Gerald Barnes is President and CEO of Neiman Marcus Direct, the direct marketing and fulfillment business of The Neiman Marcus Group. Neiman Marcus Direct produces more than 80 catalogs annually for the Neiman Marcus and Horchow brands, including the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book. Mr. Barnes is also responsible for Neiman Marcus Online, which operates web sites under NeimanMarcus.com, BergdorfGoodman.com, and Horchow.com. Neiman Marcus Direct generates sales of 500 million dollars per year and has a staff of over 1500 employees.

Mr. Barnes joined Neiman Marcus Stores in 1983 as a Buyer in Men’s Sportswear. He has advanced through several positions of increasing responsibility including Vice President, Divisional Merchandise Manager of Men’s Sportswear, Vice President, General Manager of the Downtown Store and subsequent Divisional Merchandise Manager assignments in Bridge Sportswear and Galleria. In 2001, Gerald was promoted to Senior Vice President, General Merchandise Manager, Fashion, Neiman Marcus Direct and in 2007, assumed additional responsibility for Creative Services. In 2008, he was promoted to Executive Vice President, Merchandising, Neiman Marcus Direct.

John McDonnell has spent his career launching and marketing successful global spirits brands, first with Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, where he spent 18 years overseeing international sales and marketing efforts. He joined Patron and was appointed to his current position in January, 2005. In this role, he monitors and manages the company’s day‐to‐day activities, reporting to the Chief Executive Officer.

John has helped the company grow from 340,000 cases to 1.74 million cases in 2009. He oversaw its international expansion into over 100 countries and islands worldwide. Recently he helped close the acquisition of an ultra‐premium vodka, Ultimat. In addition to his executive functions, John maintains a highly visible presence as a company spokesman, working proactively to further enhance its stature in the industry. He delivers a steady message of quality and leadership via business editorials in trade publications, in interviews with media channels, and through in‐person presentations to distributor and retailer organizations.

As Vice President, E-Commerce for Omni Hotels & Resorts, Kerry Kennedy sets the strategy and execution for Omni Hotels’ brand presence in the digital environment. Kerry oversees the user path experience, loyalty, and reservations functionality and development in all e-commerce channels including the www.omnihotels.com website, brand retail websites, and third-party websites. He also leads the implementation of SEO, Paid Search, and online advertising campaigns on behalf of the brand. He is responsible for the development and delivery of Omni’s mobile website and mobile applications, as well as the strategy of all brand social community sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and others.

With Omni’s partnership in the Global Hotel Alliance, Kennedy is responsible for developing and managing the new www.globalhotelalliance.com website (to be launched in 2010) with booking and loyalty functionality on behalf of 11 different worldwide brands in 45 different countries, representing over 55,000 rooms in the alliance.

With more than 16 years in the interactive and hospitality industries, Kennedy previously held the role of Lead Account Manager at the Top 10 interactive agency, IMC2, overseeing the Omni Hotels account. He has also served in senior-level interactive roles at Hilton Hotels, Travelocity and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.

Cecilia is CEO of StyleTrek: Fueling Emerging Fashion through Social Commerce. She has a track record in launching and marketing successful e-commerce businesses. She has launched and marketed online stores for Nine West, Burberry, Frette, and La Perla. She has experience in running and working for internet start-ups such as K2, RichFX, Abilon, and was CEO of BoutiqueY3K, an ecommerce consulting firm. After working at dot com start-ups Cecilia joined established multi-national luxury and fashion brands in senior and executive management positions and was involved in ecommerce, merchandising, marketing and operations for Burberry, Frette, and La Perla.

Cecilia was recognized in 1999 by Silicon Alley Reporter among the” Top 100 Internet Executives in NY.” Is among 96 executives in the book “Distinguished Asian- American Business People” published in 2004 and is on the advisory board of the Luxury Interactive Conference. She has been featured in WSJ, Asia WSJ, VOGUE, Asiaweek, BusinessWeek, Forbes Small Business, Entrepreneur, Advertising Age, E-commerce Times and was on CNN’s “Entrepreneurs Only.” She is a frequent speaker at conferences on E-commerce, Multi-channel Marketing and Entrepreneurship.

Leisa Glispy leads the strategic direction of E-Commerce and oversees Internet Marketing efforts for WWRD US – the Waterford, Wedgwood and Royal Doulton family of brands. She is responsible for the web customer experience and online customer acquisition initiatives including Internet marketing, mobile marketing and social media. She has recently been charged with developing a Global E-Commerce Strategy to leverage the strength of the WWRD brands internationally as well as redesigning and migrating the eCommerce sites onto the Venda On Demand E-Commerce Platform.

Leisa has over 10 years of E-Commerce and Internet Marketing experience including working for Armstrong World Industries (Flooring Div.), Tyco Fire & Security, and Levenger. She also has a prior experience in the Fashion Publishing industry and Luxury Retailing.

Maryssa Miller is currently Director of E-commerce for Lacoste USA where she launched the very first e-commerce site for this international brand. With close to 10 years of e-commerce experience, Maryssa is currently focused on growing the online business for Lacoste while maintaining brand equity and continually striving to provide a superior experience that serves the needs of all of their customers.

Felicity Lewis is Senior Global Manager, Interactive and Direct Marketing at Jurlique. Felicity is responsible for all facets of the online business and direct-to-consumer marketing initiatives worldwide.

Previously, Felicity was Senior Manager of CRM and Integrated Marketing for David Yurman where she developed global multi—channel marketing strategies and led all customer-centric marketing initiatives across the Retail, Online and Wholesale sales channels. This included the development and launch of the CRM Initiative in 2006. Felicity was also responsible for multi-channel brand marketing initiatives in Public Relations, Product Launches, Direct Mail, Email, Customer Service and Clienteling.

Before joining David Yurman in 2006, Felicity spent 4 years at Cartier North America where she was Advertising Manager overseeing National and Regional Advertising strategy as well as local Creative development.

Patti serves eBusiness & Channel Strategy professionals. She is a leading expert on multichannel retail strategy with 19 years of diversified experience, expertise in creating customer-centric ecommerce sites, integrating channels effectively, developing innovative marketing initiatives, and ensuring high-standard customer service and order fulfillment operations.

Patti was formerly a research director at JupiterResearch. Before joining JupiterResearch, she held leadership positions with leading internationally known companies like Bloomingdale's and Godiva Chocolatier. Most recently, she was director of shopping services with bloomingdales.com, where she touched on all aspects of the multichannel retail business. Brought on board to create and launch Bloomingdale's Bridal Registry Web site with WeddingChannel.com, Patti directed all aspects of the business from concept to implementation, including back-end customer service and store integration issues. In her previous capacities at Bloomingdale's, she led the international marketing department and implemented award-winning multiple-media marketing and retention programs. Further, Patti has done project work to develop interactive educational products for adults and children.

Patti has been quoted in major media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, and Business 2.0, as well as in industry publications such as Internet Retailer and Executive Technology. Patti has also appeared on NBC Nightly News, CNBC, BBC, CNN, NPR, PBS, Fox Business News Network, and BNN.

She has taught eCommerce at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and is also the vice chairman of the board of directors for Shop.org, a membership organization that serves the online and multichannel retail community and a division of the National Retail Federation.

Tom Davis is the Vice President of Ecommerce for Kenneth Cole Productions, a men’s and women’s fashion brand, located in New York City. He joined Kenneth Cole in 2008 and has over 13 years of ecommerce experience.

Tom directs and oversees the company’s ecommerce efforts which are supported by GSI Commerce. This includes the brands Kenneth Cole New York, Reaction, Unlisted and Gentle Souls. He is responsible and directly oversees fulfillment, operations, and management of their online shopping business.

Prior to joining Kenneth Cole Productions, Tom managed the ecommerce business for Tommy Hilfiger and has held ecommerce roles with Sirius Satellite Radio and GiftCertificates.com.

Milton is the CEO of the Luxury Institute, LLC. Through the use of proprietary surveying techniques with high net worth consumers, Mr. Pedraza has established the New York-based Luxury Institute as the trusted and impartial luxury brand ratings and research institution that is the voice of high net worth consumers. Today, luxury goods and services firms, luxury professionals, high net worth consumers, and the international press, all rely on the Institute for its impartial ratings and best practices insights on to how to better serve high net worth clients globally.

Julia Kung is Director of Marketing for Moxsie.com, where she oversees all aspects of the company's marketing efforts, including advertising, public relations, promotions, and cross platform marketing programs. In her role at Moxsie, Julia utilizes the new media landscape to help grow the retailer's traffic, brand presence, and sales, earning Moxsie top industry attention from trade media including Ad Age, California Apparel News, Women's Wear Daily and more. With a keen understanding of the new cross platform landscape and tight knowledge of website traffic and analytics, Julia has helped lead Moxsie's marketing and promotional efforts to be highly targeted, streamlined, cost efficient and effective. Prior to her role at Moxsie, Julia has held marketing positions at Google as well as within the startup environment.

With a BFA in Visual Communication and 12 years of online design experience, Kevin has a solid foundation in graphic design. A connoisseur of email campaigns and an award-winning logo designer, Kevin has managed DelSol.com for 5 years. Del Sol is a manufacturer/retailer of color-changing apparel and accessories with 70 stores in 15 countries.

Carsten Thoma co-founded hybris in 1997 together with Moritz Zimmermann and Klaas Hermanns, with the aim of setting a market standard with software solutions, based on state-of-the-art technologies. Carsten began his career at Hewlett Packard, where he worked in performance measurement for three years. It was here that he first developed his ideas for a standardized yet highly innovative and flexible e-commerce software, from which emerged one of the leading Product Content Management solutions available on the market today. Today Carsten’s focal point is the constant growth of the organization and one of his current priorities is the continued development of the US operation and further international expansion.

Frederick Felman’s career in marketing enterprise and security technology and services spans 25 years. At MarkMonitor, he is responsible for defining and promoting the company’s brand protection product offerings. He and his team created the Brandjacking Index®, an often-cited measure of the trends in online abuse targeting the world’s largest brands. As part of the MarkMonitor commitment to securing brands online, Frederick leads advocacy initiatives for brandholders’ rights issues that intersect Internet governance. Before joining MarkMonitor, Frederick was Vice President of Products and Marketing at Zone Labs, which was acquired by Check Point Technologies.

Patti serves eBusiness & Channel Strategy professionals. She is a leading expert on multichannel retail strategy with 19 years of diversified experience, expertise in creating customer-centric ecommerce sites, integrating channels effectively, developing innovative marketing initiatives, and ensuring high-standard customer service and order fulfillment operations.

atti was formerly a research director at JupiterResearch. Before joining JupiterResearch, she held leadership positions with leading internationally known companies like Bloomingdale's and Godiva Chocolatier. Most recently, she was director of shopping services with bloomingdales.com, where she touched on all aspects of the multichannel retail business. Brought on board to create and launch Bloomingdale's Bridal Registry Web site with WeddingChannel.com, Patti directed all aspects of the business from concept to implementation, including back-end customer service and store integration issues. In her previous capacities at Bloomingdale's, she led the international marketing department and implemented award-winning multiple-media marketing and retention programs. Further, Patti has done project work to develop interactive educational products for adults and children.

Patti has been quoted in major media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, and Business 2.0, as well as in industry publications such as Internet Retailer and Executive Technology. Patti has also appeared on NBC Nightly News, CNBC, BBC, CNN, NPR, PBS, Fox Business News Network, and BNN.

She has taught eCommerce at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and is also the vice chairman of the board of directors for Shop.org, a membership organization that serves the online and multichannel retail community and a division of the National Retail Federation.