Speakers

In 2012, we had a fantastic lineup of speakers and 2013 is going to be the same.

 

Speakers are being announced in waves. Keep checking back for more in the coming weeks.

Keynote Speakers

Gini Dietrich



Gini Dietrich is the founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich, a Chicago-based integrated marketing communication firm. She also is the founder of the professional development site for PR and marketing pros, Spin Sucks Pro, and co-author of Marketing In the Round.

Gini is the author of the PR and marketing blog Spin Sucks, which is a 2012 Cision Top 100 Blog, the 2010 and 2011 Readers Choice Blog of the Year, a Top 42 Content Marketing Blog from Junta42, a top 10 social media blog from Social Media Examiner, and an AdAge Power 150 blog. And she is co-host of Inside PR, a weekly podcast about communications, social media, and where they all meet and intersect.

Gini delivers numerous keynotes, panel discussions, coaching sessions, and workshops across North America and Europe on the subject of using online technology in communication, marketing, sales, and HR.

One of the top rated communication professionals on the social networks, Gini was recently named the number one PR person, according to Klout and TechCrunch, on the channels, and number one on Twitter, according to TweetLevel. She also can be found writing at Crain’s Chicago Businessand in various PR and marketing blogs and publications.

Danny Brown



Danny Brown is Chief Technologist at ArCompany, providing data driven business intelligence for today’s social enterprise.

He is a multiple award-winning marketer and blogger – his blog is recognized as the #1 marketing blog in the world by HubSpot, has twice been voted Top 10 Social Media Blog by Social Media Examiner, and is one of Canada’s Top 50 Marketing Blogs.

He has worked with some of the biggest organizations in technology, digital and consumer, including BlackBerry, British Telecom, Orange, Microsoft Canada, IBM, Ford Canada, FedEX, Scotiabank, Vodafone, Dell and LG Electronics.

He has spoken at TEDx, New Media Expo, Social Mix and numerous business events, and is regularly quoted in publications and news media, including Marketing Magazine, Canadian Marketing Association, Toronto Star, CTV News, Globe and Mail, Fast Company and City News Toronto on the topics of influence, social business and digital marketing.

Follow Danny on Twitter or connect with him on Facebook, LinkedIn or Google+.

Workshop Speakers

Mark Blevis


Mark Blevis was among Canada’s earliest podcasters when he launch Electric Sky in March of 2005. Shortly after, he helped bring Canadian podcasters together through a community-based podcast and conference. At one point, he produced five different podcasts. Just One More Book, a children’s book and literacy podcast he co-produced with his wife, became an important part of the children’s book industry marketing mix serving 3,000 downloads each day. He and his wife also produced a podcast covering the process of Andrea’s breast cancer treatment and the decisions their family faced.

Mark continues to produce podcasts for his work in digital public affairs. His interviews with politicians, campaign organizers and communication professionals can be found on his blog, MarkBlevis.com.

Andrew Goldenberg



Andrew Goldenberg is a web developer and business owner from Ottawa Ontario Canada and has been building web sites for over ten years.

Andrew has been building custom web solutions both from the ground up and based on WordPress for over ten years, and continues to do so with his business DigitalEH Development. He has a passion for technology, and loves connecting people and businesses with the technologies to make them successful.

Andrew also possesses experience with server administration which allows him to provide truly custom and scalable web products that deliver a fantastic user experience.

Shawn MacDonnell



As a professional ass kicker Shawn has the privilege everyday of waking up and working with some amazing people and companies all around the world.

Whether it is reorganizing a Mercedes Benz team, building a snowman lounge with a local brewery, brainstorming a
commercial with a shave company, or putting 1000 candles around Chicago for a QR hunt Shawn is always looking for new
ways to work with his clients and engage new customers.

Shawn mixes his passion for creativity, people, and social media challenging the clients he works with to design fun, interactive, and creative campaigns. All of this makes him a perfect person to help you rethink how you are using social media to engage your audience and to build a new one.

Follow along for more inspiration and advice at: www.professionalasskicker.wordpress.com

Susan Murphy



Susan Murphy has been working in media and communications for 24 years. She began her career in broadcasting at Skyline Cablevision, now Rogers TV Ottawa, producing and directing local television programs in a wide variety of genres.

Today, she’s a partner at Jester Creative Inc., where she helps people discover and tell their stories through a variety of media.

Susan is also a part time professor at Algonquin College in the Interactive Multimedia Developer program, where she teaches Video Production and Web Media.

Suze’s experience in social media is extensive. She has been blogging since 2006 at suzemuse.com, and has participated in social media actively since 2007. Susan also co-hosts I Can Haz Podcast, a weekly social media marketing show. Susan is a Director and Head of Social Media for the Cracking Up the Capital Comedy Festival.

When she’s not working and writing, Susan enjoys spending time with her family and friends both online and off, playing guitar badly while singing along fairly well, and traveling with her extremely patient husband.

Shawna Tregunna





Shawna is the founder of ReSoMe (short for Relevant Social Media!) ReSoMe is an outsourced community management and social media content design firm in Ottawa. Some of their notable clients include international award winning PlaSmart toy brands including PlasmaCar, national pastime favourite CARHA Hockey along with many others spanning startups, executive personas, associations and businesses of all sizes. She is a contributor to Social Media Today, Business2Community and has organized events like Awesome Talks Ottawa which last year hosted Scott of Unmarketing fame.

“I have been lucky enough to discover that my passions for learning, technology and meeting amazing people can all be experienced and enhanced through social media. Discovering this means I will never work another day in my life, this is all fun now!”

Tweeting professionally as part of @ReSoMe(^ST) and socially as @ShawnaActually

Anthony Wong



Anthony started out in video as an independent filmmaker. He made his first mobile videos in 2006 and showcased them at a variety of mobile video festivals around the world. With the advent of the iPhone, Anthony became a believer in the use of mobile video production and the power it can bring to in-house communications and marketing departments. Anthony is a co-founder of Do More Video Media Inc., an online video strategy and production company, and has helped clients incorporate mobile video into their live events.

Conference Speakers

Ariadni Athanassiadis

Ariadni is an intellectual property attorney advising entrepreneurs and professionals about their opportunities to make their expertise, innovations and creativity work for their businesses and the communities they serve. Drawing upon her combined experience in science, post-secondary teaching and executive management, Ariadni has directed her legal practice towards designing intellectual property solutions with clients to ensure that the context, practical realities and objectives of a professional or entrepreneurial endeavour are the drivers behind the solutions. Formerly a partner in an intellectual property boutique firm, she established Kyma Professional Corporation to focus on custom service solutions for clients and to pursue other professional interests including a consulting practice in multi-disciplinary and professional education. Ariadni is active in the local Ottawa community through the Women’s Business Network, the Ottawa Chapter for Women in Science and Engineering and the Algonquin College Marketing and Management Studies Advisory Committee.

Diane Begin



Diane Begin, MA, APR is a senior consultant at the public relations firm Thornley Fallis Communications. She has been working in communications for the past 14 years in western Canada and now in Toronto.

Diane’s expertise includes strategic planning and integration of all forms of paid, earned and owned media – from video to traditional media relations – into programs. She has also been an avid member of the digital community through involvement in initiatives like ChangeCamp, Pecha Kucha, Girl Geeks and food blogger meetups.

Her passion for social media and communications has won several local, provincial and national awards, with the Canadian Public Relations Society and International Association of Business Communicators. She is now also a curriculum developer/instructor in the Digital Strategy & Communications Management certificate program at University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies. Diane is also a grader for the national Public Relations Knowledge exam and is on the research committee of the Communications + PR Foundation.

She blogs at wheretobegin.ca and can be found on Twitter at @dibegin.

Dee Brun



Dee is an Award Winning Author, TV Personality, Resident Cocktail’ista on Steven & Chris, Celebrity Event Planner, Food & Drink Stylist, Home Entertaining Maven, writer, humorist, wife, mother of 4, TV Junkie, shoe-aholic, borderline George Clooney stalker; but, she does not juggle.

Dee is old enough to remember making “Mixed Tapes” from the radio. Her fave vacation spot is anywhere with a beach bar. And when she grows up she wants to be Betty White and marry George Clooney – IT COULD HAPPEN!

Corey Desormeaux



Corey has been a part of Ottawa Public Health’s communications team for the last 3 years contributing to various health projects including their social media program. His experience working in the municipal sphere gives him a unique perspective when engaging in the social media world, a perspective that he is eager to share with all of the fine folks at #SoCapOtt.

He is co-founder of a Blog –“Public Health and Social Media”– designed to operate as an online community hub to swap ideas and stories, share best practices, and of course celebrate successes.

Offline, Corey is co-founder of the Annual Matt LaRue Memorial Ball Hockey Tournament. Currently heading into its fifth year, the Tournament has raised a growing total of $27,000 for Diabetes research at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO). Most recently, the Tournament and CHEO have launched at the Hospital, the first endowment fund for Diabetes research in memory of Matt.

He is passionate about music and sports and loves a friendly debate on all related topics. In the community, you might find him at your local vinyl retailer or tattoo shop.

You can tweet him at: @xCoreyDx

Danielle Donders



Danielle spends her life with a camera in one hand and a computing device of some sort in the other. She has been blogging about raising a family in Ottawa for most of the last decade at danigirl.ca. She is also a portrait and freelance photographer, and her images have appeared in magazines such as Macleans, Good Housekeeping, Ottawa and Ottawa Family Living, on websites such as LonelyPlanet.com and Businessweek.com, as well as in calendars, greeting cards and promotional products. In her day job, she manages the social media channels for a big federal government department.

Jason Dykstra



Jason is the guy you call when you’re knee deep in conflict! He is a Conflict Management Specialist who specializes in relational conflict. Jason is in the business of helping brands, organizations and individuals turn conflict situations into creative solutions. He frequently speaks to audiences on how to handle conflict and crisis situations in the online space, leads workshops and conducts facilitations and mediations. But more importantly, he’s madly in love with his son and beautiful wife.

Chris Gostling



Chris is an award winning Creative Director & CEO of Momentum Visual Inc., a Toronto based strategic marketing firm. An accredited designer by trade, Over the last 13 years, Chris has branched out into Social Media Strategy & Copy Writing.

Chris & Momentum Visual have provided strategic direction for client’s such as Shoppers Drug Mart, Aeroplan, Parmalat Canada, Hain Celestial Canada, Apotex, General Mills, Canadian Tire, and RBC.

In 2009 Chris founded Small Change 4 Big Change. This charitable foundation facilitates dignified food experiences for Toronto’s at-risk and homeless youth. Beyond being an accredited graphic designer by trade, Chris is also a commissioned painter and active singer/songwriter in Toronto’s cultural community.

James Howe



James possesses a proven track record of success as a creative, innovative communications professional. As a generalist, he has developed a wide range of high quality communications expertise within a strategic framework.

Before launching Communicate & Howe! as a full service communications firm in 2010, James was Director of Communications for the YMCAs of Cambridge & Kitchener-Waterloo. Previously, he communicated for Toronto’s Daily Bread Food Bank.

James founded Social Media Breakfast: Waterloo Region which has attracted high quality speakers and large crowds since September 2010. He is especially passionate about using social media for change as part of his quest to help the social profit sector get the biggest bang for its communications buck.

Bob LeDrew



Bob has been communicating for years. Back in early 1968, he executed his first communications strategy by convincing his mother to feed him and change his diaper. That early success led to several decades of multimedia (speech and writing) communications. Since the late 1980s, people have frequently paid him for doing this. And since 2003, when Bob became Canada’s first PR blogger, people have frequently read his blatherings without paying him at all.

Bob currently runs Translucid Communications, teaches at Algonquin College and Eliquo Training and Development, and works in the folk and roots music industry.

Susan Murphy



Susan Murphy is co-founder of Jester Creative Inc., where she helps people discover and tell their stories through a variety of media. Susan has been a involved in education for most of her 20+ year career as a teacher, curriculum developer and program coordinator. In addition to providing corporate training services through Jester Creative, she is a professor at Algonquin College in the Interactive Multimedia Developer program, where she teaches Video Production and Social Media.

Susan is known at Algonquin College as being one of the first professors to successfully “flip” her classroom, similar to the approach of the Khan Academy. She also extensively uses social media in the classroom to interact and engage with her students.

Yasmin Nissim



Over the past six years, Yasmin has worked at both the provincial and federal levels of government in the access to information and privacy field. She currently works with the Privacy Information Agency, Inc., aiding them in their ongoing efforts to bring privacy accountability and compliance to the forefront of public and private institutions using practical tools, programs and policies. She also works as a Senior ATIP Analyst with a large crown corporation. Yasmin holds a Bachelor of Arts in Law and Mass Communication and a Master of Arts in Law, both from Carleton University.

As part of her Master’s thesis, Yasmin explored the consequences of allowing privacy legislation to go misunderstood and misapplied, and how this can affect the way information is shared when dealing with at-risk individuals. She continues to explore how the sharing of information can affect us in our private lives and the impact it can have on our public images. She is an avid blogger and editor with Apartment613, an award-winning Ottawa arts and culture blog, and a board member with Greyhound Supporters of the National Capital Region. She also co-hosted “Digestive Tracks”, a popular radio show on CKCU 93.1FM that ran for almost five years.

Greg Pang



Greg is a lawyer who specializes in trademark and business law, and most importantly, a part time social media evangelist. Shunning some of the traditional areas of marketing his services, Greg made extensive use of social media early on as a launching point to build his practice. He is also known to attend events like #socapott networking with some cool and interesting folks. While he does not hold himself out as a “social media lawyer”(very few lawyers really can), Greg works on a regular basis with clients who use social media as integral parts of their businesses to help them build strong legal foundations, protecting what is rightfully theirs and helping to keep them out of trouble so that they can grow and prosper.

Prior to his law career, Greg worked in the film and television industry for nearly five years on some cheesy shows and movies, some of which he has enjoyed, much to his chagrin.

Mary Pretotto





Mary Pretotto is Senior Manager, Community on the Social Media team at Rogers Communications Inc. She joined the team in October 2009 and is responsible for real time monitor of online conversations (monitoring discussions about Rogers online and engaging with customers in discussion forums, blogs and Twitter) and influencer relations (Blogger outreach program, Rogers Social Insider Programs). In 2012, Mary won the Gold Quill Merrit Award: How Rogers Communications turned Its Harshest Critics into Brand Ambassadors.

Before moving to Rogers, Mary worked at Nortel for almost ten years in various roles. Starting as a Technical Writer in Optical Networks, she moved into project management for a short time before joining the Communications team. There, she worked on both the Enterprise and Metro Ethernet Media Relations team. The experience and breadth of her activity within Nortel has provided Mary with a solid footing in issue management within a communications context.

Mary is a graduate of the Master of Journalism program at Carleton University and also holds an Honours degree in English and Creative Writing from York University. Her Master’s thesis, “Surfing the Wave of Flux: A Journey into How Conventional Media are Adapting to Meet the Demands of the New Online Medium” has been cited in various reports regarding the effect technological convergence has had on media.

Mary can be found on twitter at @marypretotto or @rogersmary.

Shannon Smith



Shannon is the founder of Café Noir Design, a boutique Montreal web design company specializing in multilingual web development. She builds beautiful, functional websites that her clients can update themselves and that are easy for search engines to find. She support things like making the web accessible for everyone, using open source software, helping organizations find greener more sustainable ways to operate through online technology and helping non-profits with online community organizing. Also sewist, foodie and mother of four.
You can find her on about.me, twitter (@cafenoirdesign), google+ or her blog.

Eden Spodek



Eden is a digital communications strategist with a unique perspective on emerging media. Client-side, agency-side and high profile blogger and community builder, she’s seen the digital world from all sides and worked with several top-tier brands.

In addition to providing strategy, training and coaching clients, Eden added curriculum developer/instructor to her role this year with the launch a Digital Strategy and Communications Management certificate program at University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies. She has also co-developed a course for Humber public relations BAA program and has been a frequent guest speaker for journalism, business and public relations classes at several Ontario universities. Eden volunteered as lead co-organizer of PodCamp Toronto for five years.

Eden is happiest helping colleagues and clients to be a little disruptive, challenging the status quo and how people think about brands. She’s outspoken about the importance of building online engagement and targeted relationships, one influencer at a time.

Sherrilynne Starkie



Sherrilynne is Vice President, Social Media & Content Marketing at Thornley Fallis Communication. For almost 20 years, Sherrilynne has been advising blue-chip organizations on both sides of the pond…covering Britain, Canada and the United States.

Sherrilynne is recognised as an expert in social media. For three years, she was the technology columnist for a British national newspaper, she was named in the top three of the UK PR Weeks’ Power Players of Social Media Index and was No.1 on ZDnet UK Tech PR list.

As Vice President at Thornley Fallis, Sherrilynne leads teams of communications professionals in delivering high-quality consulting and services to clients, including the United Association Canada, Ford of Canada, The Canadian Medical Association, the Government of Canada and the City of Ottawa.

Dennis Van Staalduinen



DenVan, or Dennis Van Staalduinen  as his parents know him – is an Ottawa storyteller for brands. He heads up local branding and social strategy firm Brandvelope Consulting. In his spare time, he’s also a dad with three kids, a performer, a community activist, and as many of you will already know, a giant nerd on social media.
In all of it, DenVan is a “clarity geek” – obsessed with simple, human ways of telling brand stories better. And there’s nothing he loves more than plunging his head into the most complicated subjects on the planet, then coming out with clear stories that are easy to understand and share.

DenVan has branded, shaped strategy, and even named dozens of companies, Web sites, and products – even a chicken sandwich for KFC and consumer chocolate and drink products for Nestle Canada. Among others, he currently advises United Way Ottawa, Industry Canada, Network RADIUS, Energy Mobile, Citizens for Safe Cycling, Guildcrest Homes, and the Wellington West Business Improvement Area – which he also co-founded.

Martin Waxman



Martin Waxman, APR, is a digital, social media and communications strategist, principal of Martin Waxman Communications, senior counselor at Thornley Fallis Communications and co-founder of three PR agencies. He has worked in communications and PR for 25 years, and specializes in social and digital media, social media training, consumer marketing, product launches, corporate and internal communications and entertainment.

He writes a blog, myPALETTE, is one of the hosts of the Inside PR podcast and can be found on Twitter @martinwaxman.

Martin developed a Certificate in Digital Strategy and Communications Management for the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies and teaches several courses there. He has been a social media instructor at McMaster University, speaks at conferences across North America and guest lectures on PR and digital communications at universities and community colleges.

Martin received his APR from the Canadian Public Relations Society. He’s past-president of CPRS Toronto, served as a member of the PRSA Counselors Academy executive committee and was its 2012 conference chair. He’s also on the advisory boards for the Humber public relations BAA program and the Humber School of Comedy.

Martin has published two books of fiction, been a standup comedy MC, film and TV writer and freelance journalist. He received an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in film, television and theatre from York University in Toronto.