Geoff Cook founded EssayEdge.com and ResumeEdge.com from a Harvard dorm in 1997. Geoff was one of the original dorm room dot com entrepreneurs and has been featured in Wired, Rolling Stone, ABC News, CNBC, USA Today, NPR, etc. His Wired feature outing himself as Dorm Room Entrepreneur at Harvard helped lead Harvard to lift its centuries-old ban on dorm room entrepreneurship by the next school year.

Upon graduation, Geoff grew CyberEdit to 500+ freelance editors and $5 Million in revenue with profits of $1+ Million per year. Geoff walked away with millions when he sold his company to The Thomson Corporation.

So when his kid sister approached him with her own great idea for a website, Geoff listened.  He’s the first investor and a founding executive of myYearbook.com, the online social network that is ruffling the feathers of MySpace.com and Facebook.  These days, the new dad leaves the day-to-day management of the site to his younger siblings while he handles investor interest from Silicon Valley and forms new business partnerships with A-list brands and companies from Cliffs Notes to Disney.  Geoff’s goal: to take online marketing way beyond banner ads and make it a relevant part of myYearbook members’ online experience.

At the world's leading independent blogging company, Dash is a recognized expert on blogs and web technology, having founded one of the earliest and most popular weblogs on the Internet, and been named as one of MSNBC's Best of Blogs. A frequent keynote speaker, Dash has given presentations around the world about the future of social communication online, the relationship between blogs and traditional media, and business blogging.

Dash's work has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Wired, MSNBC, CNN, ABC News, and on television, radio, print and blogs around the world. He has also had his work showcased in museums including the New Museum of Contemporary Art, and lectured at universities including UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, Columbia University's School of Journalism, and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Prior to joining Six Apart as its first employee, Dash worked in online communications and technology development for the publishing and music industries. When he's not traveling, Dash lives in New York City with his favorite dog, cat, and human.

One of the most respected and sought after creative directors and thought leaders on branding and design, Joe has led award winning branding efforts for some highly admired companies including BMW, Coca-Cola, Sony, McDonald’s and Starbucks.  His work is regularly profiled in leading business, marketing and design publications and has been exhibited around the world.  Joe has served as founding chair of the Environmental Committee of the American Institute of Graphic Arts and on the boards of the AIGA, the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul, MN, and the Minnesota State Arts Council.  He is a member of the board of The One Club and has led their student design competitions and workshops in China for the past five years.  He has been awarded the Legacy Medal from the AIGA for a life time achievement in the field of visual communications and his first book, Brand Apart, was released in July 2005.  In 2006, Joe was featured in Fast Company as one of the “Fast 50” most influential people in the future of business.

Currently Ms. Fry is Senior Vice President at Clearspring Technologies, managing the company’s sales and client services operations.

Prior to Clearspring Ms. Fry was VP of Ad Sales for Netflix where she developed and launched an online and offline targeted advertising platform for the entertainment community. 

From 2002-2005, Ms. Fry served as president of Smashing Entertainment, a film production and co-financing company she helped create to produce films for television and theatrical distribution.  The company’s productions have appeared at the Sundance Film Festival and on Showtime, as well as direct-to-DVD.

From 1997 to 2002, she held a series of increasingly senior sales positions at America Online, including vice president of interactive marketing for the AOL Entertainment Group.  In this role, she was responsible for AOL’s studio relationships covering both filmed and home entertainment.

Earlier in her career, Ms. Fry held sales positions at several large print publishing concerns, including Hearst Publishing, Family Media and Lang Communications

Michael Höflich is the Managing Director at Forum Custom Publishing, a leading European publishing organization.

One of Germany’s foremost experts on custom content, Höflich will discuss the rapidly-growing digital media sector and how corporate publishing has surpassed the threshold into a new era. He notes that the biggest challenge faced by diverse communication channels (printed, digital, online, mobile), in a global community, is the inevitable control of all media channels by centralized governance.

Samantha began her career at Ameritest in 2002. Samantha's research background spans every facet of advertising research,ranging from operations to clientservices to the director level, managing a team of analysts and research planners. She works on diverse accounts, including packaged goods, insurance and financial services, hi-tech products and the retail and restaurant industries. Samantha heads Ameritest's syndicated research division, where she conducts and presents on meta-analyses across large bodies of work to deliver category insights to her clients. Samantha is a graduate from the University of New Mexico with a Business Administration Degree in Marketing Management and has received Marketing Research Professional certification from the University of Georgia.

At GlaxoSmithKline Ken is responsible for developing and expanding the corporate competence in one-to-one marketing including online and offline strategies and programs for non-prescription products. An important area of his focus is creating effective programs that help create and sustain individual consumer behavior that results in appropriate short and long term product use. Much of his work reflects the principles of “behavior modification” and its application to marketing; creating consumer advocates and developing brand loyalty. In a global competition for GlaxoSmithKline he was awarded “Best In Class” for a program focused on women’s health. Most recently, his days (and nights) were filled with preparing to launch alli, a new weight loss product from GlaxoSmithKline.

Prior to joining GSK in 1995 Ken’s background was concentrated in the marketing of consumer package goods and services with such companies as RJR Nabisco, General Foods and Northwest Airlines. Overseas his expertise in relationship marketing was utilized in several start-up situations in Japan and England. He holds an MBA from Wharton.

Kent Nichols is a storyteller, technology geek, and goofball.  He is a self-taught filmmaker who started out as an actor and improviser.  He learned how to make funny movies with only his friends, an iMac, and a MiniDV camera.  In 2003, his film, Baggage, won the International 48 Hour Film Project and Scott Billups called him "the future of the Entertainment industry" in his book Digital Moviemaking.  In 2005, Kent and his writing partner, Douglas Sarine, created the internet sensation AskANinja.com, which has been viewed over 50 million times.  In 2006, Douglas and Kent created HopeIsEmo.com, one of the most viewed and discussed series on the web.  His forthcoming cartoon, Kinzai Ninjas, will premiere on Atom Films in late 2006.  Kent has been named one of the top 50 movers and shakers in IPTV.

He lives in Hollywood with his computers and video cameras.

One of the most sought-after consultants, speakers and thought leaders on engagement and loyalty, Dr. Passikoff has 35 years of experience in brand planning. He has pioneered work in the area of customer loyalty and consumer engagement, creating the Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Index®, the Brandweek Loyalty Leaders’ List, the Sports Fan Loyalty Index®, and the Women’s Wear Daily Fashion Brand Engagement Index®.

His company has developed research and brand positioning programs for such diverse clients as ABC Television, Ann Taylor, Sears, Best Buy, KeySpan Energy, Citibank, Press-Enterprise, Samsung, Burger King, Cablevision, First USA, Toyota, American Express, AVIS, The NFL, L’Oreal, Apple, Shell Oil, Discover Financial, Neutrogena, OfficeMax, Points of Light Foundation, The New York Times, Eventive Marketing, Hakuhodo, Sunoco, The Body Shop, Kellogg’s, Wrigley’s, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, XM Satellite Radio, and the Chrysler Corporation.   

His first book – Predicting Market Success: new ways to measure customer loyalty and engage consumers with your brand – was published by John Wiley & Sons in September 2006, and provides marketers with a 21st century perspective on predictive metrics.

In 2004 Brand Keys introduced Brand-to-Media Engagement, a 21st Century sales tool that allows advertisers to select the best medium to place advertising, before spending their money. The model is currently being adopted to provide brands with cross-media usage effects that correlate to positive, in-market consumer behavior. In 2007 the Advertising Research Foundation presented him with their Research Innovator award for this work.

 In past lives Dr. Passikoff served as VP, Director of Research for Citibank, EVP, Director of Consumer Perspectives at William Esty, and SVP, Planning Director for Cato Johnson/Y&R, where he created their worldwide “Action Marketing” paradigm. His academic credentials include a Master’s Degree in Communications Psychology from Oxford University and a Ph.D. in Psychology from New York University.

Robert’s impassioned, straight-shooting and profitability-correlated perspectives have found their way to virtually every major media outlet. In 2007 New York University’s communication school declared Dr. Passikoff “the most-quoted brand consultant in the United States.” Robert is currently a contributing editor for Brandweek and Media Daily News, a columnist for Chief Marketer and is a guest commentator for CNN’s The Biz and Market Watch.Currently he is a Guest Lecturer at Northwestern and Columbia Universities, and an Adjunct Associate Professor at New York University.

In 1991, David Polinchock used virtual reality to create Experiential Advertising™ programs for clients ranging from Avis to Cutty Sark. He was a featured speaker on the topic of creating experiences that allowed the consumer to enter and interact with a marketing message at conferences both in the US and abroad.

Previously, David was the CEO of Location Based Branding, specializing in oneline brand experiences that allowed the guests to enter and interact with brand stories. Projects included the creation of a Synthetic Interview for the Court TV Mall Tour and consultation with the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) at CMU, to commercialize ETC's proprietary experience-based technologies. He also served as the VP of Interactive Ideation for the DVC Group. As a key part of their Strategic Services team, David evaluated, recommended, and created interactive strategies in order to optimize investment of marketing and promotion initiatives.

He began his work in the new media industry in 1991, when he founded the CyberEvent Group, Inc., (CEG). CEG created Experiential Advertising™ programs and was one of the first companies in the US to work with fully immersive virtual reality.

David has over 20 years of experience in event marketing and strategic ideation. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Entertainment Technology Center at CMU and has taught courses on Experiential Branding at the NYU School of Continuing & Professional Studies Marketing and Management Institute. He also writes frequently about brand experience topics for a variety of publications, including EM and Event Marketer.

Previously, Dr. Plummer was Executive Vice President, Director of Research & Insight Development for McCann-Erickson WorldGroup. Assuming this post in 2002, he was WorldGroup's top knowledge officer with regard to insight-development methods, strategic research quality and employee training and standards. Previously at McCann WorldGroup, Dr. Plummer was Executive Vice President, Director of Brand Strategy on Global Accounts.

Prior to joining McCann-Erickson in 1997, Dr. Plummer was Vice Chairman and Worldwide Planning Director at DMB&B advertising.  Earlier, from 1995-1997, he was Vice Chairman of ASW and a Board Director of the firm from 1995-1999. Before joining ASW, Dr. Plummer held positions at Paine Webber/Young & Rubicam Ventures and Leo Burnett.

Dr. Plummer earned a B.A. from Westminster College and a master's and doctorate from Ohio State University. He was Chairman of the Research Committees for the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the American Marketing Association, and a Trustee of the Marketing Science Institute. He was also President of the Youth Guidance Board of Directors in Chicago, a past Trustee of Episcopal Charities and of Westminster College.  He is currently the editor of the Journal of Advertising Research. He has published in numerous publications, including The Journal of Advertising, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing and Journal of Marketing Research. He is on the Board of Directors of Unisunstar BV and Business for Diplomatic Action. Dr. Plummer teaches Advertising and Integrated Communications in the Columbia MBA Program.

Domenic is a Vice President and Client Partner at Avenue A | Razorfish, where he spearheads the publishing solutions practice. He has over 15 years of consulting experience building digital solutions for large scale end-to-end projects. His current clients include Hindustan Times, India’s second largest newspaper, and Condé Nast Publications, home to many award-winning magazines and websites.

Working extensively with Condé Nast’s editorial, technology and business groups, Domenic has helped the organization define, develop and implement many of their digital strategies. Most recently, he led the strategy, design and implementation phases of Flip.com, CondeNet’s first foray into user-generated content and social networking. He has also played instrumental roles in the relaunch of Concierge.com; Wired.com and other magazine websites, including those for The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Teen Vogue, Gourmet, W, Architectural Digest, Golf Digest, Golf for Women, Lucky, Allure, Domino and Cookie.

Before joining Avenue A | Razorfish, Domenic was a Senior Manager in Arthur Andersen’s business consulting division, where he led large scale enterprise solution implementations.

Domenic holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne and an M.B.A from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (R.M.I.T.).