Tony Rome Chief Channel Officer ecoATM Gazelle For more than 2 decades, Tony Rome has been an innovative entrepreneur in the areas of marketing partnerships, business development, and digital monetization. Having represented some of the world's best professional athletes, artists, entertainment properties, and media companies, Tony is a trusted and go-to revenue growth expert. Over his 20 year career, Tony has represented over 100 clients and negotiated in excess of $50 million in partnership deals.
During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Tony led the sponsorship sales efforts for the Sinbad Soul Music Festival, the record breaking Kings of Comedy tour, the Soul Beach Music Festival, and the concert tours of Mary J Blige, Maxwell, and Kirk Franklin. Tony's innovative approach to marketing partnerships resulted in record breaking sponsorship deals for each client. To this day, his $3 million sponsorship deal for the Kings Of Comedy Tour is one of the largest comedy tour deals in history.
Tony disrupted the music marketing landscape in 2005, when he, and his team, created a sustainable model for music artists to monetize their lyrics. His work with McDonald's, Lincoln, and Ford of Canada, laid the groundwork for today's 360 degree music partnerships between artists and brands. Tony expertise also extended beyond the music industry. He negotiated marketing partnerships for Kevin Hart and Sanaa Lathan with Walmart.
As brands searched for vibrant and robust digital solutions, Tony partnered with Codeblack Entertainment to launch Codeblack Digital. The network's portfolio of social media pages across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter reached more than 25 million people monthly. Since starting Codeblack Digital in 2015, Tony has negotiated amplification and custom content deals with Universal Pictures, Netflix, Verizon, TVOne, Walmart, Buick, NBC Domestic Distribution and others. .
Tony currently serves as Chief Channel Officer for ecoATM Gazelle, a high growth technology company based in San Diego. ecoATM Gazelle is a leader in the mobile device trade-in industry, with a network of over 4,500 automated kiosks across the US and Europe. Tony is responsible for leading multi-functional teams committed to driving greater awareness of ecoATM Gazelle, and the growth of the company’s North American kiosk network.
Tony holds both a BBA and MBA, from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. His passions include spending time with family, Jazz music, and running an occasional marathon.
Jeff Joseph President SIIA Jeff Joseph is president of SIIA – the principal trade association serving leading companies and organizations involved in the responsible production, delivery, administration and sale of content, media, and data for the specialized information, B2B media, financial services, and education technology markets. SIIA provides the resources, knowledge, networking, and advocacy that are essential to success in a dynamic global market. We work with our members to create a global environment in which trusted information and data are richly, ethically and responsibly gathered, delivered, shared and monetized.
Prior to joining SIIA, Joseph was founder and CEO of Starlight Public Affairs, a strategic communications firm advising an array of corporate and non-profit clients. Joseph also served as senior vice president of communications and strategic relationships for the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)™, the U.S. trade association representing more than 2,200 consumer technology companies. CTA owns and produces CES® – The Global Stage for Innovation.
Joseph served six years as vice president of communications with BIO, the world’s largest biotechnology trade association. Previously, he spent eleven years at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide/Washington where he helped found the agency’s technology practice. He began his career in communications at the World Resources Institute, a non-profit policy research center in Washington, D.C., where he worked in media relations and legislative affairs. Joseph also has been involved in several political campaigns and worked as a media consultant and speechwriter for former Washington, D.C. Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly.
Joseph is frequently cited in publications including USA Today, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Business Week, TWICE, Dealerscope and other top trade publications as well as in Associated Press and Bloomberg news stories. He has appeared on NBC Nightly News, CNN, CNNfn, CNBC, Fox News Channel, Cheddar and local television and radio stations across the nation.
In his free time, Joseph finds joy in spending time with his wife Lisa and their two daughters. He also enjoys viewing and participating in sports, discovering new music, discussing politics, playing guitar, cooking, traveling and rooting for the Dallas Cowboys and the Princeton University Tigers and Georgetown University Hoyas men’s basketball teams. He is a founding member of a Dad band which received an Honorable Mention, Best Bands in Arlington, VA from Arlington Magazine.
Joseph is a 1986 graduate of Princeton University where he received a bachelor’s degree in religion.
Sara Hale President/Co-Founder Coastal Cloud Sara Hale is the President and Co-Founder of Coastal Cloud, an award winning IT consulting firm headquartered in Palm Coast, Florida.
Prior to leading the only woman owned and led Salesforce.com Platinum Consulting Company in the world, Sara was a leader in Accenture’s Technology Practice. After finding great success in the ‘Fortune 100’ consulting field, Sara set out to build a new type of IT consulting company focused on providing customers and employees a life in which business success and the pursuit of happiness are in harmony. The “Live at the beach. Work in the cloud.” motto uses modern cloud technology to achieve this. Sara’s innovative leadership strategy has become a model for others who wish to create a highly skilled, diverse, and satisfied workforce.
Coastal Cloud has been recognized in Florida as a “Best Company to Work For” by Florida Trend magazine, and one of the “50 Fastest Growing Companies” in Northeast Florida. She has been named a “Top Tech Leader” by Jacksonville Business Journal, and was awarded “Largest Woman-Owned Technology Company” in Northeast Florida.
Sara holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Duke University and lives in Palm Coast with her husband and three children.
Tina Vidal CEO CDR Maguire Health Ms. Vidal-Duart has 12+ years’ of experience in the healthcare industry, most recently as the Chief Executive Officer of the State of Florida COVID19 Infectious Disease Field Hospital System where she oversaw the management and deployment of the State’s field hospital system and its healthcare and administrative support personnel. In this role, she managed a system of administrative and clinical personnel, recruited and staffed clinical and support functions, managed multiple contractors, served as an interagency coordinator between multiple agencies and regulating bodies, and helped secure various medical supplies and personal protection equipment for the facilities. After the hospitals were demobilized, Vidal-Duart assisted CDR’s COVID19 test site logistics team to deploy a call center, launch a patient portal, and develop a turnkey software solution from patient registration through result delivery.
In her prior experience in healthcare, she was the Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Business Development with Pacer Health Corporation, a hospital conglomerate focused on acquiring and turning around financial distressed hospitals. She has experience in operating and managing an acute care hospital system, medical treatment centers, a skilled nursing facility, and psychiatric care facilities. Additionally, she ran a transportation and logistics subsidiary of Pacer, providing trucking/air freight, warehousing and distribution, and logistics services throughout the United States. Serving as interim Chief Executive Officer of acquired financially distressed acute care hospitals that were near bankruptcy or closure, she has a keen insight into the rapid response and decision making required in a field environment where time is of the essence. She oversaw the management and turnaround of multiple healthcare facilities; ensured seamless transition and integration of acquisitions into overall system structure; developed and implemented processes for their financial turnaround and positive financial performance; negotiated all contracts to achieve overall cost savings; and provided oversight of hospital and doctor services. During her tenure, she recruited physicians and nursing management staff, expanded healthcare service lines throughout the system, as well as acquiring new managed care contracts and payer sources; revamped hospital policy and procedures and quality improvement and control; and JCAHO certification and inspection
Ms. Vidal-Duart currently serves as the Executive Vice President of CDR Maguire, Inc., providing administrative and operational oversight and leadership to the 80-year old engineering and emergency management consulting firm which serves multiple state and local governments. She has a Master’s in International Business, summa cum laude, and a Bachelor’s of International Business and Marketing, magna cum laude.
Dale Dowdie CEO Blackfacts As a teenaged hacker recruited by NASA in the 80s, Dale Dowdie has been living Diversity and Inclusion in technology for over two decades through running his own technology consulting firm with corporate and public sector clients, and supporting Black Technology entrepreneurs.
One of several Black technologists recruited by Ken for the 1996 Inner City Access Project that put Boston's communities of color online, Dale has provided technology infrastructure, design and staffing resources for Blackfacts.com and other Black tech ventures and mainstream businesses ranging from the small business level to Fortune 100, as well as conceived and launched a technology platform for the barbering and beauty industry, one of few where Black entrepreneurs have a significant footprint.
As the CEO of Blackfacts, Dale ensures that the platform product / service offerings add significant value to our target stakeholders, and manages the partnerships with other firms that will enable Blackfacts to achieve its objective of 'Putting the Black Community in Control of Our Stories' with our platform of technologies that are not only cutting edge, but are uniquely created, owned and controlled by Black Technologists.
Dale is also the architect and manager of Blackfacts' Social Media strategy, which has resulted in a Social Media following of 200,000, including 106,000 on Facebook and 85,000 on Instagram.