2012 SOBCon NW Presenters

Terry is a native Midwesterner now living in Portland, Oregon, spreading “realistic optimism” through a philosophy he calls “Half-Fullism.” He’s been in the business world for over 25 years in various leadership positions, most recently as a senior operations executive for a service business based in the Rocky Mountain west. Terry is a constantly learning student of leadership and personal development, and shares his ideas, experiences and knowledge through his blog, Ramblings from A Glass Half Full.

Liz Strauss is a brand strategist and social web community builder and is perhaps the most influential “real-ebrity” on the Internet. Liz has over 20 years in print, software, and online publishing, and has strategized with publishers in Europe, Australia, the UK, and Ireland. She was recently a featured speaker at the Cass Business School of City University in London and teaches a Master’s Level class at the CityU School of Publishing. She has been named to the Top 100 Social Media & Internet Marketing Bloggers, The Invesp Top 100 Most Influential Marketers of 2008 and again in 2009, the 50 of the Most Powerful and Influential Women of Social Media, and NxE’s Fifty Most Influential ‘Female’ Bloggers. The WordPress Plugin Liz Comment Counter by Ozh was named in her honor to celebrate her dedication to responding to the readers of her blog.

Mr. Erickson has been in hospitality profession and serving individuals for over 25 years. Chris Erickson attended the University of Washington graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1991. He was then accepted to the Washington State University Management Development Program in Seattle, Washington where he earned accredited certification in Hospitality Management. Mr. Erickson also received his Certified Hotel Administrator in 1999.

Now at the helm of the 4 star Heathman Hotel since 2006, as General Manager, in downtown Portland, Mr. Erickson currently the Chair of the Oregon Tourism Commission to which he was appointed to by the Governor of Oregon in 2008. Mr. Erickson currently also serves on the Travel Oregon Sustainable Tourism Council, Metropolitan Exposition Recreation Commission (MERC), Travel Portland Board of Directors, the Board of Directors of the Oregon Historical Society, and was recently the President of Tri-County Lodging. In 2008 Mr. Erickson received the prestigious American Hotel and Lodging Associations State Leadership award for the State of Oregon. In 2012, The Heathman Hotel received Travel + Leisure’s Top 50 U.S. Hotel award.

Some people have a hard time understanding who Charlie Gilkey is because he seems to be a mixture of contradictory traits. He’s philosophical yet pragmatic; compassionate yet disciplined; creative yet analytical; driven yet laid back; happy but calm. These complexities come through in the content Charlie shares, so if it throws you off, you wouldn’t be the first to wonder what’s going on.

Charlie is out to help people thrive by using their creativity and energy in ways that help themselves, those around them, and the world at large. While that seems fairly ambitious, the way we do this is by continually making small steps in the right direction – at a certain point, we look up and the thousand miles are behind us. We build a better future step by step and day by day, and it turns out that it’s possible to enjoy the building of that future in the present.

Todd Silverstein is the co-founder of Vizify, a Portland, Oregon-based startup that transforms the content and data you’ve already created on the web (like tweets and photos) into a single, graphical bio that shows the best of you. Use it to stand out, find the perfect job, win a new client, or simply make a great first impression.

Todd spent the last decade crafting software experiences as a product manager, including one year during which he discovered that he truly was a full head shorter than most of the natives living in Stockholm. In the late ’80s he sported a “rocking mullet, ” so that his awesome hair would stick out from under his hockey helmet and intimidate opposing players on the ice.

In a past career as an editor in the ever-dying book publishing industry, he oversaw several New York Times bestsellers, authored an eminently forgettable page-a-day calendar, and published several unjustly forgotten poems. For the more visual than literal, you can see Todd’s graphical bio here.

Rosemary is the designated corporate extrovert, using and evangelizing online community, and makes a mean blueberry pie. You may have seen her on Fox & Friends, CNN Headline News, and NPR as an HR policy rebel, as Social Strata instituted “unlimited paid leave” last year. She has an unhealthy iPhone addiction.

Prior to founding Brickyard Partners in 2001, Mann owned a premier international logistics company with over $140 Million in revenue, six U.S. offices and a global network of over 40 agents worldwide.

As that business came under severe pressure from the previous economic downturn and industry consolidation, Howard lead the company out from those treacherous times by returning to the basics that make every business great and completing 6 acquisitions that re-imagined the business so it was highly attractive to buyers. Finding that “secret sauce” did not come easily but has fueled his purpose to help other business leaders to never have to go through what he endured.

Through real world experience and those hard times in the “trenches” of business he has learned that it is not following the latest fad, copying competitors or adding complexity that makes a business truly great. His pragmatic approach and knowing what it feels like to sit in the CEO/Owner chair is what makes his work so different and effective.

Howard coaches a select group of entrepreneurs, CEO’s and business owners. His highly focused workshops and keynotes help executive teams take aggressive action to unlock the true potential of their organizations and build remarkable businesses. In good times and bad. Online and off.

Scott joined the Oregon Angel Fund in 2012 and manages the day-to-day activities of the Oregon Angel Fund including generating deal flow, evaluating business plans and due diligence management. Scott became CEO of electronic design automation (EDA) startup Novas Software in 2000. There he honed his management skills and engaged his passion for building teams and brands. After selling the company to Taiwanese EDA leader SpringSoft in 2008 he fulfilled a promise to pursue something completely different at mid-life in 2010. He stopped commuting to San Jose, returned to Oregon full time, and invested in the Oregon Angel Fund, quickly becoming one its most active members. Scott is an engineer who found out early that he liked talking about technology and products more than designing and testing them. Starting at Intel in the mid-80s provided a solid launching pad for a career in high-tech startups and marketing. He was the first applications engineer for the Verilog hardware description language, spent a year in Japan with formal verification pioneer Chrysalis Symbolic Design, and created a partnership with Microsoft while with early networking vendor Shiva Corporation. Scott received a BS in Computer Systems engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Lara’s focus is on building Biznik into an award-winning social software company connecting forward-thinking business people world-wide. Lara was named one of Seattle’s “Top 25 Most Innovative Entrepreneurs” by Seattle Business Monthly, and included in Seattle Magazine’s 2008 Power Players list of “Most Influential People.” In 2009 she was named among Seattle’s Top 100 Women in Technology by Techflash. In 2010 Biznik earned a nomination for a Seattle 2.0 award in the category of Best Bootstrapped Startup.

Ric Dragon has more than 16 years of experience in online marketing and software development. He is cofounder of the software and web development company Oxclove Workshop, where he was instrumental in business process analysis, information architecture, and process improvement. He cofounder and CEO of DragonSearch, where he leads social media strategy for Steuben, the Grammy Foundation, Raritan, and more. DragonSearch serves as the daily testing ground for the various social media marketing processes discussed in the book.

Ric is also the author of DragonSearch Manual for Online Marketing (Dec 2011) and Social Marketology (summer 2012), is a speaker, artist, drummer, #UsDragons and is the CEO of DragonSearch.

With a background in integrated marketing, Kent Lewis left a public relations agency in 1996 to start his career in search engine marketing. Since then, he’s helped grow businesses by connecting his clients with their constituents via the Internet. In 2000, Lewis founded Anvil Media, Inc., a digital marketing agency specializing in search engine and social media marketing for Fortune 2000 companies. Under his leadership, Anvil has received recognition from Portland Business Journal and Inc. Magazine as a Fastest Growing and Most Philanthropic Company. In 2008, Lewis created Formic Media, a sister agency to Anvil, providing a similar set of digital marketing services to small businesses and strategic partners. He’s co-founder of a variety of organizations, including career communitypdxMindShare, eROI and SEMpdx, a Portland-area SEM professional trade association. As a long-time entrepreneur, Lewis is an investor and advisor to a host of emerging Portland-based companies, including ABCInvesting, Fulcrum Fitness, Journey Fitness, NeutralSpaceand Tixie. Lewis speaks regularly at industry events and has been published in books and publications including Business2Community, iMedia Connection, Online Marketing Connectand Portland Business Journal. Since 2000, he’s been an adjunct professor at Portland State University, where he teaches an SEM Workshop, and also tours nationwide withOnline Marketing Institute as lead instructor for the Digital Marketing Essentials Workshop. Active in his community, Lewis is currently involved in non-profit charity and professional trade organizations including early literacy program SMART (Start Making a Reader Today),The Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), Portland Incubator Experiment (PIE), Oregon Creative Industries, PDC Neighborhood Economic Development (NED) Leadership Group and CscadeFusion. Industry recognition and awards include Portland Business Journal’s Top 40 Under 40 Award, Top 25 Most Influential Pay-per-Click Experts and 2012 Marketer of the Year by American Marketing Association Oregon Chapter. Married with children, Lewis enriches his personal and professional life by co-hosting a weekly Internet radio show, DadsUnplugged.

Mark is a fourth-generation entrepreneur who has run a distribution business, turned around a struggling non-profit magazine, and worked as a paramedic in the San Francisco Bay Area.

He is the author of seven different in-depth programs and a number of other smaller teachings and classes for entrepreneurs. Together they form a comprehensive entrepreneurial wisdom academy curriculum.

A designated Master Teacher (“muqaddam murrabi“) in his Shaddhilliyya Sufi lineage, Mark is currently studying for his Masters of Divinity with a speciality in Ministry and Sufi Studies.

As a coach, consultant, mentor and spiritual healer, he has facilitated more than 2000 individual sessions with entrepreneurs and has led hundreds of classes, seminars, groups and retreats. His weekly writings and teachings are followed by thousands of people around the globe.

He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife Holly, twin sons Sam and David, two cats Rafi and Kira, and all the rain you care to soak up.

Melissa Pierce is a film producer, idea generator, strategic thinker, and social connector. She enjoys converting impossible concepts into successful projects, and is the creator of an award winning film series, founder of “just a few” awesome companies, and generator of hundreds of other less well known good ideas.

Marti Konstant – passionate branding guru, persistent optimist, and avid long distance runner – builds on a competence in tech sales and marketing experience in companies such as Apple, Tellabs, and Clear Communications, leading successful community building, market development and expansion, as well as launching new products and services. Marti personalizes the OK Labs brand experience with a creative and often humorous approach. She leverages community development, global public relations, event marketing, and social media to differentiate OK Labs in the mobile/wireless industry.

Todd is the co-author of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time, a book that has sold more than 30,000 copies and been translated into 10 languages. The paperback edition was released in October 2011.

He served as President of Milwaukee-based specialty retailer 800-CEO-READ where I participated in the launch of hundreds of books into the marketplace. Todd was instrumental in providing for the continued stewardship of ChangeThis, launched the business book giveaway website InBubbleWrap, and started the 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards.

Todd has experimented with new forms of publishing for the last nine years beginning with his first weblog A Penny For… He self-published his first book in 2005 called More Space: Nine Antidotes for Complacency In Business. Since then, Todd has published the ebooks Fixed to Flexible: Four Simple Lessons about Cost, Price, Margin, and The Options Available to The 21st Century Business and Pricing Pictures: Drawings To Help You Make Better Business Decisions, both with more than 10,000 downloads.

Todd is currently working with O’Reilly Tools of Change publishing team on a project called “Every Book Is A Startup.”

Barry Moltz gets business owners growing again by unlocking their long forgotten potential.  With decades of entrepreneurial experience in his own business ventures as well as consulting countless other entrepreneurs, Barry has discovered the formula to get stuck business owners unstuck and marching forward.  Barry applies simple, strategic steps to facilitate change.

Barry has founded and run small businesses with a great deal of success and failure for more than 20 years.

After successfully selling his last operating business, Barry has branched out into a number of entrepreneurship-related activities.  He founded an angel investor group, an angel fund, and is a former advisory member of the board of the Angel Capital Education Foundation.  His first book, “You Need to Be A Little Crazy: The Truth about Starting and Growing Your Business” describes the ups and downs and emotional trials of running a business.  It is in its fifth reprint and has been translated into Chinese, Russian, Korean and Thai.

His second book, “Bounce! Failure, Resiliency and the Confidence to Achieve Your Next Great Success”, shows what it takes to come back and develop true business confidence.  It has been translated into Korean and German.  His third book, “BAM! Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World” shows how customer service is the new marketing. His fourth book, Small Town Rules: How Small Business and Big Brands can Profit in a Connected Economy shows how when every customer can talk to every other customer, it’s like living in a small town: Your reputation is everything!

Barry is a nationally recognized expert on small business who has given hundreds of presentations to audiences ranging in size from 20 to 20,000.  As a member of the Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame, he has also taught entrepreneurship as an adjunct professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology.  He has appeared on many TV and radio programs such as The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, MSNBC’s Your Business and NPR’s The Tavis Smiley Show.  He hosts his own radio show, Business Insanity Talk Radio, and writes regularly for the American Express Open Forum, Forbes.com and Crain’s Chicago Business.

Rick Turoczy is the founder of the Silicon Florist, a Portland tech news blog, and PIE (Portland Incubator Experiment), a Portland-based startup incubator in partnership with Google, Coca Cola, Target, Nike, and Wieden+Kennedy providing mentors in this innovative collaboration center

AJ and Melissa Leon of Twitgift, Poetic Business, Rise of the Cubicle Farmer Road Trip, Global Hope Network International, and The LaC Project. AJ and Melissa travel full-time working on their successful social projects, experiments in “experiential philanthropy,” including their 100 person project to support a village’s projects and business efforts, helping you see the potential in creating a business model based upon social responsibility.

For more than 20 years, Jane has been at the forefront of the work-life field in Canada. She has worked with government, business and community on many of the most innovative work-life initiatives in the country. Jane has been instrumental in developing a number of work-life solutions that use a partnership or collaborative approach. She has worked with leading organizations to develop customized work-life programs and services.

Gina is an entrepreneur and boutique owner specializing in featuring, incubating, and educating independent fashion designers, artisans, and visual artists. She has extensive experience visual merchandising, public relations, employee training, event planning, and VIP guest experience.

Gina is also the co-designer of the Radish Underground line of clothing and candles, and partner in Radish Consulting: making business sense more accessible to artists by providing education for designers and artisans looking to grow their passion into a sustainable career.

Justin Levy heads up social media at Citrix Online, where he is a strategic advisor on all social media activities across the company, as well as being the editor-in-chief of Workshifting.com.

Prior to joining Citrix Online, Justin was an Executive Director at New Marketing Labs, a social media and digital communications agency. Justin worked with clients ranging from Fortune 500 brands to small-to-medium sized businesses including: SAS, Sony, PepsiCo, Microsoft, The Henry Ford, Rainforest Beverages and several others.

When not busy with Citrix Online, Justin is Partner and General Manager of Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse, located in Massachusetts. Through the use of social media marketing techniques, Justin has successfully grown his steakhouse at least 20% in sales for 30+ months straight. Because of this success, Justin and Caminito have been featured in multiple business and marketing books as well as being profiled by some of the most successful marketing blogs in the world.