It’s time we got back to the heart of marketing

Meghan Keaney Anderson is a writer and marketing executive with twenty years of experience at the intersection of brand, product marketing and demand generation. She currently runs Marketing for Jasper, an AI platform that helps companies create on-brand AI content anywhere. Prior to Jasper, Meghan was in executive marketing roles at HubSpot and The Wanderlust Group. She helped HubSpot grow from a start-up to a publicly traded global company over the course of 10 years. Outside of work, Meghan serves on the board of directors of FamilyAid, an organization working to prevent homelessness for thousands of families in Boston.   

Colin oversees Salesforce’s Global Brand, Creative, Content, and Customer Insights efforts. He previously served there as Chief Creative Officer, Head of Industry Marketing, and Corporate Messaging, and has held Product and Marketing leadership roles with EventPro, Red Bull, and eSoles.

He has considerable experience in the High-Tech sector in both Software & Services and Manufacturing; as well as in the Automotive and Motorsports field. Colin is a former professional race car driver who has competed in over 20 countries, and was a Formula 1 test driver for Red Bull Racing.

He works closely with the Wings for Life Foundation, a non-profit organization for spinal cord research.

Colin holds a BA in Marketing from San Francisco State University.

Megan joined Google in April 2019, and serves as the Global Events Strategist. She partners across Google to understand how events drive business, build communities and promote cultural continuity, informing strategy for a global team of amazing design and event professionals. She leads an internal/external innovation effort called the Google Experience Institute, focused on the futures of human-centered, multi-modal experience design.

Julius Solaris is regarded as the most influential person in the event industry. He is the founder of Boldpush a management consultancy agency for the event industry. He founded EventMB (exit to Skift in 2019) and Showthemes, exit in 2018. He has worked for high-profile technology companies (Swapcard and Hopin) and tech events. Julius has been named one of the most influential individuals in the meetings industry by many magazines and media for the past 10 years. More recently he has been a Meetings Industry Influencer 2022 by Meetings and Conventions magazine. Julius has conducted some of the most groundbreaking research for the event industry. Over 3,000 events reviewed and 15,000 event professionals interviewed. Julius’ analysis and reports have been downloaded by over 300,000 event professionals. 300,000 more read EventMB every month and over 50,000 event professionals attended Julius’ events. Julius has been keynote for events in 13 countries and for over 200,000 attendees.

Bob Bejan is Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President: Global Events, Studios and Marketing Community, responsible for the development, production and execution of global events and experiential marketing. For the last 18 months, Bob and the team have transformed from a global live events organization into an interactive television network, broadcasting globally. Named the 2021 PCMA Business Events Strategist of the Year, he is responsible for the Microsoft Production Studios delivering programming and training around the world. For 30 years, Bob has consistently landed senior level positions in a variety of industries and mediums, including: Writer/Composer/Co-Producer of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Albums and Tour, Inventor/Co-Founder of Interfilm (The world’s first interactive movie/game), Founding Executive Creative and Production: Warner Bros. Interactive, Founding Executive Producer; The Microsoft Network, Founding Executive; Microsoft Advertising. Bob received his BA in Theater from the University of the Pacific.

Angie is a connector of ideas, a catalyst for conversations and a designer of experiential moments. Angie has been suiting up for the win in her Marketing armor for 20+ years and as a pioneer in the digital event space, a culture builder of high performing teams and is an admitted constant student of life. Passionate about cultivating connections through experiential programs, Angie counts herself lucky to be working in a Marketer’s Shangri-La! Atlassian is a company with great products, a fantastic reputation in technology, a vibrant giving culture and has a high tolerance for experimentation. Working for a company that builds products with the mission to “unleash the potential in every team”, Angie thrives in an environment that feeds her desire to pioneer and experiment new innovative event experiences that drive meaningful results.

Meet Melissa – the event superstar! With a winning smile and a proven track record, Melissa has taken the world of events by storm. For over ten years, she’s worked tirelessly to grow her career at SAP, where she now focuses on leading the global event strategy for SAP SuccessFactors. Her passion for events is contagious – try talking to her without catching the bug! From the nitty-gritty details to the big picture planning, Melissa knows precisely what it takes to create an unforgettable event. Furthermore, her passion for team building and human behavior is unmatched. She endeavors to make a positive impact on her team members and is a strong proponent of mental health awareness in the event industry.

Huong is the CEO and founder of Shiloh Events, a full-service agency that specializes in managing large-scale corporate events for global brands. With an MBA in marketing and over 15 years of experience in the events industry, she has a proven track record of delivering captivating experiences that enhance brand awareness, engagement, and loyalty.

As the leader of a dedicated team of event professionals, Huong oversees all aspects of event planning, execution, and evaluation, ensuring high-quality results and client satisfaction. She also leverages her expertise in digital marketing and community relations to amplify the impact of events through social media, content creation, and influencer outreach. Huong’s passion for events stems from her belief that they are powerful tools for storytelling, connection, and innovation.

Yadin Porter de León leads the global Executive Content Marketing effort at VMware. He is the recipient of the Content Marketing award for the flagship CIO Exchange platform as well as a Webby award for the CIO Exchange podcast. He works with CIOs around the world from Fortune 500 companies as well as startup entrepreneurs and thought leaders to create content and experience to provide critical insights to executives to help them make complex technology decisions so that they can grow their businesses.

For nearly 15 years, he’s been leading teams and helping to drive content marketing strategy and programs with some of the top companies such as Google Cloud, Intel, Juniper Networks, and HPE.

Ryan Howard is co-lead of Google Experience Institute, a Google-led initiative that includes external partnerships focused on researching, developing, and advocating for better event and experience futures. In his primary technology role, he leads event technology solutions tailored to the enterprise environment, including an range of innovative strategies that span design frameworks, analytic frameworks, platforms, and wearables. Before joining Google, he worked on similar initiatives at Goldman Sachs and across the broadcast, experiential, and audiovisual industries.

Clara Galán leads product marketing for Adobe Live, a creative livestreaming platform on behance. Clara has been at Adobe for the past five years, and previously managed global educator community programs. Prior to Adobe, Clara focused on marketing and building communities for Amazon (Kindle), Remind.com, and The George Lucas Educational Foundation (Edutopia). Before transitioning into the technology sector, Clara began her career as a K12 educator in the San Francisco Bay area teaching English Language Arts and World Languages. Clara currently lives in Barcelona, Spain and enjoys learning about technologies to improve education and build learning communities.  

Josh Shepherd is a tech visionary with over two-decades of experience, known for work at Atlassian, Microsoft, Dell, and Salesforce. He’s the Head of Event Technology and Innovation at Atlassian, integrating event technology and marketing, experiential elements, data analytics, and AI for groundbreaking solutions. His maxim? Collaboratively challenge conventions then redefine the benchmarks. 

Shuchi Sarkar is a highly accomplished Global Marketing Executive with over 25 years of experience in building, scaling, and transforming Fortune 500 and Start-up brands. With a visionary approach and extensive international leadership experience, Shuchi has consistently led diverse teams to drive market share dominance. She excels in guiding cross-functional teams of over 150 employees, delivering award-winning campaigns, and managing enterprise-level budgets exceeding $180 million. Notably, Shuchi played a pivotal role in successfully transforming a biotech start-up in a resource-constrained, fast-growth environment. Her expertise, innovation, and commitment to excellence continue to elevate brands on a global scale.

Michelle Moore is a brand strategist who guides VMware’s brand expression across all marketing channels. Since joining VMware’s Marketing AI Council in February, she has advanced the safe and effective use of genAI at VMware—creating usage guidelines and educational resources for thousands of employees. Her current focus is training AI tools and users to generate high-quality, on-brand marketing content.

Prior to her work at VMware, Michelle managed an editorial team at Cisco responsible for shaping and governing Cisco.com content for all business units. Michelle lives in Santa Cruz, CA with her husband and two teens. When she’s not driving her kids around, you’ll find her at the beach, in the redwoods, or absorbed in a good book.

Ruben Hassid is bridging the gap between people and AI. After reaching +60M people online in less than a year, he was ranked the 2nd fastest growing account on Linkedin. From videos, to courses, to conferences — he’s making sure everyone hops on the AI train. 

Kieran Flanagan has a proven track record in helping scale-up businesses, from start-ups to enterprise-level, grow their traffic, users, and revenue. Kieran currently works as the CMO for Zapier, responsible for marketing and the self-serve business. 

Before that, he was the SVP of Marketing at HubSpot, where he helped the business grow internationally, move to a product-led business, quadrupled its marketing demand, and built out its media team, including the acquisition of ‘The Hustle.’ 

He is also an advisor and investor in early-stage companies and hosts the popular business podcast – Marketing Against the Grain. 

Jessica Hreha is an action-oriented marketing leader passionate about content strategy and the intersection of marketing and technology. She currently serves as the Head of Global Integrated Campaigns & Content Strategy at VMware. In early 2023, she founded VMware’s Marketing AI Council, a cross-functional team dedicated to educating and empowering VMware marketers to use genAI tools responsibly and effectively to drive innovation and operational excellence.

Before joining VMware, Hreha was Vice President of Marketing at FiberLight, a provider of high-capacity fiber-optic network solutions where she led strategic shifts in PR, messaging, and content as well as digital, web, and other martech optimizations to drive traffic and revenue. During her tenure at Spectrum Enterprise (formerly Time Warner Cable Business Class), she gained valuable experience in various roles including content strategy, field marketing, vertical marketing, product marketing, and sales.

Outside of her professional life, Hreha is passionate about building community and empowering women with board service supporting two nearby YMCA Camps and a national women’s fitness organization, FiA (Females in Action).

Jaime is the VP and CMO for Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. She has 18 years of experience in higher education, serving in marketing and PR roles at several universities. She participated in university rebranding projects, website redesigns, and in the development of integrated marketing communications models.

Throughout her career, Jaime has volunteered for organizations such as the American Marketing Association and HighEdWeb. She’s a regular conference speaker on a wide range of marketing communications topics. Her work has earned nearly 40 industry awards.

Jaime holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from UMN and a master’s degree in integrated marketing communications from WVU.

Lenny Talarico, an accomplished industry executive. After a 20+ year career with both MGM Resorts & Caesars Entertainment he founded his own company in 2019. He is known for his expertise in producing award winning corporate events, resort openings, galas and celebrity launches.  He’s been involved in industry leadership through his work with TISOH, The International School of Hospitality and is a recipient of a Gala Award for Lifetime Achievement in the field of event production.

Kipp Bodnar is the Chief Marketing Officer of HubSpot, the #1 CRM platform for scaling companies, where he sets HubSpot’s global marketing strategy to drive awareness and demand for HubSpot’s products.

Prior to his role as CMO, Kipp served as Vice President of Marketing at HubSpot, overseeing all demand generation activity worldwide, building out the EMEA and APAC marketing teams, and managing HubSpot’s field marketing, localization, strategic partnerships, and social media efforts.

Kipp serves as a marketing advisor for SaaS companies including SimplyMeasured, InsightSquared and Guidebook. He is also the co-author of “The B2B Social Media Book: Become a Marketing Superstar by Generating Leads with Blogging, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Email, and More.” Kipp is an industry-leading speaker and blogger and holds a BA in Journalism from Marshall University.

Jessica Federer is a board member, big pharma executive, managing director, and investor adept at deploying technology to make meaningful advancements for both business and society. She serves on the boards of Sage Therapeutics, Pluto Health, and Angelini Ventures. She was one of the first Chief Digital Officers for the life sciences industry, leading the global digital transformation for Bayer A.G. across the Pharmaceutical, Consumer Care, Crop Science and Animal Health businesses. Her data-focused career includes regulatory, market access, record-breaking product launches and enterprise readiness. Upon leaving Bayer, Jessica returned to the US and advised both Fortune Global 100 companies and industry disrupting start-ups on digital innovation across the life sciences continuum, including drug discovery, clinical development, decentralized research and care, reg-tech, real world data, digital biomarkers, digital therapeutics, data integration and analytics, marketing, market access, and business strategy. During the pandemic, she joined Europe’s fastest growing digital health company, Huma, as Managing Director / US CEO, establishing a U.S. team and expanding into decentralized clinical trials for international Covid-19 vaccine studies. Jessica was a Partner at a Boston based venture capital firm and raised a women’s health fund. Jessica is recognized as a 2023 “Icon” by Rock Health, one of the top 100 CDOs, and a leading health tech influencer. She serves on the Yale Ventures Blavatnik board and the Yale IRB, and previously was on the United Nations ITU advisory board, and the BHP Technology Advisory Board. Federer began her public health career as an analyst at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in the US Department of Health and Human Services. She earned a Bachelor of Science from the George Washington University, and a Master of Public Health from Yale. 

Paul Roetzer is founder and CEO of Marketing AI Institute; co-author of Marketing Artificial Intelligence: AI, Marketing and the Future of Business; host of The Marketing AI Show podcast; and creator of the Marketing AI Conference (MAICON). As a speaker, Roetzer is focused on making AI approachable and actionable for marketers and business leaders. A graduate of Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, Roetzer has consulted for hundreds of organizations, from startups to Fortune 500 companies. Previously he was founder and CEO of PR 20/20, a digital marketing agency that he sold in 2021.