SPEAKERS

Joe Conboy

Director of Product Management iTV at Cox Communications

Joe Conboy brings over 30 years of experience in the media/cable industry to his role as product management lead for iTV at Cox Communications. Prior to joining Cox, Joe worked as a Producer at WSB-TV and went on to serve as Head of Production, VP of Operations and VP of Business Development at The Weather Channel (TWC). While at TWC, Conboy built out weather news and documentary units,  evaluated opportunities to extend the TWC brand, and increased focus on iTV and VOD. Conboy also spent several years working with new media start ups, including doing business development for wireless and desktop brand-extension applications for broadcasters and a hardware and software solution to move video across IP networks. Today, Joe is working to bring value to Cox customers through new, interactive TV technologies. To-date, these applications have included TV Caller ID, Order Services, E-mail Viewer, Weather, News, Sports, Games, Horoscopes and Bill Pay. He received his B.A. in Communications from Spring Hill College.

Mick Darling 

Cofounder and CEO of TweePLayer 

Mick Darling is a serial entrepreneur, who has cofounded startups in Biotech, Retail, and Web Technologies. He is presently cofounder and CEO of TweePLayer a social media DVR that captures, curates and synchronizes social media conversation with video.  He and his team have developed TweePLayer through multiple iterations, from a very simple replay tool, to a sophisticated automatic curation tool designed to blend and display a constantly growing social media conversation.  Before that Mick helped build out the global IT infrastructure at A123, a major battery maker, as it was transitioning from startup to global company.  Mick’s previous startup, BioStrut, also won 3rd Place in Drexel University’s startup competition, and he also cofounded ‘North of the Falls,’ a retail store in Bradford, Vermont. 

Chad Eikhoff

Creative Director at  TRICK 3D

Chad Eikhoff founded TRICK 3D, a top-tier 3D animation company working on commercials, interactive and original projects for international brands and networks.  After making his debut as an executive producer with the hit movie Moving Out, he was dubbed by Atlanta magazine as one of Atlanta’s “cutting edge artists” and named “Best Atlanta Filmmaker” by The Atlanta Press.  Chad went on to co-create, produce, write and direct for the original Homestar Runner online cartoon.  He then furthered his producing experience with The Other Side, as well as Dance of the Dead, which sold to Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures and was released through Lionsgate.  Most recently, Chad just wrapped up directing, producing and writing the Stereo 3D animated Christmas special AN ELF’S STORY, based on the #1 Bestseller, “The Elf on the Shelf.”

Hillary Henderson

Director of Product at Clearleap

Hillary brings over a decade of experience in leading teams at major media companies to innovate and launch engaging, content-driven user experiences across traditional and emerging platforms. At Clearleap, Hillary leads product planning and development, focused specifically on video applications for multi-channel video programming distributors (MVPDs) on connected TVs, streaming players and mobile devices. Prior to joining Clearleap, Hillary led social media initiatives for Weather.com and The Weather Channel. Previously, she worked for Cox Enterprises as Sr. Product Manager for the newspapers’ Digital Media Group, COXnet, and won, with her team, the NAA Best Practices in New Media Award for deploying multi-platform entertainment guides and search applications. Hillary began her career as an associate acquisitions editor for Pearson Education (Addison Wesley Longman) in New York. Hillary graduated as an honors scholar in English from the University of Connecticut.

Eric Holtzclaw

Chief Executive Officer at User Insight

As CEO, Eric Holtzclaw identifies strategic service offerings and oversees operational excellence and innovation across the business. Eric’s 20+ years of experience include work for a variety of successful startup companies including GeoMedica, Information America, OneCoast and CyberSource. Eric has been responsible for the successful implementation of more than 30 consumer oriented and internal use products and services throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Saudi Arabia. Since January of this year, Eric has led the User Insight research team in the execution of the social TV research initiative, focused on understanding behaviors exhibited in users’ homes and how the social TV revolution stands to change how people watch, interact and consume TV content. Follow Eric on Twitter at @eholtzclaw.

Tino Mantella

President at the Technology Association of Georgia

Tino Mantella works with his team at TAG to maintain a prestigious board made up of 60 technology stakeholders and a membership of more than 13,000 professionals. Tino builds and maintains over 170 programs and events each year that support TAG’s vision of educating, informing and uniting the technology community. Prior to joining TAG, Tino had amassed over 20 years of related experience leading two of the nation’s most prestigious volunteer-driven organizations – National Arthritis Foundation and YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago. Tino is a member of the boards of Venture Atlanta Coalition, Inc., TAG Education Collaborative, Jacob’s Ladder and Patient Forward.

Dean McBeth

Sr. Digital Strategist at Wieden + Kennedy

David Mowrey

Director of Connected Devices at Yahoo!

During his ten years at Yahoo!, David has worked on some of the company’s largest mobile and telecom partnerships. Operating in both product and business development roles, he has delivered a broad range of products across hardware, software, and internet technologies and has patents related to companion and social TV technologies. David currently heads the Atlanta-based Connected Devices Team – focused on delivering highly engaging Yahoo! content experiences across all four screens. Prior to his current role, David managed mobile carrier and hardware distribution partnerships for Yahoo! Music. David holds a B.S. in Electrical and Biomedical Engineering from Southern Methodist University.

Kevin O’Connor

President at User Insight

As president of User Insight, Kevin O’Connor is responsible for all aspects of the company’s client relations, with a focus on helping clients transform their companies into user-centered organizations. Kevin helped grow User Insight to a firm that today provides user experience research and strategy for 300 clients, spanning 25 different industries. Since January of this year, Kevin helped spearhead User Insight’s social TV research initiative, focused on understanding behaviors exhibited in users’ homes and how the social TV revolution stands to change how people watch, interact and consume TV content. Kevin has written articles on the topics of social TV and personas for both UX Booth and UX Magazine. Follow Kevin on User Insight’s blog at www.UserInsight.com/Blog.

Dee Rambeau

Vice President of Customer Engagement at PR Newswire

As vice president of Customer Engagement, Dee Rambeau is actively involved in bridging the gap between sales and customers, leading several targeted listening and key account development programs at PR Newswire. Prior to PR Newswire, Dee was the co-founder of The Fuel Team, acquired by PR Newswire in 2009. Before founding the Fuel Team, Dee was active in multimedia and television, having spent time selling and implementing tiered sponsorship programs. He also spent 10 years working as a freelance producer. Dee Rambeau has produced over 250 hours of live sports and event programming for network and cable, and over 100 hours of documentary and science programming. Dee holds a BA in Marketing from Southern Methodist University.

Chris Snider

Sr. Product Manager at Yahoo!

Chris Snider leads TV app product design for Yahoo!’s broadband partners, including AT&T U-verse TV. His recent deployments include, Yahoo! Fantasy Sports and Flickr interactive television applications. Previously at Cox Communications, Chris worked on e-commerce and web marketing for Internet, telephone and cable television services. In 1995, he was instrumental in launching CNN.com where he extended the channel’s brand and on-air assets to the newfangled information superhighway. Chris also has experience in the video game industry and in software development at Adobe Systems. Chris holds a Master’s Degree in Communications from Georgia State University, where he focused on human computer interaction. Read his blog at www.socialtvx.com. 

Tom Thai

Marketing and Sales Strategy Lead at Bluefin Labs

Tom Thai leads marketing and business development at Bluefin Labs. He previously led marketing teams at Google and CBS Interactive. Most recently he led Strategic Development at AOL, focused on advertising formats innovation. Previously, Tom also worked at Tellme Networks. Tom received his bachelor of Computer Science from Columbia University, where he was also elected to Tau Beta Pi.

Derek Van Nostran

Vice President of Brand Strategy for The Weather Channel

As vice president of brand strategy for The Weather Channel, Derek Van Nostran leads the team responsible for all aspects of consumer marketing for The Weather Channel brand including the cable network, weather.com and industry leading mobile products and properties. Most recently, Derek led a revenue generating partnership with Twitter – The Weather Channel Social – which integrates real-time, local weather-related Tweets into The Weather Channel content on mobile, web and television. During his tenure at The Weather Channel, Eric has overseen integrated marketing initiatives on all platforms including strategic partnerships with companies including Twitter, EA Games, Disney and Major League Baseball. Derek has been involved in interactive marketing for 15 years on both the client and agency side. Active in his field, Derek is a co-founder and past president of AiMA and served as the New Media Chair for AMA-Atlanta. A graduate of the University of Vermont, Derek resides in Atlanta.

Chris Wyatt

Founder, President and CEO of Youtoo

An Internet and TV innovator with more than 19 years of experience spanning the television and internet industry, Chris Wyatt is an established entrepreneur who has founded several successful companies. Chris may be best known as the founder and former CEO of GodTube, which Newsweek described as the “Christian answer to YouTube.” Under Wyatt’s direction, the company reached a $150 million valuation making it one of the fastest growing Web sites of 2007 according to ComScore. Chris also served as a producer at CBS, developing several series including America Up Close and Premiere Impact before he went on to produce Day & Date for the network. Chris’ programs were watched by 12 million weekly viewers, broadcast in 76 countries and translated into 32 languages.

In 1999, Mr. Wyatt left Hollywood to join start-up Communities.com, where he was part of the team that created the world’s first social network. At Communities.com, he built the community into the largest social network prior to MySpace.com with over five million registered users and a valuation in excess of $2 billion. After his successful launch of GodTube, he went on to found the ComStar Media Fund, the parent company of AmericanLife Television (ALN).

Chris Wyatt is currently the Founder, President & CEO of Youtoo, the nation’s first social TV network – a combination TV network and technology company that represents a new hybrid model for the industry. Youtoo is poised to revolutionize the way that Americans watch TV by enabling people to be on TV for the first time in their lives through a simple app that allows them to upload videos of themselves which play on the TV’s of 15 million Americans.