2010 Speakers

Teresa is a Realtor, a weekly columnist for Inman News, where she writes to the real estate industry on a wide range of topics, and is also a profuse serial blogger. She started StPaulRealEstateBlog in 2005 and is considered an early adaptor and blogging pioneer by her peers in the real estate industry. Her blog has gotten both local and national recognition, has more than 1800 posts and is her primary source of new real estate clients. She is also the author of StPaulPhotos.com and an experimental mobile blogger. Theresa was named one of the top 50 influential bloggers in the real estate industry in 2007, 2008 and 2009 by Inman News.

Christina Brown – Blogger, NorthernCheapskate.com

Christina Brown is the founder and author of northerncheapskate.com, a frugal living blog dedicated to freebies, coupons and money-saving ideas.  Christina writes from the woods of northern Minnesota, where she clips coupons, pinches pennies, and chases three little boys as a stay-at-home mom.

Ray Champagne – Senior Web Developer, Dolan Media Company

Ray is a web developer by trade, with over 12 years experience coding web sites, content management systems, credit card gateways, and many other custom applications with ColdFusion and PHP.  After toiling away helping to maintain a custom ColdFusion-based CMS for The Dolan Company, he helped lead the charge to use a more robust, open source tool to create and maintain the company’s 25+ newspaper and editorial web sites. WordPress MU was chosen as that tool in 2008, and Ray has been coding widgets, plugins, and custom themes since.  When he is not behind a computer, Ray likes to travel with his wife Lori, play ball with his dog Libby, and yell/cheer at whatever sporting event is on TV.

Toby Cryns - WordPress Website Designer and Developer

The web has changed a lot since Toby began design­ing and build­ing web­sites in the pre-WYSIWYG days of Geocities, but his ded­i­ca­tion to cre­at­ing beau­ti­ful online expe­ri­ences has remained steady. Combining for­mi­da­ble CSS, Flash, HTML, JavaScript, PHP  and MySQL skills with a proven design and devel­op­ment process, Toby helps clients make the most of the Internet. He co-founded the Minneapolis-St. Paul WordPress User Group, and is an avid blog­ger. He is the author of the Simple Pull Quote WordPress plugin, The Mighty Moo! WordPress theme and is a singer-songwriter.

Tim Elliot – New Media Entrepreneur & Conversational Marketing Strategist

Tim Elliott is a marketer, blogger, podcaster and entrepreneur based in the Twin Cities. After a 20 year career in technology marketing, Tim founded Acan Media in 2006 to help wineries and technology companies integrate social marketing into their business. He also created Winecast, the first wine podcast, in 2004.

Jen Emmert - Owner/Author of A Prior Fat Girl

Jen Emmert is the owner and lead author of the blog Prior Fat Girl, which she started to document her own health filled journey of losing 100 lbs while dealing with both life’s triumph and tragedy. Jen’s story and PriorFatGirl.com has been featured in Shape Magazine, on WCCO, Star Tribune, aol.com and other media outlets. This popular blog inspires others to live a healthier life around the world.

David Erickson – Director of e-Strategy, Tunheim Partners

By day, David Erickson is the director of e-Strategy at Tunheim Partners, a strategic communications company based in Bloomington, Minnesota. In between, David blogs. He began publishing online in 1995 with a website covering Minnesota politics and ten years later, he started blogging. He now has six blogs (e-Strategy, Twin Cities, Minnesota; Photogralicio.us; Videolicious.tv; Audiolicious.tv; and most recently, Minnesota Vikings Chat), two Posterous blogs (David Erickson & e-Strategy After Hours); and he’s active on Twitter @derickson.

 

Jamie Guse – Website Manager, American Dairy Queen

Jamie Guse has been the Web Site Manager for American Dairy Queen Corporation (ADQ) since 2008. Guse currently manages all of ADQ’s digital initiatives including the company’s successful entrance into the world of social media.

Guse has been working in digital marketing since 1999 getting his start with Digital River and working for other large companies including American Express, The Lacek Group (division of OgilvyOne Worldwide) and the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Guse currently resides in Elk River, Minnesota and enjoys spending time with his wife of 10 years and three children. He also enjoys traveling to Disney World in Orlando, Florida and downhill skiing.

Bonnie Harris - Founder Wax Marketing, Inc.

Bonnie Harris is the founder of Wax Marketing, Inc. a marketing and publicrelations firm established in 2002 that focuses on integrated communications strategies including social media. Bonnie is a seasoned marketing and sales executive, with nearly twenty years experience promoting and marketing services and products. Bonnie has managed public relations for many outlets including online, radio and traditional media for several book campaigns including the New York Times bestselling The Blue Zones and Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth. Bonnie has worked with many publishers including Random House, National Geographic, Wiley, Conari, Workman Publishing and iUniverse.

Kate Hopper - Teacher – Creative Writing Online

Kate Hopper teaches creative writing online as well as at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. She has been the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship and a Minnesota State Arts Board Grant. Her writing has appeared in a number of journals and magazines, including Brevity, Literary Mama, Mamazine and The New York Times online. She is working on two books currently nambed Ready for Air, a memoir about learning to live with uncertainty in the wake of her daughter’s premature birth; and Mother Words: A Writing Guide for Mothers. She writes about reading, writing, teaching and motherhood on her blog, Mother Words: Mothers Who Write. Kate lives in Minneapolis with her husband and two daughters.

Kevin Hunt – Editor

Kevin Hunt is the editor of Legal Current, the corporate blog for Thomson Reuters, Legal, based in Eagan, Minnesota. He oversees content creation and strategy for many of the company’s social media channels. In his role in corporate communications at Thomson Reuters, Hunt also produces multimedia and supports public relations on behalf of the corporation’s major global businesses and brands in the legal industry. Before joining Thomson Reuters, he spent 12 years as a reporter, producer and executive producer in television news, including 10 years at KSTP-TV.

Eric Johnson – Web Consultant/Designer

Eric Johnson is a web consultant and designer for businesses large and small. There’s nothing he enjoys more than delighting his clients by building clean, functional designs using the latest technology. Eric lives in Minneapolis, MN
and has resided in the Twin Cities for almost ten years. However, he grew up in Beloit, WI, which makes him a die-hard Badgers fan! Eric has worked professionally in design, project management and technology repair. He started consulting in 2009 and is really enjoying it.

In his spare time Eric enjoys riding his motorcycle in the parkways, coding in the local coffee shops and catching the latest flicks at the local theater.

Heather King - Blogger/Writer

Heather King blogs at The Extraordinary Ordinary or The EO and is a Minnesotan, born and raised. She recently morphed from city mouse to country mouse, along with her family, one husband, two small boys, a dog and a sea monkey.  Heather’s blogging has played a key role in unlocking some very tightly closed doors, including a breakthrough that led her to quit drinking and inspire others to do the same. Blogging has also launched her dream of writing a book into reality; she is working on her manuscript after having acquired a literary agent who discovered Heather’s writing through her blog. Heather is a contributing writer for Mama Manifesto and has been seen several times on Blog Nosh Magazine and Five Star Friday. She is a founder of the popular Midwest women’s blogging event Cupcake and the Serenity Suite at BlogHer ’10. Heather is also very active on Twitter @heatheroftheEO.

Aaron Landry - Producer, The Heavy Table

Aaron is an online media consultant, media hound, and prolific blogger. He works with numerous organizations, non-profits, political groups and large firms on engaging audiences online. While producing the online food magazine Heavy Table, he’s also a Senior Correspondent with MNpublius and has his fingers in numerous other online projects. On the side, Aaron is an amateur photographer, private pilot and pianist. He loves pizza, cheeses, and almost anything he can drink. His personal blog is s4xton.com.

James Lileks – Columnist, StarTribune

James Lileks is a columnist for the StarTribune,  as well as a member of the multimedia department. He’s been writing the blog “The Bleat” since 640 X 480 screen resolutions were the next big thing, and people stored work on “floppy drives.” He also writes “Lint,” a tumblr blog that highlights peculiar pieces of pop culture, and writes the PopCrush blog for the StarTribune. His website, lileks.com, has been featured by a number of news organizations suffering a slow week, and he’s spun off four books from the site’s “Institute of Official Cheer.”

Matt Logelin – Blogger/Author

In 27 hours, Matt Logelin felt the joy of fatherhood and the crushing loss of his lifelong love. Matt captured the hearts of hundreds of thousands as he poured out his grief over the loss of his wife and his new life as a single dad with baby Madeline on his blog. In 2009, he established The Liz Logelin Foundation to assist families who find themselves in the heartbreaking, catastrophic situation of having lost a spouse, life-partner and parent. Currently, Matt is writing a memoir titled Two Kisses for Maddy (due in April 2011 from Grand Central Publishers), and is a doting father to two-year-old Madeline. Originally from Minnetonka, MN, Matt and Madeline reside in Los Angeles, California.

Nancy Lyons – Co-Founder of Geek Girls Guide

Nancy’s fascination with technology and all things geek started in the late ’80s, right around the time when some of her staff members were transitioning out of diapers.  In the early ’90s she joined the cast of Bitstream Underground and as its president helped shape the local technology landscape.  As President and CEO of Clockwork Active Media Systems, Nancy is surrounded by brilliant teachers and technologists and enjoys the daily challenges of making web technology simple and accessible for a wide variety of audiences.

Nancy has been blogging or writing for the web personally and professionally since 2001.  She can occasionally be found performing spoken word or stand-up comedy at various venues around the twin cities.

 

Erica Mauter - Engineer

Erica Mauter is an engineer, arts lover, and web nerd. She works in validation at a local pharmaceutical company. She’s a season ticket holder for the Minnesota Lynx and sings in the Twin Cities Women’s Choir. She serves on the boards of the Twin Cities Women’s Choir and the Minnesota Fringe Festival and on the Midwest Advisory Council for Family Equality Council. Erica has been blogging since 2002 and has been an active participant in the Twin Cities blogging community since 2005. In addition to her personal blog swirlspice.com, she publishes fresh.mn on the topic of Twin Cities life, cinna.mn on minority experiences in Minnesota, and a mailing list for items of interest to queer women of color.

Ryan May – Principal and Editor in Chief, Minnesota Public Relations Blog

With more than a decade’s worth of communications experience, Ryan has a diverse background having worked agency, corporate, newspaper, and radio public relations, as well as at the University of Minnesota.

Ryan started blogging with the Minnesota Public Relations Blog in February of 2003. When it launched it was the sixth PR blog in the world. In the past seven years Ryan has become the go-to authority for news, events and jobs in Minnesota public relations.

Ryan earned his Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Minnesota and a Master of Business Administration from Augsburg College.

Sally McGraw - Freelance Writer

Sally McGraw is a Minneapolis-based blogger, freelance writer and communications professional who holds a degree in creative writing from Binghamton University. In addition to writing her daily style and body image blog Already Pretty, she has blogged for Glamour and been published in US Airways’ in-flight magazine. She has also guest posted everywhere from The Coveted and You Look Fab to Work it, Mom!, Gertie’s New Blog for Better Sewing, and Academichic. Sally is an ongoing contributor to Channel 12′s Money Savers segment, has been interviewed on the popular talk radio program the Lori & Julia Show and has given guest lectures at the University of Minnesota. Sally is the creator of Shop Local Shops and is also available for personal shopping and style consultation services – both in person for clients living in the Twin Cities and via e-mail for clients worldwide.

Julio Ojeda-Zapata, ojezap.com

Julio has been on the front lines of the Internet and technology revolutions as a columnist, editor and award-winning writer for more than a decade. He covers consumer technology and social media for the St. Paul Pioneer Press (a MediaNews Group paper), where he writes a weekly Tech Test Drive column and maintains his Your Tech Weblog. He is the author of “Twitter Means Business,” a social-media guide for companies, and is working on a similar volume focused on Apple’s iPad. He is a hopeless nerd, with the blog to prove it (jojeda.posterous.com). He is a native of Quito, Ecuador, but considers himself equal parts Puerto Rican and Minnesotan (he is happiest hereabouts when the summertime air is so humid it becomes swimmable). He lives in St. Paul with his wife, son and Pepita, a hopelessly spoiled guinea pig.

Allison Olfelt – Blogger, O My Family

Allison Olfelt has been blogging in some form since 2005 when she created a MySpace page, but she would rather not talk about that season of her life (and please don’t google it). A graduate of Illinois’s Wheaton College, today she writes at O My Family which is an honest, tell-it-like-it-is blog coming straight from the trenches of brand new motherhood. In 2009, she opened up her site to advertisers, which include retailers, Etsians, cloth diaper companies and artists. O My Family was a finalists for the 2010 BlogLuxe Awards presented by Avery and SocialLuxe. Her site was also the winner of the reader nominated and selected 2009 Divine Caroline Love! This Parenting Site Award. A new Minnesotan, Allison and her family are learning to love drawn out vowel sounds, various foods on a stick, and -30 degree winters.

Carrie Pauly – Photographer/Book Designer

Carrie Pauly is both a photographer and book designer who enjoys working with her husband as a park caretaker in the state of Minnesota. Her love for blogging began on the eve of her 30th birthday, almost four years ago, when she decided to write about raising her kids at a campground. Her blog, MamaBear at 4 The Love of Family, has grown to hold over 1,600 posts. Shortly after Carrie got her start blogging she realized that it had replaced the photo albums she used to make, but only having her families memories on a computer wasn’t good enough. So, using a software program from her photography business, Carrie began transferring blog posts into hardcover books. Now clients from around the world seek out the modern eye catching designs from Your Blog to Book that Carrie has designed.

Jeff Pesek – Co-Founder of TECHdotMN

Jeff Pesek is Co-founder of TECHdotMN, a community-powered Minnesota high tech news website.

 

 

 

Patrick Rhone - Writer/Commentator/Technology Consultant

Patrick Rhone is a Writer, Commentator, and Technology Consultant for the past 20 years.  He is the proprietor of Machine Methods – a firm that assists individuals and micro-businesses get the best out of technology. Through his online work, he creates and curates a mixture of media, on a variety of topics, and attempts to deliver it in ways that are both topical and rational. His work can be found at Minimal Mac, Practical Opacity, The Random Post, A Better Freelancer, and his own PatrickRhone.com. Patrick is based in Saint Paul, MN.

Carrie Rocha – Blogger

Carrie Rocha got her family out of $50,000 in debt in two and a half years. In March 2009 she launched PocketYourDollars.com and began teaching others to do the same. Her amazing story and personal finance tips have been featured on Wall Street Journal Radio, Yahoo! Finance and in fall 2010 she’ll be in Redbook, Woman’s Day, and Kiplinger Personal Finance magazines. Locally, she’s a regular guest on KARE 11, KSTP 5, FOX 9 and KTIS 98.5 FM. She, her husband, Marco, and their two girls dream of living in Brazil one day.

Tony Saucier - Associate PR Account Director, OLSON

With more than 11 years experience in storytelling—through both consumer marketing and hard news reporting—Tony helps guide social engagement efforts and off-line activations for brands that include Capital One, Country Inns & Suites, and the Minnesota State Lottery. True to the OLSON approach of building communities first, Tony maintains a strong focus on engaging brand communities to create deeper, more relevant connections.

Outside of work, Tony authors a do-it-yourself home improvement blog (http://www.PoundedThumb.net), where he shares reviews of new hand tools, power tools and interviews with industry resources. His reviews are informed by all manners of DIY experience; from hanging sheetrock to laying ceramic tile to re-wiring his basement.

Adam Singer - Account Manager, TopRank Online Marketing

Adam Singer is an Account Manager at TopRank Online Marketing, where he provides online marketing and PR strategy for top B2B and B2C brands in industries ranging from marketing to healthcare to technology. Singer contributes to TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog, with over 37,000 subscribers that is ranked by Advertising Age and Technorati as one of the top Business & Marketing blogs online. He also writes The Future Buzz blog that has fast become a favorite of the digital marketing community.

Singer and his campaigns have been cited by top media outlets such as PRWeek, Entrepreneur Magazine, Techdirt and Mashable for creative use of digital marketing and PR.  He is also a frequent marketing industry speaker at events including Leading Real Estate Companies of the World annual conference, Webmaster World’s PubCon, Search Engine Strategies and Integrated Marketing Summit.

Molly Snyder – Blogger, TheSnyder5.com

Molly is a full-time working mom busy managing life, a career and along with her husband, three active boys. She has worked in marketing and public relations for 15 years, in retail, consulting, health care and at national agencies. Her blog TheSnyder5.com, started in 2007 as a way to document the lives of her family as well as their efforts to laugh at life and at themselves. Today she writes about family, clutter and home organization, marketing, living green and being a working mom who tries to focus on what matters most. As a blogger, she has worked with national brands including ConAgra, Betty Crocker, Healthy Choice, General Mills, Royal Holiday and Sears.

Greg Swan – Digital Strategy Director – Weber Shandwick, Managing Editor – PerfectPorridge.com

Greg holds more than 10 years of experience with marketing, the Internet, social media, emerging media and determining how specific audiences interact online.

At Weber Shandwick Greg oversee’s the U.S. Army’s social marketing efforts, including pioneering instant messaging, mobile programs and the launch of the Army’s first-ever Soldier blog. He has helped clients, such as The Coca-Cola Company, Snickers, Army, Verizon and Chevrolet take the big leap into the social mediasphere to influence consumer behavior online and create authentic engagement. This has put his own experience as a blogger and new media trend junkie to good use.

Greg manages an AllTop.com accredited music blog, PerfectPorridge.com and recently presented on “The State of Music Blogs in 2010” at South by Southwest Interactive. As an active member of the local Twin Cities social marketing scene Greg is always looking for ways to take a more active role in defining and shaping the fields of public relations, social media, advertising and marketing.