Gary Vaynerchuk
Gary Vaynerchuk, self-trained wine expert, is revolutionizing the wine industry. His blog, Wine Library TV (affectionately known as The Thunder Show), boasts a cult-like following resulting from his enthusiastic, unconventional, and often irreverent wine commentary.
Adriana Gascoigne
Adriana is the Director of Corporate Communications for hi5. Launched in 2003, hi5 is now one of the world’s largest social networks - ranked as a top 20 website globally and the #1 social network in 31 countries across Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. In March 2007, Adriana launched Girls in Tech, an organization focused on touting women’s achievements in tech and beyond.
Jason Fried
Jason is the president and founder of 37signals, a Web interface design and usability consultancy based in Chicago. He spearheaded the concepting, design, and development of Basecamp, 37signal’s web-based project management tool for designers, freelancers, and creative services firms.
Micah Baldwin
Micah is VP and Chief Evangelist for Lijit Networks, a Boulder, CO startup, provides publishers a robust search and stats tool. Lijit is Micah’s sixth startup, (having sold his last startup, Current Wisdom, in the beginning of 2007). A frequent speaker, you can read more about Micah’s philosophy of success through failure at his blog, Learn To Duck.
Jeffrey Kalmikoff
Jeffrey is your average 29-year-old tattooed metal-head with an eye for design and nose for tomfoolery. The focus of his work as chief creative officer for the Chicago-based, community-business-centric skinnyCorp who is best known for their multi-million dollar tee shirt business Threadless.
Micah Laaker
Micah leads User Experience for the Yahoo! Open Strategy, working to allow developers and publishers to build inside of the network and expand Yahoo! content off-network. His work includes My Yahoo!, the ACLU pizza film, an MF Doom music video, 2 technical mauals, Tall Tales illustrations, the SVG-powered BattleBots site, and hip-hop powerhouse music label DefJam.com.
Matt Mullenweg
Matt is the founding developer of the popular open-source blogging software WordPress and writes a popular blog Photo Matt. After quitting his job at CNET, he has devoted the majority of his time to developing a number of open source projects and is a frequent speaker at conferences. In late 2005, he founded Automattic, the business behind WordPress.com and Akismet.
Ben Rattray
Ben is the founder and CEO of Change.org, a social network for nonprofits, political campaigns, and engaged citizens around the world. He’s also a frequent speaker about how organizations and activists can use the social web to advance social change and is a graduate of Stanford and the London School of Economics.
Shira Lazar (Host & MC)
Shira has has worked for companies such as Yahoo!, AOL, Movies.com, Hollywood.com, and Verizon. Recently, she has been the host & moderator for several tech conferences including Twiistup, Digital Family Reunion and Girls in Tech.
