Philly Tech Week 2018

Deesha Dyer is a speaker, writer, Creative Event and Strategy consultant, and most notably known as the former Obama Administration Social Secretary. The Philadelphia native became a White House intern at the age of 30 and completed a seven-year tenure there that honed her expertise in event coordination, logistics, protocol, and statecraft. Her storied career is unconventional at best, with themes of reinvention, drive, and a commitment to community service integrated throughout.

An award-winning event producer, Deesha has been featured in national media outlets including TIME, The New York Times, Marie Claire, Essence, Vogue, Refinery29, Forbes, The Root andWashington Post. A charismatic speaker with unbridled optimism, she now shares her message of hope, hard work and living life on your own terms with audiences across the country, while running her private consulting firm.

Veniece Newton, is a true entrepreneur of today who has been connecting people and products through her relationship building for more than a decade. In her early years, while working in promotions and marketing in the music industry for Arista Records in NYC she learned the importance of people and how they connect the dots. Eventually, she developed an entrepreneurial spirit that could not be denied. Her innovative and unparalleled ability to harness the power of relationship building has given her tremendous respect in the business community. Always ahead of the curve, 15 years ago she founded an online fashion/lifestyle television in which she oversaw a production team of 30 from Hong Kong, Alaska, Los Angeles, Miami and New York City. While travelling the world, she interviewed A list celebrities, cover red carpets for many high-profile events. The years of varied experiences, allowed her to eventually find her way to what she truly loved, and that is being involved in the community. As a natural connector, she is a member of several committees and enjoys consulting others with their business ventures. She serves as the Diversity Liaison for the Philadelphia International Airport in which she works specifically to improve workforce while pursuing an Executive MBA at the Fox Temple School of Business. However, one of her strong passions lies in working with youth. She not only has a flair for business and connecting people, but she also has a heart of gold. For the past 10 years, she has devoted her time to empowering the next generation of leaders. She is a panel member for the District Attorney’s Youth Aid Panel and the Founder of Community Angel Foundation; a nonprofit organization that gives back by encouraging, empowering and educating our youth to be future leaders through 4 pillars focusing on volunteerism, education, career and culture. Everything Veniece involves herself with, always includes giving back. It wasn’t no different when she made it to the "Final Four" during the Camden Catalyst startup competition for her innovative idea of ENGAGEathon! And it wasn't farfetched in knowing that her startup would involve community engagement. ENGAGEathon is a customizable software platform that tracks and promotes community engagement, outreach and social impact which will be used by corporations, school districts and organizations. Veniece has a mission to bring our communities together in a positive and effective way; and she will not stop until her mission is complete. Her latest project, Cypher City is a nationwide livestreaming cypher competition in which the public votes through all social media platforms. Cypher City is a very exciting because it allows Veniece to acknowledge the importance of diversity & inclusion and provides a platform for aspiring lyricists to express themselves through words. Veniece is a woman of today and an inspiration for many to believe in yourself and have hope for all.

David Dylan Thomas serves as Principal, Content Strategy at Think Company and is the creator and host of the Cognitive Bias Podcast. He has developed digital strategies for major clients in entertainment, healthcare, publishing, finance, and retail. A co-organizer of Content Strategy Philly, he previously consulted at the Corzo Center for the Creative Economy and is the creator, director, and co-producer of Developing Philly, a web series about the rise of the Philadelphia tech community. He has given standing-room-only presentations at TEDNYC, SXSW Interactive, UX Copenhagen, and the Wharton Web Conference on content strategy and emerging content trends.

Dan Berry is the Head of Integrated Solutions at Nuix . Dan has over 15 years of experience as an application architect providing expertise in analysis, design, implementation, and delivery of eDiscovery, information governance and enterprise content management solutions. At Nuix, he consults with clients and partners on design, implementation, and delivery using Nuix’s scripting, Java, and RESTful APIs.

Pavel Veller serves as EPAM’s CTO, Digital Engagement Practice, where he brings nearly 20 years of diverse experience building and releasing complex software systems and digital products using Java, C#, Ruby, JavaScript and more. Over the course of his 13-year career at EPAM, Mr. Veller has successfully led large global teams on end-to-end implementations for leading consumer products, hospitality, retail and healthcare companies. A few highlights of his work include building customer engagement, eCommerce and customer support bots with Microsoft, Amazon Alexa and AWS Lambda; integrating, customizing and extending digital products, such as Adobe AEM and Marketing Cloud, SAP Hybris, Sitecore, SDL Tridion/Web, Salesforce, for companies in North America and Europe; and migrating a large, complex loyalty system off of a DB2 mainframe and onto a modern Java-based micro/macro-services architecture.

Mont Brown has devoted his life is to provide personalized attention and mentoring youth in the inner- city communities through music, art, and creative expression. He continues to support our youth in formulating impactful ways that encourages them. His accomplishments are driven by his childhood experiences growing up in South West Philadelphia. He believes in the power of unity and uses his story to inspire and help the youth going through similar challenges in their lives. He is an example that regardless of your surroundings you are still capable of living out your dreams. Mont’s primary goal was to have one day of no violence within his (South West) community and he has achieved that with his "Stop the Violence Kickback" four years in a row, with his annual KickBack Festival which gives local up and coming music artist a platform to display their talent. He values the importance of sharing ideas, talents, resources, and time in order to help youth and creative individuals reach their full potential. He has been given the title of The South West Ambassador by Senator Anthony Williams and also named one of BME’s (Black Male Engagement) Community leaders of 2015. Currently, Mont sits on the Board for Mothers in Charge with founder Ms. Dorothy, has a monthly “Brunch with the Elderly Event” at the senior case home in South West and stands as the treasurer and one of youngest board members of Philadelphia Mayor Kenney African American Commission. Mont Brown leads by example that you cannot judge a book by its cover; he is bridging the gap between community and cool-ness.

Amanda is the cofounder and COO of NeedsList, the first marketplace for humanitarian aid that connects the supply, volunteer, and funding needs of NGOs with donors anywhere who can help. Prior to founding NeedsList, Amanda was Founder and Principal of ThirdSpace, a consultancy working at the intersection of human-centered design and social change with startups, government agencies, nonprofits, and some of the largest NGOs in the world, including Catholic Relief Services and the US Fund for UNICEF. Prior to ThirdSpace, Amanda was Director of Operations and Policy Programs at Hope Street Group, a think tank and nonprofit dedicated to increasing economic opportunity for all Americans. She is the cofounder of VOZ: Workers’ Rights Education Project in Portland, Oregon.

Jason Berger is a partner at the Philadelphia based law firm Margolis Edelstein and chairs the firm’s Entertainment and New Media practice group.

Jason’s expertise lies in recognizing talented artists, individuals and companies, developing strategy to achieve long-term success, and protecting their interests by rigorously negotiating and drafting the agreements forming the basis of their business relationships.

Jason’s practice focuses on securing and negotiating agreements in the music, television/film, digital media, technology, art and fashion industries. Jason’s client base covers the entertainment, media and technology industries and includes established and developing artists, songwriters, producers, bands, independent record labels, digital distribution companies, content creation and management companies, music publishing companies, apparel companies, management companies, executives, actors, models, and multimedia fashion and lifestyle companies.

Jason is a member and active participant in The Recording Academy’s Philadelphia Chapter, formally serving as an Advisor to the Board of Directors and currently involved in the Chapter’s Advocacy Committee.

Jason is active in his community of Philadelphia, PA, where he is an adjunct professor at Drexel University’s acclaimed Music Industry Program, teaching a wide variety of music and entertainment related topics. When not assisting his clients or working with his students, he is involved in a variety of music related endeavors from curating live performances to cofounding and developing nicethingsMUSIC, a technology inspired independent record label and distributor.