Sessions & Speakers

Keynote Presentations

Fanning the Flames

When the pandemic hit, Taco Bell wasted no time responding to its taco-loving public. They launched new restaurant formats with added conveniences off premises. They customized their loyalty program with fans at the center of the product experience. And, they went all-in on technology, accelerating their plans to be socially connected and digitally forward. With an insatiable appetite for innovation, this high-powered team thrives on finding creative ways to solve problems, engage consumers and challenge the status quo. By leading with technology and customer engagement, Taco Bell capitalized on its position in the marketplace, gaining a competitive edge in spite of the challenges of the past year.

Zipporah Allen, VP, Digital Experience, Taco Bell

As a leader at the intersection of brand marketing and digital transformation, Zipporah (Zip) has a passion for creating experiences that consumers will love and environments that bring out the best in people. At Taco Bell, her responsibilities center on driving end-to-end customer experiences across digital channels. Previously, Zip was CMO for Pizza Hut US. Before that, she held various global marketing and strategy roles at McDonald’s Corporation including three years in Sydney, Australia. Recently, Zip joined the board of directors for Reformation, a sustainable women’s fashion brand. She resides in southern California with her husband, children and their COVID rescue pup, Penny Mushroom.

Refining Our Focus—Redefining Our Future

Bright Horizons’ primary business is providing high-quality childcare for working families. When COVID hit, they needed to close the majority of their centers yet the in-house agency was busier than ever. How did they continue to do what they do best—delivering education and care that helps working parents and their children thrive? And how did the in-house agency continue to meet the demands of the business—finding innovative new ways to support those who suddenly found themselves at home? From furloughs to first responders to focusing on a new future, when the pandemic struck, this team struck back.

Jessica Fein, VP of Brand, Content & Creative, Bright Horizons

Jessie oversees the in-house agency at Bright Horizons, the leading global provider of high-quality education, childcare, and other work/life solutions. She is a seasoned strategist with experience crafting new brand identities and rebranding existing ones. She is also a builder and manager of high-performance teams, collaborating with a diversity of stakeholders while inspiring creative contributors to produce meaningful work. Prior to Bright Horizons, Jessie wrote a weekly opinion column for The Boston Globe. Today, she is known as a flexible, relationship-builder—highly skilled in balancing the real-time, local needs of the business with the long-term, global vision of the enterprise.

A Team Worth Its Salt (and Butter)

Just as Popcorn, the in-house agency at Universal Parks & Resorts, was about to unveil its new organizational structure, the gates of theme parks worldwide closed. A devastating blow for Universal, the shut-down presented an opportunity for the internal team. With budgets slashed and traditional messaging toppled, the execs at Universal enlisted Popcorn as the lead agency across assorted business imperatives. By focusing on people, processes and priorities, team Popcorn not only met the demands of the business, they expanded their responsibilities, gained stakeholders’ trust and proved their worth for results that are nothing short of a-maizing.

Rob Bloom, Creative Lead, Content Engagement, Universal Parks & Resorts North America

Rob is an award-winning creative director who spent over 20 years crafting campaigns for well-known brands like the U.S. Marines, Brawny, DC Comics, Dunkin', Baskin-Robbins, Kellogg’s, AT&T and others. In addition to advertising and branding, Rob is a published comedy writer and screenwriter who has written for the Cartoon Network, NPR, The Onion, and the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. At Universal Parks & Resorts, Rob leads creative for team Popcorn—a cross-functional, multi-cultural group of nearly one hundred strategists, project managers and creative contributors. His passion is telling memorable stories that evoke emotions and leave an impression.

Giving Way to Change

Wayfair was on the cusp of its biggest promotion of the year when the pandemic took hold last year. The company was faced with a decision—proceed with its multi-day sales event or pivot in response to the community. In this session, we’ll hear how the online retail giant and its in-house agency changed course, fast-tracking a new campaign format that delivered millions to support COVID relief and employee-selected organizations focused on ending racism, hatred and violence. The community event is now part of Wayfair’s core campaign calendar and the in-house agency is not only focused on traditional sales, but on keeping the company’s philanthropic efforts going.

Kelly Skinner, COO of the Creative Group, Wayfair

Kelly leads operations, production, and shared creative services at Wayfair, one of the world’s largest online retailers of furniture, appliances, home products and decor. Expert in working across all forms of media including digital, print, retail, video and 3D imagery, Kelly and her team support Wayfair as well as its specialty brands including Joss & Main, Birch Lane, AllModern, and luxury retail platform, Perigold. Prior to joining Wayfair, Kelly held management positions with the EMEA division of Uber Eats, technology startup Fullbridge, and strategy consulting firm Bain & Company. Kelly resides in Boston with her husband and three children.

Lightning Talks

Reframing How We Work

Over the past year and a half, the team at Nationwide took significant steps to reinvent itself—from a new approach to their physical workspace to streamlining creative workflow and project processes to a committed focus on associate engagement. Like most corporations, the pandemic prompted deep introspection when it came to reframing how they operate without missing a beat. What impact did the changes Nationwide made have on the business, partner relationships and its Content & Delivery team at large? Listen in for the WHYs behind the WHATs and how those changes continue to advance the team.

Mike Boyd, SVP, Marketing Content & Delivery, Nationwide

Mike has over 35 years of brand strategy, advertising, media and sports sponsorship experience with an extensive knowledge of the insurance and financial services industries. Today, he oversees the group that creates and amplifies end-to-end marketing programs across Nationwide’s broad portfolio. Previously, Mike led teams at Farmers Insurance, 21st Century (formerly AIG) and The Martin Agency (IPG). Mike proudly serves as executive sponsor of Nationwide’s National Network of Black Associates ARG and the Marketing DE&I Council. He is also president of Champions of the Community and serves on the board of directions for Youth & Families in Columbus, Ohio.

Building UX at a Distance

What do you do when your first day leading a group in a brand-new job is the first day the company unexpectedly shifts to a work-from-home model? This is the story of one leader’s journey and the lessons he learned managing from a distance to establish and evolve a UX strategy and design function within a budding in-house agency. From the early failures to the breakthroughs, attendees will walk away with a no-holds-barred perspective and some self-assessment questions to ponder how you might apply these lessons to the structure, processes and culture of our own teams.

DJ Min, Group Creative Director, UX and Design, Vanguard

DJ has built his career on the belief that digital experience strategy and execution should be highly intelligent and growth focused. With a track record of building bench strength across assorted teams, he has successfully led a wide range of initiatives for leading national brands. At Vanguard, DJ oversees the UX strategy and design practice for larger-scale digital initiatives within a multi-disciplinary, in-house agency with a mission to bring simplicity and humanness to the complexities of financial services. Prior to Vanguard, DJ managed multiple creative teams both for external agencies and on the client-side at the intersection of marketing, creative and technology.

Creativity Connects Us

During this time of immense change in our personal and professional lives, creativity is more important than ever. At its core, creativity serves as a catalyst for resilience and reinvention by inspiring and empowering us to keep moving forward. This brief session showcases Adobe’s commitment to enabling connected creativity though their latest initiatives like new tools announced at Adobe MAX and Adobe Stock’s emerging partnership with 100cameras.

Lindsay Morris, Strategic Development Manager, Adobe

Lindsay is passionate about visual storytelling. At Adobe Stock, she develops customer relationships, strategic partnerships, content and product strategies. Her favorite part of her job at Adobe is working directly with customers and artists alike, providing insight into what imagery will resonate most with their target audiences. Prior to Adobe, Lindsay was senior manager of creative planning at Getty images. Before that, she was an associate photo editor with the New York Post.

Victoria Torres, Senior Solutions Consultant, Adobe

Victoria is a technical resource and subject-matter expert, helping agency creatives get the most out of Creative Cloud and Document Cloud apps and services. With 15+ years in screen design and web development, Victoria is passionate about the intersection of creativity and technology. Previously, she was responsible for design, development, curricula and training programs at Noble Desktop, a private continuing-education school specializing in teaching web technology, mobile apps and UX design.

Following Your North Star

Polaris, commonly known as the North Star, has long served as a celestial fixed destination—a point to help travelers find their way. What about your team’s metaphorical North Star? Do you look upon it in times of crisis? Or, forget about it and keep wandering? This session explores the value of a North Star and the constancy it provides our teams as we continue to navigate COVID-19. We’ll talk about fostering a purpose that fuels reinvention and touch upon the 7Cs of resilience (competence, confidence, connection, character, contribution, coping and control) while adding three more: communication, culture and commitment.

Brooks Stevenson, VP, Creative & Content Marketing, Optum

Brooks manages content, social media and digital marketing, campaign enablement, and creative teams (design/multi-media and copywriting) for the care-delivery division of Optum—part of the UnitedHealth Group family of businesses. His experience in strategy, implementation, and creative solutions enables him to integrate traditional and digital practices, providing greater impact and engagement across a range of audiences. Brooks has worked in the healthcare industry for over 20 years, most recently overseeing systemwide marketing and communications functions at Intermountain Healthcare. He is also an adjunct professor and guest lecturer at Weber State University, focused on marketing, advertising, strategic communications and digital/media relations.

Workshops

Bounce, Grow, Connect & Flow

Resilience. It’s more than a buzz word; it’s a framework for navigating a demanding world. A world which, over the past year and a half, proved more demanding than anyone could have predicted. Research shows that resilience training reduces workplace risk factors by 31% (distress, anxiety, disengagement) while improving performance drivers by 38% (focus, connection, calm, wellbeing). In fact, when we advance resilience in the workplace, we advance sustainable, productive, mentally healthy teams. This workshop is designed to inspire participants to practice real-time resilience while encouraging the development of positive habits that will support them for life.

Declan Scott, Senior Consultant, The Resilience Institute

Declan is a globally recognized leadership trainer and speaker. Growing up on the border with Northern Ireland, Declan learned at a young age about entrepreneurship in a volatile environment. His passion for resilience was ignited when his local city, Christchurch, was devastated by thousands of earthquakes spanning a three-year period. Despite the tremendous loss, this period would redefine his life and work. Today, Declan is focused on the importance of Bounce in Business—helping leaders navigate uncertainty and develop the ability to respond to adversity with creativity. He joined The Resilience Institute in 2015, bringing a wealth of experience from the corporate world, academia, and numerous successful entrepreneurial ventures.

Embracing Reinvention

Change is happening more often and at a faster pace than ever before. Just as we’re overcoming one disruption, another is lurking around the corner. At the same time, advances in business, technology, and social consciousness bring about new opportunities that can either deplete us or fuel our next competitive advantage. How can we thrive as teams and individuals in the face of constant change? The answer is by embracing reinvention. This workshop focuses on reinventing who we are, how we work and the value we deliver to our respective organizations. Bring your challenges and your reservations. Most of all, bring an open mind because the possibilities are as endless as change itself.

Dana Hilmer & Wendy Perrotti, Co-Creators, Camp Reinvention™

Dana and Wendy are master coaches, leadership trainers, reinvention experts and the co-creators of Camp Reinvention. Camp Reinvention offers online and in-person programs that help people and the organizations they work for create lasting, positive change. With over 30 years’ experience coaching and training, Wendy and Dana have been featured in hundreds of radio, television and online broadcasts. They have also reached over 2 million people with their own podcast and trained leaders of numerous well-known brands including Aetna, Fuze, iNDEMAND, PepsiCo, and Yale University. For free insights and exercises, sign up for Camp Notes at CampReinvention.com. To download their free e-book, Freedom from What Keeps You Stuck, click here.

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