Sarah Barrett is a partner at Factor, specializing in modeling information and experiences. Her specialties include rapid prototyping and interaction design, facilitating usability testing, and integrating user centered design methods with information architecture and taxonomy activities. She has used these skills on projects for many enterprise clients, including Adobe, Microsoft, Safeco/Liberty Mutual, Expedia, and Pearson.

Sarah has an MLIS from the University of Washington, where she focused on the potential for libraries and librarians to be tool-builders, and the intersection between traditional information science and user experience.

Mr. Bell has over twenty years' experience helping build quality organizations focused on desktop training, learning management systems, enterprise search, taxonomy development, and cognitive computing technologies. He is a frequent guest speaker at indusrty conferences covering topics such as the best approaches to successfully deploy semantic and cognitive computing technologies to support knowledge management, enterprise search and other challenges across a variety of industry verticals. He has worked with information management approaches including: key words, statistics, linguistics, semantics and cognitive computing / AI technologies. His background includes helping launch and expand software companies at crucial points in their maturation process.

Tony Byrne oversees all Real Story Group's technology streams.

In 2001, Tony founded CMS Watch as a vendor-independent analyst firm that evaluates digital markting and workplace technologies and publishes research comparing different solutions head-to-head. Today Real Story Group covers ten different marketplaces, with a focus on customer experience technologies. 

Unique in the analyst industry, Real Story Group only works for technology buyers and never vendors.  RSG's vendor evaluations are considered the toughest in the industry, and research and advisory services for DX/CX stack owners offers unique candor and depth.

 

Russ is the Founder, President & CEO of Corridor Company, a Software Development and Consulting Company, focused specifically on Microsoft SharePoint and the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) industry.  Russ is an active industry analyst helping to define key industry trends by contributing to media outlets including HBR, CNBC, InformationWeek, CIO Magazine, AIIM Infonomics and KMWorld.  He is a featured speaker at industry conferences and sits on a number of emerging technology committees in the ECM industry. He is one of the originating members of www.sharepointgovernance.org, a non-profit, peer-to-peer site for organizations planning, introducing, and managing SharePoint.

In 2008, Russ also co-authored his first book titled "Nice Guys Can Get The Corner Office", published by the Penguin Group in 2008.  It has received international praise and he is regularly featured on TV, radio, magazine and podcast interviews.  Russ is also a regular blogger on CNBC and Huffington-Post as he reports on relevant management trends.

Sue Feldman is President of Synthexis, a consulting firm that provides business advisory services to vendors and buyers of cognitive computing, search and text analytics technologies.   She speaks frequently at industry events on topics such as trends in computing, including cognitive computing, conversational systems, big data technologies, and the hidden costs of information work. In 2014, she led a coalition of industry experts to define cognitive computing (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_computing). She wrote the chapter on search engines for the Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, and was the first editor of the IEEE Computer Society's Digital Library News. Sue’s clients rely on her for strategic advice and business coaching, as well as for her wide network of contacts in the industry. In her book, The Answer Machine (Morgan & Claypool, 2012), Sue discusses the technologies behind information seeking and analysis, and their central role in the future of computing.

In 2014 she co-founded the Cognitive Computing Consortium (cognitivecomputingconsortium.com), a forum for practitioners, researchers and vendors of cognitive systems to exchange ideas, promote cognitive computing, and discuss its use.

Before founding Synthexis, Sue was Vice President for Search and Discovery Technologies at IDC (International Data Corporation), where she directed research on the technologies and markets for search, text analytics, categorization, translation, mobile and rich media search. Prior to coming to IDC, Ms. Feldman was founder and president of Datasearch, an independent technology advisory firm, where she consulted on usability and on information retrieval technologies. She is a founder and former president of the Association of Independent Information Professionals, a member of the Association for Computing Machinery, and has won numerous research and writing awards.

Ms. Feldman holds degrees from Cornell University in linguistics and from the University of Michigan in information science. She won the AIIP Roger Summit Lecture Award for 2019.

Linda Gilbert is Information Technology Director at PRIDE Industries in Roseville, CA. She has been consulting in and architecting SharePoint, Collaboration, and Knowledge Management solutions since 2004.

Her focus since joining PRIDE has been to help top-level executives adopt methodologies and practices in Knowledge Management using Microsoft SharePoint technologies to drive standards and increase productivity in a uniquely diverse workforce. Linda has grown a team focused on coupling User Experience, Office 365, Mobility and Assistive Technologies that will help support PRIDE's unique mission to create jobs for people with disabilities.

She holds degrees in Computer Programming and Business Management as well as numerous technological certifications.

Linda has spoken at many community Microsoft events, user groups and local events over the last twelve years.

Jarrod Gingras is Real Story Group’s Managing Director and an analyst covering Digital Workplace and Marketing technologies. He is the author of The Right Way to Select Technology, published by Rosenfeld Media.

As a conference speaker and consultant, he regularly advises some of the world’s largest and most complicated enterprises on their enterprise information challenges.

Prior to joining Real Story Group, Jarrod worked as a web developer, information architect and user interface designer at a systems integration firm, where he developed user-focused content management strategies and solutions for clients in a multitude of industries.

Jarrod’s passions include following Boston’s sports teams, relaxing in Costa Rica with his wife Lindsey, and helping enterprises select the right technology for their unique needs.

Jill Hannemann is the Western regional lead for Avanade Advisory Modern Workplace. She is a recognized expert and frequent speaker in the topics of Microsoft 365 adoption, migration, governance, and information architecture. She brings over 15 years’ experience with information architecture design, taxonomy and metadata design, information governance, search, and enterprise content management system design to drive user adoption and return on investment. As a seasoned IT business consultant, Jill brings real life experience in the full development cycle for deployments and migration to cloud collaborative technology.

Kamran Khan has experience spanning over 25 years in the enterprise search industry.  In 2005, after serving as worldwide sales and marketing executive for an enterprise search product company, he co-founded and served as President and CEO of Search Technologies, a technology services company dedicated to helping organizations build effective and scalable search-based applications.

He successfully grew Search Technologies to 200 people throughout six countries, serving 800 enterprise and government clients globally.  It was acquired by Accenture in 2017, forming the Search & Content Analytics practice of the Applied Intelligence business. Kamran currently serves as the Managing Director, providing his expertise in business management and technology sales and services.

Daniel Mayer is the CMO & SVP Products of Expert System Enterprise. For the past 10 years, Daniel has been helping leading organizations accelerate their transformation by applying AI and Natural Language Processing technology to accelerate and simplify their business processes and improve decision making through analytics. Daniel holds both a Master’s degree in Business from HEC Paris and a Master’s in Computer Science from Télécom ParisTech.

Joe works with e-SignLive’s largest clients in government (Public Sector) as well as in the financial industry and acts as an advocate and liaison between e-SignLive and these accounts, to assure their continued success. Having served as both individual contributor as well as a Pre- sales technical Manager throughout his career, Joe’s passion for ensuring an exceptional client experience and his enthusiasm in providing solutions are the hallmark of his work.

A former technical editor and writer for the Boeing Company, Hugh McKellar has more than 30 years of experience with the technical and business press in a variety of management roles. Prior to joining KMWorld as Executive Editor in 1999, Hugh developed business plans and content strategies for a number of B2B Web sites. He is a member of the founding board of governors for The George Washington University Institute for Knowledge and Innovation.

As one of the chief gurus in knowledge management (KM), celebrated author of three best-selling books and the driving force for dozens of leading edge research projects, Carla O’Dell is at the epicenter of the best and brightest in KM. As CEO of APQC, an award winning, member-based nonprofit institution founded in 1977 and serving Global 1000, government, and nonprofit organizations, Carla has a unique perspective about what really matters in KM and how to make it work for your organization. Under Carla’s direction, APQC has long been recognized as a global leader in KM and is repeatedly named as one of KMWorld Magazine’s 100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management. The organization has been named eight times as one of North America’s Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises (MAKE) by TELEOS and The KNOW Network (awarded 2003-2004, 2007-2012). Carla has a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, a master’s from the University of Oregon, and a doctorate in organizational psychology from the University of Houston.

http://www.apqc.org/speakers/dr-carla-odell

Shannon has cemented his position in an international network of Internet authorities. A snapshot of his speaking engagements include Enterprise 2.0 Conference, Safeguard Scientifics' Think Again conference, the Internet Marketing Conference, the Gilbane CMS Boston, Paine Webber's Growth and Technology conference, and numerous others. He is a regular and reliable source of information for the media about web strategy, execution and metrics.

With a proven record of building lasting relationships, Shannon's unique business experience offers clients more than expertise in web services. In senior roles before non-linear creations, Shannon raised USD $21.5 million in financing for a software analytics company, and recruited teams of developers from Russia and drove sales activities in Siberia for a US based software company in the oil and gas industry.  Shannon holds a B.A. in Soviet and Eastern European Studies from Carleton University and a Masters in International Business from the University of Vienna. An avid world traveler, Shannon can speak fluent Russian, passable German and restaurant French. 

For more information about Shannon Ryan and non-linear creations, go to www.nonlinearcreations.com or go to Shannon's blog at www.nonlinearcreations.com/blog

 

Shawn Shell is the Executive responsible for Avanade’s Advisory Services practice in the mid-West. Shawn has spent nearly 30 years in the information technology field. For more than a decade, Shawn has concentrated on assisting his clients chart their journey to improved operations and employee productivity through various portal & collaboration solutions, as well as enabling operational technologies. He is an expert on SharePoint, Office 365, cloud-based application development, and IoT solutions. Shawn is also a Contributing Analyst for the Real Story Group and a frequent conference speaker.

Prior to Avanade, Shawn was a Vice President in Hitachi Consulting’s Digital Practice. He was also Founder & Principal Consultant at Consejo, Inc, held various leadership roles at Dell, was an adjunct professor in Rutgers University’s Department of Computer Science, and started his career at Warner-Lambert Company, now Pfizer.

You can follow Shawn on Twitter (@shawnshell)

Holly Tomlinson is a Content Strategist at PRIDE Industries in Roseville, CA. She specializes in User Experience (UX) research, developing information architectures and taxonomies, as well as generating consumable content based on un-documented organizational knowledge. Her most recent work has been to re-design her company's Intranet. Throughout this project, she has measured Knowledge Management (KM) success by using practical, low cost UX techniques. PRIDE's unique mission to create jobs for people with disabilities means that Knowledge Management (KM) must be accessible to all PRIDE employees, even those with disabilities. With accessibility at the core of her work, Holly has many lessons learned to share with fellow IT professionals. In her years with PRIDE, Holly has brought fresh ideas and techniques to the IT department she works in, training other professionals in UX techniques and KM best practices. She holds a Master's degree in Organizational Leadership and UX Certification from Nielson Norman Group. As an experienced speaker, writer, and trainer, Holly engages any audience with her enthusiasm and passion for Knowledge Management.

Vanessa Toves is the Owner of BevLogik, a business focused on finding solutions for companies focused in the wine, craft beer and craft cider industries.  Http://BevLogik.com

 

Matt Varney is a technology architect specializing in enterprise IT strategy and solutions. Matt is the Intranet Manager for the Kentucky Community and Technical College System and its 10,000 employees. Matt’s 20 years of technology experience has made him an expert in both the technical and organizational aspects of IT. He enjoys nuts-and-bolts work like SharePoint and Office 365 administration as well as creating the business process and people conditions necessary for effective implementations. With an emphasis on the big picture, Matt enjoys working with employee groups and helping them find hidden value in the processes and artifacts they thought they knew.