webby Winner; Academy Member
Work that Mike has produced has won numerous awards at the most prestigious award shows including: One Show Interactive, Cannes Cyber Lions, Clios, The Art Directors Club, D&AD and FlashForward.
Mike is also involved in many speaking engagements at venues like the Future Marketing Awards, Boards Creative Work Shops and Summits, the Media Strategy Forum and Flash Conferences like FITC and OFFF. He also guest lectured in the MBA program at Stanford University. In 2008 Mike was inducted into the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences and also judged the New York Festivals, The Webby Awards and the London International Advertising Awards.
Before joining the world of advertising, Mike worked at design & production studios like Method, Spyplane and Thunk Design. Originally from Munich, Germany he now lives in San Francisco. Mike graduated from the University of San Diego with a BA in Business Administration and received an MBA in Marketing Management from the University of San Francisco in 1995.
Virgil Griffith
Founder, Wikiscanner
He is now graduate student in the computation and neural systems department at the California Institute of Technology.
Graham Hill
Founder, TreeHugger.comVice President / Interactive Media, Planet Green
2007 Webby Winner; Academy Member
He currently focuses on pushing sustainability into the mainstream through TreeHugger.com, which in 4 short years has become one of the most respected and trafficked environmental sites on the web.
Hill and the TreeHugger.com team recently joined the Discovery Communications family of networks as part of its Planet Green multi-platform, global environmental initiative. Additionally, he owns a product business that sells a New York souvenir he designed a few years ago into150 stores including MoMA.
Graham has a Bachelor of Architecture with distinction from Carleton University in Ottawa and did advanced studies in Industrial Design at E.C.I.A.D, Vancouver. Graham has lived all over the world and his guiltiest sin is air travel (offset of course). He speaks English, French, German and Spanish and is addicted to squash.
Jason Hirschhorn
President, Sling Media Entertainment Group
The Sling Media Entertainment Group is also chartered with managing Sling Media's existing and future collaborative efforts with content creators, distributors and advertisers.
Prior to joining Sling Media, Hirschhorn was a Founding Partner at TripleH Media Advisors, a digital media consultancy. Before TripleH, Jason was Chief Digital Officer at MTV Networks. At MTV Networks, Jason was responsible for the company's digital media businesses and interactive strategy. Hirschhorn joined MTV Networks in March 2000 via the acquisition of his company, Mischief New Media, a leading web site design and content development firm he founded to serve the entertainment industry.
Jeffrey Kalmikoff
CCO, skinnyCorp / Threadless.com
These projects range in scale from Threadless, a multi-million dollar tee shirt business and ongoing open-call for tee shirt design submissions which sells more than 90,000 tees per month and has over 700,000 registered users, to YayHooray, a just-for-fun design and technology community site with only a few thousand members.
His work has been published numerous times, and he's had the pleasure of speaking for students and peers all over the world from MIT to the University of Copenhagen to CNN to NPR. You can check out his personal site at callmejeffrey.com
David Karp
Founder, Tumblr
Steve Kirsch
Founder, Chairman / Abaca2008 Webby Winner
While at Infoseek, Steve was responsible for creating many of the company's award-winning products, including the NetSearch service, Ultraseek Server, Infoseek Express, GO Guides, and GO Auction. Steve's first start up was Mouse Systems Corporation. Afterward, he founded Frame Technology, which was acquired by Adobe.
Steve is also an active philanthropist and together with his wife Michele, started a $75 million foundation, which donates to a wide variety of charitable causes. In 1999, Steve and Michele were named Outstanding Philanthropists of the Year by the Silicon Valley chapter of the National Society of Fund Raising Executives, and recognized by Slate Magazine as the 8th largest charitable givers in America.
Steve holds both B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Aaron Koblin
Google Creative Lab
MFA Design|Media Arts UCLA
Adam Lowry
Co-Founder & Chief Greenskeeper / Method Products, Inc.
As Chief Greenskeeper, Adam's focus is bringing sustainable innovations to the method business. He also directs the sustainability aspects of product design, sourcing, and production, and provides strategic input for consumer marketing and the press.
Adam holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University, and resides in San Francisco with his wife, Mara.
Betsy Morgan
CEO, HuffingtonPost2008 Webby Winner
Prior to joining HuffPost, Betsy was general manager of CBSNews.com, the network's 24-hour news service, and was a senior vice president at CBS News, where she was in charge of business development, digital media and new television ventures.
She has also worked for News Corporation's American Sky Broadcasting and in investment banking. Betsy is a graduate of Colby College and the Harvard Business School.
Justin Ouellette
Founder, Muxtape
Fascinated by the intersection of digital and analog, he also maintains chromogenic.net, an early photoblog featuring exclusively film photography.
Justin came to New York in 2006 and worked as a photo editor before becoming the head of front end development at Vimeo. In 2008 he left to focus on personal projects, launching Muxtape in late March. He lives and works in Chinatown.
Jamie Pallot
Editorial Director, CondéNet
This year, Pallot was inducted to MIN's Digital Hall of Fame, joining previous honorees including Chris Anderson and Christie Hefner; in 2005 he received the ASME award for General Excellence Online as editor of Style.com.
Pallot came to CondéNet from Time Inc. Interactive where, as an editorial consultant, he oversaw a redesign of People.com. Previously, he spent three years as the Executive Producer at New York Sidewalk, the acclaimed online city guide published by Microsoft. Pallot has also served as Editorial Director of Canadian magazine, web and tv company Shift Multimedia; Editorial Director, New Media, for NewsCorp; and Editor of Britain's Virgin Movie Guide. He was written a syndicated movie review column, and appeared on CNBC as an expert on the entertainment industry.
Mr. Pallot was educated at the University of Sussex, the University of the Sorbonne, and St. Catherine's College, Oxford.
Shelly Palmer
Managing Director, Advanced Media Ventures Group
Along with his contributions to the advancement of television, Palmer is a pioneer in the field of Internet technologies. He is the inventor of Enhanced Television used by programs such as ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and ESPN's Monday Night Football.
Palmer is a popular speaker and moderator at technology and media conferences hosted by industry organizations and top tier colleges and universities, like: The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), The National Association of Broadcasters Convention (NAB), The National Show presented by the National Cable Television Association (NCTA), Telecom presented by the United States Telecom Association, Digital Hollywood, iHollywood, DV Expo and ITV Europe. He is a guest lecturer at the MIT Media Lab, Stern Graduate Business School at NYU, The Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI) at Columbia University, The Graziadio School of Business Management at Pepperdine University, The Digital Content Lab at the American Film Institute and other top tier colleges and universities.
A graduate of New York University's School of the Arts, he is the author of one of the most popular television business news blogs, a weekly columnist for the Jack Myers Report, The Huffington Post and a technology commentator for CNN.com.
Jim Paratore
Executive Producer, TMZ
paraMedia also produces primetime non-scripted reality programs and low-budget scripted series in association with the recently launched Warner Horizon Television, as well as new media content for digital platforms.
Previously, Paratore served as President, Telepictures Productions, since 1992, and as Executive Vice President, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution since 2002. In his post at Telepictures Productions, Paratore is credited with building the non-scripted production division into one of the industry's top producer of first-run, syndicated daily shows and also established itself as a versatile supplier in the network primetime reality business.
During his time at the helm of Telepictures, Paratore oversaw the development and launch of some of the company's most succesful productions, including syndicated series "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," "The Tyra Banks Show," "The Rosie O'Donnell Show," "Extra," "Jenny Jones," "Judge Mathis," "Change of Heart," "elimiDate," "Street Smarts" and primetime series "The Bachelor."
Paratore is a graduate of Loyola University in New Orleans and holds a Bachelor's Degree in Communications.
David Pescovitz
Co-Editor, BoingBoingResearch Director, Institute for the Future
2006 Webby Winner; Academy Member
photo credit: Bart Nagel
In 2002, he won the Foresight Prize in Communication, recognizing excellence in educating the public and research community about nanotechnology and other emerging technologies. Pescovitz holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Electronic Media from the University of Cincinnati and a Master's in Journalism from UC Berkeley.
Dr. Vicki Rabenou
Chief Measurement Officer, TruMedia Technologies
She was founder and CEO of SearchLINC, a videoconferencing network for human resource applications and co-founder of VCON, which provides videoconferencing solutions. In addition to her positions with the above mentioned "edge" technology companies, Dr. Rabenou has served as a Director of the Steering and Investments committee, with the Chief Scientist Office in the Israeli Ministry of Industry Trade and Labor, securing financing to early stage companies.
Dr. Rabenou is a graduate of Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem with training in Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Nicolas Roope
Creative Partner, POKE London2008 Webby Winner; Academy Member
He is a frequent contributor to ICON and Design Week, and his work and ideas have been widely distributed through the on and off-line worlds. Nicolas also founded the Pokia / Hulger project (www.hulger.com), another creative slant on technology, but in this instance physical. Three of Hulger's products have recently been included in MoMA's permanent design collection.
Roy Sekoff
Founding Editor, Huffington PostAcademy Member
Arthur Sulzberger Jr.
Chairman and Publisher, The New York Times2008 Webby Winner
During Mr. Sulzberger's tenure as publisher, The Times has earned 34 Pulitzer Prizes and provided its readers with innumerable examples of momentous journalism such as its breakthrough series "How Race is Lived in America," its internationally acclaimed coverage of the September 11 terrorist attack in a "A Nation Challenged" and "Portraits of Grief," "Class Matters," a 11-part series exploring class in American society, "Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts," an expose of the Bush Administration's use of wiretaps and "China Rises," a four-part, multimedia series.
Before coming to The Times, Mr. Sulzberger was a reporter with The Raleigh (N.C.) Times from 1974 to 1976, and a London correspondent for The Associated Press from 1976 to 1978.
Mr. Sulzberger earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Tufts University in 1974. He is also a 1985 graduate of the Harvard Business School's Program for Management Development.
Iain Tait
Creative Partner, POKE London2008 Webby Winner; Academy Member
From Syzygy he moved to become the Director of Product Development for First Tuesday, a networking organisation connecting entrepreneurs to VCs. After playing a supporting role in causing the .com boom he realised he missed the creative opportunities of agency life. So he moved to Oven Digital. Which went bust.
After a short period of running an ahead-of-it's-time (i.e. irrelevant in the marketplace) startup focussing on hybridised entertainment properties, it once again dawned that what Iain really likes is solving problems for brands using internet stuff. So he started Poke with 5 other homeless digital veterans. Poke is a creative agency that focuses on the digital space.
As well as working with clients like Orange, WWF, American Express, Zopa and Yahoo! Iain writes a blog at crackunit.com and gets involved with a bunch of industry things. As a winner of some awards he's ended up being a judge for D&AD, OneShow, Art Directors Club of New York, The Clios and Creative Circle. He's also especially proud to be a member of IADAS. These experiences have left him with a brain full of other people's great work and a nagging sense of inadequacy.
And finally, he absolutely hates writing about himself in the third person, it makes him feel very odd.
Joan Walsh
Editor in Chief, Salon.com2007 Webby Nominee; Academy Member
Before starting at Salon, she worked for many years as a consultant to national and regional foundations, including the Rockefeller Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and California's James Irvine Foundation.
An avid baseball fan, she is the author of "Splash Hit: The Pacific Bell Park Story" (Chronicle Books, 2001) as well as "Stories of Renewal: Community Building and the Future of Urban America" (Rockefeller Foundation, 1997). She lives in San Francisco with her daughter, Nora.
Michael Zimbalist
Vice President / Research & Development Operations, The New York Times2008 Webby Winner
Since joining the Times Company in January 2006, Mr. Zimbalist has successfully extended the reach of the company's brands onto emerging platforms such as the mobile Web, mobile messaging and online video.
As a member of the Times Company's digital leadership, Mr. Zimbalist has been instrumental in structuring strategic alliances including partnerships with Monster.com, Yahoo and Google. And under his direct leadership, Boston.com has extended its reach in New England through the introduction of local products and services, while growing a robust display advertising business. Mr. Zimbalist is a frequent speaker on digital media and advertising. He has been widely quoted in publications such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Advertising Age, and has been a guest commentator on NBC News, CNN and BBC Radio.
Before joining the Times Company, Mr. Zimbalist co-founded the Online Publishers Association and served as its president. He currently serves on the board of QuadrantOne, an online sales organization focused on premium advertisers seeking high-quality audiences and national reach.
Mr. Zimbalist received a B.A. degree in chemistry and philosophy from Brown University in 1979. He lives in Montclair, N.J., with his wife and three children.
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