PAST COMMUNITY CHATS

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Tuesday, May 26th

• Ori Neidich,Senior Manager, Solutions Architecture – Alexa Voice Service

Wednesday, March 18

• Pamela Reed Sanchez, President & CEO, Seneca Park Zoo Society Watch The Replay By Clicking Here

Thursday, March 19

Monday, March 23

• Autria Godfrey, Emmy-award winning News Anchor at WJLA-TV in Washington, DC

Tuesday, March 24

• Volker Hirsch, Partner @AmadeusCapital. Co-Founder @BlueBeck, @TechNorthAdvocates, @CuriosoGames, @DigitalHive. Chairman @Bibblio. Angel Investor. Lots of stuff before...
• Stolen from LinkedIn... "I am a technology entrepreneur and investor with a focus on AI/ML, autonomous systems, human-machine interfaces, MedTech, Cyber Security, Enterprise SaaS and Digital Health. I also maintain my interests in EdTech and mobile technology in general.

  I generally try to help people - that is if you have a great idea, project, company or calling that does more than optimising the display of cat videos on the Internet...

  I was involved with a few pioneering deals and concepts, including: -- the world’s first mobile artist services for the likes of Britney Spears, Eve and Duran Duran; -- mobile games publishing for top-tier brands (such as Marvel, Hasbro, Call of Duty, True Crime, Guitar Hero, LEGO, BMW, Konami, WPT, etc) waaay before there was the iPhone; -- building the (at the time) largest mobile content distribution network globally (250+ direct carrier deals all over the world); -- helping build a mobile social gaming platform to more than 450m users. -- helping launch what is now the leading EdTech accelerator in Europe.

  I have founded companies, raised money and exited successfully (and failed a few times on the way). I have tons of board experience in venture-backed companies in Germany, UK, US (CA, WA, NY, DE), Spain, Israel and Malta.

  I am a regular keynote speaker on technology, entrepreneurship, mobile, education, IoT and entertainment (e.g. at TEDx, SXSW, Mobile World Congress, 4YFN, CTIA, Mobile Games Forum [Chairman 2013], PICNIC, European Pirate Summit, Israel Mobile Summit, Mindshare Media Summit, Droidcon, etc).

  Finally, I am relieved that LinkedIn, after years and years of placing me in Stockport, finally got it right: I am (currently) a proud Maxonian (that is resident of Macclesfield for the rest of you). "

Wednesday, March 25

• Ram Parimi, Head of Strategy and Operations, Google Cloud

Thursday, March 26

• Kim Brackett, Owner/Operator Brackett Ranches, Former Chair of the Cattlemen's Beef Board
• She’s also an Eisenhower Fellow and an expert on sustainable agriculture.

Monday, March 30

• Jamie Grove, Co-Founder and GM, Mini Museum. Former VP of Marketing, ThinkGeek.
• Jamie is a recovering marketing executive who hopes that one day he can just write long-winded books and take pictures of beautiful people, amazing creatures, and fascinating places. Until that magical day comes, he is very happy to be the Co-Founder and General Manager at Mini Museum. When he's not preparing dinosaur skin or fragments Martian lava, Jamie handles most aspects of the day-to-day business.

  Prior to Mini Museum, Jamie was the Vice President of Evil Schemes and Nefarious Plans (aka Marketing) at ThinkGeek during a period of super intense growth. He also spent many years as the head of eCommerce for Highlights for Children, the nation’s oldest and most beloved children’s magazine.

  About Mini Museum

  Billions of years of real history in a compact form, the Mini Museum is a handcrafted collection designed to last for generations.

  Originally conceived by inventor Hans Fex as a way to share his life-long love of history and science, the Mini Museum became a phenomenon in 2014 and has raised $4,000,0000 from thousands of backers in more than 120 countries around the world.

  More details about the Mini Museum can be found at minimuseum.com.

Monday, March 30

• Rachna Hukmani, Founder & CEO, Whiskey Stories LLC.
  
• Rachna is the first South Asian woman to open a whiskey company. She also helped design The Macallan 12 Double Cask, The Macallan Luxury Editions, Highland Park Magnus and more.

Tuesday, March 31

• Jeff Stetner, Owner Boozehound Wine
• A simple proposition. Exceptional wines at preferential prices with an exceptionally small client list. If you've wondered how people stock vintages from Screaming Eagle, Chateau Mouton Rothschild, Chateau Lafite, and others, Jeff's your guy.

Wednesday, April 1

• Adam Sharp, President & CEO, National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
  
• Adam oversees national Emmy® Awards for News & Documentary, Sports, and Daytime entertainment television programming, as well as achievements in broadcast Technology & Engineering.

Thursday, April 2

• Dr. David Vaughan, Founder, Plant a Million Corals Foundation.
• Dr. Vaughan is the marine scientist responsible for developing the micro-fragmentation technology and implementation of the coral refusion techniques utilized in coral re-growth technology that can regrow coral reefs 20-40x faster than in nature.

Monday: April 6

• Emily Bauer, Voiceover and Narration Professional (and you’ve likely heard her on Audible)
• Emily is lauded as a prolific narrator by the Audiobook Publishers Association. She has a passion for truthful, honest storytelling and creating memorable characters across all genres and is the recipient of multiple "Golden Earphones" , "Listen-Up Awards", and Publishers Weekly starred reviews.

Tuesday, April 7

• Matteo Penzo, Executive Director of Technology, Frog
• A global design and strategy firm, Matteo leads the technology teams in EMEA. With more than 20 years of technology, software design and development experience, Matteo helps clients execute and deploy their product vision across the globe.
  
  In 2005, he founded the internationally successful Frontiers Conference event, which brings innovators in business and design together. Most recently, Matteo founded Talent Garden Milano—the biggest co-working space in Italy—which provides talent, brilliant minds and startups an environment to connect, grow and blossom.
  
  Also, he is bald.

Wednesday, April 8

• Ibrahim AlHusseini, Founder and Managing Partner, FullCycle Funds
• Ibrahim is a venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and environmentalist who invests in forward thinking companies that can positively impact climate change in the very near future. He was an early investor in Tesla Motors, Infenera, Bloom Energy, and Proteus Energy, as well as Aspiration Inc., WePower, Cadence Health, Thrive Market, and CleanChoice Energy, among others.

Thursday, March 26

• Erich Spangenberg, the CEO of IPwe
• Erich is the CEO and co-founder of IPwe, a company using blockchain and AI to create the patent asset class by making it easy and far less expensive to analyze, interact with and transact in patents. He is regularly recognized as one of the world’s top 50 IP strategists, credited with being one of the people that is changing the way people think about and use patents.
  
  After an early career that included law firm partner, investment banker and business executive, Erich had a very successful 10+ year run as one of the world’s leading global “patent trolls,” followed by a $1.7 billion-dollar hedge fund partnership using the AIA to invalidate weak drug patents. Erich has been involved as a principal in over 1,000 licensing transactions that generated over $500 million in revenue and as a principal and advisor on over $2 billion of patent financing and acquisition transactions.
  
  Erich and his team acquired and began developing their patent AI tools in 2007 and started working to identify real world blockchain applications in 2015. Starting with the Global Patent Registry as a single place to find and learn basic information about the world’s patents free of charge, the IPwe business has evolved globally to facilitate a marketplace where information and analytics can be obtained without charge and transactions can be completed at the lowest possible cost. IPwe is a multi-sided platform and market place serving the patent ecosystem.

Monday, April 13

• Douglas Sonders
• A former Time Magazine / Nat Geo / Rolling Stone photographer turned branded content specialist. We create a variety of content for a diverse set of digital platforms, publishers, and brands. We've even won some awards in the immersive tech space. We are working with brands to create unique content in this new pandemic environment.

Wednesday, April 15

• Erin Bonilla, Flight Ready Systems, Chief Operating Officer
• In January 2020, Erin and 5 other women participated in SENSORIA, a mars simulation mission at the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) habitat on the Big Island of Hawai’i. Erin was the Vice Commander and Medical Officer and helped with planning and logistics for the mission. Erin also participates in other space activities like a weightless flight, scuba certification, g-force flights, hypoxia training, and supporting an Everest Base Camp trek.

Thursday, April 16

• Jared Sheehan, Director, Software Engineering, Capital One
• Jared leads Card Mobile engineering for the flagship Capital One mobile application that serves 25 million customers per month across several multiple business segments. "Community is a core interest of mine, I lead 6+ meetup groups in the DC Area, and 2 annual conferences."

Tuesday, April 28th @ 6:15pm EST

• Corregan Brown, Managing Director, Determinant
• "I'm a technologist and have been doing software development and consulting my entire career. I co-founded ProjectLocker (exited) and 3 other companies with varying degrees of success. When I'm not doing tech, I spend a lot of time thinking about current events and sociopolitical issues, and will write about those occasionally on my blog at www.brokenbeatnik.com, but more often on my public Facebook page (www.facebook.com/cgbrown)".

• Siobhan Oat-Judge, YouTube, Global Content Policy Lead

Tuesday, May 19th

• John Walton, Play-by-Play Announcer at Washington Capitals/NBC Sports