»/ 1. INTERNATIONAL WORD-OF MOUTH MARKETING CONFERENCE

The First International Conference on Future Developments in the Art and Science of Word-of-Mouth Marketing.

The noise? The deep sonorous roar of a Barry White growl doubled over itself seventeen and a jillion times. Who’s making it? Why it’s the Word-of-Mouth marketing beast reinventing itself yet again. In the midst of the tornado of new online and offline media forms converging, this rapidly developing giant mutant would make even Darwin do a double take.
The hallowed halls of marketing history are littered with the failed attempts of creating good word-of-mouth marketing campaigns. Shamed each time, the buzz about the buzz of hearing it through the grapevine ducks its head, slinks off and disappears. Until, the next clever tactic from a specialist draws it out again, chock full of wide-eyed, Shirley Temple hope and curls.
Well, in order to explore the developments and advances in… Achtung mouthful ahead… strategies, standards, tactics and measurement as well as the technological environment of this vital marketing field, the Brand Science Institute is holding a symposium.
And sages are coming from all corners of the data matrix. Invited are the leading experts and practitioners from advertising agencies, market research firms, multinational companies and academia. XY’s and XX’s, right-brainers and lefts, the tribal drum of communication is sounding and the gathering of the chosen will be in Hamburg.
This exceptional medley of brainpower from the diverse disciplines above will focus on real-life tactics and strategies. The Plant-Your-Feet concrete rather than the abstract Super model. Guaranteed? Real, genuine analog people-to-people interacting. And on this playground there will be no bullies. Just an environment of learning and sharing. Sorry though, no tetherball.
Any and all earnings that pile into the black, Texas tea, profits that is, will be immediately swept into a research fund for further exploration of this critical topic by conference participants. Mighty viral of us, don’t you think?

: /Learn from real cases that worked. No iffy abstract theories.; /Witness the WOM strategies that work. And how to create them.; /Develop viral-ready messages that stay in the brain.; /Create a magic media plan invoking the power of WOM.; /Implement your very own WOM marketing program.

: /Why some consumers talk (and why some won’t and don’t).; /Get a feel for the next technological environments that will spread the word.; /Get in their heads. What consumers learn about your WOM messages.; /Understand what gives your customers the giddyup to talk in the future.; /Find out which strategies just don’t work.; /Deal squarely with negative WOM and tweak it to the positive.

: /Track your viral efforts online and old school.; /Get a grip on the latest methods and tools.; /Weigh the impact of different WOM techniques.; /How WOM directly impacts your brand and sales. And how to show it.

: /Learn the terms, definitions and systematics used in WOM-speak.; /Experience the rush of development. Explore future perspectives.; /The stardards and ethics in WOM are a-changin’. Ingest.

: /Name your critical mission. Then launch into a WOM exploration.; /Get to know the critical issues of your fellow conference participants in WOM planning and measurement.; /Impact the need-to-know agenda of the leading research intelligentsia.

: /Introduce yourself to the pioneers, researchers, tacticians, creatives and WOM marketing experts representing major brand marketers. Future-forward speakers who are trekking new ground and developing the strategies to deliver dynamic, measurable results.

: /During the conference and workshops there will be gobs and gobs of discussion and personal interaction between speakers and participants. No aloof speakers who hightail it out the back door after harrumphing their audience into zombies. Just an ideal mix of the right people getting together to learn, share and determine the future.

8.00-9.00 Registration and Coffee

Keynote: Nils Andres, Brand Science Institute

The Paradigm Has Changed - So what makes brands and products worth talking about in a time of media convergence and the social software boom?
Fiona McDonnell, Forrester Research

Making Word of Mouth Part of The Long-Term Strategy - Future opportunities and challenges of WOM as part of the marketing mix.
Lois Kelly, Foghound

Getting Through the Haze of WOM - Making brand conversations real, relevant and repeatable
Walter Carl, Northeastern University

The Conversational Geography and Relational Basis of Word-of-Mouth Communication and Marketing Practices.

10.30-11.00 Break

Fergus Hampton, Millward Brown

What Kind of WOM Strategy Does Your Brand Need? - Which categories and brands are more susceptible to WOM? What are the distinguishing characteristics of brands with a lot of "buzz" around them?
Tim Wragg, GfK/NOP

Leveraging Traditional Tools for an Integrated Word-Of-Mouth Campaign - Measure and push the marketing mix's ROI while balancing costs.

12.30-13.30 Lunch Break

Brian Elliott, Strawberryfrog / Steven Erich, Crispin Porter + Bogusky

How to Create Brand Movements - How total engagement can create a Brand Movement.
Inus Hwang, Azoomma Marketing Lab

How to Create Brand Movements Asian Style - Buzz power of the brand messengers.

14.15-14.30 Break

Michael Wall, Fallon

Transforming Advertising in the Diversified Digital Culture - New strategies and ideas for branded entertainment and cross-media programming.
Henrik Werdelin, MTV Europe

Reinventing What We Know As Media - Perspectives on innovative, upcoming media formats and where to effectively place products to make them "buzz-worthy" in a time of online and offline convergence.
Scott Foe, Nokia / Alexander Macris, Themis-Group

Custom Branded Experience - How can marketers profit from the WOM out of online game communities?

15.30-15.45 Break

Hugh Macleod, Gapingvoid

How to Use Blogs - Spread commercial ideas to build companies' reputations effectively - Cases from the good and evil.
Jian Ni, Nokia

Lifeblogging and Mobblogging - New marketing opportunities for spreading the word from mobile phones.
Euan Semple, BBC

Internal Use of Blogs for Knowledge Management - Use Blogs to create knowledge.

16.45-17.00 Break

Bill Flitter, Pheedo

The Role of Podcasting for Marketing in the time Future - Company radio?
Altan Altplay, Podvertiser

Advertising Business Models for Portable Content and Podcasting - Where to communicate what?
Brian Walsh, Castfire

How to Integrate Podcasting into the Marketing-Mix - Profit from the strong growth of iPods before the competitors do it.

18.30 Run back to Hotel, call kids and ease for the feast - taking it up to the Elbe river.

»/Pick the complete Schedule as PDF

8.00-9.00 Coffee and Breakfast

Alex (Sandy) Pentland, MIT Media Lab

Managing the Swarm, Lessons from Human Dynamics - The voice of influence: who connects, who influences and how to tell in the mobile world.
Eric Paulos, Intel Research Lab

Urban Atmospheres and Jabberwocky - How person, place, and community are being redefined by personal wireless digital tools and their impact on product consumption and spreading the word.
Shelly Farnham, Microsoft Research Lab

From Conversation Clusters to Wallops to Bridges, Marketing Lessons to Integrate Brands and Products - What kind of software will consumers use to support the effectiveness of their social interaction in the years ahead?

11.00-11.30 Break

/ Workshop

Chris Dellarocas, University of Maryland: Online Product Review Forums: Why Consumers Do It, How Should Firms React, Who Wins and Who Loses? - Real world industry lessons from Hollywood movies to consumer goods.

Thorsten Posselt, DFG-Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Project: Factors That Determine Word-of-Mouth, Referrals and Sales - How to manage what and when.

/ Workshop

Jill Sweeney, University of Western Australia: Positive and Negative Word-of-Mouth Are Not Necessarily Opposites - How much negative WOM is good for the brand?

Lois Kelly, Foghound: Flipping the Flop of Negative Buzz - Finding ways to turnaround negative Word-of-Mouth and save corporate reputation.

Robert East, Kingston Business School, London / Kathy Hammond, Duke Corporate Education: Houston, Do We Really Have A Problem? - Just how damaging is negative Word-of-Mouth - Good News about Bad News!

/ Workshop

Idil Cakim, Burson-Marsteller: Booting Up Brands with Tech-fluentials - Powering and strengthening brands by utilizing the next generation of influencers.

Sonjaya Gaur, Indian Institute of Technology: How to Work with E-Fluence and Letting It Work for Your Brand - Change emotions and brand attitude through e-influencer expertise.

/ Idea Lab

Paul Dholakia, Rice University / René Algesheimer, University of Switzerland: Building and Populating Thriving Brand Communities - How marketing executives can build and manage brand communities and push recommendation behavior for sales growth.

/ Workshop

Georg Kierspel, Inter-Sys: Pattern Formation in Consumer Opinions - How to spot trends and trace ideas for new business opportunities.

Kristine De Valck, HEC University: Virtual Community Intelligence - Using netnography to extract knowledge from online consumer conversations.

Tor W. Andreassen / Liv Karin Slåttebrekk, Norwegian School of Management: Using Online Conversations to Study Word-of-Mouth Communication - A dyadic analysis of content.

/ Workshop

Suresh Sood, University of Technology, Sydney: Mining Word-of-Mouth Communities in Mobile Phone Users - Benefits of identifying WOM communities.

Christian Barrot, European Marketing Academy Award Winner: Measuring Word-of-Mouth Effects Using Spatial Dimension of Sales Data - How to work with it.

13.00-14.00 Lunch Break

/ Idea Lab

Bodo Lang, Manukau Institute of Technology: WOM: Asset or Liability - A Closer Look at the Management Process - Across multiple agencies and media, who should manage what and how within a company.

Walter Carl, Northeastern University: Trust - How to manage Word-of-Mouth's most important asset - Looking at the underlying process of Word-of-Mouth and what marketers should include in their strategies.

/ Workshop

Noemí Navarro, University of Montreal: How to Profit from Asymmetric Information - Learn from the buying decision structure of consumers, and the choices of price and quality of producers.

Bettina Cornwell, University of Queensland: Antecedents and Outcomes of Consumer Advocacy - How could loyalty turn into identification to word-of-mouth?

/ Idea Lab

Shelly Farnham, Microsoft Research Lab: See Yourself All Over: Brands in Visual Blogging - From Photo Blogging to visual communities and videoblogs, lessons for pictorial activity, brand interaction and product management in individual virtual communities.

Jason Calacanis, Weblogs Inc.: Should You Be a Business Blogger? - Who should do it and how should business professionals work with blogs to power the communication of their organizations.

Jian Ni, Nokia: Making Brands Make The Most Of Moblogs - The brand benefits and innovative possibilities that go hand-in-hand with utilizing this spontaneous and nearly instantaneous communication vehicle.

/ Idea Lab

Bill Flitter, Pheedo: How to use Podcasting as a marketing tool - Ideas and cases for industry.

Brian Walsh, Castfire: How to Build the Masterplan of Podvertising - What to gain and what to give for good WOM.

Altan Alpay, Podvertiser: Chances and Risks That Occur During Pod Planning - What kind of ideas work and what kind of ideas fail.

/ Workshop

Ian Bogost, Georgia Tech / Scott Foe, Nokia: Virtual Worlds But Very Real Money - Explore new revenue streams for classical brands from online and mobile games in e-commerce, advertising, branding and other areas.

Henrik Werdelin, MTV Networks: Where Does Reinventing Media Takes Us to Push WOM and Save Costs - What should we integrate into the Mix?

15.30-16.00 Break

/ Workshop

Tim Wragg, GfK/NOP: How To Find the Best WOM Consumers Out There - Targeting the optimal Word-of-Mouth leaders for your product category.

Fergus Hampton, Millward Brown: Keep Track of WOM - Tracking and measuring from message boards and blogs using simple measurement techniques with well-founded results.

/ Workshop

Bodo Lang, Manukau Institute of Technology New Zealand / Wu Dongbin, China Advertising Association: A Country Apart: Planning International Buzz - What effect does culture have on the Word-of-Mouth behaviour of consumers? How do cultural differences influence speed of information and number of people spoken to?

n.n., University of Hawaii: If It's Funny and Odd, Does It Go Viral? - Taking some of the guesswork out of just which kind of humor in advertising really pushes WOM and brand attitude.

Inus Hwang, Azoomma Marketing Lab: How to Manage the Buzz in Communities of Different Cultures - Lessons from Asia.

/ Workshop

Balder Olrik, Goviral: Online Viral marketing - Ceativity, seeding and tracking.

Chris Dellarocas, University of Maryland: He Said… She Said… They Said - Why people read and trust Customer Articulation Platforms and what marketers can learn.

Sonjaya Gaur, Indian Institute of Technology: Keeping the Electronic Buzz Buzzing - How electronic Word-of-Mouth works: what motivates consumers to pass along advertising content and what are the consequences for marketing management?

17.30-18.00 Break

: Thus Spoke the Audience - The participants will shape and build a research agenda of unsolved symposium questions. Getting 80% through the knowledge tunnel is pretty good, but proceeding through the last 20% is paramount.

»/Pick the complete Schedule as PDF

The first conference day = panels and discussions.
The second conference day = panels and specialized workshops.

and many more…

The players are cast and the game is on.

Fiona McDonnell Forrester Research Center Amsterdam, Senior Analyst: Amsterdam is smoking. No, not like that, naughty reader. Market research-wise it is smoking hot. In 1998, Forrester Research Center opened in Amsterdam, providing Europe with the sizzling, objective, cutting-edge research into how technology change affects business that Forrester is synonymous with. In the Devices, Media & Marketing group, Fiona conducts innovative projects involving podcasting, blogs and WOM. Under her belt are 10 years of consumer goods insight, working for Kraft Foods, The Kellogg Company and most recently at Nike. Fiona also spent two years as a management consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers in London, as an expert in helping B2C clients achieve profits and deal with change management. Fiona graduated with a master's degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Cambridge University, England and she has an MBA from INSEAD, France/Singapore.

Eric Paulos Intel Lab, Research Scientist: Are you an urban dweller? Well let this man take a look at your, uh, jetsam disposal, and he can tell you a thing or two about yourself. Not keen on the trash thing? Then touch and feel your way around his Berkeley lab as a tele-robot. Again, it’s another portal for him to plunge into your psyche, simply by watching your behavior. At Intel, Eric leads the Urban Atmospheres project - challenged to use provocative methods to understand the future fabric of our emerging digital and wireless urban landscape. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley. Eric developed several Internet based tele-robots including Mechanical Gaze and Space Browsing helium filled blimps. Using video and audio, inexpensive, internet-controlled, untethered tele-robots link users to a remote space, providing a visible, mobile entity with which other people can interact.

Prof. Alex (Sandy) Pentland MIT Media Lab, Director: Say you know a guy who wears his heart on his sleeve and his hard drive on his glasses. Huh? Well it makes perfect sense to Prof. Alex (Sandy) Pentland, a pioneer in wearable computers, health systems, smart environments and technology for developing countries. This is after all the man chosen by Newsweek as one of the 100 Americans most likely to shape the next century. And he is one of the most-cited computer scientists on good ol’ planet earth. He is the founding director of the Media Lab Asia and is a co-founder of the Center for Future Health, the Wearable Computing research community and the international Digital Nations Consortium. He was formerly the Academic Head of the MIT Media Laboratory and is the Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences. He has won numerous international awards in Art, Science and Engineering. Currently, Sandy directs the Human Design research group at the MIT Media Lab.

Professor Chris Dellarocas University of Maryland, Professor: Want to hear a heart beat skip? Just mention something provocative about digital intelligence and its development to this man. Professor Dellarocas teaches Information Systems at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. He holds Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science from MIT and a diploma in Electrical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens. The focus of his work is the rapidly growing online "word-of-mouth" communities and their impact on marketing, product development and public opinion. He also studies the use of online reputation mechanisms as a low-cost trust building device in electronic markets. Professor Dellarocas has also worked as an IT consultant for Accenture and McKinsey.

Inus Hwang Azoomma Marketing Lab, President: Stepford wives back off and clear the way. There is a whole new formidable breed of opinionated married women inhabiting the domestic digital landscape. And Inus knows all about their remarkable muscle. As president of Azoomma Marketing Lab, Korea’s leading agency in buzz marketing, she manages a cyber community membered by 500,000 married women. Her group has worked wonders for CJ, a leading food manufacturer, employing tools such as KitchenForum, Value Sampling and GuerillaPaper. Equally impressive are the brand achievements realized for Daehan pulp’s Bosomi diapers and Seoul Milk’s milk, juice and yogurt products. Inus also has a radio program and is a committee member of Seoul City. She lectures frequently and was recently honored with an invitation to present to the Korean Ministry of Government Affairs and Home Affairs.

Scott Foe Nokia, Games Producer: Remember when you and a buddy played Space Invaders? You destroyed him and felt like a champ? Well, baby get your game on, the competition today has multiplied like a wildfire. Thanks to Scott, a pioneer in the networked console gaming space and a member of the Dreamcast Network product development team at Sega, you can now play the world. Scott is currently a Producer in the Nokia Games Business Unit, and responsible for pushing the limits of connected mobile gaming. As Producer of Sega’s Pocket Kingdom, he helped to bring massively multiplayer online gameplay to a handheld device for the first time. He was also instrumental in creating Sega’s (now Nokia’s) SNAP network middleware technology and Nokia’s N-Gage Arena global mobile community. He is an active member of the IGDA and holds a certification in Japanese from Kyoto Seika University in Kyoto, Japan.

Lois Kelly Foghound, Founder: With foresight’s that’s nearly 20/20, Lois shrewdly took another path and left big agencies in the dust eight years ago. She founded Foghound, a strategic communications consulting firm focused on helping companies talk about their brands in ways that get people to listen and understand - in good times and bad. Clients have included SAP, Sun Microsystems, Sapient, FedEx, Hyperion, eRoom and Copernicus. Lois’ articles have appeared in USA Today, The Wall St. Journal, Brand Week and Advertising Age. Like all with well-endowed vocal chords, Lois has a Blog. And recently, at the AMA's Strategic Marketing conference, her "Mind the Gap: Making Brand Conversations Real, Relevant and Repeatable" presentation was rated the highest.

Michael Wall Fallon, President International: It’s one thing if people hear a message. Still another if they remember it. And in a couple of rare instances, the message becomes lovingly etched in the memory synapses of millions. And that’s exactly what’s happened with the BMW Films idea and others from Fallon. As one of Fallon London’s founding partners, Michael helped to develop the Fallon brand and business into one of the most respected agencies in the UK and Europe. In 2004 he was promoted to President International, responsible for the Fallon offices in London, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Sao Paulo. Degrees in Economics and French at Sussex University served to hone his distinguished skill of discerning the potentially spectacular. He has worked at DMB&B, Lowe and TBWA. His clients have included Sony, United, Ben & Jerry’s and Tesco.

Dr. Tim Wragg GfK/NOP, Global Director: Logical, no? The person you’re trying to reach has some opinions that might influence your message. But for some reason corporate ears seem to have grown a bit deaf. Here’s the hearing aid. Tim is the Global Director of Gfk NOP’s Customer Management Centre of Excellence, a practice that helps its clients build customer value and deliver compelling experiences by linking customer insights to enterprise performance. He’s also responsible for its WOM marketing. He was awarded a PhD for his groundbreaking research in consumer behaviour. And as a Full Member of the British Market Research Society, he was awarded the prize for "best new thinking" by the group in 2001. In 2004 he was covered by Marketing Week, AdMap, Brand Strategy and The Financial Times among others.

Dr. Walter Carl Northeastern University, Professor: Interpersonal and organizational communication? Why this guy wrote the book on it. Literally. Dr. Carl conducts research and teaches in these touchy-feely academic areas. His publications deal with the hot topics of social interaction, personal relationships and how relationships serve as a basis for influence and persuasion. His most recent research investigates word-of-mouth as it is embedded in routine, everyday communication practices, with a special emphasis on analyzing actual conversations and unique relationship histories. Of special interest is the study of buzz marketing communication and comparing everyday/organic versus institutional/amplified word-of-mouth. Dr. Carl received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa and his master's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Fergus Hampton Millward Brown Precis, Managing Director: Impact. Just how in the world does one quantify this difficult to define yardstick of consequence? How does one gauge a message’s effect? Precis might be precisely the answer. Precis is one of the leading Media Analysis and Evaluation systems. And, during the last twelve years Fergus has completed its development. Since 1991, he has worked with all the major PR consultants in the UK and many large corporations on a wide variety of projects with Precis, ranging from product launches to complex pan-European and US-based Issue Management assignments. Fergus has an Honours degree in Social Psychology and international Marketing experience that spans over 20 years, focusing in Business-to-Business expertise. He’s also a founder and past Chairman of AMEC, the Association of Media Evaluation Companies.

Shelly Diane Farnham Microsoft, Senior Reseacher: You’ve no doubt heard of a date doctor. But in these online times, a social engineer maybe just what the doctor should’ve ordered… and Shelly’s its personification. A researcher in the Social Computing Group at Microsoft, she studies computer-mediated social interactions. She builds and evaluates prototypes in order to help people achieve their social goals through technology. An expert in operationalizing social constructs from interaction behavior, she’s been involved with many prototyping projects including Swarm, Wallop, Point to Point, LeadLine and Personal Map. She holds several patents and her online studies include Use Of Social Technologies to Maintain Social Relationships, Reducing Bad Behavior Online and Online Matchmaking. She earned her Ph.D. in Social Psychology at the University of Washington.

Brian Elliott StrawberryFrog, Co-Founder, CEO: A veritable linguist in brandspeak, few people in the world have more experience than Brian in assessing roadblocks and building brands across borders. At hot shop Welinder, he managed Virgin Airlines and Radisson/SAS across Europe. He has extensive experience with luxury brands including Emirates First Class and Credit Suisse. As both strategist and client services director, Brian’s been a driving force behind StrawberryFrog’s growth into one of the new respected names in international advertising, helping redefine the way advertising is done for cross border brands looking for top strategy and creativity like Heineken and Coca Cola Light. A trailblazer in the world of viral and guerrilla marketing, StrawberryFrog creates Brand Movements which combine the discipline of consumer branding with the populist power of grass-roots movements.

Jian Ni Nokia, Senior Business Development Manager: Hear ye, hear ye. The smoke signalers of the past have been reincarnated and they’re having a massive love affair with mobloging. And Jian is feeding the fire as one of the pioneers in the moblog scene. He is the Senior Business Development Manager of the Lifeblog team in Nokia Multimedia and responsible for creating new business opportunities and developing strategic partnerships around the Nokia Lifeblog application and services. He’s also held various positions in product development and technology management in Nokia’s mobile handset divisions. Before joining Nokia, Jian was a research assistant at Tampere University of Technology, Finland and worked as a software engineer at Keli Co. in Beijing. He received his MBA degree from Rutgers University, his M.Sc & B.Sc. from Tsinghua University, China and holds 3 patents.

Henrik Werdelin MTV Networks International, Vice-President Product Development: Whoa there, this certainly isn’t grandma’s boob tube anymore. The innovative mind of Henrik Werdelin has changed television reception strategy forever. He was part of many of mtv's pioneering products, including the award-winning interactive format Top Selection, some of the first sms interactive shows, the broadband channel MTV Live and the computer game channel GameOne. Henrik left and set up a product development company, strategically pushing product sales, the brands and tv formats for Disney, BBC Worldwide, Coke, Endemol and Egmont. He then rejoined MTV as creative director until he moved into his current position, working with the network's premier multimedia brands MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, TMF, VIVA, Paramount Comedy and Game One covering 166 countries and 18 languages via 104 locally programmed and operated TV channels and 90 Web sites.

Ian Bogost Georgia Institute of Technology, Professor: If you’ve ever sought the mad serious lowdown on games, then grab a seat and a joystick. Here’s your man. Ian is an academic videogame researcher, game designer and educational publisher. Plus, he has over a decade of experience in digital media production for film, music, games, advertising and eBusiness. This Assistant Professor of Literature Communication and Culture at Georgia Institute of Technology, teaches and researches in undergraduate and graduate programs in digital media. Bogost's current research interests include videogame criticism (the subject of a forthcoming book from MIT Press, Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism) and videogame rhetoric (including the function of ideology, politics, advertising, and education in games). Ian holds a BA in Comparative Literature and Philosophy from USC and an MA and Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from UCLA.

Idil Cakim Burson-Marsteller, Director: Somebody pretty influential has just set down their mug of java and is about to get busy online. Wouldn’t you like to know who she/he is? Idil can clue you in. She is a Director in the Knowledge Management Group of Burson-Marsteller, specializing in interactive marketing and custom research. She manages internet-related proprietary studies, including the e-fluentials. The author of numerous industry briefs on online corporate communications, Idil has also been a public speaker on issues regarding online crisis communications, word-of-mouth, ethnic minorities' use of the Internet and e-CRM. As well, she’s been quoted in the Industry Standard, Inter@ctive, CNet news, CBS Market Watch, the Chicago Sun Times, NY Post and the New York Times. She holds an M.A. in Communication from the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in Sociology from Bryn Mawr College.

Dr. Paul Dholakia Rice University, Professor: Just who is polite society in a newly formed digital nation? For that matter, who are the masses? Are there social climbers? Ask Dr. Dholakia. He’s an assistant professor of management at the Jesse Jones Graduate School of Management, Rice University, in Houston Texas and his research interests lie in studying relational aspects of customer behavior, motivational psychology of consumers and online marketing issues such as virtual communities and online auctions. Working extensively with large and small firms in financial services, high tech, energy and services industries, he has worked (or is working) with American Airlines, Dell Computers, eBay, HSBC, LaSalle Bank Corporation, Microsoft, National Instruments, OpenBC and Pennzoil Quaker State. He has a master's degree in Psychology and a Ph.D. in Marketing from the University of Michigan.

Dr. René Algesheimer University of Zurich, Professor: Just what is the equivalent of Pavlovian drool when we’re talking about humans online? Does the science differ with digital emotions? Dr. Algesheimer is an assistant professor of Marketing at the Institute for Strategy and Organization’s Economics at the University of Zurich. His area of expertise deals in the measurement of emotional and motivational factors in branding environments and network studies. Daimler-Chrysler, eBay, Siemens, Swisscom and several EU projects have profited from his quantification and qualification of the rollercoaster of emotional synaptic science. His aim is to employ a holistic approach that is psychologically intertwined with consumer need. Dr. Algesheimer received his Ph.D. in Marketing from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland and his Master’s degree from the Johannes Gutenberg University, Germany.

Dr. Sonjaya Singh Gaur Indian Institute of Technology, Professor: In the maddening explosion of new webpage after new webpage, how can a company still access the most coveted of consumers, the e-fluentials? Dr. Gaur is a tenured Associate Professor of Marketing at the Indian Institute of Technology, crowned as one of the leading research centers by Asiaweek. He has specialized expertise in targeting and capitalizing on the WOM influencers of all things viral, particularly in matters of trust, selectivity and diverse behavioral characteristics. His experience in academia spans over a decade and includes consulting, research and training. He is a frequent speaker and contributes regularly to international conferences, workshops and journals. He has trained managers from many of India’s leading companies and consulted several Indian and Multinational companies, including Ranbaxy Laboratories, RFCL, Geologistics, Pajas Infopath and Godrej & Boyce Mfg.Co.Ltd.

Bodo Lang Manukau Institute of Technology, New Zealand: Is cyberspace’s reach making the world a more intimate one, or is its breadth showing us how far apart we are? Neither? Both? A question for Bodo? Yes. Bodo Lang is a senior lecturer at the Manukau Institute of Technology. His career is a blend of the commercial and academic sectors. His commercial career began in German advertising and, after completing postgraduate qualifications in New Zealand, he then worked as a management consultant in Auckland for a global consulting firm. Bodo also held a senior management position at a global market research firm in Singapore. The other half of his career has had an academic slant, with research interests focused in the areas of Word-of-Mouth, consumer behaviour and services marketing. To date Bodo's research has been published in several journals, including the Journal of Business Research and the Journal of Advertising.

Steven Erich Crispin Porter + Bogusky, VP – Group Director: Using traditional and non-traditional tactics, Burger King has been getting people talking for the last year and a half thanks to the efforts of some pretty brave brand managers and the folks at CP+B. Whether it’s the Subservient Chicken, Coq Roq, The Bacon Cheddar Ranch, Dr. Angus, The World Chicken Sandwich Championship or Ugoff, CP+B knows how to get the conversation started. Steve manages the US Burger King business and advises on the brand’s expanding efforts globally. Prior to his coming to Miami for the re-launch of Burger King’s “Have It Your Way” campaign, Steve worked at creative shops Chiat/Day, The Martin Agency, TBWA and VitroRobertson managing a host of consumer brands, including Timberland, Oakley, Jack in the Box, Taco Bell, Baskin-Robbins, Newcastle Brown Ale, Ketel One Vodka, Cobra Golf, Penn Tennis and Kyocera Wireless.

More to come…

Not-For-Profit: We Said It, We Meant It, We’re Here to Represent It
Did it cross your mind that something may be amiss? Worried about schlockmeister gimmicks? Swindle traps? Been there. Done that. Did not like that? Well ease your mind.
If you’re not so familiar with the in-and-out functioning of a non-profit symposium, please give us a moment to let you know how we work. Transparently. Brand Science Institute is a knowledge transformer, not a conference company. You Tarzan, we Jane, as we explore the future in this vital marketing field right alongside with you. Plucking fruit from the knowledge tree is the most essential task at hand. Therefore, any and all earnings from this conference will be invested directly into a research fund. This fund is earmarked solely for further expansion and discovery into all things WOM by our conference participants. And that translates into something you can directly reap benefits from—your very own proprietary knowledge. Know-how that lets you pogo stick right past your competitors, well before they can even comprehend what’s taking place. There are no jive early bird fees. Just a simple maximum of 300 participants worldwide. The seats go when they are gone, so there are no hassles about late entrants. We believe that altruism is the only way to work with such an exclusive group of pioneers.

Ich bin ein Hamburger.

Make your time in Hamburg hitch-and-hiccup-free. For information regarding flight schedules, hotel reservations, exhibitor information and sponsoring opportunities please contact: »/jac@b-s-i.org

Meet the leading experts. Grasp the latest findings.

Any and all earnings will be invested into a research fund, earmarked for further exploration into this vital topic by our conference participants.