Thomas Whyte, Vice President of Sales, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia

Thomas joined Effectv (formally Comcast Spotlight) in 2007 as National Sales Manager for Southern Virginia.  In 2012 Thomas moved on to the lead the National Sales efforts for Effectv in Washington DC and in 2017 was promoted to Director of Sales in Baltimore, in early 2019 Thomas was promoted to lead the sales efforts for the Mid-Atlantic Region.  Prior to joining Effectv Thomas worked in broadcast, publishing, and digital with Media General.

Thomas is a student of the business and is very passionate about the convergence of data on our trade.  The plethora of data available now helps overcome John Wanamaker’s belief that half of advertising investment is waste.  The industry is now able to prove the effectiveness of investments into marketing to help drive both long-term and short-term results.

Thomas attended Lynchburg College and resides near Knoxville, TN with his wife and daughter.

Disabilities Matter: Making Inclusive Marketing

Presented by: Aubrie Lee, Brand Manager, Google

According to the United Nations, people with disabilities are the largest minority group in the world, and the World Health Organization measures the audience size at 15% of the world’s population or over 1 billion people.

The advertising and marketing industry has grappled with issues of racial diversity and representation over the past year. But what of disabilities? Are we overlooking another societal conversation that affects a huge audience and can directly affect business outcomes?

It does seem the broader culture is slowly moving towards being more inclusive to those with disabilities. The most recent season of The Bachelor was noted for including Abigail, a hearing disabled woman, among the competitors. Toyota’s Super Bowl commercial this year featured Jessica Long, the 28-year-old Paralympic gold medalist, sparking debate in the industry and within the disabled community about her featured portrayal. But it’s still very much a rarity for a disabled person to be featured in media.

What do we need to know about disabled audiences in order to be more inclusive with our work? Let’s discuss the modern brand approach, where brands continuously evolve and respond to society through actions grounded in values they espouse, promote, and stand behind.

Join AMA Richmond as we welcome fellow marketer and diversity expert Aubrie Lee from Google in order to shed a light on the value that’s missing from our work by ignoring disabled audiences.

Whether you’re in web design, video production, media planning, copywriting, or account management, there will be concrete takeaways to immediately apply to your work, including:

• Building digital experiences, for all types of audiences
• Value of cultural relevance and inclusivity in media
• Designing with disability in mind, both in product and marketing
• Higher value brought to work from inclusive teams

**The views expressed in this presentation and on the following slides are solely those of the presenter and not necessarily those of Google. Google does not guarantee the accuracy or reliability of the information provided herein.**

Meet the Speaker:

Aubrie Lee, Brand Manager, Google

Aubrie is a disability activist, interdisciplinary artist, and professional namer. She graduated from Stanford with a degree in Engineering (Product Design). She serves as a lead on Google’s disability employee resource group.

Because of her muscular dystrophy, she uses a wheelchair, she’s hard of hearing, and she can’t smile. She hopes to break into fashion modeling with her shiny wheels and no-smile look. Her most recent contribution to disability activism was creating a Wikipedia page for the reclaimed term “crip” and fighting with the Wikipedia admins until they finally approved it. You can connect with her directly via her site www.aubrielee.com.

About Google:

Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in September 1998. Since then, the company has grown to more than 130,000 employees worldwide, with a wide range of popular products and platforms like Search, Maps, Ads, Gmail, Android, Chrome, Google Cloud, and YouTube. In October 2015, Alphabet became the parent holding company of Google.

Google Analytics 4 Is Coming: Prepare Now to Win Later

If you’re a data-driven marketer trying to navigate a privacy-centric future, then you’ll need to understand and prepare for the latest version of Google Analytics that redefines how marketers can collect, analyze, and report on user data. Andrew will share the latest developments in Google’s newest platform, what it means for marketers, and how to prepare your business to win the analytics opportunities of the future.

Meet Your Speaker:

Andrew Miller
Andrew co-founded Workshop Digital in 2015 and serves as the Director of Client Services. He oversees our client relationships and ensures our SEO and PPC teams have everything they need to provide amazing results. After growing up in the suburbs of Atlanta during the 1980s, he decided it was time for a change of scenery and moved north to attend The University of Richmond. Armed with dual degrees in Computer Science and Spanish, it made perfect sense to seek another course change and begin a career in advertising and marketing at The Martin Agency and later, CarMax, before venturing out on his own in 2007. Andrew collects hobbies and devotes his time to his family, training for triathlons, and trying to grow vegetables in an expanding backyard garden.

About Workshop Digital

Workshop Digital is a digital marketing agency located in Richmond, Virginia. We help exceptional businesses grow through results-driven digital marketing. Our search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click advertising (PPC), and conversion rate optimization (CRO) services help brands get found online.

As our name implies, we take a customized approach to digital marketing. Rather than crank out automated results, we take the time to personalize strategies around your needs. While technology informs our work, we’re driven by real relationships and transparent communication.

AMA Virtual NEXT Hour

Get to know other members and your AMA Board! Be sure to pull up a seat and join us with your favorite drink. We will use this time to network, connect, and let our members get to know one another! Bring your favorite drink or snack recipe to share with others. We will pop into smaller breakout rooms to encourage networking.

Zoom details will be provided upon registration.

***This is a webinar. You will receive webinar information prior to the event.*** 

About AMA Richmond

AMA Richmond is the center of the area’s dynamic professional marketing community. We are the vital community for all marketers in the Richmond region to learn, connect, serve and grow.

The award-winning Richmond chapter of the American Marketing Association is one of the premier professional organizations in the region, with more than 300 active members. Our members are marketing professionals, educators and students representing a wide variety of industries, government, nonprofits, education and services who all share one thing: a passion for marketing.

We are the Richmond area’s most respected source for professional development and networking in the field of marketing. We provide our members with opportunities to learn, connect, serve and grow through our full lineup of educational programs and special events as well as leadership and volunteer experiences.

For more than 50 years, AMA Richmond has been bringing together area marketers for professional development and networking opportunities. We are proud to be recognized among the AMA’s oldest and most successful chapters, and we look forward to continuing to serve the Richmond marketing community for generations to come.

The New American Consumer: Trends That Will Shape 2021

2020 happened. A global pandemic not seen in 100 years. The biggest single-day stock decline in declines. The largest civil rights protests since the 1960s. Huge disruption to daily life for all. Now we’re on the other side of it, wondering what it means for business moving forward. Join us to get the latest insights from GlobalWebIndex’s research report on the life of the American consumer. Over the course of 2020, GWI compiled survey data that uncovers the fundamental ways the world shifted through the pandemic, and along with it, consumers’ needs.

Successful brands need to identify consumer trends early, with all of the latest views and actions, and distill them into actionable insights. With everything that happened last year, it would be easy to get lost in the noise and miss the major insights. Let’s step back and take time together to download what the right steps will be this year to meet your customers’ evolving needs.

Major themes we’ll review in how the average American life shifted last year, and how to apply these trends to your marketing efforts:

1. The health crisis

2. Daily life disruption

3. Media habits

4. Social justice and environmental sustainability

Meet the Speaker:

Doug Gorman, Global Web Index

Doug is a Trends Analyst at GWI. He is responsible for building reports, blogs, presentations, and infographics on consumer behaviors and digital insights, with a key focus on U.S. political and cultural trends.

doug.gorman@globalwebindex.com

Twitter: @globallwebindex

About Global Web Index

At GWI, we are a market research company, with technology at our core. We’ve delivered leading consumer insights to household-name businesses since 2009 through our syndicated data products. We conduct the world’s largest study into the connected consumer across 46 countries.

About this Event:

Designing and Developing a Website with Accessibility in Mind

One aspect of the user experience that is essential to the success of today’s websites is accessibility. Designers and developers are creating sites that are visually compelling, technically innovating and – in many cases ADA compliant. In this interactive workshop, we’ll explore the issues for consideration when it comes to website accessibility, including:

1. What is ADA compliance and why should we care? 
2. How to assess your current site’s level of compliance and establish goals for compliance. 
3. Design tips and strategies to maximize ADA compliance. 
4. Development tips and strategies to maximize ADA compliance. 
5. What’s next? Ongoing monitoring and updates to ensure ADA compliance and how to stay on top of trends. 

Whether you are managing your own website, or you are working with a developer, this session will bring you up to speed on what it takes to work toward greater accessibility for your website visitors.  

Meet Your Speakers:

Susie Fife, President and CEO, Red Orange Studio

Fueled by a passion for great design, brand strategy, genuine relationships and business excellence, Susie Fife founded Red Orange Design, LLC in 2005 and has grown the company into a team of top-notch designers, illustrators, developers/programmers, copywriters, photographers and other creative professionals. Susie believes that every business deserves great design and she feels blessed to share her God-given talent to help others achieve their goals.

As a design professional, Susie enjoys the challenge of creating a visual solution to communicate a client’s product, service, message or strategy. From corporate logos to websites, Susie puts her creative juices to work while keeping in mind her client’s goals.

About Red Orange Studio:

Red Orange Studio is a collaborative marketing and creative agency that helps clients make a greater impact. The Red Orange team specializes in working with marketing teams and business owners who need a brand partner that can keep up with the pace of business and help them stand out in a crowded marketplace. Red Orange offers creative and compelling solutions in the areas of brand development, marketing strategy, graphic design, WordPress web development, video production, illustration, content creation, digital marketing, copywriting and more. Committed to making an impact on the community, Red Orange Studio founded the PIP Project in 2018, which provides pro-bono marketing and creative services to Virginia-based nonprofits and start-ups.

AMA 101 – open to members and guests!

Are you interested in learning more about the benefits of AMA membership while meeting other marketing professionals?

Grab a cup of coffee and join us for our virtual AMA 101! You will be able to chat with AMA board members and others in the Richmond marketing community to learn about the perks of membership whether you are a new member or just interested in learning more about AMA Richmond!

About AMA Richmond

AMA Richmond is the center of the area’s dynamic professional marketing community. We are the vital community for all marketers in the Richmond region to learn, connect, serve and grow.

The award-winning Richmond chapter of the American Marketing Association is one of the premier professional organizations in the region, with more than 300 active members. Our members are marketing professionals, educators and students representing a wide variety of industries, government, nonprofits, education and services who all share one thing: a passion for marketing.

We are the Richmond area’s most respected source for professional development and networking in the field of marketing. We provide our members with opportunities to learn, connect, serve and grow through our full lineup of educational programs and special events as well as leadership and volunteer experiences.

For more than 50 years, AMA Richmond has been bringing together area marketers for professional development and networking opportunities. We are proud to be recognized among the AMA’s oldest and most successful chapters, and we look forward to continuing to serve the Richmond marketing community for generations to come.