Keynote: Jeff Einstein, Partner, the Brothers Einstein

Jeff Einstein is a true digital marketing pioneer, dating back to 1984, when he co-founded Einstein and Sandom Interactive, the nation’s first digital marketing and advertising agency, sold to DMB&B a decade later.

Over the years his controversial and always-contrarian marketing and business development initiatives have driven the acquisition of two agencies, the global growth of a third, and a high-tech IPO, and have appeared in virtually every major business venue, including two front-page stories in The Wall Street Journal, and cover stories for Red Herring Magazine, George, PC Magazine, and The New York Times Sunday Magazine.

Mr. Einstein currently works with his brother Mike as one half of the Brothers Einstein, a contrarian brand strategy boutique with offices in New York and the Midwest.

Keynote: Stefan Tornquist, VP of Research, US - Econsultancy

Stefan Tornquist is the Vice President for research (US) for Econsultancy. His team covers a wide range of digital marketing topics including email, search, social media and ecommerce. Stefan’s research and commentary have been featured in mass media publications such as the Wall St. Journal, Business Week, and AdAge as well as virtually every trade press outlet. Stefan is a frequent speaker at industry events, including conferences by the Ad:Tech, the Direct Marketing Association, the Web Marketing Association, and many others. Before joining Econsultancy, Stefan was the long time research director for MarketingSherpa. He began his digital career as the co-founder of rich media pioneer Bluestreak.

Jaffer Ali, Founder, Vidsense

Moderator: Customer Experience & Conversion

Jaffer is a serial entrepreneur with Vidsense being his latest launch. Vidsense is an online pay-per-click video network launched January of 2008. Presently there are over 20,000 sites in the network. Jaffer and his management team have a combined 55 years in the entertainment and advertising industries. If it has to do with video...they have done it. 

Bill Chamberlin, Principal Analyst, Social Media Market Insights, IBM

Moderator: Social Media Management

Bill is part of internal research and consulting practice in IBM Corporate Marketing that helps IBM brand managers launch social media strategies and harvest insights from all the social conversations that take place. He co-leads a community of 1800 community managers within IBM called "CommunityBuilders."

Bill also works with IBM strategists and marketing managers, supporting them with strategic research projects on emerging trends and technologies.  As part of this effort, he founded and has led an internal 1900 member community called HorizonWatch since 2001.

Gene Ehrbar, Director of Mobile Solutions, ISITE Design

Moderator: Mobile Commerce: Trends, Challenges & Best Practice

A mobile developer and strategist, Gene Ehrbar has experience translating a wide variety of challenging client technical needs into elegant and durable online systems.    As Director of Mobile Solutions, Gene works with ISITE's clients to craft mobile strategies that align with their broader digital strategy and business goals, and leads a team of solution providers developing innovative native mobile apps and mobile web applications and sites.  Prior to ISITE, Gene founded and ran Portland-based firm Anomaly Incorporated for fourteen years, specializing in web and mobile application development.

Marc Engelsman, VP, Client Services & Programs, Digital Brand Expressions

Moderator: SEO/Integrated Search Marketing

Marc Englesman is the Vice President of Client Programs and Services at Digital Brand Expressions, a findability marketing firm focusing on companies’ web presence through paid search, SEO and social media. Marc is also a member of the board of directors at Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG), and has been a judge for the Effie Awards.

He is also a former Account Director at Medicus NY and the Chief Brand Intelligence Officer at Princeton Partners.

Lauren Freedman, President, the e-tailing group

Moderator: Ecommerce Optimization & Attribution

Lauren Freedman is a seasoned 15–year e-commerce veteran as well as a recognized and respected figure in the online retail industry. She has a passion for merchandising that she has parlayed as president of the e-tailing group, evangelists for merchandising and customer service best practices.

She founded the e-tailing group in 1993 after an extensive career as a department/specialty store buyer and under her guidance the e-tailing group has evolved to be one of the premier ecommerce consultancies. Lauren authored her first book, It’s Just Shopping in 2001. Her knowledge of e-commerce coupled with her candid and charismatic style make her a sought after speaker at e-retail conferences and a go-to-resource for the press.

Ritesh Patel, Digital & Social Media Evangelist, Chandler Chicco Companies

Moderator: Online PR, Buzz Monitoring and Reputation Management

A professional with 15 years of digital media, web, technology and operations experience in multiple industry verticals, Ritesh Patel is currently a digital & social media evangelist at Chandler Chicco Companies. He has expertise in digital and social media, team building, CRM and channel integration, as well as web services, SOA, and enterprise architecture.

Throughout his career, Ritesh has held senior digital and technology roles at HealthEd, Cushman & Wakefield, Avivocom and Euro RSCG.

Trevor Peters, Group Marketing Science Director, Critical Mass

Moderator: Web Analytics

Trevor leads the Chicago Marketing Science group in measurement strategy and execution. He has 10+ years online marketing experience within agency settings as well as clientside, providing the ability to understand both the service provider and client stakeholder perspectives while creating results-oriented marketing solutions. He has an aptitude for delivering highly complex data in an understandable manner and apply best practices to continually improve client experience and satisfaction.

Trevor has extensive online marketing experience working for and within companies in areas such as web analytics, search engine marketing initiatives (paid & organic), affiliate marketing, email marketing, site design andredevelopment consulting. This background has provided him with deep insight into various marketing channels while consulting for clients in financial, industrial/manufacturing, healthcare, real estate and automotive industries.

Randy Pickard, President, Exceptional Shopping Sites

Moderator: Site Search, Merchandising & Conversion Optimization

Randy Pickard is the President of Exceptional Shopping Sites. He hasbeen developing websites since 1995.  Randy has enhanced site search, merchandising,and conversion rates in roles with online grocer Peapod, online real estatebroker iNest Realty, and as a consultant to Fortune 500 companies at UserCentric. 

Randy frequently presents and writes about website development, SEOand website usability.  He has been a speaker at Search Engine Strategies(San Jose and Chicago), the Audio Publishers Association, the AffiliateMarketing Conference, the Association for Multimedia Communication, and theHigh Return Marketing Strategies Conference. He is the author of the InternetMarketing Remarks blog.

Garrett Ryan, Manager of Digital Strategy for Leo Burnett and Arc Worldwide

Moderator: Email Marketing

Garrett serves as Manager of Digital Strategy for Leo Burnett and Arc Worldwide and is the agency's in-house email marketing subject matter expert. Since joining the agency in 2009, Garrett has been instrumental in activating successful email marketing campaigns for Purina, McDonald's, Kellogg's, Allstate, United and Coke, just to name a few.

Garrett is highly passionate about email marketing (permission-based campaigns, not that spamy stuff) and the insights and behavior that maximize the benefits and the returns the channel can offer. He is excited to see what the future holds for email marketing as new tools and features such as social integration and new devices like smartphones and tablets will change how consumers engage and respond to email in new ways.

Steve Schildwachter, EVP, Group Management Director, Draftfcb Chicago

Moderator: Integrated Digital Marketing - Attribution, Mktg Mix, etc.

Steve Schildwachter has a big fan base. His popularity, though, isn’t only due to the far-reaching nature of his well-crafted and thought-provoking advertising blog, Ad Majorem, which shares how an executive at a large agency embraces the challenges and changes of modern marketing. (http://admajoremblog.blogspot.com). Colleagues from every culture admire Steve, because he’s a collaborator. His advocates consistently remark on his both his sense of fairness and grasp of the “big idea” when working on programs throughout the world.

Steve’s innovations are about connecting cultures and working with teams. He has put together clients from multiple continents and fostered agreement on a common campaign for brands that each marketed in very different ways. Together, with his encouragement, the group wrote a single positioning statement for each brand, took a hard look at the products in the portfolios, and then created an ad campaign that could be used all over the world. This is far more complex and far less common than we often imagine. In the same vein, Steve joined together clients from all over Latin America, pooled their resources to advertise on regional cable television-- reaching consumers much more cost-efficiently than before.

Travis Ulmer, Creative Director, Digital Strategist, Rivet

Moderator: Social Media Tools & Best Practices

Travis Ulmer joined Zipatoni in 2003 (Zipatoni merged with RIVET in 2009), and has worked on integrated, award-winning campaigns for a variety of national clients, including Miller Lite, Energizer, Dreyer’s/Edy’s Ice Cream, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Lactaid and Nokia. Travis currently serves as RIVET’s digital strategy leader across the St. Louis office’s portfolio of clients.

As a Creative Director/Digital Strategist, Travis has delivered brand launches via Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, brand blogs and blogger relationships. Travis has crafted social media plans for a number of RIVET’s clients, including Edy’s, Lactaid, Viactiv and General. In addition, Travis has also guided several brands in translating offline campaigns into the digital realm.