Monday, October 20th

10:00 AM - 11:15 AM

Track I: Ballroom Terrace - Live Webcast from this Room

Native Advertising: Digital Advertising Industry Gets Serious About Better Advertising

Tim Waddell, Director of Product Marketing for Advertising Solutions, Adobe

Debbie Menin, Head of Video Business Development, Federated Media

Aron Levitz, SVP, Wattpad

Mitchell Reichgut, CEO, Jun Group

James De Julio, President, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer, Tongal

Benjamin Chen, President Consumer Products Group, Sonavation

John Kottcamp, Chief Marketing Technologist, Tahzoo, Moderator

accessible to everyone that needs it, and everyone that thrives on it.  Tongal connects talented writers, producers, and directors everywhere with the world's most imaginative brands in an innovative digital environment.  At Tongal, De  Julio oversees product development, brand relations and creative output. He works closely with a variety of businesses to leverage Tongal's unique approach for the rapid development, expansion, and refinement of ideas and insight, fueling the creation of premium quality video assets.   Through Tongal,  De Julio has forged strong relationships with rising filmmakers and creatives, as well as the innovative and forward thinking organizations that are connecting with them.   Previously, De Julio co-founded Half Shell Entertainment, where he managed alternative content development strategies with HBO and National Lampoon.  Prior to that, he was vice president of production at Paramount’s Robert Evans Company where he  oversaw motion picture development.  De Julio began his career as a fixed income analyst at Lehman Brothers.   As an expert in open innovation and branded content, De Julio serves as a resource for journalists and industry analysts and has been featured in such outlets as Fast Company, AdWeek, Mashable, Rolling Stone, MSNBC and CNBC. He graduated from Boston College with a bachelor’s degree in economics.

Debbie Menin, Head of Video Business Development, Federated Media: The media and entertainment industry know Debbie Menin as a veteran sales/management, advertising, business development, and marketing professional. Menin is currently the head of video business development at Federated Media where she is responsible for branded entertainment sales and management of partnerships with digital production companies. She was previously the VP of strategic partnerships for TV networks at Machinima, one of the largest entertainment channels on YouTube, where she ran a national video sales team. Menin was formerly the Yahoo! category lead for entertainment and travel, where she executed a national strategy by partnering with Yahoo! sites, platforms, display and video sales, marketing, research, and more to increase overall category revenue. She served in a similar role at AOL Huffington Post as industry practice head of entertainment.  Formerly, Menin was at Parade & Parade.com (Conde Nast) as the vice president of branded entertainment, and was responsible for developing an extensive strategy to extend the brand into other multi-media platforms including television and digital video. She came from the broadcast and interactive TV business at MTV Networks (VH1 & CMT), E-Zone Networks (one of the first interactive TV networks) and the College TV Network (now MTVU). Menin’s career has also included associate publisher of Premiere magazine (Hachette Filipacchi), LA manager of Rolling Stone (Wenner Media), and senior level positions at Variety (Reed Elsevier), where she earned her stripes in entertainment.

Benjamin Chen, President Consumer Products Group, Sonavation:  Benjamin Chen is a leader in business and technology management, with over 25 years of experience working with startups, fortune companies and private equity focused on media, online advertising, interactive agency, enterprise software, consumer electronics, networking and data centers.  Mr. Chen has served as a board member of Viggle Inc. (VGGL), a loyalty program for television that gives people real rewards for checking into the television shows they’re watching.  Mr. Chen was the Founder and CEO of Mochila, a leading content syndication platform for delivering customized solutions for brand advertisers and premium publishers.  Mr. Chen has worked as an external entrepreneur in residence for both JP Morgan and Mission Ventures as well as acted as an advisor conducting due diligence on new business models and technologies for GE Capital. At iXL, a strategic interactive agency (now part of Publicis Groupe), Mr. Chen was the global CTO and CIO responsible for all internal and external technology initiatives, as well as leading the due diligence in the acquisition and integration of over 30 companies, helping grow the company in three years from 60 to 3,000 people, with offices in the US, Europe and Asia. Client engagements included work for AT&T, Delta Airlines, FedEx, GE, Sony and WebMD. He was part of the management team that took iXL public in 1999, with a market capitalization of over 4 billion.  Mr. Chen was Founder and CEO of AppGenesys, CTO for Boxtop Interactive and Founder and CTO of Ironlight Digital (bought by Publicis Groupe). Mr. Chen also worked at CBS Studio Center, as a technologist working on the convergence of prime time television content and the internet. Mr. Chen produced the 1996 Emmy Awards Cybercast.  Mr. Chen is frequently a speaker and panelist to new media, technology and venture conferences.  Mr. Chen is a graduate from the University of Southern California and has Black Belts in Tae Kwon Do, Hapkido and a practitioner of BJJ.

Aron Levitz, SVP, Wattpad: As Head of Business Development, Aron Levitz creates content partnerships between Wattpad and leading brands, agencies, studios, and labels. Before Wattpad, Aron was senior director of strategic alliances at Xtreme Labs, where he developed business and mobile strategies for the world's top media brands including NFL, MTV, and Deutsche Telekom. Prior to Xtreme, as director of entertainment and global content acquisition at BlackBerry he launched innovative digital media services for industry giants. Aron received his Bachelor and Master degrees from the University of Waterloo.

Mitchell Reichgut, CEO, Jun Group:  Prior to founding Jun Group, Mitchell headed up Bates Interactive, the online unit of Bates Worldwide Advertising, now owned by WPP. As General Manager/Creative Director, Mitchell helped grow Bates Interactive into a 70-person integrated unit, with clients such as EDS, Moet & Chandon, and Warner-Lambert.  Before joining Bates, Mitchell served as Creative Director at Think New Ideas, a leading Web development company with offices in New York and Los Angeles. There, Mitchell supervised development of major online advertising and e-commerce initiatives for Budweiser, Rockport, Reebok, Sony, Continental Airlines, and many others.  Mitchell began his career as an Art Director at Grey Advertising where he created print and television advertisements for clients such as Procter & Gamble, Parker Brothers, and Stride Rite. Mitchell wrote and directed The Scene, a 20-episode online drama that was viewed over 8 million times in 90 countries. He has published two national comic book series, and he wrote and produced an online drama for Comcast entitled Stream, starring Whoopi Goldberg.

John P. Kottcamp, Chief Marketing Technologist:  Making businesses truly customer centric has been the guiding principle for John throughout his career as a serial marketing executive and strategic marketing consultant. John learned about customer experience and global markets from working for global brands like Lufthansa, T-Mobile and Gateway. He put those ideas into practice helping clients as an agency executive at MRM Worldwide and Ascentium. And he took the entrepreneurial plunge, co-founding Blab, a pioneer in predicative social intelligence.  As Chief Marketing Technologist, John is contunially exploring new ways for brands and consumers to participate in the fair exchange of value, which he describes as the art and science of balancing the needs and desires of the always-connected customer with the business requirements that define success for the 21st century brand.  In addition to working with clients and partners, John is an active blogger, speaker, author and contributor to major industry publications in the areas of customer experience, personalization, omni-channel marketing, social intelligence, data and analytics.