Central Texas Chapter of WFS Monthly Meeting July 21, 2009

The Central Texas Chapter of the WFS presents The Future of User-Generated Content and Social Commerce: Speaker Brett Hurt

Brett Hurt, founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice, will speak to rapid acceleration of user-generated content on branded sites such as Bank of America, Best Buy, GEICO,Procter & Gamble, and Walmart. You have read customer reviews prior to buying a book, movie, or hotel room online, but what does this trend mean for the future of marketing? How does this intersect with the growing influence of social networks,
such as Facebook and Twitter? How will merchandising and product design change?
How will company culture change? What will the shopping experience of the future ultimately look like?


BIO:
Brett is the Founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice, where he is responsible for guiding the company's strategy and overseeing day-to-day operations. Brett is a seasoned
executive widely recognized throughout the online industry for turning groundbreaking ideas into leading businesses.

Brett has extensive experience in the online marketing arena, especially as it pertains to the eCommerce industry. He founded Coremetrics in February 1999 after spending 10 years developing Internet-based software. Brett helped grow Coremetrics into the leading marketing analytics solution for the eCommerce industry, servicing more than 1,000 clients today. Forrester Research eventually rated Coremetrics #1 in
the industry. Prior to Coremetrics, Brett was the founder and CEO of Hurt Technology Consulting and BodyMatrix, an online retailer of sports nutrition products, which he sold. Before that, he was a consultant at Deloitte Consulting and Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). Brett has more than 15 years of Internet programming experience and has developed multiple software applications, including Internet
marketing analysis solutions, eCommerce platforms, Web-based classroom management applications, virtual communities, multiplayer online games, and Bulletin Board
System (BBS) software. He started programming when he was seven years old, launched a BBS on a 110-baud modem when he was ten, and created one of the first
Internet-based multiplayer games in 1990. Brett holds an MBA in High-Tech Entrepreneurship from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BBA in Management Information Systems from the University of Texas at Austin.

Brett was named Entrepreneur of the Year for Austin in 2009. He serves on the Board
of Directors of Shop.org, the leading non-profit industry association for retailers online and a division of the National Retail Federation, the largest trade organization for retailers. This is his second term on the Shop.org board, where he
previously served for two years. He also serves as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Wharton School and served as a Board of Advisors member to the non-profit Web
Analytics Association. Brett actively advises several early-stage technology companies. He is an inventor (US Patent #7,050,989) and a regular speaker at various industry events and universities.

Brett is one of the few, the proud - a native Austinite. Outside of Bazaarvoice, his biggest project is raising Rachel, his beautiful daughter, with Debra, his wonderful wife. He also enjoys spending time with their sometimes insane miniature pinscher, Onyx, and reading AlwaysOn, Business Week, Wired, and almost anything written by Bruce Sterling, William Gibson, or Neal Stephenson (except for the Baroque Cycle...sorry, Neal).

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Comment by Bill Kleinebecker on July 14, 2009 at 10:20pm

It is still difficult to figure out what to do to rsvp and pay online. Is there a Mensa test to be allowed to attend? Maybe I won't be there;-)> ... Bill