Good Ideas in Community, Seattle

On September 23 2009, PSFK and Good Chemistry will host a Good Ideas Salon in Seattle. For the event, Alex Hillinger (Good Chemistry) will moderate a conversation on the future of community with luminaries -- Wil Merritt (Zooppa), Chris Lloyd (Hey,), Emily Griffin (Microsoft) and Charles Wills-Obong (Meosic).

We'll explore perspectives on the intersection of creativity and community, and how it's evolving with the explosion of social media and the web.

AGENDA
5.00 Doors Open
5.45 Salon Begins
6.15 Audience Q & A
8.00 Salon Concludes

(Sounds provided by Ms. E)

SPEAKERS
Wil Merritt, CEO, Zooppa
Chris Lloyd, Co-founder, Hey,
Emily Griffin, Global Content Manager for TV, Video & Music, Microsoft
Charles Wills-Obong, Meosic

SPEAKER BIOS
Wil Merritt is CEO of Seattle-based Zooppa, the world's largest social network for creators of user-generated advertising. 

Before Zooppa, Wil was Senior Vice-President, Worldwide Sales for Corbis Corporation.  Prior to Corbis, Wil was President of Europe, Middle East and Africa for the TIME Magazine and Fortune Magazine Group.  Wil has served as a Senior Member of the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum in London and was the Founder and Chairman of the World Press Group, the international trade association for global media.

Chris Lloyd is co-founder of Hey, a newly-launched creative company based in Seattle.

Chris is a former president of DDB Seattle, a cozy 150-person office of the DDB Worldwide Communications Group.  He began his career in New York working for several of Madison Avenue’s storied advertising agencies, and boy does he have some stories. Thrilling tales of P&G’s Olay and Gain, Purina Dog Chow and I Love New York, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft and a handful of cruise lines - Royal Caribbean, Holland America and Celebrity.   In ’99 with a brand new baby girl to feed, Chris moved west to Seattle, first to FCB where he was General Manager and then to DDB.

Emily Griffin is Global Content Manager for the TV, Video & Music business at Microsoft.

Emily Griffin is a respected contributor to electronic music culture, helping to magnify its presence worldwide. While living in San Francisco, Emily became known as Ms.E – radio host, club promoter and DJ. She took dance music culture to the airwaves on KUSF 90.3 with the program Future Breaks FM, co-founded drum & bass club Eklektic, worked as Director of Marketing for XLR8R magazine, and created an alliance of women in the music and media business called Electric W.O.M.B.. With her company BeatSync in Los Angeles, she aligned exceptional independent artists with opportunities in film, TV and advertising. Her passion for positive, music-driven media fuels her collaborative involvement in all aspects of the business. Now based in Seattle, Emily is Global Content Manager for the TV, Video & Music business at Microsoft and also runs a digital music label Sanguine Recordings.

Charles Wills-Obong is founder of Meosic  (pronounced like music), a technology start-up that's developing a solution to monetize brands' social network fan bases.

Charles has 15 yrs in Information Technology & Consulting. 6 yrs with the Microsoft’s Competitive Intelligence Research Group (SQL Marketing); Project Manager, SMS&P Team. 6 yrs in outsourced software development, and managed services. 3 yrs with VServers, one of the 1st virtual server technology providers, which designed early ecommerce solutions for businesses. VServers was acquired by web.com in 2000.