Social Media Masters’ Summit ’10 Speakers

Ramon De Leon started with Domino’s Pizza in Chicago in 1986 as a pizza delivery driver.
Twenty Three years later Ramon is the Operating partner of a six store Domino’s Pizza Franchise in Chicago. Extreme Passion and High Energy are words that best describe his love for the pizza business.Ramon has been using Social Media for his business since before the word existed.  AOL Instant messenger was his micro-blog long before Twitter was invented. When Facebook was closed to the general public, Ramon connected with customers in photos and groups.  His Social Media strategies were recently highlighted at Gravity Summit Harvard and streamed Live on CNN.COM. Domino’s Pizza Franchisees around the world seek his Social Media advice. Ramon’s creative uses of Social Media and enthusiasm have made him a sought after speaker.

Christopher Barger is Director, Global Communications Technology at General Motors, and leads the company’s social media communications efforts.

Christopher is responsible for setting General Motors’ communications strategy in the emerging social media that make up “Web 2.0” (blogs, wikis, podcasting, user-generated content, social network engagement, and others). His team coordinates and counsels authors for GM’s corporate blogs (FastLane and FYI), builds and manages GM’s relationships with influential voices from across the social media landscape, and develops new social media resources for GM content and information.

Christopher received his M.S. in Public Relations from Boston University in 1999. He and his family live in Macomb, MI.

Called an “Agency Innovator” by Advertising Age, Krause is Founder and CEO of Suite Partners Inc., an innovation & ideation company that custom composes best-in-breed creative resources to radically accelerate brand growth. Krause’s noted successes span from fashion to fast food to fast companies.

Krause spent most of his career at what is today known as the Publicis Groupe. He was Chairman, CEO of flagship Publicis New York (which he helped build in to a top 10 NY agency) CEO of Publicis Mid America and President of Hal Riney & Partners Heartland. This followed 14 years at Leo Burnett where Barry created the Invention Marketing Group and successfully led then largest account, McDonald’s, through the infamous “Burger Wars.”  Barry was also a member of the J. Walter Thompson Executive Committee and President of JWT Chicago.

Krause acknowledges he has had the fortune of great clients and teammates. As architect of the Jared campaign for Subway, Krause’s success in retail brand building is detailed in Chip Heath’s bestseller, Made To Stick. He was the key strategist on Progressive’s Harvard-case-worthy marketing makeover from obscurity to the #3 auto insurer, launched Biolage to the #1 professional shampoo position for Matrix, surged Garden Burger from health food to mainstream and helped make Kinko’s “the new way to office.”

Back in the last millennium, Crain’s honored Barry as one of “40 Under 40 Executives to Watch.” He studied Management of the Creative Enterprise at Harvard and earned a B.S. in Marketing from Bradley.

According to EatonWeb, “Liz Strauss is perhaps the most influential relational blogger on the Internet.” Her blog –Liz Strauss at Successful Blog — has been called both a destination and an event. She is known as connector who makes lasting relationships. Her blog has tens of thousands of comments. The WordPress Plugin Liz Comment Counter by Ozh was named in her honor to celebrate her dedication to responding to the readers of her blog.

Liz is a social web strategist and community builder. Coming from a background of publishing, business, and instructional design, Liz understands how people perceive a blog, a product, and an experience — how the head and heart engage to make a fiercely loyal customer. She can articulate what makes things irresistible — what keeps people coming back — from literacy, editorial, design, and marketing sensitivities.

Liz is a founder of the highly successful business bloggers conference SOBCon — which has gained the partnership of companies such as Intuit, IZEA, ReveNews, Walmart, Colgate, Allstate, and Klondike Frozen Treats, as well as the attention of BusinessWeek, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Innovation Initiative of the Kellogg School of Business. She has been named to the Top 100 Social Media & Internet Marketing Bloggers Top 100 Most Influential Marketers of 2008, the 50 of the Most Powerful and Influential Women of Social Media, NxE’s Fifty Most Influential ‘Female’ Bloggers and her blog is listed on Alltop Social Media and Alltop Twitterati

In January 1985, a large group of pop stars descended upon Hollywood to record “We Are the World” for charity. Connie Burke was not among them. Instead, she hung her fresh college degrees, (in advertising, English and journalism) in the Technical Center offices of General Motors, where she honed her communications and PR chops. When GM needed to add a voice for their social media efforts, Connie decided it was time to step out of her darkened cubicle and into the light. While Connie hasn’t yet won a Grammy for her social media efforts, she has achieved Silver Elite travel status & doesn’t get charged for extra bags.

After video blogging her 70lb weight loss journey with Weight Watchers in 2006 she became an online spokeswoman and content creator for the company. In 2007 she was chosen as an official video blogger for YouTube’s community and attended the CNN/YouTube presidential debates, which led to a series of political commentary pieces on FOX News.In 2009 she co-directed the social media and blogger outreach initiatives for Kmart’s design related webisodes, which included coordinating primary research, targeted paid placements, in-person events, and helping the company think through new policies and procedures for online interaction.

She speaks and holds workshops at blogger conferences across the country such as Blissdom and BlogHer, as well as regional social media events. She blogs on her personal site FaintStarLite.com and can be found on Twitter as @FaintStarLite or @ShePosts.

Rich Goldsmith is the voice of Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard on the brands’ online communities, as well as managing social media strategy for the three iconic brands. So essentially, he plays on Facebook all day and gets paid for it.

Online since 1990, Rich has a very simple set of rules for social media developed over 20 years of geeking out on the Internet. After an adolescence spent as a troll on Prodigy/GEnie/Cleveland FreeNet, not to mention a college career (mis)spent exploring the world of IRC and mid-90s web sites covered in animated .gifs. Those rules were honed during his time as a USA Today reporter, and even further once he was turned to the dark side and launched a career in public relations at agencies like Weber Shandwick and Padilla Speer Beardsley as well as the Saint Paul Public School district doing crisis communications and community engagement.

From 2003 on, Rich focused heavily on online media and blogger relations – a natural fit having been a blogger since 2000 himself. He’s used his skills garnering publicity for Super Bowl ads, launching a new brand for Jim Beam, convincing people that TiVo is actually better than a generic DVR, pushing gaming peripherals for Microsoft, and trying to convince his clients to fund his bizarre web video ideas.

Rich has degrees in journalism and cultural studies and comparative literature – both of which he feels are awesome. Perhaps not as awesome as bacon, unicorns, or tacos, but since they’ve helped him land some sweet gigs since graduating way back in 1999, he’s more than satisfied he got his money’s worth.

Adam provides strategic oversight and leads award-winning programs that help clients achieve their public relations and marketing goals using the interactive, emerging and social media technology. Adam’s 13-plus years of experience in the digital space spans all of the firm’s key practice areas, including consumer marketing, pharmaceutical healthcare, personal technology and business-to-business.

Adam’s current clients include The National Milk Mustache “got milk?” Campaign, Kraft Foods Inc, Microsoft and Hanes Brands, Inc. For “got milk?”, Adam provides strategic oversight for the industry’s award-winning online presence at www.bodybymilk.com and www.whymilk.com. He manages the team that oversees the site development and social media presence on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube.  For Kraft Foods Inc., Adam leads the Oscar Mayer social media team, which is responsible for maintaining a cohesive brand presence throughout leading social media circles including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and a blog for the Wienermobile vehicle drivers (http://www.hotdoggerblog.com).

Adam graduated cum laude from the University of Rochester, in Rochester, N.Y. and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science.  He is a member of the Chicago Interactive Marketing Association (CIMA), the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) and a regular contributor to the blog Dad-o-Matic.

Miss Lori has been a National family treasure ever since she burst on the entertainment scene hosting the PBS Kids Preschool Block from 2006-2009. But even before her work with PBS Miss Lori was a family favorite because of the programs and media she offers with her company Miss Lori’s CAMPUS, such as her self produced health interstitials currently airing on WTTW PBS Kids Chicago.

In 2009 Miss Lori parlayed her celebrity television status into a successful social media presence. Her insightful thoughts about life, parenting and community are as real as her music. In short order Miss Lori has become a sought after connector. She considers herself a “Marketainer,” leveraging her celebrity and her acute understanding of the needs of families, to strengthen the bonds between consumers and brands through live and social media based events. Miss Lori’s unique style has garnered the appreciation of such brands as Lane Bryant, Build a Bear Workshop, Vistaprint, GM, Disney, and 1800Baskets to name a few. She has been an official tweeter for Real Simple, blogged from the Oscars Red Carpet Bleachers for Kodak, and served as the Ambassador for The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry’s Healthy Smiles, Healthy Children Campaign. Miss Lori represents Nintendo as a Brand Enthusiast, sits on the board of Bloganthropy and is the face of the US launch of Australian early literacy website Reading Eggs. As well, this Summer Miss Lori is the Ambassador of the American Heart Associations Go Red For Women BetterU Program, sharing her personal journey to better health with her tribe and the World.

You can find Miss Lori at MissLori.TV, www.MissLorisCAMPUS.com, ChicagoMomsBlog.com, ChicagoMoms.com, WeAreTheRealDeal.com,
YoungChicagonista.com, on Twitter and Facebook. As Miss Lori always says, “Let your SMILE Shine On!”

Andrea Metcalf is a nationally recognized fitness expert and a popular media personality.  In the last decade, Andrea had appeared as a contributor for several national publiscations including MORE, Self Shape, Women’s World, All You, as well as “The Today Show.”  For more than 25 years Andrea has inspired people from all walks of life to feel better and move.

As a mother of three, Andrea’s passions for healthy living and her unique ability to multitask inspires mothers and other individuals with a unique desire for fitness and a healthy lifestyle.  In 2002, she fulfilled a dream of owning her own studio and opened mbc Fitness, where she continues to train news anchors, professional athletes and specialized in “Boomer” fitness. These are the stories of real men and women who, despite their busy lives, find time each day to ensure their health.  She is the creator of Well Centered Weight Loss program which focuses on the positive choices one makes in the journey of weight loss as well as inspire corporations to lead their employees with Inspirations and Education corporate wellness programs

As Senior Director, Public Relations and Social Media for ConAgra Foods, Stephanie Moritz is responsible for leading public relations, social media, word-of-mouth, influencer outreach and PR measurement for ConAgra’s Consumer Foods brands and strategic platforms.

Moritz is a passionate advocate for WOM and social media within ConAgra Foods and has helped to shape ConAgra’s enterprise-wide social media strategy as well as how ConAgra’s iconic brands better connect with influencers, consumers and customers. Examples include leveraging earned new media and word-of-mouth for iconic brands such as Healthy Choice, Orville Redenbacher’s Gourmet Popping Corn, and Hebrew National.

Prior to joining ConAgra Foods, Moritz was the Director, Public Relations for The Hershey Company in Hershey, Pennsylvania, where she was the corporate spokesperson and led corporate media relations, product publicity and issues management for the corporation and brands such as Hershey, Reese’s, York, and Ice Breaker’s.

Moritz was recognized as one of PR Week’s, “40 Under 40”, and has served on various committees of the Social Media Business Council (SMBC), The Canned Food Alliance (CFA), The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), The National Confectioners Association (NCA), The Chocolate Manufacturers Association (CMA), The Distilled Spirits Council (DISCUS), and The Century Council. She has a bachelors and masters in Communication from Eastern Illinois University.

Blogging since 2005, Kim contributes to several sites and is the managing editor for TheChicagoMoms. She is active on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Whrrl, YouTube, and Posterous. In December of 2009, her personal blog, Hormone-colored Days was named one of the Chicago’s top parenting blogs. As a highly connected Social Media Mom, Kim is never more than a click away from some of the smartest and most influential women online.

As Senior Vice President for Edelman Digital, David applies his expertise in social media, marketing and business strategy across multiple clients such as eBay, BlackBerry, and MGM to name a few. A global resource, Armano also leads the strategic effort behind the Edelman Digital site and and has been working in the digital medium since 1997.

David is considered to be a highly influential voice on the subject of social media for business and has over 50,000 combined subscribers to his blog (Logic + Emotion) and Twitter stream. Logic + Emotion has consistently ranked in the top 20 marketing blogs according to the Ad Age Power 150. Prior to Edelman, David was a part of the founding team of Dachis Group where he helped communicate the vision for social business design while doing groundbreaking strategic work for clients including Intuit.

He also writes regular industry perspectives for the Harvard Business Review, and is best known for his distinct brand of visual thinking, which can be found both on the Web and in presentations all over the world. David studied visual communications/computer graphics and graduated cum laude from Pratt Institute, where he was mentored under some of the brightest minds in the industry.