From-the-trenches advice on money, marketing, client relations, and more - in joint association with Marketing Mentor.
Speakers
At the Creative Freelancer Conference, you'll meet veteran freelancers willing to share their hard-earned advice and experience—all to help you build a better business for yourself. Start getting acquainted with the speakers through their bios below.
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David C. Baker Principal ReCourses, Inc. Nashville, TN
David C. Baker has been consulting the creative field since 1994, having worked with 650+ firms around the world. He’s spoken at every major convention and written for every major publication. His work has been discussed in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Fast Company, Inc., Forbes, CBS Business Network, MarketingProfs and BusinessWeek. He has also written three well-received books.
Sessions:
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Ilise Benun Founder Marketing Mentor Hoboken, NJ
Ilise Benun is a national speaker and founder of both Marketing-Mentor.com and the Creative Freelancer Conference (with HOW magazine). She is a specialist in coaching creative entrepreneurs who are serious about growing their business. She is the author of The Creative Professional’s Guide to Money, The Designer’s Guide to Marketing and Pricing and Stop Pushing Me Around: A Workplace Guide for the Timid, Shy and Less Assertive. She publishes an email newsletter, Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor, and hosts an online store, Marketing-Mentor-Toolbox.com, featuring tools to make creatives more successful, including The Proposal Bundle and The Pricing Bundle.
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Jonathan Cleveland Principal Cleveland Design Boston, MA
Jonathan Cleveland founded Cleveland Design in 1992 and has balanced his work for both global corporations and small startups with a deep commitment to design and marketing for non-profits. His work in corporate responsibility has made him a trusted partner to many corporations. Jonathan is co-author of Designing for the Greater Good: The Best of Cause Marketing and Nonprofit Design. He has been a featured speaker and panelist for industry seminars and webinars, and was recently awarded the 2011 AMA Distinguished Marketing Executive of the Year from the University of Central Missouri.
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Sarah Durham Principal Big Duck Brooklyn, NY
Sarah Durham grew up in the world of advertising, design and marketing, and, in 1994, she decided to put her communications best practices to work helping non-profits increase their visibility, raise money and move the needles on their missions – and with that, Big Duck was launched. Today, Big Duck is the leading communications firm that works exclusively with nonprofits.
Sarah was named a top fundraiser under 40 by Fundraising Success Magazine in 2006, and one of the most influential women in technology by Fast Company in 2010. She’s a regular speaker at Association of Fundraising Professionals, and is also the author of Brandraising: How Nonprofits Raise Visibility and Money through Smart Communications (Jossey-Bass/Wiley, 2010).
 @BigDuckSarah |
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Cameron Foote Principal Creative Business Boston, MA
Cameron S. Foote is the founder and editor of the Creative Business newsletter, the only publication devoted exclusively to the business side of providing creative services. He has nearly 40 years’ experience in the industry, including stints at small and large agencies, as creative director for a Fortune 500 firm, and running his own firm, whose clients included such national brands as Merrill Lynch, Harvard Business School and AT&T.
He is the author of the all-time best-selling book on running a creative business, The Business Side of Creativity (W.W. Norton), as well as the recently released The Creative Business Guide to Marketing: Selling and Branding Design, Advertising, Interactive and Editorial Services (W.W. Norton).
Sessions:
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Ed Gandia Founding Partner International Freelancers Academy Marietta, GA
Ed Gandia is a successful freelance copywriter and co-author of the award-winning book The Wealthy Freelancer. He’s also the man behind the International Freelancers Day online conference and founding partner of International Freelancers Academy. A passionate advocate for freelancing and solopreneurship, Ed teaches solo professionals how to earn more in less time, so they can create the freedom, flexibility and lifestyle that enables them to live more fully.
Ed’s insights have been featured in Inc. magazine, CNN Radio, CBS Radio News, The Christian Science Monitor, and more.
Click here for more on Ed's background and expert insight.
Sessions:
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Marcia Hoeck Owner Hoeck Associates Grosse Ile, MI
As the owner of a leading marketing communications firm in Ohio for more than 25 years, Marcia Hoeck found the business aspects of her work daunting. So she developed simple methods to take the complexity out of the way her business ran. The results: a terrific team of people who stayed long term, profitable clients who came back year after year, a very manageable, lighter-than-average workload, and a successful business with great flexibility.
After selling the assets of her firm, Marcia now teaches what she once lived, helping make business easy for others through coaching and consulting.
Sessions: Skillful Communication with Clients
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Martin Kamenski President & Founder Rockstar CPA Chicago, IL
Martin Kamenski is the president and founder of Rockstar CPA, a Chicago-based creative and entertainment industry accounting firm. With a background in small businesses and nearly a decade of experience running his own practice, Martin has carefully crafted a way to talk about business and taxes with creative individuals. He sits on the Boards of Directors of Matter Dance Company, the Global Alliance of Artists, and Sweet Relief Musicians Fund. Martin is an amateur musician, and remains active in the theater and film industries in Chicago and Los Angeles.
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Patrick McNeil Owner Design Meltdown Affton, MO
Patrick McNeil is a freelance writer, web developer, design lover and the creator of DesignMeltdown.com. He has diverse interests that have merged technology and design into work that touches everything from high design to hard-core programming. His love for design, inspiration and sharing knowledge has fueled his passion for running Design Meltdown and writing his bestselling book series The Web Designer’s Idea Book(s). Patrick is also the content director for the HOW Interactive Design blog and community.
Click here for more on Patrick's background and expert insight.
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Allen Murabayashi CEO PhotoShelter, Inc. New York, NY
Allen Murabayashi is the CEO and co-founder of PhotoShelter, the worldwide leader in photography portfolio websites, photo sales, marketing, and archiving tools for photographers. Allen previously served as a founding employee and senior vice president of engineering at HotJobs.com, where he assisted in the company’s massive growth from a four-person start-up to a publicly held company with more than 675 employees. He oversaw a staff of 50 engineers, and was responsible for the development of HotJobs.com, Softshoe, and a number of internal applications. He also serves on the board of the Eddie Adams Workshop, the leading student and young professionals’ photojournalism workshop.
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Luke Mysse Orange, CA
Luke Mysse calls himself a “business-minded creative” because of his strategic approach to generating revenue for his clients. Though he has worked with large national brands, he much prefers meeting with small business owners to ask how he can help. He is a frequent speaker at business conferences, a TEDx presenter, and this is his third appearance at CFC.
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Mark O'Brien Founder Newfangled Carrboro, NC
Mark O’Brien is president of Newfangled, a web development company that has been helping marketing firms plan and build websites for their clients since 1995. Mark speaks regularly on marketing, and his first book, A Website that Works: How Marketing Agencies Can Create Business-Generating Websites, was released in June 2011.
Check out Mark’s web development business management blog at: Sessions:
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Shane Pearlman CEO Modern Tribe Inc. Capitola, CA
Shane Pearlman leads a team of web and mobile design/development freelance professionals, is the founder of FreelanceCamp, is a speaker at design/culture events like SXSW, and publishes numerous articles on the art and business of freelancing. In his spare time, he’s also heavily involved in social good projects, focusing on helping local government run efficiently.
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Dyana Valentine Santa Monica, CA
Dyana Valentine has spent the past 12 years instigating entrepreneurs and teams to complete seemingly impossible projects—we’re talking major brand overhauls, six-figure product launches and full-fledged manuscripts. She serves up straight-from-the-hip advice in online magazines and columns all over the ’net. In a past life, she was an idiot-savant microsurgery tech, worked for the Olympic Games organizing committee, and was personally approached by the FBI with a recruitment invitation (for classified reasons) on two separate occasions.
Sessions:
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David C. Baker 
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