Speakers
Lena West (Keynote Speaker and Workshop Leader)
Lena L. West is an award-winning social media consultant, blogger, speaker, journalist and technologist.
She is also the CEO & Chief Strategist at xynoMedia Technology, a consulting firm that helps business-to-business companies harness the power of social media to consistently increase thought leadership, online revenues and visibility. West says, “Our mission is simple: make social media easy to use, manageable and worthwhile.”
As a certified technical expert, West learned about the intricate aspects of computers and networking while consulting with Fortune 500 companies such as IBM, Pitney Bowes, Philips Magnavox, Hyperion Software and MasterCard International. After cutting her ‘technical teeth’, she founded xynoMedia in 1997.
West’s expertise has been widely acknowledged. She is the winner of several business awards, among them: The Network Journal’s “40 Under Forty”, AlleyCat News’ “25 Women of Silicon Alley” and The Women’s Congress’ Entrepreneurial Champion for Women in Business. West has also been featured as the cover story for publications such as The Westchester County Business Journal and Black Enterprise.
A sought-after writer and speaker, West writes and speaks regularly about the merits and potential pitfalls of technology. She communicates her expertise about social media, web 2.0 and online technologies through Social Tech, her blog on InfoWorld.com; her TechForward column and blog for Entrepreneur Magazine; as well as feature articles for both InfoWorld and Jupitermedia. She has spoken for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) and Syracuse University.
A firm believer in the adage, “To whom much is given, much is required”, West is deeply committed to her pro bono work as well. She sits on the BlogHer Business Advisory Board, the Center for Women’s Business Research Advisory Council and the National Advisory Board for The Women’s Congress.
She is a member of the Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO), Technology Executives Networking Group (TENG) and the Downtown Women’s Club (DWC). West strongly believes that social media is a catalyst to uniting the world’s people and will continue to lead businesses and individuals toward greater levels of environmental accountability, social responsibility and corporate transparency - hence her passion for the medium.
Patrick Lowder
Dr. Patrick D. Lowder, Esq. is a US patent attorney with 12 years experience as an intellectual property practitioner. He is a graduate of Wake Forest University (B.S.), Indiana University (Ph.D.), the University of London (Certificate in Intellectual Property) and North Carolina Central University School of Law, where he obtained his J.D. at night. Dr. Lowder worked in the U.S. and Europe during his time in the in-house legal department of three multinational companies. Dr. Lowder now practices in Virginia Beach and counsels small businesses and individuals in all aspects of intellectual property law. He is married to Valerie Coe Lowder, his wife of 23 years, and is the father of two energetic boys.
Lois Carter Fay
Lois Carter Fay is the owner and founder of Marketing Idea Shop, LLC, a marketing consulting and publishing company based in Harrisonburg, Virginia. She is also the founder of MarketingIdeaShop.com, an educational website designed to help business managers and owners attract more customers, close more sales, earn more revenue, boost their bottom line, and drive their competitors crazy. She has 30+ years experience in the marketing and public relations field, is the author or co-author of seven ebooks, and holds a B.A. in psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
She has helped large businesses, small businesses and government agencies brand themselves, get more business and generate national publicity. She has even gotten clients on the cover of Inc. magazine, helped them significantly increase their business, and changed their status from "nobody" to "expert." For instance, when she began working with the Hampton Roads Technology Incubator, she learned it had received only one published article in the previous 18 months. In the first 10 months Lois worked with HRTI, she secured over 50 media placements, including several regional magazine articles. The client was ecstatic!
Lois has also written and published numerous articles about small business that have appeared in the Shenandoah Valley Business Journal, Virginia Business, Inside Business, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Richmond Ventures, Construction Marketing Today, Technology Virginia and several others. Lois served as an elected delegate to the 1995 White House Conference on Small Business, has served as president of two NAWBO (National Association of Women Business Owners) chapters (Milwaukee, WI and Hampton Roads, VA) and was the state president for Wisconsin Women Entrepreneurs (now a NAWBO chapter). She is currently the executive director for the Women’s Forum and a member of Toastmasters in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
Her clients are small business owners and managers—often women-owned businesses, which are her specialty.
Visit her website www.MarketingIdeaShop.com, which offers tons of free information for small business owners including a free weekly email newsletter about marketing and PR, and www.WomenMarketing.com, focusing on the needs of women business owners (WBOs) and profiling successful women entrepreneurs.
In her “spare time,” Lois is the editor-in-chief for the Journal of Mine Action, a full-color, twice-a-year magazine that discusses the worldwide persistent landmine problem.
Alan Thompson
Along with his photography skills, Alan is the prepress manager at Printegration, a printing company that specializes in offset printing. He also specializes in photographing fine art for reproduction printing for local artists.
Alan has been married for 25 years and is a father of 2