Wednesday, September 29 2:15 PM - 3:30 PM Track I: Digital Lifestyles: Shopping, Dating & Hooking-Up The world is being remodeled as digital experience of instant everything, shopping, IMing, text messaging, communicating, dating and hooking up. It’s being embraced and it’s everywhere. Community building and social networking are the latest trend. As the national culture becomes more diverse and demanding, the need for personal connection is becoming greater and more difficult to accomplish. Technology seems to have come along at the right time. The barriers to online shopping, purchasing, developing relationships and what was thought to be the alienating world of electronic communication all seemed to be things of the past. Welcome to the future – shopping, dating and hooking-up are now a part of the everyday experience of our wireless, broadband and mobile digital lifestyles. Mark Jeffrey, ZeroDegrees Kirk Scott, Director of Product Development, Tickle Inc. Faith Sedlin, Vice President and General Manager, Pricestore Paul Taormino, CEO / Founder Maverick Internet Ventures and Privateeye.com Robert Ferrari, Executive Director, Marketing, Turbine Entertainment & Managing Director and founder, Convergence Ventures, Moderator Mark Jeffrey, ZeroDegrees: Jeffrey brings superior technical understanding of the user experience to the ZeroDegrees team. His 16 years in software design and development are marked by successful innovations. He is founder of The Palace, Inc., a respected pioneer in online communities that drew more than ten million users at its peak. The Palace received numerous honors, including "Best of 1996" by Entertainment Weekly; a Webby Award nomination; "Cool Innovation of the Year" nominee; Chicago SUN-Times' Best Website: 1998; Top 100 Websites of 1998 and # 24 on the Forbes Magazine POV List. Jeffrey has been covered by Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, CBS, Forbes, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, Playboy, Wired, ZDTV, and USA Today. Jeffrey also founded SuperSig, Inc., an advanced HTML email product company. He has been named one of "50 to Watch" by Variety, selected as one of the "Digital Coast 50" by the Silicon Alley Reporter, and one of the "Heroes of Multimedia" by Entertainment Weekly and has presented at the first Harvard University Conference on the Internet and Society. Kirk Scott, Director of Product Development, Tickle Inc.: Kirk Scott, Director of Product Development at Tickle Inc., has 19 years of experience successfully leading product development and marketing teams in emerging technology companies. Since joining Tickle in 2003, Kirk has been responsible for the integration of existing services and the development of new media properties. Before joining Tickle, Kirk held the positions of Director of Product Marketing at EGroups, Inc./Onelist, Inc., which was acquired by Yahoo! in 2000, and Principal Product Manager of Internet Applications at Oracle Corporation where he integrated technology acquired from Surflogic, where he was Co-founder, until they were acquired by Oracle in 1997. Kirk received his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Bachelors of Fine Arts in Art at Yale University. Paul Taormino, CEO / Founder Maverick Internet Ventures and Privateeye.com: Founding executive Infospace.com and Founder / Managing Partner Schematic. Paul’s career has been based on locating people and putting them together via the Internet. He has focused on creating interfaces and products that compel people to interact efficiently with data about people. Paul was a driving force in the promotion and development of the background checks and public records space on the Internet. Through locating data, consolidating it, creating saleable products, developing user friendly and effective interface, promoting products and creating efficient transaction methodologies and platforms Paul has continued to innovate in the area of locating people understanding their backgrounds and putting them together. Paul was senior associate at Corporate Builders LLP a Venture Capital firm where he specialized in technology business analysis and M&A. Previous to Corporate Builders, Paul was Vice President of Business Development at Manhattan Center Studios computer generated imaging and special effects division. Robert Ferrari, Managing Director and Founder of Convergence Ventures - a global business development firm based in Boston. The firm offers business development, corporate strategy, product marketing and fund raising services to companies in the convergence sectors. Robert has thirteen years of executive level experience in managing companies focused in the consumer electronics, digital entertainment, media, and telecommunications sectors. Robert has been fortunate to serve and steer the strategic direction of global public companies, as well as a broad range of small to medium size start-up companies. His core management tenures include: Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Philips Electronics - a global leader in the design, manufacturing and marketing of semiconductors, consumer electronics and digital entertainment; Chief Strategy Officer/EVP Sales & Marketing at Merinta Inc - a client/server software development company; and VP of Business Development at ZipLink Inc - a North American communications provider. Robert is also an active industry speaker, panelist and moderator for many industry events. www.convergenceventures.com