Speakers 2010
KEYNOTE Shel Israel – Twitterville People
Shel Israel of Twitterville
Shel Israel writes, speaks and consults on social media and business. He is author of Twitterville, how businesses can thrive in the new Global Neighborhoods [Portfolio, Sept. 2009]; co-author, of Naked Conversations–how blogs are changing the way businesses talk with customers [Wiley, 2006], and The Conversational Corporation [May 2009]. He has contributed editorially to BusinessWeek and FastCompanyTV and various online publications. His blog is among the 100 most popular business blogs, according to Ad Age. Israel is currently researching his third hardcover book, Blurring Boundaries: How Online Communities improve products & profits for companies & customers.
Israel is a natural-born storyteller. He mixes humor into talks that are designed to make practical points. He selects from his portfolio of more than 100 case studies to illustrate social media best practices. Your audience will be inspired and surprised with what they can accomplish through the effective use of social media. Israel is a senior fellow to the Society for New Media Research (SNCR) an organization that researches all aspects of social media for business, academia and government and on the board of advisors for the Social Media Club and SmartBrief on Social Media. He has delivered guest lectures at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Purdue and UMass Dartmouth.
Andrew Brand – The Rise Of Digital Doesn’t Mean The Death Of Traditional
Andrew Brand of Ninety9Cents
Managing Director of Ninety9Cents Communication, Andrew Brand started working on retail business when Lewin de Villiers (NINETY9CENTS partner) approached him while he was still Executive Creative Director of Berry Bush BBDO. Intrigued by the pace, honesty and transparency of retail advertising. Andrew was also interested in advertising strategy, the business angle. Running his own agency, Ninety9Cents Communication, allows him to remain involved in the day-to-day work as well as the strategic side of all NINETY9CENTS’s clients. His roles in the agency include Business Development, Human Resources, Talent Development, Information Technology, Marketing, Public Relations, Strategic Planning and Relationship Management.
“I believe the old agency models are under enormous pressure,” says Brand. “Media fragmentation and the impact of new media are still in their infancy. Amidst all this industry change and turmoil, however, we know that brands still need to communicate with their consumers. The conversation has changed forever, and the agencies that embrace the changing priorities and permissions of today’s customers are the ones who will still be around in 20 years.” Out of the workplace Brand is an avid golfer, although he does not play as often as he would like to. A great fan of the outdoors you’ll find him either seaside or mountainside.
Andrew Cardoza – Mobile – The Glue Between The Digital World And The Real World
Andrew Cardoza of Mobilitrix
Andrew Cardoza is the current Chief Technical Officer (CTO) and founder of Mobilitrix, started in his home in 2006. Cardoza specialises in low-bandwidth LEO (Low-Earth-Orbiting) micro-satellites, GSM/GPS systems and other terrestrial based communication. He was part of the SUNSAT micro-satellite team (based at the Stellenbosch ground station) at the same time NASA launched the SUNSAT satellite into orbit in 1999. Cardoza worked several years in R&D developing GSM/GPS vehicle tracking solutions for international and local use. He gained experience in designing and developing embedded cellular communication systems and found his passion for the mobile communications. Qualifications: B.Sc Hons in Computer Science (Cum Laude) (1993). B.Eng in Electrical Engineering (1998). M.Sc in Electronic Engineering (2001)
Andy Hadfield – Online Reputation Management: 10 considerations for shaping your strategy
Andy Hadfield of www.OneBIGWidget.com
Andy Hadfield is a digital native… and has big dreams for the Internet. He has played in every corner of the digital industry, launching his first startup at age 19, while still at the University of Cape Town. getALife (gAL) was essentially a social network before the word was even invented (they were called content portals back then!) The site, targeted at students between the ages of 18 and 24, achieved over 1.2 million page impressions a month back in 1999/2000 and was covered on every major media platform, including Time Magazine. He then spent the next 7 years honing his strategic skills. Firstly with The Virtual Works, working on pioneering projects such as an Enterprise 2.0 employee community for Deloitte, and arguably SA’s first commercial social network (www.designmind.co.za). Then later at FNB, developing a team that handled digital strategy across the consumer banking segment. This included projects such as corporate crowdsourcing, the first official FaceBook presence, a major overhaul of www.fnb.co.za and the country’s slickest online sales system for financial products. He runs www.OneBIGWidget.com, a boutique strategic consultancy and digital advisory. You can find him on www.andyhadfield.com or tweeting his love for cricket, wine and marketing on www.twitter.com/andyhadfield.
Beverley Schafer – The Rise Of Social Media In Politics
Beverley Schafer of Democratic Alliance
Beverley Schäfer heads the Communication and Marketing Department of the Democratic Alliance. Her department focuses on direct communication through electronic and social media channels to supporters and civil society in general. She is also involved in the setting up of DA Networks ‘hubs’ around the world with its centre currently based in the UK. Australia and New Zealand will be up and running by May 2010. Beverley sits as Vice Chair for both the Atlantic Seaboard Branch as well as the South Central Constituency of the DA. Her background lies in brand marketing with a strong passion for networking. Her particular interest lies in Social Media Marketing, as a medium through which brands engage with online communities to increase brand awareness and build new business relationships. “Obama became this first ‘social media’ driven President! Politicians and political party’s all over the world strive to achieve the same effect!”
Christine Da Silva – Discovering Search Marketing
Christine Da Silva of AlterSage
Christine has been involved with search engines since Google’s birth in 1998 and AlterSage was founded in 2006 with the vision she encompasses for online and digital media: a holistic approach allowing clients to increase company exposure and brand awareness, leads and sales. Christine is well-experienced in all facets of online marketing her favourite being SEM, Usability, Conversion Analytics and Social Media.
Daniel Neville – Crowdsourcing and Its Effect On The Marketing And Communications Industry
Daniel Neville of IdeaBounty
Daniel Neville is the Brand Coordinator for the global crowdsourcing platform Idea Bounty which helps big brands to source creative solutions to marketing and communications problems. Working out of Quirk eMarketing’s Cape Town office, he run the platforms day to day operations as well as handling all sales and marketing duties. Idea Bounty has an online community of 11, 000 creatives worldwide and provides a portal for these creative thinkers to contribute ideas that meet the briefs of major international brands. The winning ideas get rewarded with cash bounties. Daniel has worked with and hosted briefs for some major clients/brands, including Red Bull, BMW, SABMiller, Unilever, Levi’s®. Daniel graduated from UCT with a BA in Multimedia Production, Media Studies and English literature. During his time at university, he showed a keen interest in film and invested a great deal of time in the UCT film society. He then went on to study at the brand communications college, Vega, where he received his Honours in Brand Management and Communications. Daniel has since gained some lecturing experience at Vega, Red & Yellow and Quirk’s Online Distance Learning Course – with a focus on his niche, crowdsourcing and Social Media. Before heading up the Idea Bounty team, Daniel worked with other Quirk clients, including South African Tourism, in Social Media. He also spent 10 months working alongside Tim Shier on BrandsEye ( a world class Online Reputation Management tool) with a focus on clients such as South African Tourism, Sun International and First National Bank (FNB). Daniel has also contributed his expertise in the field of Social Media, in the writing of the Quirk’s textbook, eMarketing: the essential guide to online marketing.
When not sifting through the reams of creative solutions to briefs, Daniel spends times engrossed in books, enjoying outdoor festivals and seeking out the best waves that Cape Town has to offer. He is also an active musician and has, in the past, gigged extensively and been a band manager.
Dave Duarte – Blended Learning: Social Media, Cloud Computing And Augmented Reality In Education
Dave Duarte of Huddlem
Dave Duarte is an internet and mobile media educator and entrepreneur. He holds several senior positions in the academic, commercial, and non-profit sectors. He is Managing Director at Huddlemind. The company consults to numerous multinational corporations to provide education and research as well as collaborative online learning platforms. Dave is founder and programme director of two Executive Education courses: Nomadic Marketing and Mobile Marketing at the University of Cape Town (UCT) Graduate School of Business. He also lectures on the Executive MBA programme at UCT GSB.
Dirk Visser – Open Innovation
Dirk Visser of
Dirk Visser is co-founder of the Open Innovation Studio, a collaborative working space in Cape Town dedicated to fostering socially responsible innovation. He is an entrepreneur and consultant on innovation, lifelong learning and sustainable development. The Open Innovation Studio is an opportunity to combine these different passions. He is the Chairman of Brightest Young Minds, a 10-year old initiative aimed at channeling the hearts and minds of the country’s brightest young minds into making a positive contribution to society. Dirk also serves as Project Manager at the University of Cambridge Progamme for Sustainability Leadership where he works on innovation for sustainable development.
Eran Eyal – Crowdsourcing: traveling beyond the barriers of Social Media space
Eran Eyal of Springleap
Matriculating in 1992, Eran Eyal studied at universities of KwaZulu Natal and UNISA until 1996, while working for Insight Technologies (later Logical), the hardware provider arm of Datatech, in technical support and producing animations for industry shows. In 1996 Eyal founded One on One Solutions Providers, a company aimed at providing corporate companies and executives with bespoke technical consultancy services. Clients ranged from McCarthy Bank to Trencor. From 1998-2001 Eyal studied Graphic Design at Natal Technikon. Inspired by industrial design, specifically reinventing the mobile handset in terms of ergonomics, materials, design approach and marketing, Eyal raised R250 000 to pursue the Mobile Re-Evolution Project, travelling, in 2002, throughout Europe meeting with the heads of major mobile manufacturers presenting the solution. In 2003 Eyal, headhunted by iiyama Benelux, was tasked with launching iiyama in South Africa and to create relationships with local distributors. In 2005, Eyal founded MobileQandA.com with life-long friend Eric Edelstein, This became the premiere site in South Africa for consumers seeking free, timely, educated answers to mobile technology and gadget related questions, as well as supplying informed reviews and opinions. In 2006 Eyal and Edelstein founded eSquared Fashion, with fashion stores in Durban and Cape Town. eSuared Fashion focused on importing amazing, provoking graphic t-shirts from Asia mixed with local South African design talent. GQ magazine rated the stores in the top 5 stores for men and London Underground rated the Cape Town store as the coolest store in SA. From here the duo created Springleap.com, an apparel crowd sourcing website. Springleap.com was second in The Standard’s Innovation 100 Awards (retail) and in SA e-commerce awards in 2009, amongst other awards. In 2009, Eyal and Edelstein raised R4-million to develop Evly.com, a SaAS white-label crowd sourcing social media portal solution and multiple new brands powered by the powerful, flexible system as well as launching Ekomi in South Africa. Eyal with David Donde on Radio 702/ Cape Talk simulcast co-hosted “A Word on Technology” in 2009-2010. He is a registered member of the Cape Town Press Club. Eran loves Shaolin Kung-Fu and Bagua Zhang, playing wooden flutes (Shakuhachi, Bansuri, Hocchiku and Kuena). A collector and avid fan of Andrew Walford ceramics, fine teas, coffee and culinary experiences, Eyal loves to travel and hike. He enjoys discovering the wonders of other cultures.
Gordon Parkin – Simbiology – The Study Of Mobile Lifestyle
Gordon Parkin of Brandscape Marketing Pty Limited
Gordon has sometimes been referred to as ‘the radical old guy’ of mobile marketing. This said, his 25 years of international below-the-line experience combined with his passion and drive for existing and emerging digital and mobile communication technology has helped build Brandscape Marketing’s national and international reputation. Gordon’s philosophy in the rapidly changing consumer market environment is that, “Uncertainty is a profit margin waiting to happen.”
Hannes Van Rensburg – Poverty Alleviation Through Mobile Phones
Hannes van Rensburg of Fundamo
Hannes is the Chief Executive and Founder of Fundamo (www.fundamo.com). Fundamo is the leading supplier of technology for mobile banking and payment deployments. With clients on four continents and offices in Cape Town, Singapore and Madrid, Fundamo technology runs millions of transactions each month. He is the author of a widely read blog on mobile banking and an active participant in mobile banking conferences. Having launched the first mobile banking solution in 1999, Hannes is often seen as the pioneer of mobile banking. Before Fundamo, he held executive positions in large financial services companies, as well as being a co-founder of a very successful technology start-up company. He consulted at some of Africa’s largest corporations (including Banks, Telco’s and Retailers). In addition to having thirty plus years of systems management experience, Hannes holds a number of degrees in Information Systems; he is a member of the CSSA (Computer Society of S.A.(www.cssa.org.za)) and an ex-board member of SAICSIT (S.A. Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists). He was one of the founding members of CITI (the Cape IT Initiative (www.citi.org.za)) and is a member of a number of international workgroups on the application of mobile financial services.
Heidi Schneigansz – Social Media, SEO & ORM: The Holy Trinity of E-Marketing
Heidi Schneigansz of Quirk eMarketing
Heidi, or Snowgoose as she prefers to be called, is a digital native. She studied Graphic Design and Multimedia and worked as a designer in Standard Bank’s Web Channel for 2 years. Her thirst for knowledge drove her to study User Experience Design, Web Project Management and Marketing Management and move into the Online Marketing space where she initiated and pioneered the bank’s Online Reputation Management programme. Fate then brought her to Quirk eMarketing as a Senior eMarketing producer where she works with clients, speaks at events and generally causes mayhem. Heidi Defines herself as the consummate geek, she is never without some sort of device that allows her to be online and tweeting
Ivor Price – I Am The Media: Social Networking And Journalism
Ivor Price of Media 24
Ivor Price (30) has gained high-level experience at Media24, where he is currently employed as Innovation Manager. He has specialist knowledge of new audience development and integrating social media with journalism. His professional highlights include international exposure as a senior journalist and columnist, publishing leading community newspaper titles and creating publications and projects for the South African youth market.
Jarred Cinman – From Websites to Digital Presences: the changing landscape of marketing and media in the digital age
Jarred Cinman of Emerging media
Jason Xenopoulos – Transmedia Storytelling – Building Brands Across A Fragmented Mediaverse
Jason Xenopoulos
Jason Xenopoulos, a 40-year-old screenwriter and film director, straddles both feature films and television commercials. Having graduated from New York University with an Honors Degree (summa cum laude) in Film and Television in 1993, Xenopoulos’ first feature film as writer-director, Promised Land, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2002 and went on to win several international awards.
Significant commercial productions that Xenopoulos was responsible for include an audacious piece of Branded Entertainment for Guinness UK called ‘Critical Assignment’. In addition to his work as a feature film director, Xenopoulos has directed a host of local and international TV commercials for leading brands such as Guinness, Caltex, MTN, Pick n Pay, Gold Reef City Resorts, Saudi Tourism and Unilever.
Johannes Cronje – The Role Of Social Software In A Learning Organisation
Johannes Cronjé of Cape peninsula University of Technology
Johannes Cronjé was born in Davenport Iowa 50 years ago when his parents were there doing more than just studying. At the age of eight months he persuaded his parents to return to South Africa where he attended an Afrikaans primary school and then Pretoria Boys High School where he matriculated in 1976. Following this he enrolled at the University of Pretoria where he obtainend the BA majoring in Afrikaans, English and Anthropology, the BA honours as well as a Teachers’ diploma before reporting for military service at the Infantry School, Oudtshoorn. During his second year of national service he completed an MA in Afrikaans literature while serving on the Angolan border. He then taught English and Afrikaans at Pretoria Boys High until 1986 when he was appointed lecturer in Language Communication at Technikon Pretoria. He taught a student population ranging from secretaries, dental assistants and managers through to engineers and journalists. During this time he was involved in several programmes involving intercultural communication, in both the formal educational sector and in the service industry. He obtained a Doctorate in Afrikaans Literature in 1990 and then a Masters Degree in Computer-Assisted Education from the University of Pretoria. From 1994 to 2007 he was a professor of computers in education with the University of Pretoria. Currently he is the Dean of the Faculty of Informatics and Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. He has also been visiting professor at Sudan University of Science and Technology, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia; the University of Joensuu, Finland, and the University of Bergen, Norway. He has supervised 65 Masters and 30 Doctoral students and published more than 30 research papers.
JP – Master Of Ceremonies
JP Naude of GoodHope FM
CEO of the SA Blog Awards; Radio Presenter on Good Hope FM; Partner in Evox Advanced Nutrition and Owner of Strategic Media, JP is passionate about social media and the maximization of databases. JP has worked in the radio industry for more than fifteen years and has worked with Mr Tokyo Sexwale, The Springboks, and The Stormers. JP has a black belt in Judo and Full contact karate, and loves golf.
Justin Hartman – Social Media ROI: Does It Exist?
Justin Hartman of Social Code
Justin is a seasoned entrepreneur and currently the CEO of Social Code (socialcode.biz), a new social media agency as well as Afrigator (afrigator.biz), a startup that he co-founded in April 2007 and later sold a stake to MIH Internet Africa – a division of Naspers Limited. Recently Justin was voted on as one of eleven members to the Silicon Cape Steering Committee – a not-for-profit, community owned & driven initiative that serves to attract and bring together local and foreign investors, the brightest technical talent, and the most promising entrepreneurs. Prior to moving to Cape Town to work on Afrigator full time he was the Digital Innovation Manager of Avusa’s online and mobile excellence unit known as the iLab where he managed a small team of dedicated and enthusiastic Web 2.0 gurus. In August 2007 Justin joined The Times newspaper as the New Media Strategist and he was heavily involved in conceptualising and implementing the web-based strategies for South Africa’s first interactive newspaper. Justin also started a web development and hosting company in October 2003 which he ran for just over three years. This is where he really learnt his trade and during this time he was heavily involved in various Web 2.0 developments which included a South African search engine, a free blogging platform as well as two top site directories. Justin has worked in both the Media and Internet space since early 1997 with companies that include Media24, CareerJunction, True Love and FinWeek.
Justin Spratt – A Peak Around The Corner
Justin Spratt of Quirk eMarketing
An Australian, living in South Africa for the last 5 years
Speaker and writer on issues where technology and economics intersect
General Manager of VoIP Mobile & Wi-Fi HotSpot businesses at Internet Solutions, Co-founder ISLabs, start-up incubator http://labs.is.co.za
Co-founder of GeekRetreat www.geekretreat.co.za
Sit on board’s of WAPA (www.wapa.org.za) and Silicon Cape (www.siliconcape.com). Formerly with investment bank, Morgan Stanley (London), working in Fixed Income on -Credit Derivatives trading desk
Education: BCom (Finance; Deans List) Honours (Cum Laude); MBA (GIBS)
Mandy De Waal – Writing the new world of journalism
Mandy de Waal - Freelancer
A former broadcast journalist who attended Rhodes University, Mandy de Waal spent twenty years in consulting, branding and reputation management before returning to journalism, writing and media consulting. Mandy de Waal has written a slew of stories about graft and corruption including the Mugabe/Naspers story which raised comment in Business Day and interviewed on 702, SAFM and Cape Talk. During the past year de Waal has written for Mail & Guardian, Noseweek; Brainstorm Magazine; ITWeb, Mark Magazine, MarkLives as well as titles in New York and Toronto. She is the editor of MandyLives. A judge for the Discovery Health Journalism Awards, de Waal also sits on the panel of judges for the PICA Awards Magazine Publishers Association of South Africa. de Waal sits on the advisory board for the Ornico Media Group. During her career de Waal has counselled blue chips like ABSA, Acceleration, BT, Consology, DMX, Gold Reef City, Heinz, Microsoft, Mosaic Software, Motorola, Nashua Mobile, Nestle, Shoprite Checkers and The South African Post Office. Her awards include the Text 100 Chairman’s Award, Planet Text Award and the Financial Mail PRISM award.
Mark Gray – Recruitment 2.0: Recruitment Re-Invented
Mark Gray of Graylink
Mark’s vision to re-engineer recruitment using a combination of traditional marketing principals and digital technologies was realized when he founded graylink in 2002. With the belief that the Internet would challenge the recruiting status quo – companies over-relying on recruitment agencies, untargeted recruitment communications with high media wastage and inefficient recruitment process management – Mark began developing an integrated recruitment solution which looked to exploit the full potential of the Internet to help companies recruit the best talent quicker, more efficiently and for less. Prior to establishing graylink, Mark was MD of Fresh Ventures, a new-venture incubator for Jamie Oliver and before that, Client Partner at leading US digital services agency Razorfish. Father of 4, when Mark has any spare time, he’s either crafting his next vintage of wine or having a ‘board’ meeting of the surf type!
Mark Horner – Using Open-Everything And Social Media To Support the Teaching Value Chain
Mark Horner
Mark Horner holds a Fellowship from the Shuttleworth Foundation to work in the area of Open and Collaborative Resources, enabling him to work on a number of projects in this area. This work is carried out in the belief that the liberation of information and support of education in South Africa will lead to a peaceful and prosperous future for all South Africans. Mark manages the Siyavula project, co-ordinating the development of a comprehensive set of Open Educational Resources (OER) supporting the South African National Curriculum. Along with Sam Halliday, he co-founded the Free High School Science Texts (FHSST) project which launched in 2002 and has collaboratively produced a set of openly licenced science and mathematics textbooks for the South African curriculum. In collaboration with Steve Song, Interconnectedness Fellow, he has founded OpenPress, a project to deploy a print aggregation service to support teachers and give under-resourced schools access to cost-effective OERs through the power of collaborative purchasing. He also runs FullMarks, an open assessment bank, to help teachers rapidly generate tests, capture results and access reports based on those results. Mark has a PhD in physics from the University of Cape Town and conducted his research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California on the results from the STAR experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York. His blog highlights the progress on the various projects and contains thoughts on the OER space as well as life in general and can be found at http://www.markhorner.net.
Marlon Parker – Breaking Social Barriers Through Social Media
Marlon Parker of Cape Peninsula University of Technology
“Marlon Parker is a Social Entrepreneur, founder of the Reconstructed Living Lab (RLabs) and an Information Technology Lecturer at Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Invited speaker in the areas of Social Entrepreneurship, ICT for Community Development and Social Innovation, he is also a guest lecturer at a number of international universities including Aalto University, University of Amsterdam Business School, UCT Graduate School of Business, University of Rhodes and University of Southampton. He is an active researcher with several academic papers and co-authored a number of books. His passion for community development has influenced his research interests and he is currently working on a project focussing on a community-driven model for social innovation. Marlon was also the co-founder of a mobile counselling service offering support in substance abuse and HIV/AIDS to tens of thousands of people throughout South Africa.”
Matthew Buckland – Future Of Social Networking: A Concept Investigatiaon With Augmented Reality
Matthew Buckland of Memeburn.com
CEO of Cape Town-based start-up Creative Spark, a web agency and digital consultancy, Matthew Buckland runs memeburn.com, a site and resource tracking emerging technologies and start-ups on the continent. Founder of 20FourLabs an incubation, innovation division at 24.com, the country’s largest online operation, Buckland previously headed South African’s online news publisher Mail & Guardian Online, which is co-owned by the UK’s Guardian Newspapers Ltd. He worked for the BBC’s commercial website division in London (beeb.com) just before “the crash”, South African portal iafrica.com, M-Net’s Carte Blanche and Avusa (formerly Johncom) Publishing. He is a former chair and founder-member of the local Online Publishers Association and director of Creative Commons, South Africa. His favourite colour is still red.
Matt Visser – Musicians And Social Media
Matthew Visser - Freelancer
I was born in 1982 & remember playing in the park a lot. Sometime after that I matriculated.
One day I wandered into a bar & liked it so much, I started working there. Then I saved up a bit & went to the UK to avoid having to study engineering (that’s what the aptitude test said after all), although I said I was going to think about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
I didn’t get a chance to think about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, but I did get a bunch of chances to live a hell of a lot over the 3 years I was there.
I ended up at the AAA School of Advertising & had the privilege of studying copywriting with some great characters, both teachers & students. I left the college with a knack for playing foosball and a decent enough porti to get me a job at a BTL Agency where I worked on predominantly alcohol brands. I started writing CRM strategies here & had more fun with Jose Cuervo as a client than anyone should ever be allowed to.
I moved into digital strategy as my own means of accessing information & branded content changed enough for me to realise that the brand strategies we were releasing at the agency I was working with at the time, were in fact becoming largely redundant. Famously, one of my previous employers joked with me that all great strategists are failed copywriters, I suppose I fall somewhere into that category. This was the beginning of my digital awakening & it continued with me doing varied jobs to get a complete understanding of what it was I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Currently I’m the creative director and digital evangelist at buynary digital marketing, an agency that I helped to start last year.
Nic Haralambous – Innovation At Mobile Operators Part 1 And Part 2
Nic Haralambous
Nic Haralambous is a media maniac and quickly moved away from print media, through online and in to mobile media production and management. He has worked as the head of the mobile division at Mail & Guardian and is currently the Product Manager on The Grid, Vodacom SA’s location-based social network.
Paul Jacobson – Social Media: Giving Traditional Legal Paradigms The Finger
Paul Jacobson of Jaccobson Attorney's
Paul Jacobson is Jacobson Attorneys’ founder and senior partner. He started out his career as a commercial litigation attorney with Werksmans Incorporated and left to start his own practice, Jacobson Attorneys, in August 2005. On 1 August 2007 he launched a new media law and policy focus area in Jacobson Attorneys. This new emphasis draws on his experience with social media to provide an innovative service to clients involved in the new media space.
He has worked as General Counsel for the non-profit organisation iCommons and served as a member of a sub-committee of the SA Standards sub-committee dealing with Information Technology: Document Description and Processing Languages which recently considered and rejected the proposed Office Open XML standard in South Africa. He is presently also a part-time WASPA adjudicator and considers complaints filed against mobile operators registered as WASPA members.
Paul focuses on the intersect between social and digital media and the law. He is particularly interested in content licensing, protection of personal information and freedom of expression on the Web. He has maintained blogs since December 2004 and takes an active interest in the South African online digital community. He is also a social media fanatic and makes use of a variety of online services to interact with clients, colleagues and members of the broader online community including Twitter.
Paul Stafford – The Cloud: A South African Success Story
Paul Stafford of Mimecast
Paul Stafford has worked in the IT industry for almost two decades. (For those in the audience only born in the late 80s and early 90s this means that when Paul began his career in IT the Internet was around but no one had worked out how to find anything on it yet.)
During this time he has worked in Europe, Africa, and Australia across various technology disciplines. Paul joined Mimecast in 2008 now spends his working days making friends and influencing people by helping customers make email trustworthy, bulletproof and continually available.
Paul is a (big) believer in the Cloud
Sheena Gates – Personalising Social Media in Business
Sheena Gates of Aqua Online
Sheena Gates started out as a blogger. Through this, she became familiar with Social Media and before she knew it, she was hooked line, sinker & fishing rod. She now heads up the Social Media team at Aqua Online – a prominent Johannesburg digital agency that handles many big corporate companies online presence & digital spaces.
She is also the Editor of NerdMag, a digital ezine created through the South African Social Media space as well as blogs at popular award-nominated blog, If These Walls Could Talk v4.0
Simon Leps – Convergence Of the Mobile And Social Media
Simon Leps of Fontera
Simon Leps is the founder of Fontera and is responsible for sales and marketing for the group worldwide. Simon started in digital media in 1994 as the Marketing Manager for SEGA and Virgin Interactive in SA. Since then Simon held positions at World Online SA as Head of Business Solutions and iTouch both in SA (Head of Consumer Products) and the UK (SMS Services). In 2003 Simon and Grant Fleming started Fontera, a boutique mobile marketing and development company. Fontera has offices in London, Atlanta and Cape Town and provides cutting edge mobile services to some of the world’s top brands on three continents. Simon is also a director of Pod1 a leading ecommerce web design and digital agency that has offices in New York, London and Cape Town as well as being one of the founders of Textstream, Africa’s leading social media application provider.
Vincent Maher – Innovation At Mobile Operators Part 1 And Part 2
Vincent Maher
Vincent Maher is the portfolio manager for Vodacom Internet Services and responsible for Vodacom’s mobile internet, social networking and mobile advertising strategy. This includes Vodacom’s multi- player gaming services, the roll- out of Vodafone 360, Adme, Facebook’s SMS platform, Vodafone’s customisation of Opera Mini and several other products. Under his management Vodacom’s location- based social network The Grid has grown by more than 1.5 million users and won the 2008 COMMS MEA New Telecommunications Product of the Year Award in Dubai.
Prior to Vodacom he was the strategist for the Mail & Guardian Online and was responsible for the redevelopment of its main news web site, its mobile strategy and several strategic social media platforms including Thought Leader and Amatomu.com, the blog aggregator. His previous positions include: Director of the New Media Lab at Rhodes University, Managing
Director of Digital Commerce Pty Ltd and Technical Director of Bitr8 Pty Ltd, Multimedia Director and Art Director at VWV Interactive. Vincent is also the games editor of Stuff Magazine and is one of the founders of Slip Skateboards.
Wesley Lynch - Ebooks and the Future of Digital Media
Wesley Lynch of Realmdigital
Wesley Lynch holds a decade of experience in the financial, business and software development industries, and is deeply involved in producing innovative technology solutions for African and international businesses. Fuelled by a passion for software and problem-solving, Wesley founded Realmdigital in 1999 after gaining a wealth of technology and business experience working in the European financial and retail sector.
Realmdigital is a software solutions company that empowers clients to conduct business fluently and effectively online, by offering technology and e-business consultancy. Wesley has been instrumental in ensuring Realmdigital’s credence as an elite software partner with expertise in web, mobile and business integration. Today the company has an international client base servicing customers such as Naspers, South African Airways (SAA), Avusa, Exclusive Books, Brandhouse, iKapa Tours, Hip2b2 and Vodacom.
Wesley’s leisure and recreational passion is travel – which he enjoys with his chef wife, Sam and their two children. http://www.realmdigital.co.za/
Yossi Hasson – Wave 3: Understanding The Driving Forces Behind Cloud Computing, Web 2.0 And Social Media And Why Your Business Survival Depends On It
Yossi Hasson of SYNAQ
A self-confessed computer fanatic from the age of 11, Yossi has been involved in the IT industry for over 10 years and is in the vanguard of the cloud computing business revolution. He co-founded SYNAQ in 2004 and launched the first cloud based email security platform in Africa. Today SYNAQ is the leading provider of business class cloud based messaging and communication services for small to medium businesses.
Yossi has an MBA from GIBS (graduated 2009 cum-laude) where he did his dissertation on the role that Social Media has in building the brand for a start-up company. In addition to this, Yossi is a member of Entrepreneurs Organisation (EO) South Afica and is passionate about building global technology businesses in South Africa.
Zibusiso Mkhwananzi – The Effective Use Of Social Media In The Marketing Mix To Meet Sales And Marketing Targets
Zibusiso Mkhwanazi of KRAZYBOYZ
Zibusiso has been involved in the digital marketing industry for the past 11 years as a Director and founder of Csonke Holdings which is an investment company that Zibusiso Mkhwanazi founded in his bedroom at the age of 17 in the year 2000 with R2000 seed capital. In 2006 he led the merger his web operations with KRAZYBOYZ playtime to form KRAZYBOYZ digital one of South Africa’s largest black owned agencies with offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
In 2007, Zibusiso’s entrepreneurial spirit and desire to change the community were rewarded when he received the BBQ Young Business Achiever award 2007, named Top ICT Individual in Africa as well as Top ICT Young Entrepreneur in Africa at the 10th annual African achievers awards 2008 then followed by being a finalist at the Endeavour International Selection Panel which searches for the world’s best high impact entrepreneurs. In 2009 he was named by Mail and Guardian as 300 South Africans you must take to lunch as well as walking away with the Men’s Health Best Man editors choice award in the same year. In the same year he was a finalist for 2010 IT personality of the year.
