Marketing

Tara is the founder of Marketing Artfully, a 12-year-old company that creates cutting-edge marketing strategies for small businesses. Tara’s primary responsibilities are speaking with small business owners, conducting workshop trainings, and consulting with clients. With a B.A. in Psychology and 10+ years of “in-the-trenches” marketing experience, Tara’s background prepared her for helping small business owners grow their market share and profitability with “real life” marketing ideas and lead-generating tips.

Alan Siege, CEO/Owner of Small Business Management Consulting, which focuses on small firms. SBMC helps companies increase profits by improving the way they tell their business story. He has been featured in NY Newsday, CrainsNewYork, American Express OPEN, Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, and Good Housekeeping. He is an instructor for the NYC Department of Small Business Services Entrepreneur Boot Camp, a Kaufman Foundation Certified Facilitator for its FastTrac programs offered by NYC, as well as an adjunct Professor at the Center for Continuing Education and Workforce Development at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, and the School of Continuing and Professional Studies at New York University.

As CEO of MyCorporation Business Services, Inc., Deborah Sweeney advocates to protect personal and business assets for all consumers. With her extensive experience in the field of corporate and intellectual property law, Deborah can provide insightful commentary on the benefits, barriers, and who should consider incorporation and trademark registration. She also has extensive experience in the start-up and entrepreneurial sector as she has been involved in the formation of hundreds of thousands of MyCorporation’s customers.

Deborah joined MyCorporation in 2003 after serving as outside general counsel for 5 years. She received her Juris Doctor and Masters in Business Administration degrees from Pepperdine University and is a member of the American Bar Association. She also serves on the Board of Regents at California Lutheran University.

Deborah has served as an adjunct professor at the University of West Los Angeles and San Fernando School of Law in the area of corporate and intellectual property law. Because of her extensive knowledge, Sweeney has long served as a speaker and panelist on legal issues affecting new-to-the-world and growing businesses.

Ms. Sweeney is also well-recognized for her written work online as a contributing writer with some of the top business and entrepreneurial blogging sites. Her account with Forbes has featured articles with upward to 25,000 views. She also regularly contributes to American Express, She Takes on the World, YFS Magazine, Empower Me! Magazine, and Business Insider, among others.

Beth Goldstein, president of Marketing Edge Consulting Group and adjunct professor, Boston University School of Management.

Author, consultant, trainer, and founder of Marketing Edge Consulting Group, Beth Goldstein has empowered hundreds of entrepreneurs to successfully grow their companies. She helps companies understand how their customers think, what they value, and what influences their purchasing decisions, and then uses this knowledge to create targeted business-development programs that drive revenue and fundamental growth while increasing profitability and customer loyalty.

Her first book, The Ultimate Small Business Marketing Toolkit (McGraw-Hill) is used in 30+ cities around the U.S. to teach business owners the critical skills they need to accelerate growth. In addition to running her consulting practice, Beth conducts small-business growth workshops around the U.S. and abroad, teaches entrepreneurial marketing at the Boston University School of Management where she is the faculty director for the school's Online Graduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship Program (recognized by Fortune Small Business Magazine/CNN Money as one of the top 5 e-learning entrepreneurship programs in the US).

Peter Shankman, vice president and small business evangelist for Vocus

PR Week Magazine has described Peter Shankman as “redefining the art of networking”, and Investor’s Business Daily has called him “crazy, but effective”.

Shankman is a spectacular example of what happens when you merge the power of pure creativity with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and a dose of adventure, and make it work to your advantage.

An author, entrepreneur, speaker, and worldwide connector, Peter is recognized for his radically new ways of thinking about social media, PR, marketing, advertising, and customer service.

Peter is best known for founding Help A Reporter Out, (HARO) which in less than a year became the defacto standard for thousands of journalists looking for sources on deadline, offering more than 200,000 sources around the world. HARO is currently the largest free source repository in the world and sends out more than 1,500 queries from worldwide media each week. In June 2010, less than two years after Peter started HARO in his apartment, it was acquired by Vocus, Inc.

International speaker Shel Horowitz's eighth book, Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Planet (co-authored with Jay Conrad Levinson, published in 2010 by Wiley) was on Amazon's environmental bestseller list for 18 months. The book documents how businesses can be green, ethical AND profitable. Using examples from Fortune 100 companies to solo-preneurs, the book lays out how ethics and green principles are not just about doing the right thing but also about profitability. Surprising principles are demonstrated that show why most businesses shouldn't even worry about market share. The book shows business owners how to form powerful partnerships, even with competitors; how to get your green message out without green-washing; and how to become a much deeper shade of green. Shel also writes the internationally syndicated monthly column, Green And Profitable.

Andrew Schulkind,  an online communications and web development strategist, is a 16-year veteran of the interactive media industry, specializing in online communication strategy. Since founding Andigo New Media in 1996, his broad range of interests and insatiable curiosity have helped clients understand and effectively use CD-ROMs, DVDs, websites, email marketing, search optimization and marketing, and social media.

Under his guidance, the Andigo development team has helped clients use these tools to build a wide range of applications

• corporate marketing presences
• business process simulations
• product catalogs and e-commerce stores
• document libraries
• training materials

For all projects, Andrew's primary focus is on effective communication. Combining information architecture, usability/user experience, and common sense, Andrew ensures that every project connects with its intended audience.

Andrew graduated with a B.A. in Philosophy from Bucknell University. He is treasurer of the board of the Rhinebeck Science Foundation, a nonprofit that supports hands-on, thematic learning in grades K through 12. He also co-chairs the Rhinebeck Web Committee, managing site development and recommending online policy for the town and village of Rhinebeck, where he lives. He is an avid fly fisherman and cyclist, and loves collecting meaningless trivia. (Did you know the Lone Ranger made his mask from the cloth of his brother's vest after his brother was killed by "the bad guys?")

Jane Tabachnick is a seasoned professional with more than 25 years of experience with both nonprofit and for-profit marketing, business development, training, management, and fundraising.

She is part geek and part green. For more than 20 years, she has worked with businesses and nonprofits to launch new products and train teams on sustainability and new technologies.

Most recently, she helped develop The Sustainable Design Entrepreneur’s Certificate Program for the continuing education division of The Fashion Institute of Technology. She is now working with the Institute to create an online version of the program.

She helped The American Women's Economic Corp, The Fashion Institute of Technology and Hunter College create programs on video creation, sustainability, entrepreneurship and business growth, and technology for professionals, non-profits and business owners.

Jane’s interest in film and video inspired her to write and produce the film TV Talk as well as create video and video training for clients. She just completed the video training program Easy Video Creation, which teaches how to make and market affordable motion graphics videos.

She has created some DIY [do it yourself] marketing tools for small business owners including Stand For Green™ – the first marketing tool for green businesses, The Buzz Building Toolkit and most recently Easy Video Creation.

She was recently named one of the top 100 most influential people online by Fast Company, and has been named a Woman of the Future and honored for her work with a Galaxy Award from New York Women’s Agenda.

Jane has taught marketing, online marketing, sustainable/socially responsible marketing at AWED, The Fashion Institute of Technology, Wise Women Network, as well as conducted webinars and seminars that her own company has presented.

Vanessa Wakeman is the driving force behind The Wakeman Agency. Based in New York, its clients span the globe. It is an award-winning agency that produces innovative, high-impact special events and PR campaigns for a diverse roster of organizations committed to social change.

Vanessa launched The Wakeman Agency in 2003 to provide public relations and event management. She has been quoted by PR Week, The New York Daily News, ABC Eyewitness News, Selling Power, Smart Money magazine, Westchester magazine, New York News Day, Philanthropy Journal magazine, and a host of other outlets.