Her focus is on establishing presence in key social platforms and leveraging them to facilitate meaningful relationships with our guests. Prior to joining Starwood, Abbey’s career includes stints at advertising agencies, and new media companies focusing on digital marketing working with fortune 500 brands.

Andy taught word of mouth marketing at Northwestern University and internet entrepreneurship at the Wharton School of Business, ran a business incubator, and started half a dozen companies. He created the Word of Mouth Marketing Association and the Association for Interactive Marketing. His fantastic blog is called “Damn, I Wish I’d Thought of That!”

Bethany joined The Home Depot in 2007 and has held several positions in Finance Operations and Merchandise Operations before joining the Online team in 2010. Before joining The Home Depot, Bethany worked in IT for Washington Mutual in Seattle, Washington. Bethany earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from University of Washington.

Brett has extensive experience in the online marketing arena, especially as it pertains to the e-commerce industry. He founded Coremetrics in 1999 after spending 10 years developing Internet-based software, and helped grow Coremetrics into the leading marketing analytics solution for the e-commerce industry. Brett has more than 15 years of Internet programming experience and has developed multiple software applications, including Internet marketing analysis solutions, e-commerce platforms, Web-based classroom management applications, virtual communities, multiplayer online games, and Bulletin Board System (BBS) software. He started programming when he was seven years old, launched a BBS on a 110-baud modem when he was ten, and created one of the first Internet-based multiplayer games in 1990.

Brett was named Entrepreneur of the Year for Austin in 2009 and is a member of the Austin chapter of the international Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO). He proudly served three terms over six years on the Board of Directors of Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation. He also serves as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Wharton School and served as a Board of Advisors member to the non-profit Web Analytics Association. Brett holds an MBA in High-Tech Entrepreneurship from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BBA in Management Information Systems from The University of Texas at Austin.

Chris is the author of two New York Times bestsellers. In his first book, The Long Tail, he named the rise of the niche as a powerful new force in our economy – why the future of business is selling small quantities of more things to the few people who want those things, how all of those small communities together make up a vast market potential, and how the efficiencies of digital and web technology make it all possible. Chris’s second book, Free: How Today’s Smartest Businesses Profit by Giving Something for Nothing, he explains why “free” is the future of business, and how to thrive through “freeconomics.”

As Editor in Chief, Chris has led WIRED to two dozen National Magazine Award nominations, winning the prestigious top prize for general excellence in 2005, 2007, and 2009. He’s previously worked for The Economist, Science, and Nature magazines.

User-generated content provides a huge opportunity for the Bazaarvoice Social Analytics Team to analyze behaviors, language, sentiment, and demographic data. This helps clients gain intelligence on brands, products, and customers, and lets Bazaarvoice release thought-leading research like “The Conversation Index.”

Prior to Bazaarvoice, Chris led the Digital Analytics team at ZAAZ, a Seattle-based interactive agency, and worked as a Sr. Consultant at Accenture. Chris graduated from Bucknell University and the Foster School of Business at The University of Washington. He has spoken at digital events including SXSW and eMetrics, and is a frequent guest lecturer at The University of Texas.

With a love and passion for consumer marketing, Claire transitioned to Consumer HealthCare in 2009 where she has worked on the smoking cessation brands, Abreva and currently Breathe Right.

Claire earned her Bachelors Degree from Stern’s School of Business at New York University and an MBA from St. Johns University.

She is a resident of New York City, enjoys spending time with her family and is an active tennis player.

Derrick hosts The Stream on Al Jazeera English, a television program that integrates new and traditional media, aggregating online discussion while seeking out new perspectives from people on the ground. His band, Derrick N. Ashong and Soulfège, built a worldwide fan base by leveraging the power of social media and proven techniques of grassroots political organizing.

Derrick has lectured on five continents on the use of media as a tool for human development, including recent talks for the UN Foundation; the London School of Economics; King’s College (Cambridge, England); the Reconciliation Forum in Washington, DC; the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations; and before UK Parliament.

Keller’s new book, The Face-to Face -Book (co-authored with Brad Fay), is scheduled to be published in May 2012. Based on extensive research and illuminating case studies of leading brands, it demonstrates how businesses can best succeed in today’s socially-motivated marketplace by focusing on what people do and say in the real life as well as online. It urges businesses large and small to take a holistic view of social marketing, arguing that the greatest impact comes when conversations take place face-to-face, and that all marketing touch points have the power to drive conversation.

Prior to founding Keller Fay, Keller was CEO of the well known research firm, RoperASW. He is a past-president of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) and of the Market Research Council. In 2011 he was awarded a Great Minds Award from the Advertising Research Foundation, where he was a long-time Board member. He is on the Board of Directors of Bazaarvoice, a leading provider of online social commerce solutions.

Keller speaks frequently to business audiences about word of mouth marketing and lectures at leading business schools such as Wharton, Columbia, NYU and Yale. Keller writes a regular blog for MediaBizBloggers.com and ShelleyPalmer.com, and is quoted frequently in the business press. You can follow him on Twitter: @kellerfay.

Keller is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where he also earned his MA in Communications from the Annenberg School for Communication.

She has overall responsibility for Bazaarvoice’s corporate and product marketing, communications, analyst relations, brand strategy, client marketing and business development.

Prior to joining Bazaarvoice in November 2010, Erin served as senior vice president and CMO for Dell Inc. She was responsible for customer relationship management, communications, brand, social media, core research and analytics and overall marketing agency management.

In 2010, the Advertising Federation of America honored Erin’s distinguished career and inducted her into The Advertising Hall of Achievement for demonstrating the power of ideals-led branding.

Before she became Dell’s CMO in January of 2009, she held leadership positions across marketing and sales in all of its business units, including spending three years in Europe as the company’s vice president of marketing for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Prior to her time with Dell, Erin worked in brand management at Procter & Gamble, corporate strategy at PepsiCo, and management consulting with A.T. Kearney.

Erin serves on the board of directors of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children (CASA). She is also a member of the University of Texas McCombs Business School Advisory Council. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration majoring in international business and marketing from The University of Texas at Austin.

As EVP, Business Development Director, Greg drives Optimedia’s growth strategy in the US, oversees its social media practice and runs several entertainment clients. He also manages the agency’s Strategic Insights group, leading a team of dedicated experts who meld the agency’s research and communications planning disciplines to drive custom, one-of-a-kind solutions across the firm’s clients—including Pizza Hut, T-Mobile, L’Oreal, Orbitz, and Denny’s.

Earlier in his career, Greg served as Vice President, Research and Strategy at Omnicom Group-owned PHD Media where he provided marketing strategy and media allocation consultation to Discovery Communications’ 14 networks. His diverse career experience includes launching independent film consultancy filmBUZZ and holding executive positions at Showtime Networks, YouthStream Media (now Alloy Media + Marketing) and PriceWaterhouseCoopers’ Kwasha Lipton Group.

Greg has participated as a panelist at many leading industry events including the Cannes Film Festival, Digital Hollywood, the Consumer Electronics Show, Ad:Tech and South by Southwest (SXSW). Over the course of his career, he has appeared as a media expert on CNN and Bloomberg Radio and has also been interviewed by the following print and electronic publications: The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Forbes, Business Week, Ad Age, Adweek, Screen International, and Wired.

Greg holds a BA in Economics and French from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA.

Before joining Bazaarvoice, Heather served as President and CEO of Nuvo, a wholly owned subsidiary of Trilogy and provider of managed network services, and she was previously COO for B-Side, a privately funded entertainment technology company. She has held various other executive management roles at leading technology companies, including Coremetrics, Trilogy, and Concero, where she led a team of 130 business and consulting professionals. She was also a practice director at Oracle, where she led the grounds-up development of the Central Texas enterprise sales and consulting practice, building an $18 million book of business in less than 18 months. She began her career at Accenture, where she ascended to Senior Manager in less than five years.

Heather holds a bachelor’s degree in international economics from Trinity University, and the Austin Business Journal named her a 2010 Profiles in Power “Woman of Influence.” Heather is an active, decade long volunteer with the Capital Area United Way, serving on the Board of Directors and chairing the Community Impact Cabinet. In her free time, she enjoys time with her husband Brian and two wonderful daughters, Summer and Sienna, rocking out with her iPod at the gym, or attending yoga class.

Prior to Expedia Hitesh co-founded vChatter which became one of the most popular video chat applications at the time with more than 5 Million users on Facebook. Hitesh holds an MBA from University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelors in Computer Engineering from NIT, Kurukshetra.

He has also developed detailed analysis, data models, and reporting across all online marketing tactics. He has successfully created and managed multiple product launches and promotions for various industries. Jason is also a contributor to Search Engine Watch.

Prior to joining Rosetta, Mr. Tabeling worked for Progressive Insurance for 6 years in their e-Marketing group. There he lead paid search, affiliate, and display efforts.

Jeremy’s experience in eCommerce sales and marketing span over 17 years. Prior to Jarden, Jeremy had worked for Limited Brands, 1800flowers.com, and numerous start-up companies.

Jim has also worked with Dell Financial Services, Citigroup on both Home Depot and Sears credit card portfolios, as well as, with Household Bank in financial investigations. Jim has served with the Cook County Sheriff’s Office in Chicago, as well as, five years as a military police officer in the United States Marine Corps. Jim enjoys relaxing with his wife and two young children. He also loves to ski and golf. Ask him his golf handicap and the response you’ll get will be: “my entire bag”.

As Executive Chairman of Brand Asset Consulting, he guides a global management consultancy with expertise in corporate, brand and marketing strategy.

John’s bestselling book The Brand Bubble identified the beginning of changes in consumer attitudes that preceded the financial crisis. His latest book, Spend Shift with Pulitzer-Prize winner Michael D’Antonio explores consumerism after the Great Recession, is a Wall Street Journal Bestseller.

John is a board advisor to several companies and writes the “Trend Watcher” column for Inc. Magazine. He has run panels at Cannes and South By Southwest, and his TED talk, “The Post Crisis Consumer” has been viewed by over one hundred and sixty thousand people.

At the moment, Joshua loves digging through customer generated content and analytics as a means of uncovering untapped revenue opportunities and reinforcing partner relationships. Infrequent updates about the travel industry, customer experience, and economics can be found by following @joshua_d_bright.

Frey joined Xerox in 1998 as a technical program manager and has held a variety of IT and Web marketing management positions during her 12 years with the company. Before joining Xerox, Frey was an IT consultant and Web technology and production manager for a startup Internet company. Frey holds a bachelor of arts degree in communications and a bachelor of science degree in computer science from St. John Fisher College, Rochester, N.Y.

Frey is a strong advocate for women in technology. In her senior IT roles, Frey has been an active coach and mentor for women pursuing IT-related opportunities. Honors received are 2002 Rochester e-Business Executive of the Year nominee and 2003 IT Woman of the Year, Upstate New York Chapter of the Association for Women in Computing. Frey is an active community volunteer and currently resides on the Board of Directors for the non-profit organization Sustain Inspire Survive (SISSM) that offers financial assistance to individuals battling breast cancer in Rochester, N.Y. and the surrounding area.

Kathy is a regular contributor to BtoB Magazine’s BtoBlog. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Social Media Club and is the Vice President of the local Austin Chapter.

In the spring of 2011, Kat served on the IBM Executive Corporate Service Corps in Rio de Jainero. Previously, Kathy led the IBM Rational marketing team focused on the business value of effective software delivery.

Kathy has been a pioneer in launching successful web and social media marketing efforts, as well as developing dedicated web communities dating back to the time that she led DeveloperWorks and AlpahWorks in addition to marketing programs to developers for IBM. Her past history includes leading various marketing, channel and Web development teams in IBM.

Before joining IBM, Kathy managed one of the earliest successful retail Web sites, jcpenney.com. Kat holds a B.S. in Advertising with Minor in Marketing from the University of Texas at Austin and a Global Leadership MBA from the University of Texas at Dallas. She lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and pomeranian, Luna.

He previously served as Senior Vice President of Product & Digital, where he led Ticketmaster’s centrally-organized product and design teams responsible for global digital strategy and the creation, management, and marketing of Ticketmaster’s wide range of client and consumer products. Before joining Ticketmaster, Kip served as a Senior Product Manager with Shopzilla and worked for several years at Forrester Research where he was part of Forrester’s original Online Retail Strategies research team.

Currently heading partnerships in the global digital marketing team at Nokia, Krista has also been the lead for all digital marketing in Northern Europe at Nokia. Prior to this global giant she was with another global giant, Google, where she brought services such as Google Maps to the market and mastered the ecosystem of local brands, developers and consumers alike. Krista has also been designing one of world’s most used online and mobile banking services back in the days when chequebooks was still the norm, not an exception.

As a person she’s driven by curiosity and excitement for all things that can change peoples’ everyday life for the better, such as mountain bikes or chocolate. Krista is a keen traveler with a never-ending urge to experience new places, and a happy former expat of four nations.

Prior to ExactTarget, Kyle co-founded a marketing technology company, helping over 350 clients build and deliver digital marketing experiences. You can follow him on Twitter at @kyleplacy or visit his blog at KyleLacy.com.

Before moving into her current role, Beaubien worked as a Loan Officer for Quicken Loans, where she closed almost $40 Million in mortgages and acquired more than 350 new clients. She joined Cars.com in 2008 as an Inside Sales Manager, where she was named Rookie of the Month shortly after she started. She was soon promoted to Associate Solutions Manager where she was responsible for assisting in enhancing product capabilities and user experience over time and maintaining daily technology feeds and day-to-day escalated support issues. She was promoted to her current position in May of 2011 and now manages Cars.com’s Dealer Reviews product.

Beaubien graduated with a BS from Central Michigan University. Beaubien is based in Chicago and is engaged to be married in December of 2012.

Throughout his career, he has focused on developing synergies and leveraging common creative across complex multi-channel online marketing programs. In his role at Bazaarvoice, Michael leads the Network product team, which is developing the future of connected social marketing with integrated supply chain participation.

As the senior executive responsible for product management and marketing, Mike defined the core products and positioning and launched the company out of stealth mode. Mike oversaw the growth of Baynote’s products and markets, culminating in hundreds of customer deployments globally. Prior to Baynote, Mike was Director of Product Management at Interwoven, and he has held various leadership positions in marketing, product management, and application development at Cisco Systems, Dell, and ExxonMobil.

Mike is an accomplished speaker and has published industry articles related to Internet technologies including social technologies, search and content management. Mike holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, and a BBA from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas.

Nilofer started in systems development and design in 1997, specifically in the realm of customer and network operations. As a consultant in this space for over 10 years, she has led various large scale projects to enable businesses to build or enhance in areas such as order management, customer support, billing, and service provisioning and activation.

He actively partners with the marketing excellence leadership & eBusiness teams in international markets. Prior to joining 3M, Raj’s background included brand management roles at Procter & Gamble in Europe, Middle East and Canada. Most recently, he led the International division at Brunswick’s Life Fitness subsidiary with assignments in Singapore and Chicago. He is a native of Bangalore (India), and lives by his conviction that imagination is at the root of creativity.

Since joining @WalmartLabs, Benson has focused on key consumer initiatives including Shopycat, the first social gift recommender on Facebook based on a user’s friends likes and posts. His team is also gleaning critical insights into users’ shopping habits leveraging social data.

Benson came to @WalmartLabs through it’s acquisition of OneRiot where he was VP of Engineering for three years, building products that analyzed social media signals to instantly deliver highly relevant results via search engines or mobile ads.

Prior to OneRiot, Benson co-founded three companies of his own, including Vocal Point and Morphlix. In 1996 he founded of Vocal Point, a smart phone and Siri precursor that brought the web to the phone using speech technology. In 2001, VocalPoint was acquired by Telecom Italia. His company Morphlix was dedicated to providing a Netflix-like experience using hard drives instead of DVDs. Benson also spent time as a Senior Engineer at BEA Systems, a global leader in enterprise infrastructure software products.

Benson holds a doctoral degree in computational and neural systems from the California Institute of Technology, and bachelor’s degrees in Electrical Engineering, Math and German from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Other Areas of Expertise:

• Big Data (HDFS/Hive)
• Machine learning
• Elegant software design (Java and Python).

Ron has broad experience in financial services, spanning the last 12 years. His primary focus during that time has been in creating compelling customer acquisition programs leveraging a data-driven approach. Ron has held a variety of leadership positions at Capital One including program manager for the reinvention of Capital One’s approach to online marketing, head of direct marketing innovation, and most recently head of product management for customer acquisition.

In 2010, Gulbransen became the first Director of Social Media & Digital Content for Applebee’s, creating the first-ever social media strategy for the world’s largest casual dining chain. While at Applebee’s, Gulbransen lead a small but nimble team responsible for creating a robust and far-reaching social engagement channel for Applebee’s and its franchise community.

In addition to his professional accomplishments at the corporate level, Gulbransen is also a prolific blogger recently named as one of the Top 50 Daddy Bloggers in the US by Cision. Gulbransen was ranked #21. As a member of the TurboTax communications and social media team for 10 years, Scott helped the TurboTax team launch and sustain the brand’s social media platform. He also drove and was responsible for the launch of TurboTax’s successful content strategy, including the launch of the TurboTax Blog. Recently, he launched one of the most significant social media campaigns in the brand’s history with the @TeamTurboTax Twitter project.

Gulbransen was instrumental in reinvigorating the Quicken brand almost entirely through the use of social media and, particularly, Twitter. By engaging with customers and influencers who talk about personal finance on Twitter, he and his team helped Quicken Online grow from just 200,000 users in October 2008 to over 1.4 Million in just 10 months. This led to a more focused look at the personal finance space for Intuit and, ultimately, the acquisition of Mint.com.

A former print journalist, who, after realizing his paychecks from the newspaper industry weren’t going to get much bigger, turned to the Dark Side – public relations. After working in both college athletics and inside mid-size agencies, he joined Intuit in 2000 and Applebee’s in 2010. He is a graduate of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and is the married father of five kids.

Despite his busy personal and professional life, Scott is a digital native who never strays far from social networking. To hassle Scott, or to tell him how great you think he is (or not!), email him at scott@scottgulbransen.com, add him to your Circles on Google+, or ping him on Twitter at @sdgully. Scott also is a contributor for Technorati, the hot Dad’s blog EveryOtherThursday.com

Mr. Williams was a Corporate Vice President of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., from 2006 to May 2010, serving as General Manager of Samsclub.com. From 1996 to 2006, Mr. Williams was an executive with OfficeMax Incorporated, where he held a series of key leadership positions, including Senior Vice President, OfficeMax Direct Business Segment and Senior Vice President, Marketing.

Stephen’s passion for mobile services that reach millions of consumers dates back to 1994, when he led the formation of the Sony-QUALCOMM joint venture that developed and launched digital wireless services in the United States. Since then he has played leading roles in launching mobile video services with PacketVideo and mobile social networking with mbuzzy.com. Stephen also held leadership roles at public companies like Openwave that pioneered mobile Web browsing and mobile search. He has lived and worked extensively in advanced mobile markets like Japan and Northern Europe, led integrated mobile search and advertising programs in emerging markets like Thailand, Turkey, and the Phillippines, and provided advisory services to venture capital firms, private equity funds, and other investors looking for the Next Big Thing in mobile.

At Resource Interactive he leads a team of 25 mobile strategy, design, and development experts and represents RI as a speaker at the National Retail Federation (where he recently delivered a keynote on “Designing for the Tablet Consumer”), the Mobile Marketing Association, and other events focused on delivering high value brand and product experiences to our increasingly “connected” consumers.

With a phone in nearly every pocket and tablets in the hands of millions, Stephen and our mobile practice works to ensure that always-on consumers arrive at mobile-friendly destinations via mobile-powered methods. The small screen is here to stay and Stephen and his team help brands not only understand what’s coming next—we get them there.

Prior to Unilever, Stephen spent 8 years as Director of Interactive for Draftfcb’s Chicago office. He also survived the Dotcom Days at interactive agencies marchFIRST and Four Points Digital. He has 18 years of interactive marketing experience working with companies including Boeing, Kraft, SC Johnson, Kmart, Sears, KFC, Grainger, Circuit City, and Motorola. He officially held the title “Webmaster” when it wasn’t embarrassing.

His specialties include social media, CRM, e-commerce, digital strategy, loyalty-programs, mobile, and brand marketing. He graduated with a B.A. in Marketing from the University of Kentucky.

Prior to joining LendingTree, Tom served as Director of Internet Strategy at Sylvan Learning, the largest K-12 tutoring company in the U.S., where he ran email marketing and web product development. Tom has an MBA from Loyola University of Maryland and resides in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Before joining MediaLink, Ms. Millard was Co-CEO and President, Media for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. She joined MSLO in July 2007 after three years as a member of its Board of Directors. Ms. Millard oversaw MSLO’s media businesses, which include publishing, internet and broadcasting. She was the driving force behind creating cross-platform programs for marketers in TV, digital, magazines and radio.

Before MSLO, Ms. Millard was Chief Sales Officer at Yahoo! where she led the team that drove revenue from $700 million to over $6 billion in six years and was consistently credited as the number one sales organization in the media industry. On an industry-wide level her work at Yahoo! established brand advertising on the web. Prior to Yahoo!, Ms. Millard was Chief Internet Officer at Ziff Davis Media and President of Ziff Davis Internet. Previously, Ms. Millard was a founding member of the executive team at DoubleClick, where she served as Executive Vice President responsible for establishing the DoubleClick brand and overseeing the operations of DoubleClick Media. She also served as President and Group Publisher of SRDS, Senior Vice President and Publisher of Family Circle and Executive Vice President/Group Publisher of Adweek, Mediaweek and Brandweek magazines.

Ms. Millard has received numerous industry awards including the 2011 Oracle Award from Springboard, the 2009 ad:tech Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2007 John A. Reisenbach Award for Distinguished Citizenship, the 2006 “Advertising Person of the Year” Silver Medal Award from the AAF and the 2005 Matrix Award for “Women Who Change the World.” Advertising Age acknowledged her as a “Digital Media Master” — one of the 20 most influential executives in interactive media. She was the subject of a profile by Tom Brokaw as part of NBC’s “Women to Watch” series.

Active on behalf of the advertising industry throughout her career, Ms. Millard is immediate past Chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau and former President of the Advertising Club of New York. She has served on the Boards of the Advertising Council, the American Advertising Federation, the Advertising Education Foundation and others. Currently, she sits on the Boards of several emerging media companies as well as on the Boards of the James Beard Foundation and Pop!Tech. She served two terms as a Trustee of Trinity College in Hartford.

Ms. Millard holds an MBA from Harvard University and a BA from Trinity College.