April Meeting - Social Mobile on the Go (panel)
Tue. April 19 2011
6:00pm - 8:00pm
Join Social Media Club Austin in our new home at KLRU in the former Austin City Limits Studio.
Social to go: A look at where social media on mobile devices is headed with five interesting perspectives on how social integration makes all kinds of mobile apps more useful.
Panelists:
Moderator:
About the Speakers:
Rodney Gibbs is a Technology Entrepreneur, Smartphone Development at Ricochet Labs. Rodney is a business and civic leader in Austin's technology and media communities. Rodney founded two companies, Fizz Factor, which he sold to Amaze Entertainment, and Ricochet Labs, which develops location-based, social smartphone apps, including QRANK, a social trivia app that Esquire magazine calls one of the "80 people, places, and ideas that matter right now." Rodney is also very active on a variety of boards and initiatives that advance digital media production, business development, and education. He is a board member of KUT-FM, Austin's NPR affiliate; the Austin Film Society; Skillpoint Alliance; and the International Game Developers Association. In addition, he is a former board member of the Texas Motion Picture Alliance and founding chair of the Digital Media Council.
Jonathan Carroll of Alamofire, the parent company of Gowalla, leads community/event involvement and working on the business development team. He regularly represents Gowalla in the media, including a recent interview with Omar Gallaga of the Statesman, and appearing on the Gadling TV's travelogue show, Travel Talk. Jonathan has recently worked on custom programs for Disney, Sundance Film Festival, SXSW as well as projects working with a number of musicians and bands to integrate fan experiences into Gowalla, and also working with universities to enhance student and alumni involvement. Gowalla is a mobile and web service that gives people around the world a new way to communicate and express themselves through the everyday places and extraordinary settings they enjoy. People can capture and share their spot in the world with friends and family, while discovering new places, events and trips as they go. Gowalla offers businesses, campaigns, and organizations the unique opportunity to reward loyalty, reach new consumers, and to create memorable experiences.
Fred Schmidt is Co-Founder, President & CEO of Polarium. He also serves in the roles of Chief Product Evangelist & Humachine and Director of Publishing with over 26 years in game development. Fred’s focus is on building out the company into a well-balanced operation of motivated, passionate, experienced people who work well together to make great games and make a difference in the world. He is carefully crafting all global branding for Portalarium and its products as he has done for several top game studios/publishers in the past as an exec with NCsoft, ORIGIN / Electronic Arts and MicroProse Software back in the day, plus many other entertainment companies in the fields of radio, television, cable television, print, music and retail. As a restless gamer, Fred plays “hundreds of different games a little bit," trying to stay on top of the market and trends, and to kill time he doesn’t have. He lives in Downtown Austin where he never sleeps because he is actively engaged in community affairs and busy bicycling, kayaking and absorbing loads of the rich local music scene.
Sarah Vela is CEO of HelpAttack! a social application to help non-profits raise funds through pledges for social media activity. Sarah has been working as a content strategy consultant, marketing specialist and podcaster for over a decade. Her experience prior to working in the tech scene involved marketing and content strategy for nonprofits and health care companies. Her focus has always been on working for organizations that promote positive change.
Matt Curtin is on the Board of SocialSmack and was the founder. Matt is also the Vice President of Sales at BazaarVoice. After a very successful 15-year career in enterprise software, Matt decided to turn his passion for word-of-mouth marketing, social media and good customer service into a business. SocialSmack is a web and mobile reviews platform that brings together consumers and brands. Powered by a real-time social stream, SocialSmack was created to provide consumers a place to easily share real-time, specific feedback on their brand interactions that also offers brands actionable, clear insight into consumer sentiment and the opportunity to engage in the conversation. Before starting SocialSmack, Matt held sales and business development leadership roles for on-demand software leaders E2open, Zilliant, Ariba & FreeMarkets. In 2008 Matt founded a non-profit organization called The Superhero Foundation (www.superherorun.com) with a mission to raise awareness for child abuse prevention efforts and to ultimately fight child abuse. Since then, he has driven a highly effective social media campaign, bringing together a vast team of people and corporate sponsors to create an invaluable marketing platform that is thriving nationally in a partnership with CASA (Court Appointend Special Advocates). Matt holds a Bachelor of Science in Organizational Communication from Ohio University. He proudly resides in Austin, Texas with his wife and two daughters. He loves graffiti street art, trail running, mountain biking, and anything having to do with the vibrant live music scene in Austin.
Here's our new home at KLRU and where to find parking:
