Jason Calacanis - friday keynote

I'm an "Entrepreneur in Action" at Sequoia Capital.

Jason McCabe Calacanis is the founder and CEO of Mahalo.com, a human-powered search engine focused on the top English-language search terms, including verticals such as travel, products, news, entertainment, sports, food, and health. Prior to Mahalo.com’s launch in alpha in May, 2007, he was an “Entrepreneur in Action" at Sequoia Capital, Silicon Valley's leading venture capital firm, a position he held since December 2006.

Jason co-founded and was the CEO of Weblogs, Inc., a network of popular weblogs that was sold to AOL in November 2005. Upon joining AOL, he was appointed senior vice president. In addition, he was named general manager of AOL’s Netscape and was responsible for the July 2006 relaunch of the iconic browser as a social bookmarking news site.

Prior to forming Weblogs Inc., Jason was the founder of Rising Tide
Studios, a media company that published the magazines Silicon Alley Reporter and Digital Coast Reporter. The flagship publication later became Venture Reporter, a venture capital database, and was sold to Dow Jones.

Jason is from Brooklyn, NY and currently resides in Los Angeles and New York with his wife and bulldog. He received a B.A. in psychology from Fordham University. Jason is known for his transparency and insights into the internet and media industries. His views can be read daily on his own blog, www.calacanis.com and heard weekly on "CalacanisCast," a new show on The PodTech Network.

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elisa camahort - saturday keynote

Co-Founder and COO of BlogHer, the web's number-one guide to women bloggers

Elisa Camahort is a co-founder of BlogHer and manages its events, marketing and corporate operations. A marketing executive with 17 years of experience in Silicon Valley, Elisa left her life in high tech product management to go online and join the social media world, and to help companies go there too.

She co-founded BlogHer as a labor of love in 2005 with Jory Des Jardins and Lisa Stone, and in two short years BlogHer has grown to be the number-one guide to and source for blogs by women. BlogHer serves its mission of creating opportunities for education, exposure, community and economic empowerment with its web community, sold-out conferences and advertising network that now features over 800 network members.

Elisa Camahort was at the vanguard of professional and business blogging and currently writes nine blogs. She blogs at various times about marketing, health issues, green and eco-conscious living, being a vegan, and reality TV talent shows like American Idol and Project Runway! She’s a frequent public speaker in the areas of business blogging and online community, and has been published frequently, including her monthly column for the Silicon Valley Metro, Silicon Veggie.

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Stewart pittman - saturday howto

Committing Local TV News Since 1989

Upon stumbling into his first TV station in 1989, Stewart Pittman began his journey to the Fifth Estate. A quick mastery of studio production skills at WNCT-TV left him sleepy and bored, so he wormed his way into a Creative Services gig and began shooting desperately bad local commercials. There he would have remained had it not been for an unlikely hostage incident - a prolonged stand-off that Pittman watched through the lens of his very first betacam. A junkie was born.

Cranking out commercial dreck for finicky management didn't set well with a guy used to loitering at the edge of calamity. Stewart Pittman realized he had to get back into a news unit, pronto. No longer concerned with being on-air, he embraced his auteur aspirations and took a position as a photojournalist with WGHP-TV. There he took his journeyman skills to another level, working with anchors and reporters on every assignment imaginable while producing a steady strieam of his trademark solo work. As he mastered his own broadcast craft, the now-veteran photog sensed the implications of emerging media. Stewart thought he might have something to say about it. Enter Lenslinger.

In mid-2004, Stewart launched a humble blog, Viewfinder Blues. Soon he was gaining a small but loyal readership. Since that time, Pittman has web-published picture-heavy diatribes, from critiques to essays, missives to memoir rants to reflections. Today he enjoys a reputation that he could never have fostered without cyber-izing his every other thought. A voracious reader of blogs and a tangential member of the thriving Greensboro blogosphere, Stewart can be currently be found noodling with his site, walking in the woods or putting off work on his first book.

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andy bechtel - saturday panel moderator

Andy Bechtel teaches editing and writing at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC-Chapel Hill. Bechtel has nearly 12 years of experience in newspapers, most recently at The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., where he was Nation & World editor. He also worked as a copy editor in the N&O sports department and in its Chapel Hill bureau. His other experience includes work as a copy editor and page designer at the News & Record in Greensboro, N.C., and as a journalism professor at Louisiana State University.

Bechtel is a member of the Committee of Concerned Journalists, the American Copy Editors Society and the Society for News Design. He has written articles and reviews for publications such as SND Update, Quill, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly and The North Carolina Media Law Handbook. He writes a blog about editing and writing at www.editdesk.blogspot.com.

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will bunch - panelist & workshop leader

William Bunch is the senior writer for the Philadelphia Daily News and its former political writer. Will's been covering presidential campaigns and conventions all the way back to Jesse Jackson's historic 1984 bid. Working for the spunky Philly paper that GQ once called "arguably the best tabloid in America," he's gained national recognition for his scoops on the mysteries of 9/11, the crash of Flight 93, the war in Iraq and the beheading of Nick Berg.

Before coming to Philadelphia, Will was a key member of the New York Newsday team that won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for spot news reporting. His magazine articles have appeared in a number of national and regional publications, including the New York Times Magazine, and he is a contributing editor at his alma mater's Brown Alumni Magazine.

Will is also the author of the critically praised 1994 book "Jukebox America: Down Back Streets and Blue Highways in Search of the Country's Greatest Jukebox." He lives in Philadelphia, has two children, an 11-year-old daughter and a 9-year-old son, and when he's not dissecting politics he's probably either still searching for Philly's best jukebox or brooding over the Phillies or 76ers.

Will Bunch's blog - Attytood - is here.

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chris rabb - panelist & workshop leader

Chris Rabb is a consultant, writer, geneaologist, social commentator, and "Netroots" activist.

Chris has been covered by or featured on C-SPAN, Fox News, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, and various other outlets.

He was one of fewer than 40 credentialed bloggers at the 2004 Democratic Convention, blogging on-site for Afro-Netizen, which he founded in 1999.

Since 2000, he has been a principal at Visceral Ventures LLC, a consultancy focusing on three overlapping areas: interactive communications/new media strategy, organizational dynamics and entrepreneurial coaching. His professional niche centers on effective means of targeting and engaging various constituencies, including: voters, consumers, and other groups within urban African-American communities.

A former stand-up comedian and improv comedy performer, Chris has spoken at conferences, universities, and other venues across the U.S., and has written for such publications as The Nation, Colorlines, and Savoy Magazine.

He is a graduate of Yale College and also earned an M.S. in Organizational Dynamics at the University of Pennsylvania. Chris is a 2001 American Marshall Memorial Fellow, and was elected as a Democratic Committeeman in May 2006, serving his Mt. Airy neighborhood of northwest Philadelphia. A native of Chicago, he is the proud husband of Professor Imani Perry, and father to two sons, Freeman Diallo and Issa.

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anil dash - panelist & workshop leader

I'm a Vice President at Six Apart and a writer/geek/New Yorker. I'm best known for having been involved with blogs since the early days of the medium. Six Apart is the biggest and best blogging company in the world, and we make TypePad, Movable Type, LiveJournal and Vox. There's a brief biography of me on this page, or you can look at my Wikipedia bio for a slightly odd perspective. Feel free to just email me at anil@dashes.com for more information. You can find out about Six Apart on our company website.

As you can probably tell, most of my professional life and much of my personal life revolves around weblogs, or blogs. I maintain several, with my primary weblog being named after myself, Anil Dash. I contribute professionally to the blogs that make up the Six Apart website, and I've helped thousands of individuals, organizations, and companies get started with their own blogs.

You can see a list of recent press mentions and quotes on Google News, and most recent articles mentioning Six Apart are available on the Six Apart press page. Some notable coverage includes a profile in New York Magazine from November 2003, a Wired News story from July 2004, this New York Times piece from June 2005, and in featured articles in the September 2006 and March 2007 issues of Wired.

Read more here.

andy coon - producer & chair ConvergeSouth film festival

ANDY BURTON COON is an award winning documentary filmmaker that currently resides in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is married to Angela Garrity Coon his best friend and greatest love.

Andy chose the Broadcasting/Cinema department where he focused on Radio/Film/Television Production. He signed up for a documentary class with Professor Matt Barr that helped Andy mold his film into an award winning documentary, “Greensboro’s Child“. With that Andy has maintained a professional relationship with Matt Barr and continues to visit and speak to his documentary classes.

Read more here

Get the mp4 for Greensboro's Child here

sean coon - moderator & chair, convergesouth music

Sean Patrick Coon is an experience designer and digital activist, born and raised in Montclair, New Jersey, trying to make a living and a difference out of Greensboro, North Carolina.

In a past life, he led the User Experience and Information Architecture practices at Ameritrade and Xpedior, respectively. Hands-on positions included gigs as lead information architect for Personal Publishing at Tripod/Lycos, information architect at Organic Online NYC, interactive art director at DVCInteractive and game designer at Learn Technologies Interactive.

His current focus is as the Principal Designer at dotmatrix, an experience design consultancy.

Sean spends his free time teaching, playing ball, mentoring, writing poetry, promoting live music, publishing his perspective and finding new ways to enrich his life with the knowledge of others.

ruby sinreich - panelist

Ruby Sinreich is the founder and editor of OrangePolitics.org, a progressive multi-author weblog with a vibrant community discussing local issues around her hometown of Chapel Hill, NC. Professionally, she specializes in strategies that connect people to each other, sometimes known as “network-centric advocacy,” “Web 2.0,” or “grassroots organizing,” depending upon what type of geek one is.

Ruby’s professional experience includes social network analysis, blogger outreach, organizer capacity-building, web site design and development, online communication strategy, and all manner of trainings. Ruby has helped hundreds of progressive nonprofits use technology more effectively in service of their educational, movement-building, and political missions. She has worked with organizations of all sizes and scopes including local women’s centers, statewide advocacy organizations, and national and international institutions such as Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Greenpeace International, and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Ruby is also an engaging and informative public speaker and workshop facilitator. She has led sessions or served on panels at South by Southwest Interactive, Harvard’s Berkman Center, NetSquared, IPDI’s Politics Online Conference, N-TEN’s Nonprofit Technology Conference, and many other events for nonprofits and advocacy organizations.

Ruby earned a BSPH from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1993, and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Duke University in 2000. She has volunteered on a variety of nonprofit and local government boards and commissions including the Chapel Hill Planning Board, which she currently chairs. Ruby practices Engaged Buddhism. She lives in a townhouse on the edge of Bolin Creek with her husband Brian Russell and two cats.

Read more here

dan conover - panelist

Dan Conover grew up in and around Greensboro before taking up journalism and landing at The Post and Courier newspaper in Charleston, SC, in 1994. After five years as the paper’s city editor, Conover returned to reporting in 2004 and was named South Carolina’s Journalist of the Year in February 2005. In the spring of that year, Conover produced the paper’s first blog and podcast, and in November 2005 Conover agreed to lead a newsroom effort to modernize Charleston.net and the paper’s online program. After filling in for several months as the site's News Director, Conover returned to reporting full-time in February 2007 when the company hired a full-time Charleston.net director.

Conover built his first websites in 1994-95 and has been an active blogger since 2003. His active private blogs include Conover on Media (2004-present); the multi-author site Xark! (2005-present); and the recently launched Fantasy Football Mashup. He began Charleston.net's staff blogging program in March 2006. His professional blogs include Spoletoblog (2005);  Lowcountry Blogs (2006-07); Storm Watch (2006), Spoleto Today (2007) and Fun & Games (2007). Lowcountry Blogs, Conover's blog-about-local blogs, was inspired by the inaugural ConvergeSouth, and is now written primarily by Heather Solos, another local blogger.

In March 2007, Conover and his wife, graphic designer Janet Edens, created an experimental weekly features section called Friday 5, which Conover writes, photographs and edits. His other journalistic duties include drawing a weekly cartoon and creating news-themed Wordfind puzzles for the paper's Fun & Games section, in print and online; blogging; and making short films for Charleston.net. Conover was a multimedia fellow to the Knight Digital Media Center at UC-Berkeley in the spring of 2006. He also serves as a consultant to Organic Process Productions, a Charleston-based film, publishing and art production company.

jason mchugh

Jason McHugh has a range of experience producing multi-media. McHugh has most recently produced a feature film, Electric Apricot: Quest for Festeroo, directed by the legendary Les Claypool.

McHugh also works for Perry Farrell and Lollapalooza producing “Mindfield” a text messaging prankster game found only at Lollapalooza.

McHugh launched a content merchandise website in 1999 which still operates as CRAPtv.com. McHugh is most well know for producing the feature films Cannibal: The Musical and Orgazmo with Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park fame.

saskia wilson-brown - presenter

After obtaining her Master’s Degree in Fine Art at Central Saint Martin’s College in London, Saskia moved to Los Angeles to work as an art director for music videos and commercials quickly moving into production design for the likes of Master P among many others.

Moving on to become director of the Silver Lake Film Festival in Los Angeles, Saskia created a new media digital arm to the festival (MP4Fest) as well as producing the festival’s large live music initiatives (MusicFest). During her tenure as Festival Director, she placed a strong emphasis on local, documentary, music and new media film programming.

Saskia currently works at Emmy Award winning Current TV as the manager of VC2 Filmmaker Outreach.

brandon gross - presenter

Creative Executive, Current TV

At Current TV, Brandon is involved in developing and producing content for the network, where 1/3 of the programming is VC2 (Viewer Created Content.) In his role as Creative Executive, Brandon is responsible for developing one off segments, formats, and serial properties for Internet distribution as well as television broadcast.

Prior to working at Current TV, Brandon worked at United Talent Agency in Beverly Hills, where he worked with A-list talent, exploring and executing deals on clients¹ behalf in the online space.

Brandon graduated with a B.A. from Brown University and later attended The Peter Stark Producing program at the University of Southern California.

tom lassiter - saturday how-to session leader

Tom Lassiter has earned his living with words and pictures (still and moving) since graduating from college in the last century.

He once worked as a newspaper reporter, photographer and editor and now writes for consumer and trade magazines, manages communications projects for corporate and non-profit clients, and produces videos as often as possible.

He posted his first Internet video somewhere around 1995 and was the first streaming media columnist for Television Broadcast magazine.

He would like to find more video on the Internet worth watching.

Ed Cone - Conference co-coordinator, journalist & blogger

Ed Cone is serving as a panelist and workshop leader this year.

I live in Greensboro, North Carolina with my wife, Lisa, our two children, and our dog, Luna.

I am employed as a senior writer at Ziff Davis Enterprise and write an opinion column for the News & Record, the monopoly daily newspaper in my home town.

I have worked as a contributing editor at Wired, a staff writer at Forbes, and a freelancer for a wide variety of magazines and papers.

Read more at Ed's blog

amber rhea - saturday how-to presenter

Amber Rhea is one of the co-founders of the Georgia Podcast Network, a portal site for Georgia-based podcasts. She and her boyfriend/co-conspirator/other GAPN co-founder, Rusty Tanton, host the award-winning podcast Mostly ITP, which focuses on people and issues in Atlanta (and occasionally elsewhere). Amber was also the main organizer of PodCamp Atlanta, a podcasting unconference which was held for the first time in March 2007 and will rear its Web 2.0-savvy head again in May 2008. Her latest endeavor is Sex 2.0, an unconference focused on the intersection of social media, feminism, and sexuality. She also finds time for a day job as a web developer.

Amber has been blogging for over five years and building web sites for over ten years. When she's not blogging, coding, or organizing conferences, she enjoys pole dancing, sleeping, going on road trips, and plotting world domination.

James Protzman - saturday how-to session leader

James Protzman is one of the founders of BlueNC.  He has a day job as a business writer, and spends the rest of his time blogging and working on two novels.

James is a 1972 graduate of the US Naval Academy, and has a masters degree in journalism from UNC.

teresa styles - saturday panelist

Teresa Styles is a professor and former chairwoman of the journalism and mass communication department at North Carolina A & T STate University.  Previously, she worked as a producer with CBS News. 

She received her PhD from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and she has participated in Leadership North Carolina. 

In 2005, the N.C. A & T department became the second accredited journalism program in the state under Dr. Styles' leadership.

anton zuiker - friday panelist & saturday how-to leader

Anton Zuiker is a journalist, blogger and community builder living in Durham, North Carolina.

Anton earned a master’s degree in medical journalism from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where his thesis reporting project was a 12,000-word narrative magazine feature on a rise in HIV among college students in North Carolina.

Anton’s interests include infectious diseases, genetic technology, urban design and online communities. Formerly editor of Northern Ohio Live Magazine, Anton wrote the “Inventing the Future” column about innovation for that magazine.

He organized the “Weblogs and Journalism” seminar for North Carolina journalists in March 2004, the UNC-CH “Narratives of HIV” series of media awareness events in Spring 2004, the Triangle Bloggers Conference in February 2005 and the North Carolina Science Blogging Conference in January 2007. He is also organizing the second annual science blogging conference for January 2008.

Anton spent two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu, where he organized a multi-island solar electrification project. Anton administers multiple websites and weblogs, including a personal weblog at www.mistersugar.com and a North Carolina blogger community site at www.blogtogether.org.

Anton is currently Manager of Internal Communications for Duke Medicine. Find out more about Anton Zuiker on his blog.

natalie koeplinger - saturday how-to session leader

Natalie Koeplinger currently works for a Fortune 100 company consulting on wiki projects.  Previous work experience includes system consulting, international operations and logistics and customer service.  

Natalie has a BA in political science and German with a MA in applied geography.

Kirk Ross - saturday how-to session leader

Kirk Ross is the editor and one of the founders of The Carrboro Citizen, a weekly newspaper and array of Web sites based in Carrboro, North Carolina. In addition to a career as a reporter and editor with the Chapel Hill News and the Independent Weekly, Kirk developed online strategies for both publications.

He thought he was leaving the stresses of newsprint for the brave new world of blogging in May 2006 when he left the Indy and developed Exile on Jones Street, a slightly irreverent survey of governance in the Old North State ? and The Cape Fear Mercury, a drive-around-the-state-and-write-what-I-want blog.

In September 2006, he was about to launch a hyper-local news blog aimed at Carrboro when a community journalism class at UNC-Chapel Hill inspired him and semi-retired publisher Robert Dickson to start an actual printed paper as well. They designed a sustainable newspaper business model and launched the paper on March 21, 2007.

The Citizen's Web site features a series of interwoven, Wordpress blogs used as content management systems for specific areas of interest and uses add-ons with maps, slideshows, audio and video.
Kirk will be offering some ideas on how to set up and structure a sustainable, scalable newsgathering operation.

sam harrelson - friday workshop leader

Sam Harrelson is an the US representative for Clicks2Customers, an online paid search advertising agency.  Sam is based out of the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina. With a wide academic background including studies in Ancient Near Eastern Archaelogy, String Theory and Divinity School, Sam views the online marketing world through a wide lens and focuses on the industry’s ability to reach individuals, form communities and create social networks.

Instead of “consumers,” Sam sees individuals as producers of content and investigates how developing technologies and applications furthers the ability of people to participate in marketing efforts rather than just consume. Sam has over six years in the affiliate marketing industry with experience as a publisher, email marketer, website owner, Director of Business Development, Senior Vice President, and now General Manager.

E.C. Huey - friday workshop leader

Already a declared (yet unofficial) reform candidate vying for the 2008 Guilford County Board of Education's at-large seat, Erik C. Huey, age 35, lives in north Jamestown/Adams Farm with his wife and seven-year-old daughter, who's a second grader in a Guilford County public school. Originally from Chicago, Mr. Huey has been a classroom teacher in both Guilford and Randolph Counties for the past couple of years.

Mr. Huey is also a former journalist, who received a B.A. in media communications from Governors State University in 1997. He spent seven years in journalism and public relations with companies in Washington, D.C., Las Vegas and right here in Greensboro.

Locally, Huey is a former reporter with the High Point Enterprise and the former Triad Business News. Huey is an active member of Vickrey United Methodist Church and volunteers with his daughter's Girl Scouts troop. Huey was also an active member of the former Greensboro Young Professionals prior to its incorpiration into synerG, an initiative of Action Greensboro. Huey is a conservative with North Carolina values of faith, family and country. Huey's experience as a former Guilford County Schools classroom teacher gives him the unique experience necessary to put children first in Guilford County. Visit his sister website at http://www.hueyforguilfordschoolboard.org/.

You can also e-mail him direct on hueyforguilfordschoolboard@yahoo.com.

joe killian - panelist

Joe Killian a reporter at Greensboro's daily newspaper, the News & Record, and author of the N&R pop culture blog, "Culture Shock."

He's reported on political protests, murders, environmental issues and the rise in gang related crimes in Greensboro.

He began blogging in 2002, after mocking an ex-girlfriend's Livejournal blog and wondering aloud why anyone would want to blog. Six months later, he had two blogs and three blog aggregator accounts. All downhill from there.

Since joining the N&R staff he has blogged some of the stories behind the stories, giving readers a behind-the-scenes account of the reporting of some of the most controversial and interesting stories he's done -- as well as some of the lighter side of reporting.

eric fink - friday workshop leader

Eric Fink is an Associate Professor at the Elon UniVersity School of Law. His current research includes a study of law students' use of online social networking.

In his past life as a practicing attorney, he advised and represented clients on various matters related to electronic media, including defamation, privacy rights, trademark infringement and trade disparagement, and online communication by employees.

brandon pierce - saturday how-to leader

Brandon Pierce owns and operates ShifterTV, providing multimedia marketing solutions to companies of the Triad. He received his B.F.A. in Art & Design from UNCG.

Brandon helped found the Greensboro Fringe Festival and was among the original co-founders of the non-profit arts production company, American Distractions. He continues to support the arts as a sponsor of the Greensboro Fringe Festival. And this year ShifterTV is a proud sponsor of the BooBashDash.org race, in the hopes of raising awareness and funding for AT (Ataxia-telangiectasia) research.

billy jones - friday workshop leader

Billy Jones is a sometimes outrageous poet and blogger from Greensboro, North Carolina, aka Blogsboro. At some point in his life Billy picked up a pen and started writing poetry and short stories. Later he discovered the Internet.

Today Billy's BloggingPoet.com is one of the most well known poetry blogs in the world. Love him or hate him few poetry bloggers don't know who Billy is. Billy's books, including Billy's fourth book, "Reindeer Tales" can be found online.

Billy is a partner in Policlicks.com LLC., an online advertising agency that builds free web networks for nonprofits and sells advertising to help support those worthy causes. The crown jewel of Policlicks is the 8,100 strong VFW Webcom Network built exclusively for the Departments of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Billy also owns 51% of the MuseCrafters Blog Network, a free blogging application aimed at poets and other creative writers that offers the industry's best copyright protections. Given that by default other blogging applications offer no copyright protections Billy considers that a pretty big deal.