Mike Vorhaus, President, Magid Advisors, Frank N. Magid Associates, Inc. 

Mike Vorhaus, President, Magid Advisors founded the Magid Internet and New Media research and consultation practice in 1995, with AOL and Excite as his first two clients. Mike’s team has completed over 2,500 engagements with over 100 Internet clients. Mike began the Magid Gaming Practice in 2001 with EA and Sony Online as his first two clients. The Magid Game Practice now works with most of the major game publishers. Mike provides research and consulting services to a number of major traditional media companies in regard to their new media initiatives, as well as consulting a number of leading Internet and gaming companies. He has also provided advice to venture capital and private equity firms in regard to investments in the media space. Mike has been involved in strategic and tactical consulting, including the launch of new services and programming, as well as development and implementation of online and offline marketing programs. Mike has also been extensively involved in video and PC gaming strategies for a number of our companies, as well as the development of game concepts. Mike has consulted on a number of film projects such as You’ve Got Mail and The Matrix. He holds a B.S. in psychology and sociology from Wesleyan University and has worked as a fundraiser and transfer of technology officer at the California Institute of Technology and the University of California. Mike also worked for the U.S. House of Representatives, The U.S. Senate, and for two Administrations in the White House.

John Welch is veteran leader of the casual games industry and one of the early pioneers of digital distribution of entertainment. His new venture, Making Fun, is focused on connected, cross platform games, applications and technology for the web and mobile devices such as iPhone and Nintendo DSi. The Making Fun Platform provides user profiles, social graph, leaderboards, achievements, virtual items, virtual currency, telemetry, reporting, and other horizontal features critical to running modern game deployment and operation. The company's first product, NFL TRIVIA MATCHUP, is a cross-platform web and iPhone game created under license from the National Football League. Previously, as co-founder & CEO of PlayFirst, the casual games publisher famous for its best-selling DINER DASH brand, John was responsible for the vision, financing, strategic direction and operations of the company for its first five years. Prior to forming PlayFirst, he spent nearly five years building Shockwave.com into one of the Internet's top game portals as the company's Vice President of Games and Product. He was a key member of the Dreamcast Network leadership team at SEGA from 1998-1999. Previously, John spent several years running a small consultancy he co-founded, and he began his career at Andersen Consulting. John has served as steering committee member and chair of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Online & Casual Games groups, and he is a regular faculty member of the annual Game Developers Conference. John is an active member of the Golden Gate chapter of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO). He holds degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science from MIT and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. 

Ted Cohen, Managing Partner
TAG Strategic

Integrating his widespread digital authority in music, mobile, IPTV and product & service development, Ted Cohen is the Managing Partner of TAG Strategic. In an industry that's been slow to embrace change, Cohen is the exception to the stereotypical music-exec rule. Of course, when you start a career on the road with Alice Cooper and Van Halen, you're more primed for the unexpected. Known throughout the technology and music industries as being "part ambassador and part evangelist," Cohen was instrumental in crafting the licensing agreements upon which the Rhapsody subscription service and the iTunes Music Store were built. In his previous role as Senior Vice President of Digital Development & Distribution for EMI Music (home of artists including Coldplay and the Rolling Stones), Cohen led next-generation digital business development worldwide for this "big four" record company, which includes labels such as Capitol, Virgin, Angel/Blue Note, Parlophone and Chrysalis. During that time, EMI led the industry by embracing and exploiting new technologies and business models such as digital downloads and online music subscriptions, custom compilations, wireless services, high-definition audio and Internet radio. In addition to seeking out, evaluating and executing business opportunities for the company on a global basis, Cohen served as both a strategist and key decision-maker for EMI's global new media and anti-piracy efforts. He worked to establish company-wide digital policies, which have provided EMI's artists and labels a substantial advantage in the digital music arena. Prior to his role at EMI, Cohen served as Executive Vice President of Digital Music Network Inc., where he co-founded and served as Chairman of the groundbreaking Webnoize conferences. Cohen also led two highly successful new media consulting operations, DMN Consulting and Consulting Adults, attracting clients such as Amazon.com, Microsoft, Universal Studios, DreamWorks Records, Liquid Audio, Wherehouse Records/Checkout.com and various other entertainment, technology and new media organizations. Cohen also held senior management positions at both Warner Bros. Records and Philips Media. A 30-year industry veteran, Cohen was recently elected Chairman of the Mobile Entertainment Forum Americas board, and currently chairs MidemNet, an international music/technology conference convened in Cannes each year. Cohen also serves on the NARAS (Grammy) Los Angeles chapter Board of Governors as well as the national Trustee Board, the Board of Directors for the Neil Bogart Memorial Fund, co-chairs the new media arm of the T.J. Martell Foundation, and lends his time and talents to music & technology education efforts such as the Grammy In The Schools Program.

Teemu Huuhtanen, President, North America
Sulake Inc. (Habbo Hotel)

As President, North America, for Sulake Inc., Teemu Huuhtanen knows a thing or two about how to navigate and monetize the new brave world of digital entertainment. He heads up operations in North America for Habbo, one of world’s most popular online social networking and gaming communities for teens. He managed to get Habbo to be the first virtual world to sign a deal with the Hollywood talent agency William Morris and recently announced a dual economy in its online community, allowing users to be rewarded for spending time on the site with ‘pixels’, a currency that allows them to purchase discounted virtual items or rent a variety of special effects for their avatars and virtual rooms. Teemu and his team at Sulake offer advertisers real world access to teens' virtual worlds.