Keynote Speaker
Cathy Hackl, Futurist
You Are Here Labs and Partner @ Mixed Reality Ventures
Breakout Session Speakers
Gana Ahn, Director of Media Relations
Golin
Stephen Fowler, Reporter
Georgia Public Broadcasting Radio
Ashlee Glenn, Senior Account Supervisor
Edelman
Thomas Hartwell, Reporter
Cherokee Tribune
Moraima "Mo" Ivory, Professor of Law and Director of the Entertainment, Sports & Media Law Initiative
Georgia State University
Vishal Khana, Co-director of Operations
New Acquisitions, Inc
Danica Kombol, Founder
Everywhere Agency
Shannon McCaffrey, Senior Editor
AJC
Robert McDaniels, Value Consultant Digital Media - EDU
Adobe
Amy Oraefo, Esq., Owner
Amy Oraefo, P.C. and of Counsel to Taylor English
Beth Parmer, Volunteer Coordinator
Make-a-Wish Foundation
Tyler Pelfrey, Corporate Communications
The Home Depot
Betsy Riley, Editor-in-Chief
Atlanta Magazine
Katie Shuford, Communications Manager
Weather Group
Stone Stafford, Owner
Icon Studios
Shelly Weidner, Director of Marketing & Business Development
Town Center Mall at Cobb
Professional Bios
Gana Ahn
Gana Ahn is a director at the Atlanta office of Golin, a top 10 global communications and marketing firm. For more than a decade, Ms. Ahn has provided media relations counsel for a variety of consumer, corporate, government and nonprofit clients at Golin. She has worked with international and national business, consumer and lifestyle reporters as well as local and trade media in diverse sectors including economic development, food, health and wellness, logistics, and travel.
Stephen Fowler
Stephen Fowler is an award-winning reporter and photographer focusing on politics from McDonough, Georgia. He graduated from Emory University in 2016 with a degree in interdisciplinary studies, writing his thesis on the rise of the internet rapper and giving a TEDx talk on the storytelling power of music. He also served as the first-ever Executive Digital Editor of The Emory Wheel, where he helped lead the paper into a modern digital era.
Ashlee Glenn
As a senior account supervisor at Edelman, Ashlee Glenn assists clients with digital content strategy, social media content / community management, influencer marketing and original content production.
Ms. Glenn is a graduate of Georgia State University and resides in Grant Park in Atlanta, GA with her diva-ish cat, Miley. When she’s not working with clients, she’s likely cooking (or eating), working on DIY home project or traveling far and wide.
Cathy Hackl
Cathy Hackl is an Emmy-nominated communicator turned virtual reality and augmented reality global speaker, producer and futurist. She's a partner at Mixed Reality Ventures and works as lead futurist at You Are Here Immersive Labs, one of the Southeast's most prominent XR labs. Prior to that, Hackl worked as an HTC VIVE VR evangelist during the launch of their latest headset, the VIVE Pro, and during the company’s partnership with Warner Brothers’ blockbuster, Ready Player One.
Ms. Hackl is the author of Marketing New Realities: An Introduction to VR & AR Marketing, Branding & Communications. Hackl was named by IZEA and Onalytica as a leading augmented reality and virtual reality influencer and also by NBC News as one of the top women working in virtual reality. Hackl served as chief communications and content officer for Future Lighthouse, one of the world's top VR studios focused on branded VR narrative, where she collaborated on projects with brands like Sony Pictures Entertainment, Oculus, Beefeater and William Morris Endeavor. Hackl was also selected as a 2017 Oculus Launch Pad Fellow, a program designed to support promising diverse VR content creators and help them bring their unique ideas to market. She's the founder of Latinos in VR/AR and has spoken about VR and social media in more than 10 countries. Hackl has been featured in media outlets like Mic, CNN, Silicon Beat, Entrepreneur, CMO.com, Forbes, VentureBeat and Mashable.
Thomas Hartwell
Thomas Hartwell is a 2017 graduate of Kennesaw State University's Journalism and Emerging Media program. He currently works as a reporter for the Canton-based Cherokee Tribune and Cherokee Ledger News, as well as contributes to the Cherokee Life Magazine. Mr. Hartwell covers local government, crime, business and breaking news, as well as writes feature stories and shoots news photos. He lives in Kennesaw, Georgia, and aims to remain print and digital multimedia journalist throughout his career.
Moraima "Mo" Ivory
Mo Ivory is an attorney, adjunct professor of law, radio and television personality, speaker and community advocate. She appears on television networks such as CNN, HLN, MSNBC, Fox and TVOne, offering her commentary on news items and legal cases. Ms. Ivory is the co-host of “Afternoons with Tony, Mo & George” on Washington, D.C.,’s WHUR 96.3, which airs daily from 3 to 7 p.m. She is also the host of “The Mo Ivory Show” on SiriusXM Radio and teaches entertainment law at Howard University School of Law.
Vishal Khana
Vishal Khana is the co-director of operations at New Acquisitions, Inc, a marketing firm located in Atlanta, Georgia that specializes in working with Fortune 100 clients in the home renovation and tech industry. In this role, Mr. Khana is responsible for managing the firm’s business relationships with key client accounts, overseeing the sales, social media, and advertising operations as well as supervising the training and development program offered to new acquisitions employees. Khana graduated from the University of Georgia in 2015, where he majored in Business Administration and Management.
Danica Kombol
Danica Kombol founded Everywhere Agency in 2009, with a sole purpose of helping brands build better stories through social media. With clients such as Macy’s, Cox Communications and Carter’s, her agency is no stranger to big names and big projects. She later launched the blogger network, Everywhere Society, to power the agency’s many award-winning influencer campaigns. One of her agency’s claims-to-fame is that they secured the Guinness World Record for the most socially networked message in their cause campaign #BeatCancer.
As a social media marketer, Ms. Kombol draws on her extensive background as a television producer and public relations executive. She began her career at Sesame Workshop where she was involved in the international versions of Sesame Street. She went on to become a successful television producer working on such legendary shows as Saturday Night Live, Kids in the Hall and the network, VH1.
Shannon McCaffrey
A journalist for more than two decades, Shannon McCaffrey has worked in New York, California, Washington D.C. and Atlanta reporting for The Associated Press, the Washington bureau of Knight Ridder Newspapers and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Political coverage has been a centerpiece of her career. She’s reported on Hillary Clinton’s U.S. Senate bid, Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign, the Justice Department and the U.S. Supreme Court. After moving to Atlanta in 2006, she became the AP’s lead political and state Capitol reporter, her stories spanning the gamut of Southern politics. Ms. McCaffrey joined the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in March 2012 as an investigative reporter and coach. She is now a senior editor overseeing the paper’s enterprise and crime/public safety reporting.
Robert McDaniels
Robert McDaniels has worked at Adobe since 2000 in a variety of roles, mostly with customers. His background in sales and engineering is ideal in guiding Adobe’s customers in the best uses of technology. He has been supporting Adobe’s education customers for most of his career at Adobe and managed the education Solutions Consulting team for several years. Well versed in Adobe applications, Ms. McDaniels has been ACE (Adobe Certified Expert) certified in most Adobe applications and has presented at many Adobe and industry events.
Amy Oraefo
Amy Oraefo focuses on the areas of corporate, entertainment and intellectual property law. She provides a wide range of transactional law services including contract review, drafting, and negotiation, business entity formation, and legal and business strategy consultation. Ms. Oraefo serves as legal counsel for new and existing businesses, independent musicians, music producers, songwriters, independent film directors, and athletes. She counsels clients on a variety of business and entertainment law matters and provides business strategy services to assist in the growth and protection of her clients’ brands.
Beth Parmer
A graduate of Auburn University, Beth Parmer earned a degree in Zoology/Conservation and Biodiversity and a minor in Psychology in 2011. After graduation, she worked at Georgia Aquarium for three years on the Husbandry/Animal Care Team. After meeting a little girl in a penguin encounter who had, as she stated, “just beaten cancer,” Parmer was immediately led to go back to school and pursue a second degree in Rehabilitation and Disability Studies. After her second graduation from Auburn, she worked at Camp ASCCA (Alabama’s Special Camp for Children and Adults), a year-round therapeutic recreation camp for children and adults with physical and intellectual disabilities. Parmer was most recently working on the development team for a non-profit here in Atlanta whose focus is children and adults with intellectual disabilities. She has been a part of Make-A-Wish Georgia’s team as the volunteer coordinator since late June and has been overwhelmed by everyone’s kindness and support of the mission to create life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses.
Tyler Pelfrey
Tyler Pelfrey is a member of the Corporate Communications team at The Home Depot, the world’s largest home-improvement retailer. In his role, Tyler develops and delivers internal and external communications focused on the company’s growing Technology organization and corporate innovation. Prior to The Home Depot, he worked as a communication professional in various Metro Atlanta-based companies including WellStar Health System, MUST Ministries, Cumulus Media Company and Town Center Community Improvement District.
Tyler is a graduate of Kennesaw State University’s School of Communication and Media where he studied Communications with an emphasis in Public Relations and also received a certificate in Leadership Studies.
Betsy Riley
As editor-in-chief of Atlanta magazine, Betsy Riley is responsible for setting the editorial calendar, editing or top editing all copy, working with art directors to create layouts, overseeing the editorial staff, and working with the publisher to find new opportunities for the magazine. Founded in 1961, Atlanta is one of the nation's oldest and most respected city magazines.
Katie Shuford
Katie Shuford is the communications manager for Weather Group, parent company of The Weather Channel. In this role, Ms. Shuford helps lead all external and internal communication efforts which create and maintain a favorable public image for the company.
Ms. Shuford develops strategic communications plans, story ideas, content, press materials, corporate messaging and positioning statements, and supports executive visibility opportunities for The Weather Channel leadership team; she supports campaigns around network programming, severe weather coverage, corporate partnerships and deals, and product development and launches, and works closely with multiple teams including television, business development, ad sales, HR, affiliate distribution, IT and more.
She earned a B.A. from Kennesaw State University with a concentration in public relations, and graduated summa cum laude.
Stone Stafford
Stone Stafford is co-owner of Atlanta’s premiere recording studio, ICON Studios, a 10,000 s.f. facility that has quickly become a favorite for several of the entertainment industry’s biggest names such as Akon, Justin Bieber, Usher, Ludacris, MTV, Atlantic Records, Universal Records, and many others. Television shows such as Oprah Winfrey’s “Greenleaf” and Fox’s “STAR” have also made Icon Studio a home base on several occasions. As a music publisher and songwriter, Mr. Stafford owns copyrights on such artists as Justin Bieber, Keke Palmer, Stacie Orrico and Tiffany Evans.
Shelly Weidner
Shelly Weidner has over 18 years of retail marketing experience with three different mall companies (Rouse, GGP and Simon) and five different malls. Currently, Weidner is the director of marketing & business development for Town Center at Cobb, which is a Simon Mall, for the last 9 ½ years. She is in charge of all strategic marketing, events and promotions, tenant communications, guest service and gift cards, public relations, leasing support and advertising sales in the property.
