Keynote Speakers

Grant McCracken
Leading Cultural Anthropologist

Grant McCracken is the author of several books including Culture and Consumption, Plenitude, and Transformation, and Culture and Consumption II: Markets, meaning and brand management. His work has been covered in The New York Times and on Oprah. In his newest book, Flock and Flow: Predicting and Managing Change in a Dynamic Marketplace McCracken deploys "complex adaptive theory" to track the movement of trends and new groupings of consumers. He shows how to monitor new trends, whether and when to introduce new brands and brand extensions, how to speak to niche markets, and how to avoid costly mistakes.

Sebastian Siethoff
Global Marketing Director - Young Adults, McDonald's Corporation

Conference Speakers

William Azaroff, Director of Online Strategy & Community Engagement at Vancity

William Azaroff directs Online Strategy & Community Engagement at Vancity, Canada's largest credit union, where he develops interactive marketing initiatives. He also pioneered ChangeEverything.ca, the groundbreaking change-themed online community. William builds on a decade of experience at digital agencies in Vancouver, Seattle and Los Angeles driving strategy, extending brands to the Web and building relationships for companies in several verticals, including Honda, Disney, Intuit Canada and the Government of BC. He discusses trends and noteworthy achievements in social media at his blog: azaroff.com/blog

William Bakker, Director of eBusiness, Tourism British Columbia

As Director of e-Business at Tourism British Columbia, William Bakker develops strategies to help the BC tourism industry compete in the increasingly important and ever-evolving world of online marketing. One of his key projects includes developing a consumer web platform that serves as a foundation for variety of market-specific websites. Before moving to Canada, William lived and worked in the Netherlands. He shares his thoughts about eTourism on his blog: www.wilhelmus.ca

Darren Barefoot, writer, marketer, technologist and a founding partner at Capulet Communications

Darren is a writer, marketer, technologist and a founding partner at Capulet Communications. He regularly speaks about marketing and Web 2.0, and has been quoted as a social media expert on the CBC, BBC, in Wired magazine, The Wall Street Journal and dozens of other magazines, TV and radio programs. He helped found Northern Voice, Canada's social media conference. He's the co-author of a forthcoming book on web marketing for No Starch Press. Darren maintains a personal blog at DarrenBarefoot.com.

Rebecca Bollwitt, creator and owner of Miss604.com

Rebecca Bollwitt is the creator and owner of Miss604.com, one of Vancouver's top blogs, and is a co-host of two podcasts. Miss604 has gained national recognition as the "3rd Best Local Blog in Canada for 2007", and has been featured in various magazines, radio programs and TV shows. In late 2007, Rebecca was also dubbed one of "Vancouver's Tech Women to Watch in 2008" by Raincity Studios. Taking the new tools of the internet and applying them to personal and corporate branding is her specialty. In addition, Rebecca is the Media Specialist for E-xact Transactions Ltd. in Vancouver, where she is responsible for all aspects of marketing and communications as well as website design and coding. Since 2000 she has been working with streaming media and online content distribution and now she uses a corporate and industry blog as well as screencasts to reach out to readers, clients, and potential partners.

Chris Breikss, President, 6S Marketing

6S Marketing, a Vancouver based Internet Marketing company that specializes in search engine marketing, web analytics and new media marketing. Since 2001, Chris and his company have been involved in the marketing of more than 300 Web sites across North America. Chris has been involved in the Internet Marketing Industry for 11 years and prior to starting 6S, Chris worked in online marketing for Infowave Software, and Stratford Internet Technologies. In 2007 Chris championed his company's initiative to provide Facebook marketing services utilizing Facebook Business Pages. Also, in 2007, Chris helped his company achieve the status of Google Analytics Authorized Consultant.

Paul Burns, Director IPTV, Mobile, Broadband at Sympatico MSN

Paul Burns oversees all aspects of Sympatico's Mobile Division, including the company's mobile web sites, mobile publisher network, mobile advertising solutions, and professional services offerings. Prior to joining Sympatico MSN in 2007, he ran Nokia's global digital marketing team based in London, UK. Paul also created Canada's first Mobile Media Lab, where innovative brands can test drive the power of mobile marketing through real life case studies and apply the knowledge to future campaigns. Paul's compelling vision for enabling brands to "go mobile" has made him an established industry leader. Paul lives in Toronto with his wife and soon-to-be-born son, and is the founding member of the Sympatico MSN mountain bike team. He's also so addicted to following the current US democratic primaries that it's sadly becoming an obsession. Paul holds a Degree in Marketing from York University's Schulich School of Business.

Martin Byrne, Director of Search, Yahoo! Canada

Martin has spent the last 15 years of his career building online business for a wide variety of Canadian and international organizations.

Initially Martin worked for several Canadian internet presence agencies building websites for TD Bank, BMW Canada, Bank of New York, Deutchbank and more. Martin eventually moved from building online businesses' to managing them as Director of The National Post's online news business, Director of media sales operations for Sympatico/MSN Canada and most recently taking on the role as National Director for Yahoo's Canada's Search Marketing operations.

Martin also holds an executive MBA from the Rotman School of Business.

Luc Cormier, Director, Impact Research

Before becoming Vice President of Research at Impact Research in Montreal, Luc-André Cormier spent most of his career with Cossette Communication Group holding a variety of roles ranging from media management of national and regional assignments for global brands (General Motors, McDonalds, Nike) to the development of new media and research initiatives. He has been in his present post since 2007 and aims to position Impact Research as the heart of Cossette's strategic process. As a key innovator in the Quebec media market, Luc-André encouraged marketers to embrace the Internet and interactivity in advertising as early as 1995. He directed the initial development of AdCentric, Fjord's proprietary ad serving solution. The highlight of his research career came in 2003 when he co-wrote and presented a paper (The Quest for an Internet Currency) at the prestigious Esomar/ARF Worldwide Audience Measurement seminar in Los Angeles. Cormier is a founding member of Canada's IAB and has held seats on many industry committees including BBM's TV Research Committee, which oversaw the implementation of Arbtiron's personal people meter as a trading currency in Canada.

Vanessa Fox, Entrepreneur in Residence at Ignition Partners & Editor at SearchEngineLand.com

Vanessa Fox is the founder of Nine by Blue, which looks at the relationships between development, SEO, and online marketing silos and how the data from each of these areas can be used holistically to learn more about customer behavior and improve ROI. Vanessa is also features editor at Search Engine Land, a leading online journal covering the search industry. Her latest project, Jane and Robot, provides best practices for architecting web sites that focus on usability while being smart about search engines. Vanessa previously created Google's Webmaster Central, which provides both tools and community to help website owners improve their sites to gain more customers from search. She has been building user-focused websites and products since the early 90s.

Joanna Fuke, Senior Customer Relationship Strategist and Planner, Blitz Direct

Responsible for generating customer insights from client databases, whether transactional or behavioral, Joanna directs the mining and analysis of customer data to create action plans that result in superior customer management programs. This can include building marketing databases and customer management capabilities linked to client data warehouses as well as strategic mining of customer data and creating appropriate models to drive business objectives. Integral to all of the data activities is an inherent understanding and linkage to the overall brand identity and ensuring that it is maintained in all the data driven communications and activities.

Joanna has worked on a wide range of consumer categories creating and leveraging client data to augment customer profitability through targeted direct customer management and communication across multiple channels.

After launching the AIR MILES program in Canada, she went on to apply her customer loyalty expertise for several Cossette client loyalty programs like Shopper Drug Mart Optimum, and PetroPoints, Canada Post Venture One, VIAPreference and Diet Coke. Using in depth data mining and analytics, she and her team have created a powerful segmentation model for A&P / Dominion which is being applied to the full suite of direct communications as well as store customization. For the past nine years she has been instrumental in leveraging the power of Bell and Bell Mobility's customer transactional databases in helping the client move to more targeted and profitable customer acquisition, cross-sell and up-sell through integrated direct communication plans which encompassed direct mail, e-mail, telemarketing and retail channels.

During the course of her career, she has worked on most of the major loyalty programs in Canada including AMEX Membership Rewards, CIBC Aerogold VISA, and Clearnet's Retail Associates Incentive Program.

Thierry Hay-Sabourin, Senior Ecommerce Manager, Future Shop

Brad Lowe, Director of Product Creation, Nokia

Brad Lowe has been active in the Vancouver technology community since 1990, working in various management positions at MacDonald Dettwiler, Abatis, and Redback Networks. Brad joined Nokia in 2002 and is currently Director of Research and Development within the Nokia Devices Business in Vancouver, BC. The Product Creation site in Vancouver led the successful introduction of the Nokia N91 and the upcoming Nokia N96 multimedia computers. In addition, Nokia Vancouver has led the development of solutions for Nokia's growing gaming and music service businesses.

John Owen, Planning Partner at Dare

Dare, which counts Barclays, BMW, ITV, Sony, Sony Ericsson and Vodafone among its key clients, was named Digital Agency of the Year by both Campaign and Marketing at the end of 2007. John's early career was in journalism. He moved to the media communications agency, Motive, in 1999, where he set up the digital unit. A year later, following Motive's merger with Starcom, he became director of Starcom IP, which grew into a top ten online media agency during his tenure.

He joined Dare in August 2003 and has put the discipline of planning at the heart of the agency's approach to digital marketing. John is a fellow of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, having chaired its Digital Marketing Group from 2002-2006.

Steve Park, Director Online Marketing, EA Sports

Steve has sixteen years of broad marketing experience with an emphasis on strategic planning, analytical methods, and direct response channels across a wide range of industries. He has worked client and agency side as a senior direct marketer with a number of world leading brands including; Electronic Arts, NIKE, Intrawest, TELUS, HSBC, Ontario Tourism, DIRECTV and Vancouver General Hospital. He has been responsible for the development & application of customer based strategy for a wide range of marketing applications including: Direct Marketing, Media Planning, Loyalty Development, Online Community Development, e-Mail Marketing and Channel Optimization. He is active as both a speaker and instructor in presenting strategic content to a variety of audiences, including MBA students and professional marketers. Steve holds a Bachelor of Science Degree with a major in Physics from York University in Toronto and is the President of the BC Association of Integrated Marketing.

Andrew Reid, President & Founder, Vision Critical

Andrew's vision and leadership established what Vision Critical is today. Coming from a background of Internet advertising and market research, Andrew started the company in 2000 because he saw the opportunity to use the web as a way to improve market research for both the client and the respondent. Over the last five years the company has become a leader in online research with products like our Panel+ panel management system and Fusion rich media research applications. Today he is the President of Vision Critical and responsible for the day to day operations as well as the sales and development of its Fusion line of products. Andrew has been immersed in interactive development since attending Vancouver Film School in 1995.

Ben Stringfellow, Director of Internal Communications, McDonalds USA

Ben Stringfellow is the Senior Director of U.S. Communications for McDonald's USA, LLC. McDonald's is the world's leading global food service retailer with more than 30,000 restaurants serving nearly 47 million people in more than 100 countries each day.

Ben currently leads internal and management communications for the McDonald's U.S. business, focusing on a variety of key audiences - Staff, Franchisees, Restaurants Managers/Crew, and Suppliers. Ben's team develops communication strategies and plans in support of business priorities, as well as communication process, protocol, and channel development, both electronic and print.

Ben has been with McDonald's for nearly ten years, and has worked in several areas of the company including Global Communications, Marketing, and Restaurant Operations.

Prior to joining McDonald's, Ben spent several years with Deloitte Consulting in the Retail Strategy practice. There he worked on projects like category management, strategic sourcing, activity-based costing, process improvement, and organizational design.

Ben has a B.A. in Biological Sciences from DePauw University.

Kate Trgovac, Founder of LintBucket Media

Kate Trgovac - www.mynameiskate.ca - is an Internet trailblazer from pre-Web days. Kate Trgovac started her digital marketing career when plain text email was the marketing tool of choice. Over her 17-year career, she has worked for several clients, including Nike, Molson, Nabisco, Procter and Gamble, Fido and Petro-Canada. In 2007, Kate founded LintBucket Media, a boutique marketing agency headquartered in Vancouver that focuses on social media, community building and co-creation between brands and their audiences. She writes about the intersection of marketing and technology on her blog mynameiskate.ca. Kate also publishes OneDegree.ca, an online magazine that provides the inside scoop on Internet marketing and social media for Canadian marketers.

Catherine Warren, Founder and president of FanTrust Entertainment Strategies

Catherine is a media strategist, specializing in digital financing, distribution and fans. Her work has influenced Fortune 500 clients, game corporations, major media networks, world-class tourist attractions and advertising agencies, providing them with new ways to captivate audiences and capitalize on innovation. Catherine's client work includes strategic initiatives for game and animation studios, including Radical, Studio B and Decode Entertainment, as well as computer corporations such as Sun Microsystems and Microsoft. A board member of the Bell Broadcast & New Media Fund, Canada's largest private fund for multiplatform broadcasting, Catherine's leadership includes identifying the winning concepts for interactive entertainment and awarding significant financing. In 2007, Catherine was appointed to the international jury of the Emmy Awards with a focus on interactive excellence. For best practices in digital entertainment, check out the FanTrust website and blog: www.FanTrust.com

Conference Moderators:

Omar Al-Hajjar, Director of Search Marketing, Magnet
Angele Beausoleil, Director Strategic Planning, Fjord
Steve Cormack, Interim General Manager of Blitz Direct
Russ Deighan, Associate Director, Cossette Media
Jan Fricker, General Manager of Blitz Promotions
Darren Roberts, VP Optimum