PDF Brussels 2012

Stephen Clark is the Head of Web Communications at the European Parliament he had a Brief experience in finance, followed by public service in the European Union. Since his time at the European Parliament, he has been involved in parliamentary committees, specialisation in budgetary and anti-fraud fields; subsequently in the top management team, with an emphasis on parliamentary and organisational reform; and for the last five years he has been the Head of Web communications, with a specialisation in online communication which has been pushing the EU institutional communications field to its forefront, helping to make the European Parliament a leader in the field of political/institutional communications. He is the Co- Author of Europe’s Parliament : People, Places, Politics released in May 2012, and has studied Languages at the University of Oxford.

Andrew Keen is an Internet entrepreneur who founded Audiocafe.com in 1995 and built it into a popular first generation Internet company. He is currently the host of “Keen On” show, the popular Techcrunch chat show, a columnist for CNN and a regular commentator for many other newspapers, radio and television networks around the world. He is also an acclaimed speaker, regularly addressing the impact of digital technologies on 21st century business, education and society. He is the author of the 2007 international hit “CULT OF THE AMATEUR: How The Internet Is Killing Our Culture” which has been published in 17 different languages. Andrew’s latest book “DIGITAL VERTIGO: How Today’s Social Revolution Is Dividing, Diminishing and Disorienting Us” will be published on May 22, 2012.

Alexandros Koronakis is the Director of New Europe Newspaper. He was previously the Editor of the newspaper and prior to that the Director of Digital Development, as well as Associate Editor previous to this, involved in editorial or managerial positions of the print newspaper industry for the past eight years. He holds an MSc In Cognitive Science from university College in London and an MA in Political strategy and Communication from the Univeristy of Kent campus in Brussels. He has pushed for the redesign of both the print edition to include blog posts and the site to be social media integrated from the beginning of his tenure as Editor and Director and all staff are digital journalists as well. Recently he has launched a Tech section which aims to update the EU reportage in this field.

Erika Mann is the Head of the Brussels office for Facebook, previously a Member of the European Parliament with the Social Democratic Party of Germany for 15 years, she has in the past two years served as the Executive Vice President of the Computer and Communications Industry and a board member of ICANN. Educated as a qualified teacher Erika Mann went on to research at Hanover University and then became a consultant in IT. Until 1996 she was a regional councilor for Germany’s Northheim region. Within her time at the European Parliament she was PSE Group Coordinator and a Member of the Steering Committee WTO Parliamentary Assembly and sat on the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade. In her career she has been a Board Member of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Katlenburg-Lindau, she has been on the Board as Vice-Chairwoman of the Frauen geben Technik neue Impulse (women promoting technology) Association, a Board Member of the International Foundation for Research and Exchange (IBB) the Patron of the Erika Mann Primary School in Berlin, the Chairwoman of the Transatlantic Policy Network (TPN) a Member of the Board of Directors, Salzburg Seminar, a Member of the Board of Directors for Internews Europe, Chairwoman of the European Internet Foundation (EIF) an Executive committee Member of the Kangaroo Group a member of the International Informatization Academy of the United Nations and since October 2011 she is a lobbyist for Facebook in Brussels.

Julien Mourlon is a new media consultant & project manager supporting brands and organizations with the development and implementation of their online communication strategy. Since 2009, Julien works for Cleverwood on various social media projects for the European Commission.

Founded in December 2007, Cleverwood helps companies staffing their e-business projects. Cleverwood works with both a bunch of employees and a team of selected freelancers to best address your digital needs.

Adam Nyman graduated from the University of Bristol. Since then, he has been a managing director at EUPOLITIX and The Parliament Magazine. Afterwards he founded the WorldBriefing Group. Currently he is the Publishing Director at Europe's World, a thrice-yearly publication discussing the state of European Polititcs. He is working on another project he founded, Debating Europe, in a partnership with Europe's World, Friends of Europe, The European Parliament, Microsoft, Gallup, and several others. This initiative strives to bring the questions and concerns of Europe's citizens directly to their policy makers.

Konstantinos Pappas is the Spokesperson for the Permanent Representation of Greece towards the European Union in Brussels, who found it necessary for his position and the unfolding European crisis, to take up social media to reach more citizens in the last year and has been loving it ever since. He has been the Spokesperson for the Representation in Brussels for three years, prior to this he was the Press Attache to the Embassy of Greece in Madrid, Spain for four years, three years before this the Press Councilor at the Embassy of Greece in Cairo and had started his diplomatic career with nine years as the Press Attache to the Embassy of Greece in Paris, France. He has degrees from the University Centre of Studies on the European Communities in Paris as well as a Taxation Law Bachelors from the University of Clermont Ferrand I and an Economic Sciences Bachelor from the Aristoteleion University of Thessaloniki in Greece.

Ronny Patz is a political scientist currently writing his PhD thesis on information flows in EU policy-making at the University of Potsdam (Germany). Since 2009, he and a number of bloggers from around the European Union are running Bloggingportal.eu, a platform cataloguing and linking the EU-focussed blogosphere. Ronny is blogging on Polscieu (http://polscieu.ideasoneurope.eu) about EU politics, EU research, and political communication in European Union. in 2011, he was one of three bloggers to become accredited to the EU Council for a pilot project.

Andrew Rasiej is a civic and social entrepreneur, technology strategist, and the founder of Personal Democracy Media focusing on the intersection of technology, politics, and government. In addition to co-founding Civic Hall earlier this year, he is the Chairman of the NY Tech Meetup, a 40,000+-member organization of technologists, venture funders, marketers, representing start up and more mature companies using technology to transform themselves, New York City, and the world. He is the founder of MOUSE.org which focuses on 21st century public education and senior advisor to the Sunlight Foundation a Washington DC organization using technology to make government more transparent. Andrew lives and works in New York City.

Ernest Sagaga is the Human Rights and Communications Officer: for the International Federation of Journalists in Brussels where he is dealing daily with the conditions with which journalists work and fighting for their rights internationally. Prior to this he was the Spokesperson for the International Criminal Court in The Hague and before this he was a Journalist for the BBC World Service in London for seven years. He holds a Bachelor of Laws from London University, has an MA in Diplomatic Studies and a Post Graduate Diploma in the International Legal Practice of Human Rights. He’s recently had training on social media development by PDF’s own Curator in Brussels @eurocentrique and is excited about the possibilities of reaching out to as many journalists that may need him through online platforms. He’s also responsible for an emergency budget which helps journalists in legal conundrums so please note for future use.

Marietje Schaake (Twitter: @MarietjeSchaake) is a Member of the European Parliament for the Dutch Democratic Party (D66) with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) political group. She serves on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, where she focuses on neighborhood policy, Turkey in particular; human rights, with a specific focus on freedom of expression, internet freedom, press freedom; and Iran. In the Committee on Culture, Media, Education, Youth and Sports she works on Europe's Digital Agenda and the role of culture and new media in the EU´s external actions. In the Committee on International Trade she focuses on intellectual property rights, the free flow of information and the relation between trade and foreign affairs.

Marietje is a member of the delegation for relations with the United States and a substitute member on the delegations with Iran and the Western Balkan countries. She is also a founder of the European Parliament Intergroup on New Media and Technology. Marietje is a Member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and vice-president of the supervisory board of Free Press Unlimited.

Before joining the European Parliament, she worked as an independent advisor to governments, diplomats, businesses and NGO's, on issues of transatlantic relations, diversity and pluralism, civil and human rights.

Dmitry Stavisky is a technologist and entrepreneur with a track record of building startups into successful businesses. As VP of International Operations at Evernote, Dmitry Stavisky is responsible for developing, launching, and promoting Evernotes’ services in international markets. Previously, he was responsible for Evernote product development. Prior to joining Evernote, Dmitry was a technical leader and founding member of the technical team at SightPath, a pioneer in the Content Networking market, which was acquired by Cisco Systems in 2000. He was responsible for its service provider CDN technologies and product line. Previously Dmitry held various senior engineering positions at several Boston-based startups. He is the author of five patents. A native of Moscow, Dmitry graduated from Moscow University in 1986 and has a Ph.D. in Geography from the Soviet Academy of Sciences. In past life he studied glacial climates and developed numerical atmospheric models.

John Sullivan directs the Public Affairs Office at the U.S. Mission to the European Union. He previously served in press and cultural positions in U.S. Embassies in Central and South America, the Middle East, Korea, and Ukraine, as well as several tours in Washington DC. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Mr. Sullivan worked as a journalist and professor of theater arts.

Mr. Sullivan has a BA in Political Science and an MFA in theater arts, both from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is fluent in English and Spanish and also speaks Ukrainian and Korean.

Aurelie Valtat is driving the digital communication strategy of the Council of the European Union. She is a self proclaimed European, lover, mother of two, avid traveller and into all things politics and tech.

She is an experienced political and corporate communications specialist, in both non-profit and intergovernmental organisations. A freelance journalist, copywriter and translator. Her current focus is on change management, mediation and delivering public innovation in the public sector. Before joining the European institutions, she was the online communications manager at EUROCONTROL, the European air traffic management agency. She also has previous experience in European lobbying (at PostEurop), in cultural heritage management (at UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre), in internal and external communications (at the Alliance Française in Brussels), and as a freelance journalist.

She holds an MA in Political Science from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris, a postgraduate degree in International Public Administration and a BA in Anthropology from the Sorbonne University.

Dr. Susana del Río Villar Belongs to the independent Experts Committee of the European Commission in Citizens and governance in the knowledge based society and Democracy in a supranational context since 2003.

She was an academic analyst in the Convention (European Parliament 2002) during the elaboration of her Doctoral thesis and Senior lecturer of the first Agora (EP). A Content Developer for the “European Citizens Consultations”, (2007) and Director of the group of experts in the “European Citizens Consultations” (2009). She is the author of numerous publications such as: Europa: el estado de la Unión, (2006) and Ciudadanía activa en Europa. Proceso participativo y nuevos espacios para la comunicación (2008). She is currently working on her new book in English, on civil society participation in the European Union and European communication towards the European Parliamentary elections in 2014.

Dr del Río is a Member of the Club of Rome, the Project leader on European governance, in the Institute for Democratic Governance (Globernance). Author of the Creative Idea and the Academic Director of the project: “Upgrading Europe 2012-2015.”

She holds a PhD in Political Sciences and Sociology and received a PhD Extraordinary Award in Social and Legal Sciences.

Anthony Zacharzewski runs the Democratic Society, a non-partisan membership organisation promoting participation, citizenship and better democracy. His background is in central and local government in the UK. At various times he has been speechwriter at the Department of Health; secretary to the Cabinet Committees on health, food and agriculture; lead official for first-round Sure Start projects in East London and South-West England, and project leader in the Treasury’s internal think tank, the Productivity and Structural Reform Team. He joined Brighton & Hove City Council as Head of Policy in 2006, where he was responsible for strategy, community relations, and sustainability. After nine months on the authority’s board as Acting Director of Strategy & Governance, he left to work for the Society in February 2010.