Chicago: Speakers
Martin Coady, Director of Technical Strategy, VML: Martin currently serves as the Director of Technical Strategy. He leads a team focused on analyzing the key business and technical issues driving the evolution of digital marketing as well as developing the company’s long range technology strategy. The group is also charged with developing a broader strategic framework around integrating emerging technologies and managing the partners that help us realize our solutions. In addition to these responsibilities Martin heads the VML center of excellence for content management where his responsibilities include consulting with clients on strategic and tactical approaches to delivering content management systems, as well as ensuring best practices are employed on all CMS engagements.
Rick Mann, IT Manager, Florida Hospital: Rick is a frontline IT Manager at Florida Hospital, a non-profit, faith-based hospital located in Central Florida with 8 campuses, 2,188 beds and over 16,000 employees. He manages the Small Business Applications and Intranet Web Team, whose primary responsibilities include developing for and overseeing the organization's intranet. Utilizing a mix of standardized, multi-site installs and "one-off" custom deployments, his team provides content management and collaboration tools to the enterprise. Currently, the FH intranet includes over 135 Drupal-based departmental and team sites.
Jake Trussell, Creative Director, World Business Chicago: Jake Trussell is Creative Director for World Business Chicago (WBC), the city's public/private economic development organization chaired by Mayor Richard M. Daley. Trussell is responsible for creative strategy and design including all graphic, media, and web output. Before joining WBC, Trussell was Webmaster at Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) in Boston, MA where he developed and managed web strategies, policies, and initiatives. During his nearly 8 years in the position he oversaw multiple website redesigns and managed the college’s web-branding. His experience also extends into the music industry where he has worked as a recording artist, event producer, DJ, blogger, and record label owner, and has worn hats in marketing & public relations, using new-media tools to build and communicate with communities. Between leaving MassArt and joining WBC, Trussell was a freelance web consultant on projects for The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and a number of other organizations. Trussell Graduated with Distinction with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Media and Performing Arts from the Studio for Interrelated Media at Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
Syed Karim, Director - Strategy and Product Development, Chicago Public Media: Syed is charged with creating and executing new products, services, and solutions for Chicago Public Media. His responsibilities include overseeing the design and development of the organization's digital properties, exploring new revenue-generating opportunities, and forging strategic relationships. Prior to joining Chicago Public Media in September of 2009, Syed spent two years with the international design and innovation consultancy, IDEO. He has studied at a half-dozen different colleges and universities, holds a bachelors degree from Lake Forest College, and is two assignments short of a graduate degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Syed currently splits his time between Old Town in Chicago and Errachidia in Morocco, where is wife, Tracy, works as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant at Moulay Ismail University.
Jacob Redding, Executive Director, Drupal Association: Jacob got his start in Drupal in 2005. Working in the IT industry over the past 12 years he has built custom software with everything from Microsoft to Linux and Unix technologies. Acting as the Executive Director of the Drupal association he is heavily involved Drupal communities around the world, speaking and leading classes in not only New York, San Francisco, Boston, and Washington DC, but also far-flung locales such as China, Hungary and Jordan. An enthusiastic advocate of open-source, he is currently dedicating his time to helping Drupal become the leading OSS project.
George DeMet, Founder and Co-owner, Palantir.net: George specializes in strategic leadership in user interface, usability and standards-compliant development, with over 15 years of experience in Internet design and development. George is a permanent member of the Drupal Association and the co-chair of DrupalCon Chicago.
Tiffany Farriss, President and Co-owner, Palantir.net: Tiffany specializes in providing project leadership and strategy through consultation, project planning and training. She has over 15 years of Internet consulting and development experience and extensive experience providing information architecture and usability consulting for a wide variety of clients. Tiffany is a Drupal Association board member and the chair of DrupalCon Chicago.
Colleen Carroll, Director of People and Process, Palantir.net: Colleen works both with Palantir’s internal teams and external clients to help streamline workflow efficiency and ensure successful projects. Colleen also provides content management system consultation as well as development, integration, and training services.
Larry Hawes, Lead Analyst, Collaboration & Enterprise Social Software Practice, Gilbane Group: Larry is an internationally recognized expert on the application of information management technologies to drive high-value business transformation. His research and consulting work is focused on collaboration and knowledge management practices enabled by enterprise social, unified communication and collaboration, enterprise portal, document and content management, business process management, and learning technologies. In addition to his contributions to the Gilbane Group Blog (http://gilbane.com/blog), Larry's thought leading opinions have been published in Wired, InformationWeek, C/Net, eWeek, ZDNet, CIO, Upside, CFO, and many other outlets.
Dries Buytaert, Acquia CTO and Co-founder: Dries is the original creator and project lead for the Drupal open source web publishing and collaboration platform. He serves as president of the Drupal Association, a non-profit organization formed to help Drupal flourish. A native of Belgium, Dries holds a PhD in computer science and engineering from Ghent University. Dries' Blog: http://buytaert.net
Bryan House Senior Director, Marketing, Acquia: Bryan joined Acquia from EMC, where he managed product and outbound marketing for Documentum’s collaboration, document management and search technologies. Prior to EMC, Bryan worked in product marketing and product management in the collaboration technology space, after brewing beer professionally for seven years. Bryan lives in the Boston area and is an ardent Red Sox fan, he earned his MBA at Harvard.