Speakers and Advisors

Kevin Bertram - CEO, Distributive Networks

Prior to founding Distributive Networks, Kevin served as a consultant for Opera Telecom USA, as CEO of a successful e-commerce company, as Director of New Media with the Information Technology Association of America, and as the Senior Editor and Publisher of a Gen-X webzine. In 2008, Kevin was elected to the Board of Directors for United for D.C., the charitable arm of D.C. United, and he is an active member of the Mobile Marketing Association and the elite MindShare program for D.C.-area CEOs. He is a regular speaker about mobile technology at events including CTIA Wireless, the New Media Congress, DC AdWeek, the National Sports Forum, Potomac Tech Wire's Mobile Outlook 2008, MobileMonday, MoMeMo, OffDeck USA, and the Maryland Institute for Technology and the Humanities. Kevin is the founder of the annual Wiffle By the Bay tournament, an avid board game collector, and a loyal University of Arizona Wildcat.

Lila King - Senior Producer, CNN.com

Lila King is a senior producer for CNN.com. She leads the site’s user-participation efforts, including overseeing CNN’s user-generated news Web site, iReport.com. Since coming to CNN.com in 2001, King has reported and produced several multimedia stories on a wide range of topics in international news, working to integrate new technologies into storytelling presentations. King produced many of the online interactive maps and audio slideshows that distinguished CNN's Peabody Award-winning coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In 2006 King launched iReport, CNN’s highly successful citizen journalism initiative, and led the editorial development of iReport.com, the user-generated news site that launched in February 2008.Lila started her career at CNN as a webmaster, putting to use the technical skills she developed as a freelance radio producer who wanted to put her work online. She graduated from the University of Georgia with degrees in comparative literature and philosophy.

Erica Kuhl - Senior Community Manager, Salesforce.com

Erica Kuhl is the Community Manager at salesforce.com where she is responsible for creating a leading edge community environment for over a million subscribers. With her 8 year tenure at salesforce.com, she engages her passionate community with best practice content, thriving user groups, platform innovation and networking opportunities.Erica developed blogging, content and discussion boards strategies which leverage cross-functional teams to deliver the best possible content to the customer community. Erica is constantly pushing the envelope for community within salesforce.com and looking for ways to continue driving engagement with a growing customer base.

Dawn Lacallade - Community Manager, Solarwinds.com

Dawn has a passion for releasing the full value of a completely integrated community and clearly demonstrating the results. She is currently chasing this passion with the deeply integrated communities at SolarWinds, where community is one of the core tenants of business. As the Community Manager at SolarWinds, a Network Management Software company located in Austin, Texas, Dawn is responsible for the Community strategy, direct integration of Community in the SolarWinds products, growth of Community product extensions, Community engagement and implementation of all Community projects. The SolarWinds community, called thwack, has more than 25,000 members which represent many of SolarWinds’ 80,000 customers. Dawn is a repeat speaker at the Community 2.0 Conference, a founding member of the Community Roundtable, and is active in the Social Media Club and Social Media Breakfast. Before joining SolarWinds, Dawn was the Manager of Ideastorm and the Dell Community Forums. She led the evolution from the focus on support forums to a broader integrated community including the Forums, Blogs, and Ideastorm. In this role included the technology, management of the Community Liaison team, idea evaluation, and driving business action on innovation. At the time, Dell’s vibrant online community consisted of more than 20 properties with over 22 million monthly views. Dawn’s nine-year history with Dell also included management roles in the Corporate Business Group Escalation Team, Manufacturing, and Global Program Management and the Technical Support Call Centers. Dawn is a proud Aggie and holds a BS from Texas A&M University (Whoop). Currently Dawn calls Round Rock, Texas home and enjoys kayaking, jewelry design, hiking, rock hounding, pyrotechnics, breeding badgers, embarrassing her teenager and of course practical jokes.

Paul Levine - President of New Media, Current.com

Paul Levine is Current's President of New Media, leading the company's consumer engagement and monetization initiatives for online, mobile, and emerging delivery platforms. Levine brings more than a dozen years of consumer internet and online media experience to Current. Prior to joining Current, he led product, marketing, and customer operations for AdBrite, a leading online ad marketplace backed by Sequoia Capital. Previously, Levine was VP/GM of Local Services at Yahoo!, where he was responsible for the company's Local, Yellow Pages, Maps, Real Estate, and Classifieds businesses. Under his leadership, Yahoo! Local grew to reach over 20 million US unique users and became widely recognized as the industry's leading local search and content destination. Earlier, Levine held a number of management positions during 5 years at E*TRADE, where he was responsible for driving record online account growth for the company. Levine holds a BA from Amherst College and an MBA from Stanford University.

Miles Orkin - Director of Erevenue and Mobile Innovation, American Cancer Society

At the American Cancer Society, Miles directs strategy and implementation of all direct-to-constituent (non-Special Event) online fundraising for the organization. Miles also guides American Cancer Society presence and investment in emerging online tools and markets for electronic revenue. Miles has been with the American Cancer Society for over five years. Prior to joining the Society, Miles worked for over 15 years in digital and traditional media strategy, marketing and publishing at companies including San Francisco State University, IconMedialab Barcelona, ThirdAge Media, CNet, Ziff Davis, Time Inc., and Thrasher Skateboard.

Joi Podgorny - Vice President of Interactive Development, Ludorum

Joi has worked the past decade building and managing safe, online communities for kids, as well as developing and implementing strategies in the realms of digital production, integrated marketing, and youth interactive research with such companies as Nicktoons, YTV/Corus, ABC (Australia), Kraft/Post Cereals, Neopets, Sparktop, and Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Ludorum is dedicated to developing, acquiring and marketing intellectual entertainment properties, in both the new interactive distribution channels as well as classic linear TV. At Ludorum, Joi leads the integration of interactive/online strategies into Ludorum's television, publishing and toy properties.

Anil Rathi - CEO & Founder, Idea Crossing

Anil founded Idea Crossing in 2002 and has since been helping organizations design and manage their own innovation prizes and competitions. To date, the company has managed dozens of competitions using its DESIGN | PRODUCE | PLAY process and automated software platform. Anil began designing and launching his own competitions under the brand name Innovation Challenge®. Now in its 7th year with new editions launching in Brazil and China, the Innovation Challenge is an academic competition targeted at and hosted by the world's top academic institutions. Students are invited to generate groundbreaking solutions to real-world challenges posed by corporate sponsors such as Hilton Hotels, IBM, American Express, Harley-Davidson, Shell and Whirlpool and foundations like The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Other successful competitions powered by Idea Crossing include the $1.5 million Zayed Future Energy Prize for Masdar City, the world’s first carbon-neutral and zero-waste city under construction in Abu Dhabi, UAE and the Obama commended HopeLab Foundation for its work on Ruckus Nation, a $300,000 online idea contest to get kids physically active. HopeLab captured over 400 entries from 37 countries and has filed six patents based on the ideas and intends to launch the new products next year. Most recently, Idea Crossing was selected as a case study in McKinsey & Company's report on philanthropic innovation prizes and Anil has been quoted in numerous publications such as CNN Money, Business 2.0, Inc. Magazine, Chicago Tribune, MIT Innovations and books on the topic of open innovation and crowdsourcing. Anil graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a BBA and received his MBA from Thunderbird-The School of Global Management.

Bruce Smith - CSO, Answers.com

Bruce D. Smith joined Answers Corporation in July 2005 as Vice President of Strategic Development and became our Chief Strategic Officer in June 2007. In 2008 Bruce assumed the additional role of leader of the WikiAnswers Community Development Team of over twenty people. Prior to joining Answers Corporation, Mr. Smith was a Managing Director of Archery Capital, a New York based investment firm. Previously, Mr. Smith was the Senior Internet Analyst at Jefferies & Company, where he was responsible for coverage of the industry as well as individual companies. He also maintained coverage of the Internet industry at Merrill Lynch & Co prior to Jefferies. In addition, Mr. Smith was a Senior Technology Analyst at Morgan Stanley Asset Management (a division of Morgan Stanley & Co.). He has appeared on 60 Minutes, been a frequent guest on CNBC and CNN, and been widely quoted in the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times as well as numerous trade publications. Mr. Smith has a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Magna Cum Laude, from Bernard M. Baruch College of the City University of New York. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and member of the New York Society of Security Analysts.

Chris Tolles - CEO, Topix

Chris came to Topix from Spoke Software, a business social networking company, where he was a co-founder and VP of marketing. Before Spoke, Chris was a Director of Marketing at AOL/Netscape for AOL Music, Netscape Search and Directory Products. Chris was a co-founder and VP of Marketing at NewHoo, and led the sale of the company to Netscape. After the acquisition, NewHoo was relaunched as the Open Directory Project at Netscape and became the world's largest human edited directory of the web, and is still used by companies like Google, Alexa and AOL. Previous to NewHoo, Chris held a variety of sales, marketing and management positions at Sun Microsystems. Chris graduated from the University of California at San Diego with degrees in Computer Science and Economics, where he was awarded the Michael J. Addison award for his senior thesis about the online information industry.

Lucia Willow - Community Manager, Pandora.com

Lucia Willow is Pandora's Community Manager, having turned her hobby of Pandora evangelism into a job 4 years ago. From 2005 to now, Pandora radio has amassed 35 million registered listeners, primarily via word of mouth. Lucia's background is in social work and librarianship, but she welcomed the chance to get back to her true love and roots: Music. Every day she uses social media tools to interact with Pandora listeners--sharing tips and news, answering questions, and discussing music.