Philly Tech Week 2018

Jill de la Fuente is an Art Director at The Archer Group, where she marries art and technology to create imaginative digital experiences for brands like Wawa, Morgan Stanley, and JCPenny Optical. When she’s not leading her team, she’s marveling at the way new digital tools, tech, and platforms have expanded opportunities for meaningful brand expression—and made her job a lot more interesting. And fun, too.

Jill is a 11-year industry veteran and a graduate of the University of the Arts.

Ian leads sales and business development for strategic accounts at machineQ and is responsible for growing Comcast's enterprise IoT business across commercial and government markets. He has been with Comcast for more than 10 years in a variety of roles, most recently in Strategic Development. Previously, Ian worked with Comcast’s Interactive Media group and was focused on building partnerships to deliver Comcast content and features to its subscribers via 3rd party applications. Ian holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and an MBA from Drexel University.

Greg Ippolito is the president and creative director at IMA, a digital marketing firm in Blue Bell, PA. He has developed award-winning campaigns, brands and digital marketing strategies for clients as varied as Hyundai Motor America, Shire Pharmaceuticals, Sony Electronics and the University of Pennsylvania. Greg holds an M.Ed. in Educational Psychology from Temple University, and speaks at various industry events about customer experiences in the digital age. He is a contributor to noted publications including AdWeek, Marketing Daily and CMO.com; and writes a column for Technical.ly Philly called “The Technoethicist.” Greg lives in Blue Bell with his wife and two daughters. He enjoys reading, writing, indie rock, jazz, debating totally subjective topics (e.g., Scorsese v Coppola), and his beloved Philadelphia 76ers (no matter what).

Liz is a proud generalist committed to utilizing her interdisciplinary skillset as an urban planner, experience designer, and technologist to bridge gaps and highlight the importance of inclusion within innovation ecosystems. Recently she was named Managing Director at Backstage Philadelphia, an arm of Backstage Capital, a venture capital investment firm that invests in underrepresented founders. Additionally, Liz is the cofounder of BCKG, a think tank and consultancy that provides thought leadership and curated experiences to support leadership, growth, and momentum for startups.

Prior to launching BCKG, she cofounded and served as Co-CEO & Head of Design at Webjunto, a user experience focused design and software development agency that served 100+ startups and enterprises globally. In her free time, Liz continues to do work in the community as a civic hacking enthusiast, meetup organizer, and globetrotting public speaker.

"Recognized by the White House as a Champion of Change and a Forbes Under 30 Honoree in Law and Policy. For over a decade, Jamira has made it her mission to employ her personal experiences as the driving force to improve the lives of others. From implementing anti-violence programs throughout Philadelphia – when she was just a high school student, to organizing youth trainings around the world – in collaboration with the United Nations. Jamira ardor for personal and social advancement is undeniable; she leads with marked expertise on youth engagement, education reform, global citizenship, gun violence prevention and criminal justice reform.

Currently, Jamira is the Head of Youth Engagement and Skills for the Global Business Coalition for Education, helping to ensure a collaborative relationship between youth and business leaders; to enable innovative ways to educate, engage and activate young people around the world. Prior to the Global Business Coalition for Education, Jamira worked as the National Deputy Millennial Vote Director at Hillary For America and before that, she managed the gun violence and criminal justice portfolios at Amnesty International USA—one of the first and largest human rights organizations in the world. Jamira also consult with a number of public and private entities on how to authentically engage impacted communities. Working at the intersection of policy, community and social good, Jamira provides unique insight that will help actualize the change we all so desperately need."

The founder of Palette Group, Nate Nichols has over a decade of digital marketing and creative professional experience. His firm specializes in digital marketing strategy, helping companies ideate, execute and deliver new content and campaigns to better connect with their audience. Palette Group has now done work for corporations like Chevrolet and Starr Restaurants, as well as local businesses including City Fitness and Visit Philly.

Kenyatta Powers is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Department of Human Services in Maryland State Government. She has worked in State Government for almost 19 years in which 13 of those years in Executive Leadership. As CIO, Kenyatta provides innovative and state of the art technology guidance and support to the State of Maryland. She also manages an Enterprise environment that includes a $65 million annual budget, almost 400 IT staff, supports over 7000 end-users in over 100 locations across the state. She is currently managing a separate three-year $195 million project to modernize all IT computer systems for the department. Kenyatta is a mentor and provides teaching and guidance in Professional Development and was recently recognized for outstanding leadership in Information Technology. Kenyatta is also passionate about Community Development in which she is an active member of the Missionary Society and Feed the Hungry Program to support the community.

Peter Locharernkul, a creative technologist, has been developing interactives for a variety of audience, ranging from museum exhibits to trade shows to experiential marketing events. Embraces the complex discipline of testing and overcoming the limitations of hardware devices and software platforms while continuing to deliver intuitive and compelling user experiences. His most recent projects have involved innovative augmented reality applications that pioneers the use of large scale 3D object tracking. An avid game developer, he has released dozens of online games for ESPN.com and MTV Games. He has implemented various activations for brands such as Reebok, Nike, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, ABC TV and Nabisco. Many of his projects are currently on display at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, the WWII Museum in New Orleans, the Museum of Natural History of Los Angeles and the Kennedy Space Center.