AZEC12 Speakers

 

Keynotes:

Robert Scoble, Startup Liaison Officer, Rackspace

A star of “The Gillmor Gang” and a frequent blogger, social media content creator, and speaker at conference, Robert is a geek who grew up in Silicon Valley and has been building online communities since 1985. In 2000 he started his technology blog, http://scobleizer.com, and in his own words.

“my life has been on a rocketship ever since. In 2003-2006 I worked at Microsoft as an evangelist and one of the five guys who started Microsoft’s famous Channel9 video community. I’m now working at Rackspace as Startup Liaison Officer (I go around the world to study and make media about world-changing startups).
The real-time streaming web is changing my life faster than I can imagine, and lets me keep in touch with thousands of technology and business innovators all around the world.”

Matthew Pittinsky, CEO, Parchment, and Co-Founder of Blackboard

Matthew brings to his second company, Parchment, a unique background as both an education technology entrepreneur and a sociologist of education.  In 1997 he co-founded Blackboard Inc., serving first as Chief Executive Officer and then Executive Chairman. Millions of students across the world use Blackboard technologies.

Matthew left Blackboard in 2008 to teach and conduct research as an Assistant Professor of Sociology in Arizona State University’s (ASU) School of Social and Family Dynamics. He remains a Research Assistant Professor at ASU today, with specializations in economic sociology, sociology of education, and social network analysis.  Matthew serves on the Board of Trustees of The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. He holds a BS in Political Science from American University, Ed.M in Education Policy from Harvard University Graduate School of Education, and a Ph.D. in Sociology of Education (with distinction) from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Bill Reichert, Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures

Bill Reichert is a Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures, a seed-stage and early-stage venture capital firm based in Los Altos, California.  Garage makes focused investments in promising early-stage technology companies and works intensively with them to help them grow and succeed.  Bill has been a member of the Board of Directors of MiaSole, CaseStack, WhiteHat Security, ClearFuels Technology, ThermoCeramix, cFares, and STEP Labs (acquired by Dolby Labs).  Some of Garage’s earlier investments include Pandora Media (NYSE: P), Digital Fountain (acquired by Qualcomm), Coremetrics (acquired by IBM), iNest (acquired by LendingTree), Psionic (acquired by Cisco), LeftHand Networks (acquired by HP), Answers.com (NSDQ: ANSW), Hoku Scientific (NSDQ: HOKU), and Kaboodle (acquired by Hearst Corp).

Bill brings his experience as a serial entrepreneur to his work with Garage’s portfolio companies.  Prior to joining Garage in early 1998, Bill was co-founder of Academic Systems, a software company funded by Kleiner Perkins, Accel Partners, and Microsoft.

 

Scott Martineau, Co-founder & VP Demand Generation, Infusionsoft

When Scott co-founded Infusionsoft, his entrepreneurial family roots inspired him relentlessly to run the journey from software startup to blockbuster brand. Over the last decade, he has become known as one of the top minds in “customer service as marketing” in the industry. He’s a seasoned sales and marketing leader who has led the customer service organization in Infusionsoft to greatness and competitive advantage. Scott’s mission is to solve the challenges small businesses face in marketing their products and services.

Conquer the Chaos: How to Grow a Successful Small Business Without Going Crazy.

 

 

James Archer – founder Forty

James is the founder and Managing Director of Forty, a nationally-respected agency that for nearly a decade has helped companies get their crap together and present a unified and powerful message to their customers and staff.

He has shared his passion and expertise with clients like Microsoft, Motorola, Walmart, and Yahoo, and projects he’s worked on have appeared in U.S. News & World Report, Fast Company, Business Week, Entrepreneur, The New York Times, TechCrunch, AdAge, and NPR.

James regularly speaks at conferences and workshops, and writes frequently about design, marketing, branding, and business. He’s an active member of the community, sometimes serving on as many as half a dozen organizations’ boards at once. He’s also a frequent community initiator, having been involved with the founding of conferences, organizations, and several industry meetups. He’s currently writing a book about the power of purpose-driven organizations.

He’s best known as a relentless, future-focused optimist with a willingness to have a conversation with anyone, about anything, at any time—and a bad habit of working late catching up on everything else.

You can find him at @jamesarcher on Twitter.

Exits and Beyond: Jeff Pruit, Founder of iCrossing and now CEO of TallWave

Why Arizona is GOOD for Starupts: Local Success Stories: Mark Rukavina, iMemories