Pivot Conference 2013

The Pivot Team

The Pivot Team worked together to build the world’s largest conference and trade show company in technology as well as the largest tech media company. An advisory council comprised of both consumers and brand marketers is also involved in the coordination of this show.

	Brian Solis, Editorial Director & Conference Producer Author of the acclaimed new book on social media and business, The End of Business as Usual, Brian Solis is principal at Altimeter Group, a research-based advisory firm. Solis is globally recognized as one of the most prominent thought leaders and published authors in new media. A digital analyst, sociologist, and futurist, Solis has studied and influenced the effects of emerging media on business, marketing, publishing, and culture.
	Mike Edelhart, CEO Mike Edelhart is an experienced media and Internet start-up executive. Most recently, Mike was Managing Director and founder of First30 Services, a launch accelerator for early stage companies. Previously, Mike has held CEO and executive management positions at a range of media organizations, including Live Deal, Inc, DeepDyve, and Olive Software, as well as Inman News, Zinio Systems, and Third Age Media. As vice president at SoftBank, Mike directed content for the Seybold, Interop and Comdex conferences and launched new businesses in online education, conferences and consulting. Prior to SoftBank, Mike spent thirteen years at Ziff Davis in a variety of executive and editorial positions. He has also worked as an Internet strategies consultant to Bloomberg, Reuters, AARP and other major media and Internet companies. Mike is on the Board of Directors of Social Media Advertising Consortium and is an adviser to Internet Media Labs, Mass Relevance, Citia, Aggregate Knowledge and SmaSh Technology. The author of more than two dozen books, Mike earned a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism from the University of Northern Colorado.
	Seth Rosenblatt, Chief Financial Officer Seth has over 20 years of experience in media and technology, including executive positions in both start-up companies and large enterprises in positions across finance, marketing, business development, technology and general management.  In addition to running a number of start-up businesses, Seth has operated his own consulting firm for clients focused on go-to-market strategy, operations and business development.  He has extensive experience in social media, marketing technology and enterprise software.  Previously, Seth also held senior positions at Interwoven, Optimost, Bluefish Wireless, PocketScience and Ziff-Davis.  He also began his career as an investment banker.  Seth holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.  He is also an elected School Board Member of the San Carlos (CA) School District.
	Alice Myerhoff, VP Sales & Marketing Alice has 18 years of experience developing deep, strategic relationships with brands who want to grow their business. She brings creativity and workable solutions to the challenges facing brands and has a total commitment to achieving measurable results for her clients. Prior to Pivot & The Tomorrow Project, she served as SVP of Sales and Business Development for Inman News, the leading independent real estate media company and producer of Real Estate Connect and Agent Reboot. During her six years there, she achieved revenue growth in her areas exceeding 300%. She accomplished this not just by sheer effort and client service, but also by launching custom programs, webinar series and live events for sponsors like Zillow, DocuSign, Century21 and others. Her background also spans online gaming (pogo.com, now owned by Electronic Arts), online advertising, educational software, project management, and mortgage and real estate investing. Alice has lived abroad extensively, initially as an Air Force “brat,” and she continues to travel for pleasure as much as possible. She wishes she had more opportunities to speak German and French and can count to ten in six languages, including Turkish.
	Andrew Nealon/Insert Culture, Technical Director Andrew is principal at Insert Culture, a Brooklyn-based Web services and solutions group. Insert Culture provides Web support to technology and creative clients, with the aim of making the Web a better place to connect, communicate and learn. Originally from Oregon, Andrew holds a BS in Communication from Oregon State University and an MA in Media Studies from the New School in New York City. He currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife and cat, writes about culture, reads comics and works on building a better Internet.
	Madelyn Mock, Director of Operations Madelyn has handled corporate events from all sides, and for that reason is never surprised by anything coming her way at the last minute — or even the final seconds! She is prepared for the unexpected, and is cool and calm when it counts most. She first caught the event bug in 2004, handling corporate events at Hilton Union Square San Francisco. It was there that she first experienced the rush of seeing an event through, from planning to execution to wrap-up, and it hasn’t stopped yet. From the Hilton she moved on to work at Inman News, where as Director of Events she organized the company’s bi-annual convention, Connect. There she earned a reputation as a take-charge, go-to person that uses her experience and knowledge to ensure that everything runs smoothly behind the scenes while making sure that what happens on stage is always professional, seamless, and fun. Motivated by progress and innovation, she uses her love for technology and her experience in the events industry to bring fresh, modern ideas to an industry constantly thirsting for a streamlined marriage of information, people, and technology.
	Brianne Garcia, East Coast Sales Manager Brianne was one of the first two recipients in the country of an MA in Entrepreneurial Journalism through CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism after completing a four-month entrepreneurial incubator program through the Tow Knight Foundation. She pitched her business idea at the program’s end, and received a total of $20,000 in seed funding from a panel of investors, which she used to recruit a team of three and build an alpha product. Shortly before joining Pivot, she was hired to help launch Complex Media’s branded content department, where she worked with major brands such as Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Gillette and Nike in custom content creation, managing the editorial execution of each program. Brianne is especially interested in e-commerce, branding, and new business models in advertising and publishing.
	Amy Sitaram, Manager, Event Operations Having recently moved back to the U.S. from working in India, Amy brings a background of various customer facing roles to Pivot, in addition to a social sciences perspective. Shortly before joining Pivot, she was with Amazon.com working with transportation operations to facilitate real time communication and negotiation between movement on the ground and Amazon’s vast network of fulfillment centers. Prior to Amazon, Amy held assorted retail and hospitality positions while attending the University of Minnesota, from which she holds a B.A. in Global Studies. While at the U of MN, she was active in the liberal arts honors society and participated in a year long internship with a grassroots NGO in Rajasthan, India. Outside of work, Amy can be found spending time with her family, baking and cooking tasty treats, and traveling the world.
	Christina Buquid, Community Manager After graduating from UCSD in 2009 with a degree in Management and Political Science, Christina entered the workforce as an awards manager with the boutique PR firm Comunicano as part of the Speakers & Listeners team. She spent a year building brand reputation for companies in the VoIP and telephony industries through strategic award placement and event involvement. Since then she has written for various local publications on technology and the arts, handled media relations for the Regional Task Force on the Homelessness, and wrote as the millennial blogger for Pivot 2010.
	Marni Edelhart, VIP/Speaker Coordinator Marni’s conference career began with educational events for people who train, shelter, and care for companion animals. In her work as everything from trade show representative to Speaker Host at the Association of Pet Dog Trainers annual conference Marni learned that dog trainers can sometimes be as tricky to manage as their furry clients! Marni also developed content and recruited speakers for the New England Federation of Humane Societies annual conference. At Pivot 2011 Marni brought the skills she had acquired at these earlier events to bear and learned that as speakers go, Social Business professionals are actually much better behaved than dog trainers. Currently Marni is Pivot’s resident people person, working with the Speakers and VIPs who make Pivot such a unique event. She holds a B.A. from Smith College and in the few moments left free by Pivot activities can be found cross-fitting or hiking with her four dogs.
	William Lohse, Founder of the Tomorrow Project, LLC William Lohse is a leading angel investor. William has been successful in software, hardware, publishing and angel capital. He is best known as the president of Ziff Davis Publishing and publisher of PC Magazine, and founder and CEO, SOFTBANK Forums. During William’s tenure, SOFTBANK Forums grew to become the largest technology event producer in the world as measured by revenue. Events produced included JavaOne, NetWorld+Interop, Seybold Seminars, Web 2.0, Windows Solutions and expos and conferences in seven countries. He currently holds the positions of founder, The Tomorrow Project, LLC, the host of Pivotcon and Social Week; and founder, Social Starts, LP, the angel investing fund.