Our Authors

Amie Valpone, Author of The Healthy Apple and Publisher of Easy Eats and Gluten-Free Online Magazine.

Anthony Sanchez adopted the Bay Area as his home over 10 years ago and continues to rediscover its beauty as he studies the human species on a daily basis. He’s traveled the world, speaks many languages and licked a banana slug once.

A teacher, traveler, student of languages, and wrangler of words, Bethany harbors a love of helping others find information and communicate it in the clearest way possible. She has taught English as a foreign language in France, Serbia, and the U.S., maintained records for archeological excavations in Greece and Turkey, proofread or edited almost every kind of document known to humankind. When not finding even more delicious food at the latest restaurant or reading in the sporadic San Francisco sunshine (an art to itself) she loves storytelling, biking, and bringing people together. She finds that conferences are often a concentrated milieu for finding interesting folks and is currently working on a MA in English Literature at SFSU.

Bruce Carlisle is the Founder and CEO of Conference Hound. Read more about him here.

Chris Marino is the founder and CEO of vCider a Silicon Valley startup applying innovative Layer 2 and Layer 3 networking technology to extend the functionality of cloud computing for greater flexibility, control , availability and security. Chris is a 20+ year veteran of Silicon Valley.

After 18 years of living as one of Los Angeles' several residents, Cindy Marie Lopez happily made Northern California her newest and latest home. There, she currently attends the University of California, Santa Cruz as a third year undergraduate working towards her Bachelor's Degree in both Creative Writing and Education. Various of her common interests include reading and writing poetry, hiking local city hot spots, long-distance biking, and eating all the fruit you can offer her on a daily basis.

Dan Ake is the CEO of Successful Conference Academy and author of reference books about conferences, events and trade shows. His most recent book is The 7 Spells of the New Conference People 2.0.

Emma Parker specializes in the green energy and biotechnology sector. Her work to date has been primarily in the environmental sector and international development in East Africa. Currently Emma is working as CFO of Forever Angels USA, a new not for profit working towards 501c3 status in order to increase support for a Tanzanian based orphanage.

Emmett currently lives in New York, NY, after studying abroad in St. Andrews, Scotland. While he went for the education, he stayed for the social scene. When he's not busy being awesome, Emmett covers the latest and greatest in entertainment, film, video games, and all things geeky. When he's not doing that, he's probably either reading a book or tracking down the best Mexican food he can find.

At Eventbrite, we believe that conference registration is no longer just a monetary transaction. We see registration as an opportunity to leverage technology—to help conference directors like you get more out of every marketing dollar, generate new cash flow, and better understand your attendees. Eventbrite’s social media tools turn your attendees into instant promoters through one-click integration with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. We help all conference organizers grow their events, build their brand, and ultimately increase revenue by offering the best attendee experience.

Jay is the CTO of Conference Hound. You can find more information about him here and here.

Kirstie lives in Kansas City, MO after moving across the state from St. Louis, MO. She's spent a good portion of her career in medical/scientific research, and have organized conferences in that field targeted at local to international audiences. As a St. Louis and Kansas City local, she loves to visit events centered around food and wine, and take in the various festivals that explore ethnic cultures.

Mark Drossman was a Founding Partner and the Chief Creative Extrovert at Extrovertic, an innovative multi-channel healthcare agency with offices in New York City and Cambridge, MA. At the end of last year, Mark sold his stake in Extrovertic to pursue a wider range of creative opportunities.

Matt hails from Boston and has a background in Film and Writing. As weather phenomena go, he prefers earthquakes to Nor'easters these days, so he's currently residing in the East Bay. He produced a feature film called "Night Sounds" after graduating from Emerson College, which premiered at a film festival in Massachusetts. Matt continues to write screenplays and work in the film community, while working as a freelance copywriter, editor, and part-time member of the Hound.

Mike Thimmesch is Skyline Exhibits’ Director of Lead Generation and Industry Relations, with over 20 years of Marketing and Trade Show Display Marketing experience.

Oliver Carding is an established content writer and SEO expert from Manchester UK, he writes on a number of blogs and websites including http://barcelona.venuehunter.co.uk the independent venue finder.

Rhianna Shaw, Conference Hound’s UK correspondent is a 2011 graduate of Brown University with a B.A. in Literary Arts and a course focus on Business. At Brown, Rhianna was the Public Relations and Event Coordinator for the Brown Class Board, responsible for organizing class and campus-wide events. She spent her final semester developing an online start-up with a small team of her Brown classmates. Rhianna hails from sunny England, where she has returned to work in the event industry in London. She has spent a large portion of her life dedicated to music as a member of several bands and orchestras and she also enjoys acting and playing competitive sports!

Sorel happily attends conferences whenever she can, and the rest of the time you can find her working with clients to develop effective social web strategies. Learn more here: http://flavors.me/sorel

The Hound helps people find, research and connect with the conferences that enable them to grow their careers, enrich their professional lives and have fun while making the most of the conference-going experience.