Speaker Biographies:
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Bill Oechsler - @BillOechsler - XLER Consulting
Bill Oechsler is founder of XLER | Marketing & Brand Consultancy. He is also president of Ethnographic Media headquartered in Oklahoma City and teaches creative strategies in the Integrated Marketing Communications master’s program at West Virginia University’s P.I. Reed School of Journalism.

Laura Bergells - @Maniactive - Maniactive
Laura Bergells is very active in the worlds of internet marketing and presentation. She built and marketed web sites in the early 1990’s for automotive companies, including Detroit Diesel, Penske Motorsports, and Diesel Technology. Laura also served as an internet marketing consultant in the pioneer days of Autotrader.com and eBay Motors. Since 1999, Miss Bergells is a much sought-after freelance web content developer, speaker, and internet marketing consultant. Her highly regarded blog, Maniactive.com, is a must-read for those who deliver presentations to modern, media-savvy audiences. An adjunct instructor at the Seidman College of Business at Grand Valley State University, Laura teaches Creativity in Marketing and Social Media/Web Marketing. She is a graduate of Michigan State University, with a BA degree in Telecommunications and Sociology. She also earned her Master’s degree from Grand Valley State University.

Paul La Vigne - @dvspaul - Digital Services, Inc.
Paul began his career working for media firms and has held technical positions in media production and executive positions in sales, marketing and administration. La Vigne’s passion is driven by an entrepreneurial spirit.  Enriched by vast experience in marketing, administration, and IT, this spirit has led to the success of Digital Services, Inc. and its three divisions; DVS, a digital media duplication & asset management firm, Pelco Solutions, a mobile & web design and development firm, and DVS Creative, a production and postproduction firm.

Kevin Dean - @Manobyte - Manobyte
Kevin Dean is the president and founder of ManoByte, a social media marketing consultancy. Established in 2007, the company’s mission is to assist business professionals understand how to use social media data in making more effective decisions that result in attracting and retaining customers.  Kevin spent 6 years working with two Fortune 500 companies in an IT management role. In addition, he spent over 11 years consulting for major organizations such as Sears, Roebuck and Company, Meijer, Michigan State University, and the University of Michigan Hospital, to name a few.  Kevin is a recognized expert in the field of social media and has been featured and quoted in trade journals and television reports on the trends and effects of social media on business.

Tom Chisholm - Facebook
Tom has been at Facebook since 2006 and opened the Midwest office of Facebook.  He is the Sales Director for a 5 state region.  Prior to Facebook he was Midwest VP for Rodale, Inc. for 5 years.  His responsibilities included corporate and digital sales of Rodale media properties.  Prior to Rodale, Tom spent 9 years with Sports Illustrated where he rose from Account Executive to S. California Manager.  Tom is a graduate of Michigan State University.

Beth DeWilde - Paragon Recruiting
In Beth’s work history, she successfully opened a new office for Manpower in Zeeland, hiring staff, monitoring quality, and meeting a yearly budget.  After the office became operational, she added a Technical/Professional Placement Division and grew the business to $5 million in annual sales---in only six years!  In 1993, Beth was recruited by Imperial Design Service as their Placement Director.  By prospecting new accounts, recruiting candidates to be placed, and automating operations, Beth doubled their business in the first 18 months.  Beth decided, in 1996, that the philosophy she felt was critical in providing service to candidates and clients could be best served by opening a business based on her own values and beliefs.  Her decision was to establish a firm to provide recruiting and placement services that would exceed expectations of her candidates and clients and specialize in computer professionals.  Based on this belief, Paragon Recruiting was born.  In September, Paragon celebrated its thirteenth anniversary.  Paragon Recruiting specializes in placement and recruiting of IT professionals in the southwestern Michigan area.

Mike Yoder - Otterbase
Mike Yoder is an Account Manager for OtterBase. In this role Mike’s primary responsibilities include maintaining an existing client base, providing outstanding customer/client service, along with new business development.  Mike has over 20 years of experience encompassing human resources, corporate and agency staffing, recruitment, vendor managed services, business development, and consulting.  In addition to his work at OtterBase, Mike is passionate about social media and networking.  He heads up three groups on LinkedIn including the LinkedUp Grand Rapids group of over 3,000 business professionals, the Midwest Science Consortium, and an alumni group for Geneva College.  Other activities include involvement in the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, the Kalamazoo Regional Chamber of Commerce, as well as board positions with the Supplemental Learning Development Center and Randy Don Ministries.

Amy Kraal - @Amy_HROI - HR Outsourcing, Inc.
Amy Kraal is Sr. HR Consultant and Co-Founder of HROI (HR Outsourcing & Innovations). She is a Hope College graduate with over 14 years professional experience in the Human Resource discipline. Her areas of expertise are HR strategic planning, compensation, recruitment strategy, leadership development, and maximizing organization’s HR return on investment.  Amy maintains her PHR (Professional Human Resource) certification. She is a member of the LakeshoreHuman Resource Association and the Society of Human Resources.

Jeff Frasier - Varnum Riddering Schmidt & Howlett
Jeff currently serves as Chair of the Labor and Employment Practice Group, and he spends a considerable part of his practice representing private employers related to daily labor and employment matters such as discipline, discharge, union and litigation avoidance, NLRB proceedings, representation elections, work stoppages, collective bargaining and state and federal employment litigation. Jeff has a particular emphasis helping employers untangle the FMLA, ADA, workers’ compensation and STD/LTD overlap.

Robin Luymes - @SuperDu - PRSA West Michigan
Robin Luymes, an independent consultant, is a 20-year public relations and communications professional in West Michigan. Most recently he was Manager of Advertising, Public Relations and Sponsorships for Amway Global, the U.S. affiliate of Amway Corp.  In his career at Amway, Robin was at the forefront of developing Amway's web strategy, including its very first web site in the 1990s, its e-commerce Quixtar business in 1999, its first blog in 2003, and its first broadscale blogging initiative -- the OpportunityZone.com -- in 2007. In the past year, Robin's team also launched Amway Global's branded Facebook and Twitter presence.  A graduate of Calvin College, Robin was a reporter for the Grand Rapids Business Journal before starting his career with Amway Public Relations in 1991.  He is the incoming President of the West Michigan chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, a role he also filled in 2003. Robin also has served on the boards of Second Harvest Gleaners of West Michigan, Grand Rapids Toys for Tots, Grand Rapids Christian High School, and the Direct Selling Association's Communications Committee.

Nehemiah "Nemo" Chu - @spinneractive - S. L. Robbins & Associates
At the age of 22, Nehemiah "Nemo" Chu represents the latest group of college talent entering the workforce—a group that constantly "tweets," "pokes," and "texts" in an ever-shrinking world. Born in California, Chu split his life between Hong Kong, Macau, and Canada before returning to the United States for college. Drawing from his multi-cultural upbringing and his first-hand experience of disruptive technologies, Chu offers a unique and insightful commentary on human relationships in a digital world. In early 2009, the renowned social psychologist, Dr. Steve Robbins, tapped Chu to grow his diversity and innovation consultancy.  Chu has advised human resource professionals on social media policy at organizations such as NASA, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin. Chu currently holds a central role in building Steve Robbins Group, an umbrella company founded by Dr. Steve Robbins that includes S. L. Robbins & Associates, Mosaic Space, and Spinneractive.

Jeff Hill - @rapidgrowth - Rapid Growth Media
Jeff is the Local Publisher for RapidGrowthMedia.com.  He has also served as the global moderator for UrbanPlanet.org and was a moderator for CityData.com.  He is a regular user of flickr, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Jen Stone - Google
With Google since 2005, Jen has worked in the Product Development and AdWords organizations within Google. Prior to joining Google, Jen was a technical writer in the satellite communications industry.  She now manages the East/Midwest Education sales and account services team at Google's Ann Arbor, MI office.  Jen received her BA from the University of California Santa Barbara in Literature, and received her Master's in English Literature from San Francisco State University.

Cindy Droog - @CindyDroog - Amway
Cindy Droog, APR, serves as Digital Public Relations Specialist for Amway Corporation. In this role, Droog is responsible for social influence marketing and media relations initiatives, including online monitoring and response, distributor education on social media, blogger relations, corporate blogs and community management, search engine optimization, and co-leading the Amway Social Media Business Council.   During the 12 years of her career prior to joining Amway in 2006, Droog was Vice President of Client Services for North Star Public Relations, where she led strategy for accounts in the manufacuring, publishing, not-for-profit, and logistics sectors. She has also served as Director of Public Relations for the Peoria Rivermen Minor League Hockey Team and Felder Communications Group, a mid-sized communications firm in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Melissa Chiaramonti, Meijer
Melissa Chiaramonti is a Performance Improvement Developer for Meijer, Inc.  She has been involved in training, instructional design, and e-learning development for 11 years and holds an M.A. degree in Training and Development from Roosevelt University.  In addition to developing training, Melissa’s responsibilities include advocating and creating tools around emerging technologies as they relate to learning.  Her current focus is on how to leverage social media content development to create new pathways for support and training.

Josh Depenbrok, GRNow.com
Josh started GRNow.com in 2005 as a site listing restaurants and events around Grand Rapids. Over the past 4.5 years, it's grown from about 15,000 visits/150,000 page views per month to 135,000 visits/2.3m page views per month. Each week, Josh is featured in segments on WZZM13's Take 5, the Todd Chance Morning Show, Kim Carson's Show on WLHT and Tony Gates' show on 1340AM talking about the top events happening around Grand Rapids.  Josh serves on the board for Grand Rapids Young Professionals is a committee member for Frederik Meijer Gardens, the Grand Rapids Downtown Alliance, Michigan Film Festival and the Grand Rapids 4th of July Family Fireworks.

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