Martin Brossman is a success coach, speaker, trainer and author (www.coachingsupport.com) specializing in teaching new social media skills to accelerate growth for entrepreneurs and small businesses. He has been offering LinkedIn training in the Triangle community since 2006 and building a meaningful LinkedIn network (www.linkedin.com/in/martinbrossman). He has originated in-person and on-line networking groups which have facilitated valuable business connections among members. Martin’s IBM background and computer skills have powered his keen ability to create and teach crucial new Internet communications, such as blogging, podcasting and on-line networking. His own podcast show can be heard at www.lnquireOnLine.info. He offers consulting on how to generate profitable alliances by maximizing face-to-face and on-line presence and managing “the conversation of you” on the Web (www.ProNetworkingOnLine.com).
Chuck Hester
Chuck Hester is national an international speaker on social networking and LinkedIn maven with more than 9500 direct connections. He is the author of Linking In to Pay it Forward: Changing the Value Proposition in Social Media. Chuck is also the Communications Director for iContact, an email marketing software company based in Durham, NC.
Pat Howlett’s past includes 14 years with the Air Force and 20 as a small business owner.
He joined his first “Virtual Community” in 1986. “The Well” is still in existence and considered by experts to be the parent of all the social networks that followed.
He started the “Online Colorado” Bulletin Board System (BBS) in 1990, which grew to over 800 members all using SLOW modems connecting to 12 phone lines and 2 servers.
In 1997 he would bring Internet access over the Continental Divide in Colorado to serve the Northern Mountain communities of the State. Prior to this residents and business owners made long distance calls to connect to AOL.
This ISP service (ColoradoWebLink.com) grew to over 1800 rural residents and 500 small business websites. It is still owned and operated by him today.
Currently, he is in the early stages of launching 268 Micro Small Business Networks across America - one for every area code in the US. The first and to date largest is inSide919.com serving the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and surrounding communities.
Most come into the world with an Umbilical cord - to the Doctor, Nurses and his Mothers surprise Pat came with an ethernet cable upgrade… he is now wireless.
Stephen Peacock brings to bear his formal education in communications and fund raising management with more than 25 years of nonprofit leadership experience. He believes that the strongest brands, those that are the most successful, create a genuine culture that permeates an organization from the CEO to front line workers and across all channels including social media. These brands are living, breathing, palpable things that extend beyond products and services, logos, websites, or social media to radiate their value promise to customers. In doing so these brands engage people and build relationships that create enthusiastic referrals and lifelong customers or donors.