Jack Aaronson	Pinny Gniwisch	Rich Ruggerio
Joe Barrett	Carrie Johnson	Lynn Stetson
Jason Billingsley	Jon Kubo	Colleen Stokes
Brian Bradley	Robert Lane	Sarah Veit
Georgia Christensen	Janis Lanka	Scott Wilson
Katherine Crane	Chris McCann	Paul Zaengle
Bryan Eisenberg	Ken Mowry
Lauren Freedman	Elizabeth Peaslee
Greg Giraudi	Nizzi Renaud

CEO, The Aaronson Group

Jack Aaronson is the CEO of The Aaronson Group. The Aaronson Group focuses on customer conversion, retention and loyalty for both single and multi-channel companies. As a corporate lecturer, Jack travels around teaching best practices in user experience, personalization, loyalty programs and multi-channel marketing. Jack writes the ROI Marketing column for ClickZ.com, as well as his own newsletter. He has appeared as a subject-matter expert on CBS Sunday Morning News (for a segment on loyalty programs), and has been interviewed by every major trade publication as well as the New York Times and Chicago Tribune. The Aaronson Group's clients include a who's-who of online brands and multi-channel companies, including one of the country’s largest sportswear brands, Yves Saint Laurent, Marriott, SkyMall, Fingerhut, Peet’s Coffee and Tea, Hello Direct, ShopNBC, AirTran, Merrill Lynch, American Airlines and more.

Tuesday, July 13: 1:15p - 2:15p
When Is It Time to Redesign?

and DOCTOR IS IN expert

CEO, Sandbox Studio

Joe Barrett is the CEO of Sandbox Studio, an industry-leading resource for the production of photography, videography and interactive content, with studios in New York, San Francisco and Portland (Oregon) that support a national scope of operations.

Prior to joining Sandbox, Mr. Barrett held Chief Officer positions at companies ranging from privately held, venture funded organizations to publicly-listed multinational corporations, including SynchroNet Marine Inc. (Founder & President, Software Services in the Maritime Transportation Industry), Moulin Global Eyecare (COO & Executive Director, Eyewear Multinational), Automoblox Company LLC (CEO & Partner, Toy Manufacturing and Retail), and B4 Strategies, Ltd. (Managing Partner, SME Management Consulting).  He lives in New Jersey with his wife and two children.

Wednesday, July 14: 11:30a - 12:15p
Online Photography in the Age of Digital Commerce:  Best Practices to Drive Conversion

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Founder, Flip Retail

In November 2000, Jason co-founded Elastic Path Software and held the position of VP Marketing where he helped the company attract over 200 customers, including global brands such as Google, Aeroplan, Nike, Time Inc., Avis, Samsonite, United Health Group, Telus, Garmin, and Sony. Later, as the VP of Innovation and principal ecommerce analyst, he consulted with some of the largest and most successful online retailers in the world - including developing online strategy for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games online store. Most recently, Jason has founded Flip Retail where he is an ecommerce consultant and coach.

Tuesday, July 13: 2:30p - 3:15p
Tip-Toe, Tweak and Test Your Way to Site Optimization

EVP of HSN.com and Advanced Services, HSN
Keynote Speaker

As Executive Vice President of HSN.com and Advanced Services, Brian Bradley is responsible for developing and guiding the strategic direction and operations of HSN.com and maximizing the growth of the e-commerce channel. Specifically, he oversees all components of the web business, including merchandising, marketing, sales, content and technology, and targets strategies that enhance the customer experience and customer acquisition efforts. In addition, Mr. Bradley manages the Company's Advanced Services unit which develops new distribution services for HSN, including Shop by Remote, broadband applications and video-on-demand.

Mr. Bradley joined HSN after four years with Circuit City where he most recently served as Senior Vice President, Multi-Channel. In that capacity, he led the company's Direct business including its website, call center and catalog channels. Among his many accomplishments in that role, Mr. Bradley was responsible for significantly improving the effectiveness of the company's digital direct marketing efforts, driving web traffic and sales.

Mr. Bradley holds an M.B.A. from Duke University, Fuqua School of Business and a B.S. in Engineering from the University of Michigan.

Tuesday, July 13: 10:30a - 11:15a
KEYNOTE: Customer Centric Merchandising:  The HSN Way

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Senior Vice President, Creative Director, Talbots

Georgia Christensen is Senior Vice President, Creative Director at Talbots in New York where she leads the Image Design team responsible for directing all photography for the brand across all channels. As part of the brand reinvention, the photography has played a critical role in rebranding.
 
Throughout her twenty-fine year career of shaping images and brands, Georgia’s work has garnered numerous awards and early on changed the creative landscape of high end retail marketing with the introduction of The Art of Fashion and The Book, for Neiman Marcus – a magazine designed to feature the work of artists such as Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton, Annie Leibovitz and Geof Kern among many others.

Wednesday, July 14: 11:30a - 12:15p
Online Photography in the Age of Digital Commerce:  Best Practices to Drive Conversion

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Managing Partner at Eisenberg Holdings, LLC and Author, Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results

Bryan Eisenberg is the co-author of the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, USA Today and New York Times bestselling books “Call to Action”, “Waiting For Your Cat to Bark?” and “Always Be Testing”.

Bryan Eisenberg is the recognized authority and pioneer in online marketing, improving online conversion rates, Persuasion Architecture, and persona marketing. Bryan was recently recognized by eConsultancy members as one of the top 10 User Experience Gurus and and he was selected as one of the inaugural iMedia Top 25 Marketers.

Bryan has been a featured expert by The Wall Street Journal and the The New York Times and been quoted in Business 2.0, CXO Europe, Advertising Age, CNN, Forrester Research, Jupiter Research, Miami Herald, Publish, Internet Advertising Report (IAR), Chicago Business Tribune, Inc Magazine, Entrepreneur, Target Marketing, DM News, Microsoft’s bCentral, MarketingSherpa, the Toronto Star, Smart Money & Internet Retailer for his thought leadership in the critical area of internet marketing and improving online conversion rates.

In 1998, Bryan co-founded FutureNow Inc., the company has been helping businesses generate more engagements, leads, subscriptions, and sales with its unique framework he helped develop, Persuasion Architecture®. Bryan’s proudest professional accomplishments are the thousands of companies, students and clients, including HP, NBC Universal, GE, WebEx, Overstock and Dell, that have consistently enjoyed dramatic improvement in sales.

Tuesday, July 13: 11:30a - 12:15p
KEYNOTE: 21 Secrets of Top Converting Websites

and DOCTOR IS IN expert

Read our interview with Bryan

President, the e-tailing group, inc.

Lauren Freedman is a seasoned 15–year e-commerce veteran as well as a recognized and respected figure in the online retail industry,. She has a passion for merchandising that she has parlayed as president of the e-tailing group, evangelists for merchandising and customer service best practices.

She founded the e-tailing group in 1993 after an extensive career as a department/specialty store buyer and under her guidance the e-tailing group has evolved to be one of the premier ecommerce consultancies. They advise retailers on merchandising, strategy and customer experience best practices while simultaneously developing thought leadership and go-to-market strategies for top technology companies. Client projects cover all retail sectors from brick and mortar to catalogers and range from start ups to retail stalwarts as well as best-in-class technology companies. Her company’s annual mystery shopping and merchant surveys provide a comprehensive overview of the state of e-commerce, setting industry standards while simultaneously highlighting best practices.

Lauren authored her first book, It’s Just Shopping, which provided a comprehensive; behind-the-scenes look at the evolution of multi-channel selling in 2001. Her knowledge of e-commerce coupled with her candid and charismatic style make her a sought after speaker at e-retail conferences like Shop.org, eTail and Internet Retailer in the US and abroad. She is a go-to-resource for the press and is often quoted in media outlets that range from The New York Times, WWD, CNN, Financial Times, USAToday, Business Week, Forbes, Internet Retailer and Crains.
 
Lauren has been involved with Shop.org since its inception and currently serves on the Content Committee while also working with the Direct Marketing Association and NAWBO’s Small Business Mentoring program. She continually gives back to the community in hopes of growing e-commerce as a vital retail channel.
  
She lives to travel, takes advantage of local culture and spends her spare time with her daughter and husband in Chicago.

DOCTOR IS IN expert

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Founder and Chief Motivational Officer, Ice.com

Mr. Pinny Gniwisch is the Founder of ice.com, an online jewelry retailer, established in 1999. Since its inception, ice.com has risen in the ranks of successful online retailers, quickly reaching into the top 200 most profitable online retailers and the top 2 for jewelry alone. Ice.com has grown over the past year by a solid 45%. And this year, 70% in the first quarter alone by focusing on creative ways to drive online traffic and sales. Names like Yahoo, AOL, MSN, MyPoints, Modern Bride to name a few have all entered into agreements with ice.com because of their belief in the product line and knowledge of the jewelry business, as well as Pinny's track record of successful endeavors. He has consulted for companies including Best Buy, Target and Victoria Secret on internet marketing and merchandising. He has also been quoted in many well know publications like Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Gartner group. In the last 2 months ice.com has added diamond.com to it’s roster of  brands with his vision to compete in the loose diamond market. Pinny is a graduate from the Rabbinical College of America with a Masters in Jewish Law and History he currently runs a children’s organization in Montreal called the The Living Legacy”.

Tuesday, July 13: 4:00p - 4:45p
Using Online Video to Optimize the Customer Experience

COO and General Counsel, Buy.com
Keynote Speaker

Greg Giraudi has been Buy.com's Chief Operating Officer since November 2006 and General Counsel since October 2003. Before joining Buy.com, Mr. Giraudi was an attorney in the Business & Technology Departments of the law firms of Dorsey & Whitney LLP and Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP. Prior to that, Mr. Giraudi spent more than six years in various engineering and project management roles at Fluor Corporation, a publicly held engineering and construction firm. Mr. Giraudi received his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of San Diego School of Law and his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at San Diego.

Wednesday, July 14th: 8:45a - 9:45a
KEYNOTE: Marketplace 2.0: Empowering the Customer and the Merchant

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Vice President, Research Director, Forrester Research

As Vice President and Research Direct and Forrester Research, Carrie serves eBusiness & Channel Strategy professionals and leads a team that helps these professionals in the retail, financial services, travel, and healthcare industries optimize sales and service strategies across channels. Carrie's current research focuses on online and multichannel retailing.

Prior to this position, Carrie spent eight years at Forrester researching the dynamics and growth of online retailing. In this role, she analyzed consumers' adoption of eCommerce, their multichannel behavior, and how retailers optimize sales to those consumers with key technologies and strategies. In this role, Carrie authored many key Forrester reports, including Forrester's annual eCommerce forecast. In addition, since 2002, Carrie has authored or led the research effort for "The State of Retailing Online," a Shop.org survey conducted by Forrester Research.

Prior to Forrester, Carrie worked with the Harvard Business School, where she wrote case studies on Barnes & Noble, Frontgate, PlanetAll, QVC, Streamline, and TV Guide. Carrie is a magna cum laude graduate of Bowdoin College.

Wednesday, July 14: 10:30a - 11:30a
Innovation in Community Based Merchandising

Vice President, Chief Information Officer, The Wet Seal, Inc.

Jon Kubo has been the Chief Information Officer for the Wet Seal, Inc. since 2005.  He is also responsible for the ecommerce efforts for the company.  Under his leadership, the ecommerce business revenue has increased by over ten times.  Wet Seal launched its “Fashion Community” in April 2008 and it is one of the most successful examples of social media in retail.  In 2009, Wet Seal launched social media applications for the Iphone, Facebook, and Shop with Friends functionality continuing to expand its social media strategy.  In April 2010, Wet Seal’s IRunway Iphone App was recognized by RIS News as the Mobile App of the Year Award Winner for Customer Engagement. Before joining The Wet Seal, Mr. Kubo held the positions of Chief Administrative Officer for FAO Schwarz, and Chief Information Officer for FAO, Inc, and several executive positions in the software technology industry.

Wednesday, July 14: 10:30a - 11:30a
Innovation in Community Based Merchandising

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CEO and Founder, Overlay.TV

Rob Lane is the CEO and Founder of Overlay.TV, a video ecommerce platform aimed at helping large online retailers improve conversion and customer experience through interactive video and web 2.0 technologies.  Passionate about creating and building ideas, teams and companies, he is a strong believer in the human side of technology, and the power of the web to connect people.  He holds degrees in engineering, marketing and business administration, and has helped develop video campaigns for numerous ecommerce retailers.

Tuesday, July 13: 4:00p - 4:45p
Using Online Video to Optimize the Customer Experience

Formerly, Front-end Manager, Vancouver 2010 Olympic Online Store

Janis Lanka is as an Experience Architect serving hybrid role of Strategy and Information Architect with focus on ecommerce at Blast Radius, a leading global interactive agency and a member of the Wunderman and WPP Group.

Before joining Blast Radius, Janis was an Interactive and Front-end manager at Elastic Path Software providing ecommerce best practise consulting to clients such as Aeroplan eStore, Trygg (Plenti), Screwfix, HBC Olympic online store, and Hockey Canada online store. During his tenure at Elastic Path he supervised redesign, conversion optimization taskforce, and store-front implementation team for Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic online store.

Tuesday, July 13: 2:30p - 3:15p
Tip-Toe, Tweak and Test Your Way to Site Optimization

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President, 1-800-Flowers
Keynote Speaker

Chris McCann is President of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM and is responsible for the Company’s overall performance and direction. Under his guidance, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM has earned a reputation as one of the leading multi-channel retailers in the country. Additionally, McCann’s role in building 1-800-FLOWERS.COM’s e-commerce channel has helped accelerate the Company’s growth and earned him speaking engagements at numerous interactive conferences and universities around the country.

Tuesday, July 13: 8:45a - 9:45a
Keynote: Embracing Change to Build Relationships and Drive Customer Engagement

Vice President, Marketing & Creative, Charming Shoppes, Inc.

Ken Mowry serves as Vice President, Marketing and Creative for Charming Shoppes, Inc., the parent company for Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug and Catherines apparel stores. Ken oversees the strategy and execution of core e-commerce functions, including last year’s launch of a new e-commerce platform, restructuring and optimizing e-commerce marketing programs, and developing new e-commerce venues to deliver profitable revenue growth.

Before joining Charming Shoppes, Inc., Mr. Mowry served as Senior Vice President and User Experience Executive for e-Commerce & ATM at Bank of America for three years. Prior to joining the bank, he was Director of Web Store Customer Experience at Sears, Roebuck and Co., for three and a half years. Ken has held leadership positions in ecommerce at Kohl’s Department Stores and at an Internet startup, Total Sports.

Throughout Mr. Mowry’s twenty-three year career, his body of work has garnered numerous awards for leadership, design, marketing, e-commerce, and journalism. Ken has been a lecturer at professional workshops, including a temporary professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Ken graduated from The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, majoring in Visual Communications.

Tuesday, July 13: 1:15p - 2:15p
When Is It Time to Redesign?

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Senior Consulting Director, Creative Good

Elizabeth Peaslee is a Senior Consulting Director responsible for consulting and research clients across North America. She is one of the most experienced customer experience executives and consultants in the country. Her clients at Creative Good span retail, media, travel and financial services, and she has spoken at many industry events including Shop.org, Direct Marketing Association, and private client summits, to name a few.

Prior to Creative Good, Elizabeth was the Vice President, Customer Experience at Travelocity where she spent 8 years.  As the VP of Customer Experience, she was responsible for both business and consumer applications. She is recognized as a pioneer in the field of customer experience having generated millions of incremental dollars for Travelocity and for her clients here at Creative Good.

Before her distinguished career in customer experience, Elizabeth worked at Sanford Bernstein as a portfolio manager. Elizabeth earned an MBA from the University of Michigan, and a Bachelor’s from Duke University in Economics and Mathematics.   Outside the office, she enjoys swimming, biking, running, and flying kites with her 2 daughters.

DOCTOR IS IN expert

Director of Marketing, Etsy

From hardcore video gamers to crafty DIY enthusiasts and fashion lovers, Nizzi has engaged passionate communities in a variety of forms throughout her career.

In her role as Director of Marketing for Etsy.com, Nizzi oversees the marketing and merchandising efforts for Etsy’s fast-growing online marketplace to buy and sell handmade and vintage items. Since its inception in June, 2005, Etsy has grown to over 5 million registered members, with $180 million in gross merchandise sales for 2009.

Nizzi has worked both agency side and in house; previous roles include leading online marketing efforts for ecommerce home décor company, Rugman.com and serving as Vice President, Marketing Services for boutique agency, Sequentia Environics.   Her clients have ranged from organizations such as GE, Autodesk, Harper Collins, Bell, Intel and the American Cancer Society.

Prior to joining Etsy, she served as Vice President, Online for Atari Inc. where she led the team responsible for Atari’s efforts in ecommerce and online content creation.  A graduate of Emerson College in Boston, Nizzi has her BA in Communication Studies and her MA in Integrated Marketing
Communications. Named one of Marketing’s Next Generation by Marketing Magazine in 2006, she lives in Brooklyn, New York by way of London, Kolkata, Boston and Toronto, with her musician husband. She’s a pop culture buff and is continually inspired by artistic types, though she is happy to be the “suit” in her circle.

Wednesday, July 14: 10:30a - 11:30a
Innovation in Community Based Merchandising

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Associate Creative Director, Resource Interactive

Richard brings an original vision and a passion for using great creative to reinforce brand messaging both online and across channel. Leveraging his dedication to collaborative teamwork to spark great ideas and drive to stunning visual messages, Rich leads his creative teams to innovate and take risks. In his twelve plus years at Resource he has been responsible for driving award winning creative for Hewlett Packard, Kohler, Hexion Chemicals, Wexner Center for the Arts, Gillette Venus, L.L.Bean, Walgreens, Victoria’s Secret VSX and Limited Stores.
 
Richard holds a degree in Visual Communications from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh where he majored in illustration and minored in photography.

DOCTOR IS IN expert

Manager of User Experience & Product Optimization, Zappos.com

Lynn Stetson spent the last 3 years as Manager of User Experience and Product Optimization at Zappos.com. From the ground up she grew what was at first a non-existent User Experience team to a now-thriving and key stake-holding department within the company. She helped lead the charge for instituting solid usability, UX, testing and web optimization practices into an otherwise unknown field within the organization. The cumulative impact of the beta launch of a new Zappos site in early 2008,
coupled with her team's constant optimizations and testing, contributed significantly to Zappos.com sales growth from $800 million in 2007 to projected sales of over $1.3 billion in 2010; an average of 40% year over year growth.

Lynn has been designing, building and optimizing websites for over 15 years. Prior to her tenure at Zappos.com she ran her own web strategy consultancy with a focus on ecommerce. She also worked doing UI optimization for VEGAS.com, an EPpy Award Winner for Best Internet Shopping Service that’s ranked as the world's No. 1 city travel site (comScore Media Metrix), one of the world's top 50 travel sites (Alexa), and the model for city sites around the world (Arthur Frommer).

When not developing and optimizing ecommerce website experiences, Lynn spends her time developing and optimizing her life experiences in the form of exotic adventure travels that remind her to challenge one's self, celebrate failure - and that without great risks there are no great rewards; both in work and in life.

Tuesday, July 13: 2:30p - 3:15p
Tip-Toe, Tweak and Test Your Way to Site Optimization

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Vice President, Creative New Media, Coach

Colleen Stokes is VP, Creative Director Digital Media for Coach, a leading American, luxury, accessories brand.

Colleen was introduced to the digital medium in the early 1990's while designing children's software packaging for Mecc, Knowledge Adventure, Broderbund and Britanica. Soon after, she joined CKS Partners and was responsible for designing websites for leading brands such as; Apple, Levi Struass, and Nike.  Since then Colleen has art directed and designed online stores for William-Sonoma, PotteryBarn, Martha Stewart, and J.Crew. She focuses on relevant brand experiences, product information, and ease of use for the customer.

Colleen is still focusing on commerce and how digital media can enhance a customer's experience with a brand. Now a Creative Director at Coach, she is responsible for expanding the Coach experience into the digital space... e-commerce, advertising, social, mobile, and whatever is to come next.

Wednesday, July 14: 11:30a - 12:15p
Online Photography in the Age of Digital Commerce:  Best Practices to Drive Conversion

VP, Direct to Consumer, Bare Escentuals

Sarah is a Stanford University graduate in Quantitative Economics (BA) and began her career at The Boston Consulting Group. She left consulting to complete her formal education at Stanford Business School. Seeing a trend for the resurgence of high end crafts, she founded eKnitting.com by pulling together angel funding. From this venture, she was enticed to work for the national brand Gymboree where she merchandised and marketed the company's Janie and Jack website. Sarah then joined Bare Escentuals, the leading brand in mineral cosmetics, where she was responsible for online marketing and re-launched BareEscentuals.com as an ecommerce site in 2007. She lead a company-wide redesign effort in 2009, and today Sarah is responsible for leading Bare Escentuals' Direct to Consumer sales growth and customer engagement via Online, Catalog, and Club channels, as well as overseeing Customer Service. Bare Escentuals products are sold online at www.bareescentuals.com, in company-owned Bare Escentuals retail boutiques, on QVC and through TV infomercial, mail order, select specialty retailers like Sephora, Ulta, Nordstrom, Macys, and Bloomingdales plus high-end spas and international channels.

Tuesday, July 13: 1:15p - 2:15p
When Is It Time to Redesign?

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Director of Photography, Video and New Media, The North Face

Scott Wilson brings a narrative eye to his photography —a perspective that looks far beyond the first impression of an image. He obtained a B.A. in English Lit and threatened law school on two separate occasions, before returning to writing. Originally intending to be a travel writer, Wilson finally decided to study photography at Brooks Institute of Photography, and his journey subsequently led to an eight-year sojourn with the Patagonia Photo Department, before he moved on to The North Face, where he has been Photography/Video and New Media director since 2004. Wilson lives in San Francisco and frequently lectures and participates in panel discussions focused on adventure sports and travel photography.

Wednesday, July 14: 11:30a - 12:15p
Online Photography in the Age of Digital Commerce:  Best Practices to Drive Conversion

Senior Director, Ecommerce, Columbia Sportswear

Paul leads ecommerce and digital efforts at Columbia Sportswear.  He and his team are responsible for the recent ecommerce launches of Columbia.com and Sorel.com, numerous mobile and international sites for the Columbia brands, as well as the coming re-launch of MountainHardwear.com as an ecommerce-enabled site.  Paul was previously the Vice President of Interactive Technology at Polo Ralph Lauren, where he helped launch their ecommerce business.  At Polo, Paul led many digital initiatives including an early adoption of mobile commerce and the company’s pioneering interactive store windows.

Tuesday, July 13: 4:00p - 4:45p
Using Online Video to Optimize the Customer Experience

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