Featured Speaker(s)
Moderator:
Amanda Coolong is a digital media executive best known for her role as COO and Chief Host of TechZulu, a new media company dedicated to highlighting innovative technologies in emerging markets. A born storyteller, she has interviewed hundreds of technology entrepreneurs through multiple platforms, from live streamed video to mobile, virtual worlds and VoIP chats.
An authority on new media, Amanda regularly moderates industry panels and mentors startups on the latest tools for audience engagement. She can be found producing live, interactive Web shows from well-known conferences like South by Southwest, BlogWorld, and CES. She is passionate about bringing greater context to news dissemination, and believes technology is the key.
Amanda is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of Emerson College in Boston. She lives online as 'acoolong.'
Speakers:
Elizabeth Dougherty is the Director of Inventor Education, Outreach, and Recognition in the Office of Innovation Development at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In this capacity, she develops, implements, and supervises programs that support the independent inventor community, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and the intellectual property interests of colleges and universities. Elizabeth has spearheaded a number of special projects with federal, state and local governments, and private organizations to promote and support invention and innovation in the United States. She oversees a portfolio of ongoing and future initiatives designed to assist independent inventors, entrepreneurs, and underserved communities.
Elizabeth is currently on a special assignment to the USPTO Office of Government Affairs where she is coordinating outreach to the Congressional Caucuses of the 115th Congress. Prior to her current assignment at the USPTO, she served in various executive service roles, most recently as Acting Deputy Director in the Office of Patent Legal Administration. In this capacity, she was responsible for the oversight and direction of a team of senior legal advisors and staff assisting the Patent Examining Corps in matters of legal policy. Having begun her career at the USPTO as a patent examiner, Elizabeth examined patent applications filed in the area of Class 73, Electric Devices used for Measuring or Testing.
Elizabeth is frequently called upon to lecture, often to student groups of all ages, about the USPTO, the patent process, innovation and creativity, and legal aspects of obtaining and maintaining a U.S. patent.
Elizabeth received a bachelor's degree in physics from the Catholic University of America in 1991 and a juris doctorate from the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America in 1996. She is a member of the Virginia Bar, the Giles S. Rich American Inn of Court, the Pauline Newman American Inn of Court, the American Bar Association, the Federal Circuit Bar Association, the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the Patent and Trademark Office Society, the Supervisory Patent Examiners and Classifiers Organization, Women in Science and Engineering, and the Prince George's County Historical Society.
Michele Lynn-Moore Myauo, Ph.D. is Director of Cybersecurity for the Microsoft Global Cybersecurity Practice leading Americas Services Delivery. She is also a Professor of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering with a focus on Cybersecurity Policy and Compliance at The George Washington University. At IBM, she was Service Area Manager for the Operations & Supply Chain Management Practice and Deputy Director of Enterprise Architecture. Dr. Myauo has expertise in leading Cybersecurity, Systems Engineering, and IT Services Business execution across academia, industry, and government (local, state and federal) including U.S. Departments of Commerce, Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, State, and the Intelligence Community.
Dr. Myauo holds a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from The George Washington University, M.S. in Industrial/Organization Psychology from University of Baltimore, and B.S. in Psychology from Bethany College. She is an American Society for Quality and IBM Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.
Karen Robinson Cope is a serial entrepreneur who has been CEO of four high-growth companies, all of whom raised significant angel or venture capital. As one of only a handful of women who have raised over $100 million USD in the Southeast, she has successfully built and sold three companies.
She is currently Executive Vice President for NanoLumens, Inc. an award-winning privately-held corporation heralded by The Wall Street Journal for innovative digital LED displays and by Forbes as one of the most promising companies in America. Previously, Karen was CEO of Prime Point Media, one of the largest alternative out-of-home advertising companies in the United States. Prime Point Media was acquired by a Canadian publicly traded company in 2006. Prior to Prime Point Media, Karen was Chairwoman, President and CEO of Enrev Corporation, a technology company that was sold in 2001.
Karen is an investor and board member for a number of private, non-profit and public international companies, including Opportunity International. Opportunity provides micro-lending services to empower those living in poverty to transform their lives. She just finished a three-year term as the first female president of TiE Atlanta, the Atlanta chapter of non-profit TiE Global, focused on fostering entrepreneurship ecosystems around the world. Karen is also a co-founder of the Council of Board Advisors (COBA), a non-profit organization that aligns executive level talent with profitable, privately held companies, and she advises women leaders in business for several Atlanta-based associations.
She has received numerous awards including the Georgia Woman of the Year in Technology, Women Who Mean Business, Top 25 Power Women, Top 20 Women in Wireless and was an E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year finalist. She travels globally to support these initiatives and is often accompanied by her husband Rick and their daughter Alex.
Michael Sherwood is the Director of Technology and Innovation for the City of Las Vegas. Sherwood has more than 20 years of management experience, specifically in the field of technology, process improvement and innovation with the majority of that experience being in municipal government operations. Most recently he served as the deputy director of public safety, business services and city technology for the city of Irvine, CA since December 2013. In that capacity he was responsible for budgets of both public safety at $70 million and technology at $8 million. He was responsible for more than 100 professional, technical employees and contractors. In that role he developed and implemented key technology strategies that reduced the annual technology operating costs by more than $1 million. He also provided key leadership in bringing Google Fiber to the city.
Prior to that position, Sherwood served as the manager of business services for the City of Irvine, CA from 2012-2013, the chief information officer for City of Oceanside, CA, from 2001-2012 and the information technologies manager for the City of Oceanside, CA from 1997-2000. Before 1997, he served in the private sector.
Sherwood earned his Bachelor of Science in Management from Pepperdine University followed by a Master of Science in Executive Management from the University of Southern California.
Kathy Weidman is a Media and Entertainment executive who currently holds the position of SVP and General Manager of Metadata at TiVo. Kathy has an MBA from Babson College and was recently awarded as one of the Top Five Women in the Media Industry who "...are helping to define the industry's next generation of products and services" by Multichannel News.
Kathy is currently responsible for TiVo's international Metadata business group, leading teams around the world and delivering end-to-end metadata discovery solutions to studios, broadcasters, service providers, music streaming and web services companies. Kathy's teams are currently leading the development of machine-learning and AI solutions to deliver real-time viewer and listener solutions around the world.
Kathy also managed her own consulting firm that specialized in providing interim executive management for the media and entertainment industry. Her consulting firm assisted companies through financial, operational, organizational and strategic transformations, transitions and turnarounds. She specifically served as interim CEO/COO/President/CFO of eight companies, designing high growth strategies. She also assisted companies thorough periods of downturns, implementing programs to turn struggling companies into profitable and successful ventures. She was responsible for managing and negotiating several strategic partnerships, mergers and acquisitions.
In 2010, Kathy was awarded a Fellowship from Eastern Connecticut University for Outstanding Professional Achievements. She is the mother of three grown children and is married to her husband, Richard. She travels extensively to all corners of the earth managing a diverse and multi-cultural organization.
