Featured Authors


Brian David Johnson

The future is Brian David Johnson’s business.  As a futurist he develops an actionable 10 -15 year vision for the future of technology and what it will feel like to live in the future.  His work is called “futurecasting” —using ethnographic field studies, technology research, trend data, and even science fiction to provide a    pragmatic vision of consumers and computing. Johnson works with governments, militaries, trade organizations   and corporations.  He is currently the resident futurist for the Intel Corporation.  He speaks and writes   extensively about future technologies in articles (The Wall Street Journal, Slate, IEEE Computer, Successful   Farming) and both science fiction and fact books (Vintage Tomorrows, Science Fiction Prototyping, Screen   Future and Fake Plastic Love).  Johnson lectures around the world and teaches as a professor at The University  of   Washington and The California College of the Arts MBA program.  He appears regularly on Bloomberg TV, PBS, FOX News, and the Discovery Channel and has been featured in Scientific American, The Technology Review, Forbes, INC, and Popular Science.  He has directed two feature films and is an illustrator and commissioned painter.


Shelly Palmer

Shelly Palmer, author of Digital Wisdom: Thought Leadership for a Connected World, Overcoming the Digital Divide: How to use Social Media and Digital Tools to reinvent yourself and your career and Television Disrupted, The Transition from Network to Networked TV, is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group, LLC. He is an award-winning inventor, technologist, composer and television producer and the host of Media 3.0 with Shelly Palmer. He invented Enhanced Television (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Friday Night Football), the most popular form of interactive television in the United States. Mr. Palmer is the former President of the National Academy of Television Arts & Science, NY (the organization that bestows the coveted Emmy Awards®). He is the Vice-Chairman of the National Academy of Media Arts & Sciences and he oversees the Advanced Media Technology Emmy Awards®, which honor outstanding achievements in the science of Technology of advanced media.


Jack Myers

Jack Myers is a Media Ecologist and Chairman of Media Advisory Group, which advises more than 250 media advertising, marketing, entertainment and financial services companies who subscribe to the weekly Jack Myers Media Business Report. Jack founded the Women in Media Mentoring Initiative and the Newhouse Network to support and advance diversity and the careers of young people. He speaks internationally on the impact of emerging media technologies on society, culture and business. He is a George Foster Peabody award-winning and Academy Award nominated documentary film producer and author of four books.


Allen Bailey

The author of Singing God’s Work: The Inspirational Music, People and Stories of the Harlem Gospel Choir, Allen Bailey, pictured here with Bono, has worked in the entertainment industry for more than 40 years, beginning as a promotional director and advance man for film stars and recording artists, such as Lionel Richie & The Commodores, Michael Jackson, Prince and Isaac Hayes. Don King appointed Bailey entertainment coordinator for Rumble in The Jungle, the heavy-weight championship match between Mohammed Ali and George Foreman in Zaire. With extensive experience combining talent management, theatrical production and fundraising, Allen assisted in production of 1985’s We Are The World and USA for Africa in 1986. It was during his work as Chairman for The Dr. Martin Luther King Holiday Campaign in 1986 that his idea to form The Harlem Gospel Choir was born. Always active in Harlem, he coordinated the concert for Nelson Mandela in Yankee Stadium and co-directed The Harlem Jazz Festival. He now spends most of his time touring with The Harlem Gospel Choir.


Dr. James S. Sagner

A Rockefeller Fellow with an MBA from Wharton and a PhD from American University, Dr. James S. Sagner is an internationally recognized expert in financial management and economic analysis. He has taught undergraduate and MBA management, finance and statistics, is a frequent speaker at seminars and meetings throughout the country on bank and cash management topics, and has chaired numerous finance-related conferences internationally. He is also a best-selling business author of five key business finance books and more than 50 papers and articles. Read Dr. Sagner’s blog sagner.wordpress.com.


Robert Hardcastle

Robert Hardcastle is the author of Money Minutes: How to Grow and Manage Your Money One Easy Idea at a Time. Named to America’s top 100 Investment Advisor List, Bob Hardcastle has been helping investors and businesses quickly and simply solve their money concerns for over 40 years with individual consultations, as well as through weekly syndicated radio programs, TV segments and books, including Bob Hardcastle’s Money Talk; (Amacom Books), Wealth Enhancement (The Institute), and 21st Century Wealth (Quantum Press). He also writes weekly investment columns for St. Louis newspapers.


Elena Bruck

Elena Bruck was born in Moscow, Russia, studied Medicine in Vienna, Austria, and is currently an assistant professor of psychiatry at one of New York’s hospitals. She lives in the East Village together with her husband and two children. The Joker is her first novel.

 

 


Richard Contino

Richard Contino, Esq. is an internationally recognized equipment-leasing expert and advisor with an extensive legal, business, marketing, tax, transaction structuring, finance and management background. Mr. Contino conducts equipment-leasing and business seminars throughout the United States. He is the author of numerous business and management books, including The Complete Equipment-Leasing Handbook (Amacom Books); Legal and Financial Aspects of Equipment-Leasing Transactions (Prentice Hall); Complete Book of Equipment Leasing Agreements, Forms, Worksheets & Checklists, (Amacom Books); Handbook of Equipment Leasing: A Deal-Maker’s Guide (Amacom Books); The Franchising Handbook (Amacom Books); Trust Your Gut (Amacom Books); Business Emotions (Wordware Publishing).


Penelope Holt

Penelope Holt is President of Concise Marketing & Communications, a New York marketing consultancy and creative services agency. Born and educated in England, she has spent her career teaching professionals and companies better ways to tell their stories, build their brands and get their message out. She has co-authored and contributed to a number of books and publications. Her plays have been produced in England at York Arts Center, in Scotland at the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival and in New York City at The American Folk Theater. Her first novel, The Painter’s Gift, is embraced by spiritual seekers and lovers of good storytelling, while The Apple based on the Herman Rosenblat Holocaust Love Story takes on the infamous hoax that placed Oprah at the center of a publishing scandal.

 


Adriana Ariztizabal

Adriana was a war correspondent in her native Colombia, during the height of the countries conflict, involving the government, paramilitaries and notorious narco-terrorists, the FARC, between 1998 and 2004.  Her book Caught in the Storm of War covers her experiences reporting on the war.  Kidnapping and death threats from the FARC eventually drove her to seek safety in the United States, where she worked at the Colombian Consulate. Today, Adriana is an on-air anchor and reporter for ny1noticias in New York.