Reed Duchscher is the CEO and founder of Night, a digital management company representing the largest content creators on the internet. While working as a sports agent in 2015, Reed discovered the popular YouTube channel Dude Perfect. It was then that he realized attention was shifting from traditional media to creator-driven entertainment. In 2018 he began managing MrBeast. Together they’ve grown the channel to 130M subscribers, making it the #1 personality YouTube channel in the world. Today Reed and Night oversee 50 influencers, focusing on creator-led brands, venture capital entrepreneurship, and redefining talent management for the next generation of online creators.
Topic: Social Media
Biz Stone
Christopher "Biz" Stone is an American entrepreneur who is best known as the co-founder of social media platform Twitter, blog-publishing platform Medium, and search engine Jelly. A progenitor of social media, Biz has been developing large-scale systems that facilitate the open exchange of information for nearly two decades.
Biz is also an active angel investor, board director, public speaker, and a prominent philanthropist. Most recently, Biz sold Jelly to Pinterest and returned to Twitter, full time.
Biz has been honored with the International Center for Journalism Innovation Award, Inc. Magazine named him “Entrepreneur of the Decade,” TIME listed him as one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World,” and GQ named him “Nerd of the Year.” In 2014, The Economist recognized Biz with their annual Innovation Award. In 2015, Biz's Twitter won an Emmy and Biz received CIPR’s most prestigious accolade for his leadership at the forefront of developing new forms of media.
Biz's philanthropic efforts are focused in the areas of animal rights, environmentalism, and education. He is an advisor and contributor to DonorsChoose, a nonprofit that helps classrooms in need. He and his wife also founded and operate the Biz and Livia Stone Foundation, which supports education and conservation in California.
In addition to being a technologist, Biz is a Visiting Fellow at The University of Oxford, an Executive fellow at UC Berkeley, a filmmaker, and an author. Stone’s book is titled, "Things A Little Bird Told Me," a sometimes humorous memoir in the business category. Having started out as an artist, Biz stresses creativity, learning from mistakes, and celebrating the triumph of humanity with a little help from technology.
Peter Shankman
An author, entrepreneur, speaker, and worldwide connector, Peter is recognized worldwide for radically new ways of thinking about Customer Service, Social Media, PR, marketing and advertising.
PR Week Magazine has described Peter Shankman as “redefining the art of networking,” and Investor’s Business Daily has called him “crazy, but effective.” Peter Shankman is a spectacular example of what happens when you harness the power of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and put it to work for you. Peter Shankman is recognized nationally and globally for doing PR (and everything else) differently—not only to get attention, produce great results, and create great companies, but also to have a lot of fun while at it every day.
Peter Shankman is the founder and CEO of The Geek Factory, Inc., boutique marketing and PR Strategy firm located in New York City, with clients worldwide. His blog, PR Differently, which he launched in 2004, both comments on and generates industry-related news and conversation. Peter Shankman founded AirTroductions, the world’s first social network for business travelers after a particularly brutal inter-continental flight. Launched in 2005 to instant media attention and growth, AirTroductions was acquired in mid-2007 and relaunched in January of 2008 as TripLife, (www.triplife.com) the largest social networking and connections website for all travelers.
In 2008 Peter Shankman launched Help A Reporter Out (HARO) which connects journalists with the sources they require using a social media platform. HARO is already over 250,000 members. Peter Shankman‘s PR and Marketing clients have included the Snapple Beverage Group, Walt Disney World, Vantage Point Venture Partners, American Express, Discovery Networks, New Frontier Media, OpSec Security, Napster, Juno, GenuOne, Dream Catcher Destinations Club, Prstore, Weblo, and many others, and he sits on the board of both Scott-e-Vest, the world’s first technologically enabled clothing line, as well as TripLife.
Peter is the author of four books: Zombie Loyalists: Using Great Service to Create Rabid Fans (2015) Nice Companies Finish First: Why Cutthroat Management is Over, and Collaboration is in, (2013,) Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work--And Why Your Company Needs Them (2006,) and Customer Service: New Rules for a Social Media World (2010) and a frequent keynote speaker and workshop presenter at conferences, shows, marketing summits, corporate events, and public relations and marketing industry meetings, including Saatchi and Saatchi, Home Town Suites Hotels, NAB, Comdex, CTIA, CTAM, CES, PMA, The Next Gen Asia Advertising Conference, Mobile Marketing Asia 2007, Advertising Week, and the Direct Marketing Association.
Peter is an adjunct professor of Marketing at New York University, and sits on the advisory boards of several companies, all visible on the Advising/Investing page, and is honored to sit on the NASA Civilian Advisory Council, appointed to his position by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. He’s also an angel investor, specializing mostly in very early stage tech and social media companies.
To punctuate his full-throttle schedule, Peter Shankman is a marketing pundit for the Fox News Channel Program The O’Reilly Factor and he has been a guest on many other major US and International news channels. He was featured in Men’s Journal, MSNBC, and The New York Times, and he is frequently quoted in major media and trade publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, Associated Press, Reuters, CNN, and USA Today.
A proud Boston University graduate, Peter started his career at America Online as a Senior News Editor, helping found the AOL Newsroom and spearheading coverage of the Democratic and Republican 1996 conventions, which marked the first time an online news service covered any major political event.
Born and raised in New York City, Peter Shankman still lives there with his wife and daughter. In the few hours of spare time Peter Shankman has per month, he’s a frequent runner, with 13 completed marathons and an Olympic distance triathlon to his credit, an amateur boxer, and a “B” licensed skydiver.