2011 AHP Seminar Guest Speakers

RYAN DOHRN

Ryan Dohrn is the CEO of Brain Swell Media LLC.  He is an Emmy award winning TV producer, has overseen over 3,000 Web site builds, is a nationally acclaimed speaker, and has been featured in USA Today and on Forbes.com.  Ryan took HorseCity.com to revenues exceeding $1 million dollars per year and worked closely with online equine titles like Western Horseman and Quarter Horse News.  He currently works with 40 publishers including Robb Report, Texas Bar Journal, Holistic Horse, Northwest Horse Source and several parenting titles. 

Ryan will present several sessions at the AHP seminar in San Diego starting on Thursday, June 16th, as part of the afternoon workshop. This two-hour session titled “Digital Publishing Strategy,” will cover setting your magazine up for digital revenue success.  Two additional sessions are scheduled for Friday and will include “Selling Social Media” and “Creating Multi-Media Sales Proposals that WORK.”  Ryan’s fun style and deep knowledge will make this a seminar to not miss!

DEANNE GOODMAN

Deanne Goodman is the editor of Carlsbad.Patch.com, one of the community-news sites part of the Patch Network. Deanne is a veteran TV and Web news reporter, anchor and videographer. She's the type of journalist who doesn't mind getting her hands dirty for a story. While reporting she's gone inside a burning building in full firefighting gear, shot an M-16, travelled by hot air balloon, helicopter, snow mobile and on planes to Germany twice after winning media fellowships. Deanne loves any story where she gets to play with animals including the time she got kisses from an 850-pound grizzly bear. She also loves stories that involve eating and stories that end in her getting hugs.

Deanne is from North County San Diego. She left California for eight years while attending Vanderbilt University where she graduated Cum Laude with a BA in Communication Studies, and then lived in Mississippi and Oregon as a TV news reporter and main anchor. Deanne has appeared on numerous networks including CNN.

Deanne is the guest speaker for Saturday morning's session on "Basic Video Production: Using Video Online and in Digital Media", moderated by Daniel K. Lew, MainStreet Media Group.

CRAIG REISS

We all have heard of The Horse Whisperer and The Dog Whisperer, but in San Diego, attendees will learn about how to become The Audience Whisperer. Craig Reiss presents a two-part session on Saturday morning covering Discovery: What the Audience Wants and Application: The Formula for Market-Leading Editorial.  Print publications seeking to improve their design will not want to miss Craig’s Saturday afternoon sessions on The Emotional Handshake: Principles of Cover Design and Seeing Content: Magazine Design in a Pinched Landscape.

Craig Reiss is a C-level media executive with extensive experience in revitalizing mature properties, launching successful new products, and crisis management of seemingly untenable businesses. He has been the principle creative and strategist on more than 260 publications and more than 200 digital extensions from print.

Craig has been the principal strategist and creative for more than 120 consumer magazines and Websites from Motor Trend, Surfer and Power & Motoryacht to Soap Opera Digest, Horse & Rider and Equus. He performed the same role for more than 140 business publications from Adweek, Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter to Architecture, National Real Estate Investor and Farm Industry News.

Earlier, he was Chairman of Craig Reiss Media, an Internet publisher of video-driven enthusiast Websites that converted magazine advertisers into interactive video marketers. He has had bottom-line responsibility for Kagan World Media, the Media Central unit of Primedia and The Design Group of VNU.

BILL SHELTON

Bill Shelton spoke at an AHP seminar for the first time in Lexington in 2010. His two presentations received rave reviews and he will be back this year with two new sessions in San Diego.

On Saturday afternoon, he begins with Creativity and Creative Problem Solving, a session that will teach you how to better understand creativity and how to work smarter, not harder. The second session, By the Numbers - Fast Fixes to Problems Large and Small, is a fun, fast-paced, exciting, information packed hour done in a live blog style. Bill will address problems and opportunities large and small, faced by publishers and marketers in the equine industry in blog-form list style such as:  

• 5 ways to attract more readers
• 7 ways to get customers' attention
• 3 ways to keep your team innovative

Bill Shelton represents the rare combination of business entrepreneur and advertising creative. As Co-Founder and President of “micro-agency” Left Field Creative, Shelton and his partner Terri Lacey have developed a reputation for wrestling accounts and project work away from larger, more traditional agencies. The creative duo opened Left Field in 1996 at the request of their first client, CITGO Petroleum.

Innovative and unconventional, Bill carries a reputation as an uncompromising strategist, whose work creates lasting bonds with consumers. Outspoken about advertising and marketing produced only to win awards, yet passionate about truly great work, Bill challenges conventional thinking, always looking for new ways to reach the hearts and minds of people on a deeper, more emotional level.

Bill’s experience ranges from consumer packaged goods to agriculture, on a diverse mix of accounts including Purina, Anheuser-Busch, John Deere, Monsanto, Lender’s Bagels, Aunt Jemima, CITGO Petroleum, NIKE, Midas Automotive and more.

MILTON C. TOBY

Milt Toby is an attorney, author, and photographer with a lifelong interest and involvement in the horse industry. He has been writing professionally about horses since 1972, first as a staff writer for The Blood-Horse and more recently as a freelancer for a number of publications. Milt is the author of six books, including Dancer’s Image: The Forgotten Story of the 1968 Kentucky Derby, The Complete Equine Legal and Business Handbook, and Ruffian, Milt blogs about equine law at www.thehorse.com and contributes a monthly column to the Paint Horse Journal. Wearing his attorney’s hat, Milt has drafted publishing contracts for several magazines. He is Chair of the American Society of Journalists and Authors’ Contracts Committee, which reviews publishing contracts for writers.

Milt will present a session titled, Dancer's Image: Selling Your Book to a Non-Equine Publisher.

MANDEE WIDRICK

Mandee Widrick is an entrepreneur and social media consultant in her early 20's living in a small town near Watertown, New York. She is CEO of ChargedUp Media, a social media marketing company, and trains other entrepreneurs and business owners how to market online using sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and similar sites.

In January 2010, Mandee founded Horse Family™ Magazine, an online blog for equestrians which has now grown to accumulate over 8,000 followers on social networks. She has interviewed top equine professionals and reviewed products for numerous companies, establishing a successful presence on the web while still getting her “horse fix” as she works.

Mandeeʼs first speaking engagement occurred in 2009 at the LEAH Homeschool Convention in Rochester, New York, where she spoke to over 130 young students and their parents on the topic of entrepreneurship and business startup. She has since moved on to speak at various small business events and host her own workshops, sharing her story and marketing expertise with many. Mandee firmly believes in pursing the career that she loves and enjoys, encouraging everyone she meets to do the same.

Today, we either love or hate social media, but everyone needs to understand it. Mandee will train attendees how to market online using sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and similar sites. Are you new to social media marketing and wondering how to use it to promote your business? Then her first session, Facebook and Twitter for Beginners, on Friday morning will discuss these two major social networking sites and how to utilize them to get you noticed online. The session will additionally talk about common mistakes and misconceptions that newbies have about social media marketing, and help you overcome any fears you may have about using the internet to sell yourself.
 
If you are already active on social media and looking for the next step to grow your networks, then Advanced Social Media Marketing is for you. Learn how Mandee has successfully built a following of thousands in the horse industry for her online magazine, Horse Family™. She will take an in-depth look at the steps she followed to get where she is today; sharing tips and tricks that will boost your following and help you become recognized as an "expert" on the internet.

Mandee firmly believes in pursing the career that she loves and enjoys and encouraging everyone she meets to do the same. Public Relations for Small Business Owners will help you get creative in your business marketing efforts. Learn how to come up with unique strategies and methods that will get your business noticed. This session will discuss traditional marketing methods as well as new media marketing, and how they can work together. 

SKIP ZIMBALIST

Skip Zimbalist will present the keynote address on Media Trends in Publishing on Friday morning during the AHP "Hoofprints in the Sand" Seminar in San Diego, California. Zimbalist is Chairman and CEO of Active Interest Media (AIM), a media company formed in 2003 to serve niche enthusiast markets.  AIM publishes multiple equine publications and websites, such as EQUUS and Horse & Rider, EquiSearch.com and Equine.com to name a few.

Prior to AIM, a Wind Point portfolio company, Skip held a variety of positions at Times Mirror.  Prior to Times Mirror, he served as Chairman and CEO of Correia Art Glass, Inc., a family-owned business.  Skip was also at the consulting firm of McKinsey and Co. in Los Angeles for five years.  Skip served for two years as an officer in the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Corp., including one year in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Bronze Star.  He received a BA in economics from Harvard College and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.