Michelle Abraham - Senior Analyst, Cahners InStat

Biography to be provided

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Fabrice Beer-Gabel, Senior Director, Business Development, BigBand Networks

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Craig Bender - V.P. Corporate Development, Tut Systems

Biography to be provided

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Paul Bertino - Director of Marketing, Hickory Tech

Biography to be provided

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Allison Dollar, co-President, Interactive Television Alliance

Allison is a founder and co-president of the Interactive Television Alliance, a non-profit trade association whose broad constituency is committed to accelerating iTV in the U.S. She is also a founding partner of the digital media consultancy 2degree Partners. A longtime champion of cross-platform interactivity, she co-founded eTV World, Hollyweb Live!, iNNOVATORS™ conferences and venture pitch series, and chaired NAB’s Executive Committee to launch Multimedia World. Clients have included IBM’s eBusiness (American Express, Bell Atlantic, Mail Boxes Etc.), AOL, SimplyTV, Web TV, WB, Creative Planet, Stan Lee Media, Vi[z]Rt (virtual sets), and Envivio (MPEG-4). For Webcasts.com she was CSO and a founding board member (IPO as iBEAM Internet Broadcasting Corp). Previously, for Phillips Business Information she led business/online content development for media trade publications, including Interactive Video News, Interactive Marketing News, Internet Week, CableFAX, Multimedia Week, E-Commerce News, Film & Video Magazine, A/V Video magazine, Via Satellite. While Editorial Director of In Motion she created advertorial sponsorship packages with Sony, SGI, PacBell, Autodesk, AOL, HBO, Kodak and Sprint. These anticipated the impact of 3D visual effects, advertainment, DBS, broadband, VOD and wireless devices. She worked with Oscar-nominated James Agee Film Project, CBS News, the Maryland Film Commission. She received ASAE’s Golden Circle award, was a founding board member of Maryland’s WIFV, held advisory board positions for CINE and the US Film&Video Festival. She has been interviewed by National Public Radio, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Hot Wired, Hollywood Reporter, Variety, BizTalk1, Millimeter, Digitrends, Broadcasting & Cable and other outlets about digital media and high tech entertainment. Her book on iTV, Interactive Television: Tracking and Preparing for an Emerging Market, describes the historic reworking of the television business model.

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Peter Drozdoff, Vice President of Marketing, SureWest Communications

Peter Drozdoff joined SureWest in 2000 and is responsible for the
marketing planning and brand strategy, all advertising, public relations and
marketing research for SureWest Communications and its business units.
He serves on the Board of Directors for Make-A-Wish Foundation, and is
a participating member for the Sacramento Regional Arts Initiative
sponsored by the Sacramento Metro Chamber of Commerce. Prior to joining SureWest, Drozdoff held marketing positions with Sprint PCS and Motorola. He holds a Bachelor's degree in business from the University of
Missouri-St. Louis.

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Don Dulchinos V.P. Advanced Platforms, Cable Labs

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Paul Feldman, Attorney at Law, Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth, P.L.C.

Biography to be provided

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Dave Fridley, Director of Engineering, Martin Group

Dave Fridley graduated from South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota in 1976 with a Bachelor of Science double degree in Business and Political Science. He started his telecommunications career in 1976, accepting a job at DeWild, Grant, and Reckert of Rock Rapids, Iowa. He specialized in outside plant engineering at DG&R. In 1986, he began his employment at Martin and Associates, Inc., now called Martin Group, Inc., of Mitchell, SD. At Martin Group Fridley has specialized in all aspects of Central Office Equipment engineering. Fridley also assists clients with negotiations with vendors and evaluating Martin Group clients’ equipment and personnel requirements when Telephone Companies are initiating new ventures. The Martin Group client base includes ILEC’s, CLEC’s, and Cable TV companies.

In early 2003, Dave placed into service his four hundredth (400) switching system.

Dave is currently the Director of the Martin Group Engineering unit.

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Prashant Gandhi, Technical Leader Internet Business Systems Unit, Cisco Systems

Biography to be provided

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Jonathan Hurd, Vice President, Adventis

Biography to be provided

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David Irwin - Managing Partner, Irwin, Campbell & Tannenwald, PC

DAVID A. IRWIN, has over 30 years of experience in regulatory and business matters. He practices law at Irwin, Campbell & Tannenwald, P.C., and also serves as the Director of the Institute for Communications Law Studies as Catholic University Law School.

Mr. Irwin is a graduate of the Washington College of Law of American University. He formerly held key positions at the FCC's Common Carrier Bureau including: Deputy Chief-Policy, Acting Chief of the Policy and Rules Division, Chief of the Program Evaluation Staff and Special Counsel to the Chief of the Bureau. In addition to having held corporate legal positions at Western Union and American Satellite Corporation, Mr. Irwin served as law clerk to two federal district court judges.

Mr. Irwin's practice encompasses emerging technologies, satellite companies, independent and competitive telecommunications companies and wireless providers.

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Richard Jones, Programming Director Verizon Broadband

Richard A. Jones is a communications executive who has been working in radio, television, cable TV, film, and public relations/marketing for the last thirty years. He is a published author, television, stage and film director, actor, musician, singer, songwriter, and radio announcer. Jones is listed in Who’s Who in Entertainment and accredited by the Public Relations Society of America.He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism and Bachelor’s degrees in Radio/TV/Film production and Theater from The Ohio State University.

Jones has been married to his lovely wife Diane for 31 years and has two children, Justin and Chelsea, both actors. An Army veteran, he proudly served his country as a 1st Lieutenant during the Vietnam War era. Jones resides in Dallas, Texas, with his wife, kids, two birds, one snake, a cocker spaniel, hermit crabs, and several tropical fish. Richard started in cable TV in 1971 and has been working with television programming and marketing for Verizon for the last ten years. He is currently working on Verizon’s transition to a fiber to the premise network and a new national video offering.

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Scott Keagy, Director VoIP Solutions Marketing, Calix

Scott Keagy is the VoIP Solutions Marketing Director at Calix Networks
Inc. He is a Cisco Certified Internetworking Expert (CCIE# 3985), author of
the industry classic book "Integrating Voice and Data Networks," and he has several VoIP, E9-1-1, and TTY/TDD patents pending. From 2001-2004 he chaired the VoIP Operations Committee of the National Emergency Number Association(NENA), addressing E9-1-1 operations and regulatory issues in North America.

As a senior product manager at Cisco Systems, he led the VoIP strategy
for emergency services, security, extension mobility, and collaboration.
Prior to joining Cisco, Scott was a Vice President and co-founder of SK
Networks Inc., a small consulting firm dedicated to voice and data networking. On assignment at Cisco, he designed and implemented their first internal VoFR, VoIP, and multicast IPTV production deployments. On assignment at SBC, he launched their first VoIP consulting group and led numerous early VoIP deployments, some of which are still used as reference case studies by Cisco. In addition to his consulting experience, Scott has held IT roles at Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, and the United States Department of Commerce. He earned a B.S. in Biology from University of California, San Diego, where he was a National Merit Scholar.

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Stephen Klein, Director of Video Marketing, Zhone Technologies

Steve has more than 23 years of experience in the telecommunication industry, and is considered a leading authority in DSL technology and switched digital video technology. Prior to Zhone, Steve has held senior positions in sales, marketing and business development with Corecess, Tut Systems, Next Level Communications, NEC and Pacific Telesis.

Steve played an active role in the ITU FS VDSL Working Group from 2000 to 2002. Steve has worked with Telco’s and PTT’s around the world, conducting a number of workshops and seminars for operators.

Steve resides in Pleasanton, California. He attended both the University of Connecticut and San Jose State University, where he was an honor graduate, with degrees in Pre-Law/Political Science and English.

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Martin C. Lafferty, CEO, Distributed Computing Industry Association

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Jim Lynn, Marketing Manager, CC Communications

Biography to be provided

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Bryan Martin, Chairman and CEO 8x8, Inc.

Bryan R. Martin has served as Chief Executive Officer and as a director of 8x8, Inc. (Nasdaq: EGHT) since February 2002. From February 2001 to February 2002 he served as President and Chief Operating Officer and a director of 8x8. He has served as a director of Netergy Microelectronics, Inc., a subsidiary of 8x8, since January 2001 and of Centile, Inc., another subsidiary of 8x8, since March 2001. He served as Senior Vice President, Engineering Operations from July 2000 to February 2001 and as 8x8’s Chief Technical Officer from August 1995 to August 2000. He also served as a director of 8x8 from January 1998 through July 1999. In addition, Mr. Martin served in various technical roles for 8x8 from April 1990 to August 1995. Mr. Martin is an inventor on 31 United States Patents in the fields of semiconductors, computer architecture, video processing algorithms, videophones and communications. He received a B.S. and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

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Justyn Miller, General Manager, Kalona Cooperative Telephone Company

Biography to be provided

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John Ney, Vice President of Marketing, Project Mutual Telephone

Mr. Ney is a Vice President and Customer Operations Manager for Project Mutual Telephone. He has a Bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Idaho, and a Master’s degree in Organizational Development from Gonzaga University. His responsibilities include customer service, marketing, human resource development, and public relations. He brings extensive experience in the telecommunications industry, having held progressive positions of responsibility with GTE/Verizon and has done private consulting work in the area of customer service and workforce development. Mr. Ney lives in Pocatello.

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John Pezzini, Regional Vice President Affiliate Sales, Independent Film Channel

Biography to be provided

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Ken Pyle - President, Viodi, LLC

Ken Pyle is co-founder of Viodi, LLC and has been intimately involved with all of Viodi’s clients. He created Digital Rights Management Reports that were approved by studios for several clients. He created processes for clients to use for their PPV and VOD operations. He has long standing relationships with service vendors such as Technicolor and Microspace, as well as many telecommunication manufacturers.

Additionally, he produced the Video Solutions for Independence interactive CD-ROM, edited and produced interactive CD-ROMs for NTCA and USTA, is the producer of the Telco Video Content Conference in conjunction with USTA, the Local Content Workshop and publishes the Viodi View newsletter, which is sent to over 2,700 recipients.

Prior to Viodi, LLC, Pyle was Director of Technical Sales for Demand Video, a Video On Demand application service provider which targeted cable television overbuilders. His independent telco experience dates to 1991 with product, project and sales management roles at Raynet and E/O Networks. His experience in the cable industry dates to 1979 with manufacturing, engineering and field service roles at companies such as Catel and C-Cor.

A graduate of San Jose State University, he is the volunteer web master for his sons’ preschool, http://www.cppp.com and is an active member of the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Saratoga, CA, serving on the Church Council and on the Evangelizing team. Click here for Pyle's complete Resume.

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Sean Riley, Senior Vice President, Distribution Fox Networks’ Regional Sales & Fox Global Networks

Sean Riley serves as Senior Vice President, Distribution, Fox Networks where he oversees the overall strategic direction and management of the group’s United States sales force, leading the domestic regional sales efforts and Canada, plus the distribution efforts for Fox Global Networks. Mr. Riley, who is based in Los Angeles, oversees more than 50 sales and marketing professionals (located across 11 regional offices) who distribute a diverse portfolio of content across multiple platforms including cable, satellite and telco video service providers.

The Fox Networks’ portfolio includes the Fox Broadcasting Company, FX, FSN and its 19 regional sports networks, National Geographic Channel, SPEED, FUEL TV, Big Ten Network, Fox Soccer, Fox Soccer Plus, Fox College Sports, Nat Geo WILD and Fox Movie Channel.

Fox Global Networks is the distribution and marketing arm of Fox International Channels in the United States. Fox Global Networks’ portfolio includes Fox Deportes, Nat Geo Mundo, Utilisima and BabyTV.

Mr. Riley joined Fox in 1998 and was part of the original sales and marketing team of Fox/Liberty Networks. He initially served as Vice President, Sales Operations and was involved in several new network launches including National Geographic Channel, FUEL TV, Fox Reality Channel, and Big Ten Network. He also worked on the team responsible for the integration of FSN North, Sun Sports (formerly Sunshine Network), FSN Ohio, FSN Florida and SPEED into Fox’s portfolio of networks. In 2007, Mr. Riley was a member of the launch team negotiating content agreements for Hulu.com, the largest Internet video distribution network ever assembled of both television and film content.

From 1995-98, Mr. Riley was Director, Affiliate Sales and Marketing at The Golf Channel (TGC) where he handled distribution of TGC in the Western Region. Mr. Riley began his cable television career as an associate producer at SportsChannel New York. He was later named SportsChannel New York’s affiliate marketing manager.

Mr. Riley graduated from the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University with a bachelor’s degree in television, radio and film production and English.

Sylvain Riviere, Director of Product Marketing for Broadcast Video Services, BigBand Networks

Sylvain Riviere is BigBand Networks' director of product marketing for broadcast video services. He is responsible for BMR® (Broadband Multimedia-Service Router) deployments of digital broadcast grooming, HDTV and digital ad insertion. These solutions have grown to cumulatively provide services to more than 10 million digital cable subscribers, over half of all of North America, under Mr. Riviere's management.

Prior to joining BigBand Networks, Mr. Riviere was with Harmonic, which he joined through the acquisition of DiviCom. There he was senior group manager in the video product marketing organization, responsible for defining and evangelizing the Transrater, which was the first device for MPEG-2 bit rate adaptation and splicing.

Previously, for FutureTel, Mr. Riviere served as director of product marketing for where he defined and promoted encoding solutions for the streaming media and DVD authoring markets. He has also been a consultant serving European clients on a range of digital video issues, including matters relevant to the DVB, ATSC and MPEG standards.

Mr. Riviere holds a master's degree in computer science from ESIEE University Paris, France.

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Kevin Schaff, CEO/Co-founder, Thought Equity

As CEO of Thought Equity, Kevin leads the company's corporate strategy,
drives product direction and positioning, raises funds, and generates
awareness for Thought Equity among industry analysts and potential
partners. Kevin is a well-regarded entrepreneur who has successfully founded,financed, operated and sold companies from the beginning of his career.

He brings decades of experience in the advertising, marketing and business realms and his leadership efforts have been recognized by publications such as CIO, Small Business Computing, Advertising Review, Yahoo Magazine, and others. Prior to founding Thought Equity, Kevin founded UPDATE Systems, Inc., an Internet e-communication company focused on delivering e-mail marketing and promotion software to aggregators of small business.

In 1999, Kevin successfully negotiated the sale of UPDATE Systems to Webb Interactive Services (Nasdaq: WEBB), a leading provider of infrastructure services for local Internet commerce. Kevin was also the President of Wind River Communications Inc., a nationally competitive design and Internet development firm formed in 1993. Under his direction, Wind River experienced growth of more than 100% each year for five consecutive years and served clients such as USWEST, Motorola, Coopers & Lybrand, and Macy's. In 1999, Kevin successfully negotiated the sale of Wind River. Kevin received a BA in Marketing Communications from the University of Wyoming.

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Shailesh Shukla, VP of marketing and business development, Redback Networks

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Tony Stanley, Director of FTTP Networks, Scientific Atlanta

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Jay Stark, EVP Sales and Marketing, Broadstream

Biography to be provided

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Richard A. Sweatt VP of Sales and Marketing, Amity-Systems

Richard Sweatt is Amity System’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing. He leads the groups responsible for developing and driving strategic direction, solutions roadmap, target markets, and sales forecasts. He most recently served as CloudShield’s Vice President of Product Management. His groups there provided product planning, life cycle management, forecasting, and competitive analysis. Sweatt also co-founded and led the sales and marketing organizations for two successful startup companies, NetCalibrate and DSL Communications, both of which were subsequently acquired.

Richard has more than 24 years of experience in the communications field and more than 12 years of experience in executive management. Richard has held several executive management positions in Sales, Marketing, Business Development, Product Management, and R&D for Security companies such as CloudShield, and NetScreen; WAN access companies such as NetCalibrate, DSL Communications, Hitachi Internetworking, Verilink, Whittaker Communications, and Siemens Rolm; and LAN switching companies such as Hughes LAN Systems, Bay Networks (SynOptics), Vitalink, and NCR Comten. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from San Jose State University.

He has also held several group leadership positions in industry LAN and WAN standards organizations like IEEE, IETF, and ATM Forum. Richard is currently an active voting member and on several editing committees for the ITU, ETSI NGN, ATM Forum, IEEE, and IETF.

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Larry Thompson, CEO, Vantage Point Solutions

Larry is a registered professional engineer and CEO of Vantage Point Solutions. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics from William Jewell College and both a Bachelor and Master of Science degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Kansas. Larry has been working in the telecommunications industry for almost 20 years. He focuses on serving the needs of rural telephone companies. He has designed many voice, data, and video networks, including state and regional networks.

Larry has participated in Senate and FCC panels and was an active member of the National Exchange Carriers Association (NECA) Rural Broadband Task Force and is currently an associate member of the NECA Rate Development Task Force. He is a frequent speaker at state and national conferences as well as FCC and US Senate events.

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Robbie Wisdom, Product Manager, Advertising Systems Group, nCUBE

Biography to be provided

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Gabe Zichermann, VP of Marketing, TryMedia

Biography to be provided

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