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Spe​akers

Mike Sharman

Sharman is the owner of the online word of mouth disseminating, creative digital communications agency, Retroviral. With more than five years agency experience, Mike has successfully implemented traditional and new media campaigns for both established brands and startups in the consumer and b2b technology / finance, and entertainment sectors – from conception and design to campaigns that have been classified as ‘truly viral’ such as Nando’s ‘Chicken Excellence Officer’ campaign: http://bit.ly/NandosCEO





Andy Hadfield

Andy Hadfield is a digital native (can’t really remember life without the Internet) and is fascinated with the impact it is having on our lives and businesses. An entertaining and compelling personality, Andy speaks with authority and insight about the new shape of life, work and play in the digital world.





Heike Meyburgh

When she’s not training to become an Iyenga Yoga Instructor or trying to become the female Bear Grylls, Heike Meyburgh works as a Digital Strategist for Cerebra. After graduating from UJ with a BA (Hons) in Corporate Communications and before joining Cerebra, Heike worked at several agencies engaging with big brands such as Nike, Cell C and RedBull. Heike’s current clients include Toyota and Nedbank and one of her biggest achievements to date was winning a Bookmark Award in 2011 on behalf of her client, Samsung.





 

Tom Manners

Tom Manners has spent several years as a writer and strategist within the South African online community. He found his feet within this unique environment after being employed as the first journalist at South Africa's largest technology related publication ‑ MyBroadband, eventually working his way up to Head Journalist and Content Manager. Following this, he moved over to Smart Publishing, based in Pretoria, where he acted as Online Editor for TechSmartIn these rolls Tom learned a great deal about the South African digitallandscape and subsequently started Clockwork Media, a communications agency which specialises in working with a range of clients to amplify their messaging online. Today, Clockwork Media acts as a digital service provider to a range ofbrands while working with leading companies such as Liberty, Nokia, Nike, IBM, Oude Meester and BMW within the framework of corporate communications. Tom is the lead singer in the South African rock band, Dance, You're on Fire.





 

Rashiq Fataar

Rashiq Fataar is the founder, Editor in Chief and Managing Director of Future Cape Town, a social media movement and urban consultancy. Rashiq is passionate about cities, urban economic development, inspirational spaces and exploring the world - its people, landscapes and the next best urban ideas.





























































































































































































































































































































 

Sheena Gates

Sheena Gates, also known as SheBee, started out as a personal blogger, which lead her to Facebook, which lead her to Twitter, which lead her to the business of that social media thinger everyone's always talking about. Sheena is Head of Social at Aqua, one of SA's biggest digital & direct agencies. She is an ex-Durbanite now Joburg local yocal, and tries daily to convince her Jewish boyfriend to agree that bacon has been the best invention on earth, ever.





 

Dale Ferreira

Born barefoot in Boksburg and growing up in Welkom in the Free State, I have  fought against all odds and managed to come out English. In 2011 I wanted to be involved in social media, and decided to reinvent myself and at 28 became the world's oldest intern, I have since grown immensely, and have learnt that understanding relationships and opportunity are the benefit to any human who wishes to grow in Social media. I am me as much as I am not me and am the proud owner of the empire that is not.



 

Sam Wilson

Sam Wilson is a writer and director. He has written movie scripts, books, children’s stories, TV shows, plays, and computer games, performed stand-up comedy, hosted podcasts, directed and edited TV shows and short movies, won awards for his cellphone-based short fiction, and at one point ran a web-based service where he would scream people’s messages off the top of Table Mountain. He recently finished his first novel “Commedia” about slacker actors in Roman Britain, and was named one of the Mail and Guardian’s Top Young South Africans for 2011.



 

Kate Wolters

By day Kate works for the London office of global brand consultancy, Added Value.  By night she blogs, tweets, moonlights as a freelance travel and lifestyle writer and lurks about on teh interwebs. She's interested in how corporates treat their humans, in how brands work, in the power of socialisation and culture and, especially, in really juvenile humour (Nhur hur hur).  She's also rather fond of bendy brains, books, writers and the origins of language. She has a mixed bag of interesting skills, gathered in a career featuring stints as a fish farmer, assistant zoo keeper and executive P.A. to a mad Frenchman.


 

Ryan van Jaarsveld

Ryan’s career in mobile began in the early days when he started Cellsmart Johannesburg with Tess Suluman working under Ahmed Kajee… Scoring some massive accounts while he was there he soon got an appetite to go out on his own. After leaving he played in the digital space for a year working on developing mobile banking products for Santam, which was lots of fun. With the aim of setting up SA’s first mobile focused advertising agency he hooked up with Creative Director Neil Clarence and they started Seven. Seven is his best work yet. They have some nice clients and are doing some next level shit. Definitely the most fun he has had in his career so far.



 

John Beale

Having spent several years in media developing strategies across digital and traditional media, John Beale found his passion on the social side of digital and is now Head of Strategy at Cerebra Communications (www.cerebra.co.za). When he has a spare moment he drives cars and writes or talks about them.



 

Heidi Schneigansz

Heidi, or Snowgoose, as she prefers to be called, is a digital native. She gets a bit twitchy if she doesn't have a device that allows her to be online and tweeting. She considers herself a well rounded geek with experience in corporates, agencies and now, in the tech startup environment in the 42Engines startup accelerator. Heidi is passionate about 2 things: the shifting power differential between the big bad enterprise and the people… and gingers.



 

Clive Simpkins

Clive Simpkins is a marketing and communications strategist who helps people and organisations communicate better. Whether interpersonally, to groups, inside or outside of their organisation and particularly for the press, radio, TV or social media. He hosted his own show on Talk Radio 702 several years back and is a regular radio and TV guest on media (including social media), reputation management and communication related topics. He’s the author of: 1. Media Appearance Secrets 2. Presenting, Speaking and Facilitating Secrets and 3. Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life, the latter with a foreword and relevance endorsement by psychiatrist Dr Dora Wynchank.



 

Dave Alves

• Social Media Manager at Ogilvy
• Digitally besotted.
• Occasional blogger.
• Can like to tweet.
• Swears a sh*t load.
• Is done with fear.


"A Community Manager is like a Shepherd. A community is like a flock of sheep. A Shepherd tends to their flock. They live among the sheep, but they are not a sheep...The Shepherd always knows the count of the herd." - Tim McDonald


 

Andy Gilder

Andy has worked across virtually every aspect of the South African Internet landscape – from search marketing for financial services brands, to blogging in the digital PR space, to conceptualising and project managing website development. At present, he heads up digital strategy for Cape Town based agency, Machine, where he drives the strategic direction for a number of household names like Appletiser, Citroen, iBurst, Motorola and L’oreal as well as guiding the social media arms of brands like Patron Tequila, Southern Comfort and Stolichnaya Vodka for the RGBC group. If you play nice, he promises to bring some freebies for you to enjoy.
 


 

Matt Visser

I've been 'working' as a real grown up in or around advertising for over 8 years now. First in below the line advertising as a copywriter and now... Well, now it's a little bit more interesting and the lines are completely blurred. I've been lucky enough to meet and work with some of the best musicians, thinkers, designers and anarchists I think our country has to offer and hope I've shared as much as I've learnt along the way. For my past sins, I am currently a digital strategist and geek thinker at Society & Punk, 2 companies within the King James Group.

 


 

Melissa Attree

Melissa Attree is a marketing and social media professional who is passionate about using digital tools to get consumers and brands talking. After majoring in Journalism & Media Studies and English at Rhodes University, Melissa Attree started her professional career as a copywriter.  From there it was a logical leap to the world of marketing where she worked for 3 years developing the Eco-Vet brand and later held senior marketing and management positions at L’Oreal for 5 years. In 2007 Melissa put her varied marketing and communication experience to good use and started GetOn eMarketing. GetOn consulted to companies in an effort to bridge the offline / online link. Melissa has worked with brands like ABSA, Adidas, Big Blue, Distell, MasterCard, Nando’s, Nedbank, Ogilvy, SAA, South African Breweries, Vodacom, Woolworths and 5FM. In 2012 Melissa joined Cerebra in a Business Development capacity.
 



 


Brendan Jack

Brendan is a writer, performer, producer, director, voice artist and outsourced creative director (OCD). He started in advertising, made Crazy Monkey's 'Straight Outta Benoni' and 'Footskating 101', and creates digital video campaigns through his production company. He also wrote the satirical marketing novel, Empire: How to Succeed with Nothing but Passion, Great Ideas and a Wealthy Family
 


 

Madams' of ceremonies

Maximillian Kaizen

Maximillian Kaizen is a culturesmith, researcher, educator, activist and big fan of tinkering. Max is Public Lead for Creative Commons in South Africa, a global organisation that develops and supports legal and technical infrastructure between the Internet and the realworld. She is one of the founders, and partner at the Ogilvy Digital Marketing Academy, she gets a chance to experiment with social learning online, realworld, by‑whatever‑means, for the world’s largest ad agency. As co‑director of Business Acumen for Artists at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business, now in its 5th year, she is privileged to be part of one of the most innovative business school programs that *really* does change lives and fortunes.

 


 

Michelle Atagana

Michelle Atagana has a Masters Degree in New Media and Journalism, her thesis focuses on social media technologies in the South African journalistic space with some focus on the public sphere. She has been hanging around the Internet since she was 11 back in proper Netscape days and even found a way to get not one, but two degrees out it. She blogs with moderate regularity and tweets with alarming consistency and works tirelessly at memeburn.com.
 


 

Keynote: Shawn Graaff

Shawn Graaff is an ex‑ pat American that has been waving a digital wand in Africa for 3 years. Hailing from classics libraries and American academia she has converted her education and expertise in Information Architecture and Archival Conservation to Digital Management, Content Strategy, Social Media Marketing and more. Shawn is currently the Online Content and Social Media Manager at MiX Telematics International where her passion for mobile development and all things digital make her perfectly suited to be in the ICT community here in South Africa and abroad. Formally educated in Philosophy and Religious History with post‑ graduate work in Art History and Fine Arts & Archival Collections Management, Shawn brings unique experience to the African tech space and is regularly involved in local events for the South African online community and contributes to entrepreneurial growth for local start‑ ups. An avid environmentalist with involvement in local Renewable Energy, Shawn and her husband are often at their Nature Conservancy in the rural Western Cape where they are currently working to re‑ indigenize fynbos with local bio‑ diversity and sustainability projects.


 

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