Friday, June 16, 2006

Victor Keegan

Vic Keegan writes a weekly technology column and leaders in the Guardian as well as a fortnightly economics column on Guardian Unlimited.

He joined the Guardian in 1963 as a general reporter in Manchester and afterwards became financial correspondent in London. Since then his positions have included deputy financial editor, business editor, economics editor, duty editor, chief leader writer and assistant editor. He was a member of the Scott Trust, owner of the Guardian, for 11 years and he edited the Online section of the Guardian for six years until summer 2005. Keegan also runs the Guardian‘s Kick All Agricultural Subsidies (KICK AAS) blog.

Victor will present to What MySpace Means attendees the driving principles behind the Guardian‘s overhaul to community cultivation, and the lessons for non-media entities in their overwhelming success.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Scott Norvell

Scott Norvell is the London Bureau Chief of Fox News. Previously he was Northeast Bureau Chief of Fox News Channel, responsible for directing the channel’s coverage of New England from bureaus in Boston and New York. He has been with Fox News since it launched in 1996, serving as Executive Editor of Foxnews.com, its London-based European Bureau Chief, and head of the Miami bureau covering the Southeastern United States and Latin America.

Prior to joining Fox News Channel, Norvell reported for a variety of publications — including Time, the New York Times, The Washington Post Sunday Magazine, Fortune and People — from Atlanta and Central America. He began his career covering the U.S.-Mexican border for a daily newspaper in South Texas, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, and in the time since has reported from dozens of countries about everything from Mayan archeology to Cuban prostitution to the charter school movement.

At What MySpace Means, Scott will be discussing how self-mobilising online communities and ‘citizen journalism’ are having an impact on the business model of media, and how marketing directors and PR strategists can get more coverage from established outlets in this evolving environment.

Monday, May 01, 2006

Alistair Shrimpton

Currently the UK Manager of VOIP giant Skype, an eBay company, Alistair Shrimpton was formerly the UK Business Development Manager for blogging software company Six Apart, whose blogging communities have a heavy presence around the world. Before that, he was a vice president at KeeBoo, the managing director of Jobline, and the managing director of entertainment publications at Cendant. Alistair has more than a decade of start-up and business initiation experience across Europe, with internet media, telecoms, and software his speciality areas.

At What MySpace Means, Alistair will discuss how Skype has built a multi-billion pound company through the cultivation of communities, and how its upcoming product development plans will extend Skype’s community enabiling reach even further. 

Bobbie Johnson

Bobbie Johnson is the Guardian‘s technology correspondent. Prior to taking over the role, he was deputy editor of Technology Guardian and its previous incarnation, Online. He is also a frequent blogger for the Guardian, as well as the creator of non-Guardian blogs.

Bobbie will present to What MySpace Means attendees the driving principles behind the Guardian‘s overhaul to community cultivation, and the lessons for non-media entities in their overwhelming success.

Adriana Cronin-Lukas

Since founding the Big Blog Company, the world’s first specialist blogging consultancy, in early 2003, Adriana Cronin-Lukas has advised companies in Europe and the US on how to integrate blogging, RSS, and other social media into their online marketing activities. In July 2005, Adriana orchestrated the first ever motion picture release via blog for Hollywood producer Kamal Aboukhater’s film Blowing Smoke. She also advises PR firms on strategy for their clients in the Web 2.0 environment.

A former KPMG management consultant, Lloyd’s broker, and risk analyst, her clients include one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical and FMCG companies, the Adam Smith Institute, National Opinion Poll, Social Affairs Unit, and Kable. Adriana is on the expert advisory board for VNU’s annual Online Information conference, has spoken at events including AdTech, the IAA IAB European Interactive Advertising Forum, the NMA Online Marketing Show, Marketing in a Digital World, South Africa Online Information in Pretoria, Johnson & Johnson’s Global Communication Technology Conference in New York, and the 6th Marketing Summit 2005 in Istanbul. She will soon present at Vloggercon in the US.

Adriana will lead What MySpace Means attendees through an exploration of the reasons why people are drawn to MySpace, and the light these shine on how other areas of online marketing can be maximised.

Alex Bellinger

The founder of Audacious Communications, a creative consultancy specialising in the development, production, and distribution of podcasts for enterprise, Alex Bellinger is a veteran communications professional and the producer of the pioneering podcast SmallBizPod, and a leading player in the UK’s podcasting scene. He has 15 years experience in public relations, marketing and lobbying, having most recently headed-up commercial banking public relations for HSBC and RBS. In September 2005, Alex co-organised Europe’s first podcasting conference and has become a regular commentator on the business and marketing potential of podcasts. He is an enthusiastic follower of social media trends and blogs at verbalism.net.

Alex will show What MySpace Means delegates how podcasting allows companies to reach and interact with communities beyond the MySpace demographic, and how to ensure the maximum return from the podcast phenomenon.

Heather Hopkins

Heather Hopkins is Director of Research for Hitwise UK, where she analyses the trends affecting businesses online and works with Hitwise clients to identify opportunities and threats to online business growth. Heather writes regular Insight Reports on the gambling, travel, search and retail sector, covering affiliate marketing, search, and audience profiling. She is a regular speaker at industry conferences and is quoted regularly in trade publications, including NMA and Marketing as well as the dailies including the Financial Times, the Evening Standard, and the Telegraph. Prior to joining Hitwise, Heather was a Vice President with Dalbar, a market research firm in Boston, Massachusetts and Toronto, Ontario.

At What MySpace Means, Heather will present analysis of MySpace’s strength and the natural affinities and interests of the MySpace demographic.

Hillary Johnson

An intellectual property management consultant to a high tech firm and the founder of Kerabu, Inc., Hillary is a frequent contributor to Inc. magazine, and consults with small businesses on internal and external communications and planning tools. As editor of the Ventura County Reporter, she grew the weekly into a multiple-award-winning paper, doubling ad pages in two years’ time. As founding Editor-in-Chief of Arroyo Monthly, she co-created the first lifestyle magazine for philanthropists. In addition to contributing more than 100 articles to the Los Angeles Times and many for the LA Weekly and Worth, Hillary has published Physical Culture, a novel, and Super Vixens’ Dymaxion Lounge, an essay collection, and has just finished a book on entrepreneurialism.

Hillary will demonstrate to What MySpace Means delegates how companies can cultivate their own internal MySpaces to enable collaboration and capitalise on the value built around informal social networks. 

Antoine Clarke

The international editor of Pharma Marketletter, Antoine Clarke is a former senior communications specialist for Transport for London and several London boroughs. Previously a political and economic strategist to the finance minister of the Slovak Republic and member of the prime minister’s policy unit, he was also Deputy Editor of Conflict International magazine. Antoine is also a contributor to the Centre for the New Europe’s online publications dealing with healthcare, the environment, and global competition policy.

Antoine’s presentation at What MySpace Means will cover the ways in which highly regulated industries can cultivate communities online, and the lessons for less regulated industries in their struggles. 

Jackie Danicki

Formerly the Editor-in-Chief of a Swiss financial institution’s niche community e-commerce site, Jackie is the founder of the Engagement Alliance and was a pioneering blogging and RSS consultant with the world’s first specialist blogging consultancy, the Big Blog Company. In 2005, Jackie was appointed Head of Marketing for Latitude, the UK’s largest and most successful search engine marketing agency, where the social media initiatives she introduced saw the company’s press coverage increase sixfold, website traffic increase 7000 per cent, and sales enquiries via the web increase tens of thousands of percentage points. Latitude was also named the UK’s fastest growing media company during her time there. Jackie founded the Engagement Alliance in 2006, and currently consults companies on their marketing, customer service, internal and external communications. In addition to her personal blog, Jackie is the co-creator of Jack & Hill, a beauty blog that has won raves from media outlets such as the New York Times, the Sunday Times Style magazine and Women’s Wear Daily’s Beauty Biz magazine. Upcoming speaking engagements include VNU’s Blogs & Social Media Forum, for which she is also editor of the event’s official blog and host of its official podcast.

Jackie will be moderating the conversations at What MySpace Means, ensuring that delegates enjoy maximum interaction with the presenters, and ensuring that the presenters provide as much value to delegates as possible.

Sunday, April 30, 2006

Remember this face: Damian Counsell

Damian Counsell is going to be on hand at the Charlotte Street Hotel on June 21st to greet attendees and make sure that everyone gets in and out of the sessions (and the bar) smoothly. Damian’s the one you want to look for when you show up on the day and want to be certain you’re in the right place. He’s very tall and has a megawatt smile.

(Damian, a genetic scientist, musician, and photographer, is no stranger to thriving online communities himself, first as a widely read blogger, and as one of the authors of the Euston Manifesto, which you may have read or heard about on the BBC, the Guardian, the American Spectator, or any number of other offline and online publications.)