Introducing Adobe Summit 2018 Social Influencers

The week of Adobe Summit is finally here. For many attendees, it’s a week to learn from best-in-class experience makers, be entertained, network, and leave with ideas on how to take their business to the next level. At Adobe, Summit is much more than a one-week experience. It is actually more like a year-long experience in the making. From the content, to the keynotes, to the stage, to the food, and much more, an incredible team has spent a lot of time working to make this year’s Summit the best yet.

As you have heard, content is still king, and this week at Summit, you will encounter some incredible content — on mainstage, during breakouts, in venue, and more. It is, however, important to remember that content is only as ‘kingly’ as you make it. If you create incredible content, and you don’t have a powerful distribution strategy, you are doing yourself a HUGE disservice. Actually, let me be even a bit more bold — you are wasting your time. On the Experience Cloud side of the business, we have put in place many different distribution channels. I am writing today about one of those channels that we have found to be incredibly successful – INFLUENCER MARKETING.

I have a couple of good friends, Jeff Rust and Logan Wilkes, who preach that ‘business is about relationships.’ Truer words have never been spoken. When doing influencer marketing, it is really all about relationships!

As the Head of Social Media for Adobe’s Experience Cloud Business, I have put a lot of faith and trust in a key group of people/relationships that have helped take our program to new heights. We are excited to have an incredible group of influencers helping us amplify and share the messages from Summit (whether you are with us at the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas or watching from afar).

This year, we have social influencers coming from all over the world that specialize in marketing and content creation and have been executives for major companies or have hosted major awards shows and conventions. This is a team of influential individuals who have complimentary skillsets. With no further adieu, please welcome, your 2018 Adobe Summit Influencers:

Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes, former Samsung North America CMO Steven Cook and David Cooperstein who ran the CMO practice at Forrester Research, all bring a wealth of C-Suite knowledge and experience to our influencer team.

We have expert strategists. Aaron Hillegass’ Big Nerd Ranch consults with Google, Snap, Facebook, Amazon, and LinkedIn.

Bob Wollheim is Co-Founder of the innovation consulting firm MuchMore; Jason Goldberg is the lead of SapientRazorfish’s Commerce and Content Practice; Ian Gertler serves on the board of the Internet of Things Community and has lead projects for IBM, CISCO and 1-800-Flowers; Jennifer Yacenda is Director of Channel Intelligence & Digital Analytics at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide; Jenny Kordell launched Microsoft’s global digital community platform; Sue Duris is the Director of Marketing and Customer Experience at M4 Communications; and Meghan Powers is the Web Analytics Data and Implementation Specialist at CarMax.

Internationally, we are bringing the best marketing talent from around the globe. Takayuki Fukatu is CEO of THE GUILD, Japan’s most successful company in UI/UX. Also from Japan, Akira Amano, specializes in smartphone research. Shinichiro Isago worked for Microsoft Japan for eight years.

Abhijit Bhaduri is one of India’s premier marketers having lead teams for Microsoft, Colgate, and PepsiCo, and the $7B firm Wipro.

From Mexico, Arturo Castelan is the Co-Founder & Head of Innovation at RANDOM INTERACTIVE. Guillermo Pérezbolde founded the agency Mente Digital and is also Secretary of the American Marketing Association’s Mexico City Chapter.

Edney Souza is a Brazilian digital marketing expert and the creator of Social Media Week Såo Paulo. Rob McLaughlin is Head of Digital Analytics & Decisioning at Sky – Europe’s largest media & entertainment provider.

We have great speakers and content creators. Ross Quintana is one of Buzz Sumo’s Top 100 Influencers. Matthew Owen is an 8x INC 5000 winner and works with large entities like NASCAR on innovative strategies. Lana McGilvray has worked with Chase, Microsoft, Lionsgate and more and brings many years of strategic branding and media relations to the group.

Kerry O’Shea Gorgone JD, MBA, is a lawyer, podcaster, speaker and writer, as well as the host of MarketingProfs weekly interview series, Marketing Smarts, named by Fast Company as one of the best business podcasts on the Internet.

Christoph Trappe (aka The Authentic StorytellerTM) is a career storyteller who has worked as a journalist, a nonprofit executive, and a content marketing strategist and consultant. He also continuously appears in Top 100 Social influencer lists and leads the group in frequent flyer miles.

We have four exciting and talented hosts for Adobe Summit that will be doing live newscasts, Twitter chats and creating other on-site content.

Chelsea Krost is one of America’s leading Millennial influencers, as well as LinkedIn’s Top 20 Millennial Marketers, a sought-after keynote speaker, a Forbes Contributor, and the host of #MillennialTalk.

Jeff Barrett is a Shorty Award Winning content creator, Inc and Cheddar contributor, and sits on the board of both DoSomething and The Real Time Academy.

David Rhodes was nominated for Snapchat Storyteller of the Year in 2017 and has used Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Vine (R.I.P Vine) to build millions of followers and one of the first successful global influencer businesses in 2011.

Sarah Evans is a premier digital correspondent previously having worked with SAP, PayPal, WalMart, and the Shorty Awards, where she does their Teal Carpet interviews.

Finally, for the first time ever, we are super excited to welcome a team of influencers representing Generation Z. We have a small group of Gen Z(ers) onsite helping us cover Adobe Summit from the Gen Z perspective. The team also has a social media command center back in North Carolina where another group of students will share their thoughts and participate in Adobe Summit from afar. Make sure you follow @WeRGenZ to follow along with their experience and coverage. We are so excited to have this group of incredible students as part of our influencer program.

Follow along using #AdobeSummit on Twitter and Facebook as this diverse group of some of the world’s best and brightest help us make Adobe Summit the best event of the year.