Back in November, we had a great time talking about (and drinking) Minnesota Beer  with an exciting panel of local breweries. Now on May 12th, we’re bringing back our Digital Way Finder event to showcase the great digital work Minnesota companies are doing. We’ve put together a panel representing the best of Minnesota’s digital and tech culture to prove it stacks up against any other region in the country, including Silicon Valley. Before you grab your tickets and head over to Spyder Trap for food, drinks, and networking…let’s meet our amazing panel!

Bob Jenkins, Leadpages

Since 2007, Bob Jenkins has served as a business coach and online marketing trainer for thousands of coaches, entrepreneurs, and business leaders around the world. He loves helping small businesses impact more people with less effort through leveraged online marketing strategies. He’s the author of Take Action! Revise Later, and over 30 online marketing training programs and workshops. As the Manager of Marketing Education at Leadpages, Bob produces workshops and courses that reveal what’s working now in digital marketing, and explain those strategies in simple English. These trainings have helped Leadpages grow to over 40,000 active customers in a little over 3 years.

When he’s not traveling and speaking at conferences, Bob enjoys all 4 seasons of life in Bloomington, Minnesota, with his wife, Therese.

 Kari Seas, Insite Software

Kari Seas joined the Insite executive team as Vice President of Marketing in January 2016, where she is focused on driving pipeline, bookings and brand visibility for the company’s award-winning solutions. Prior to Insite, Kari served as Vice President of Global Marketing at Code42, where she built from the ground up a results-driven, innovative, 16-member global marketing organization that sourced 85% of the company’s 2014 enterprise revenue; secured high-visibility media coverage; grew Code42’s share-of-voice by more than 60% in under three years; and prepared the company for sustainable market share growth. Marketing initiatives Kari ideated and initiated now contribute millions of dollars annually to Code42’s revenue.

Earlier in her career, Kari spent seven years leading worldwide marketing efforts for Stellent Inc., helping position it as one of the top enterprise content management vendors in the world. Upon Stellent’s acquisition by Oracle in 2007, Kari led integrated marketing campaigns for all of Oracle’s software products. Prior to Stellent, Kari held marketing roles for technology companies including Gartner Institute, Digi International and Globelle. Kari holds a B.A. in Advertising from San Jose State University in California.

Trent Gilliss, On Being

A driving editorial and creative force at On Being for the past decade, Trent received a Peabody Award for “The Ecstatic Faith of Rumi” and two Webby Awards. The Online News Association nominated his journalistic work multiple times in the general excellence and outstanding specialty journalism categories. Trent’s reported and produced stories from Turkey to rural Alabama, from Israel and the West Bank to Cambridge, England.

Trent grew up in North Dakota and studied English Language & Literature at the University of Mary. He’s a blue-collar cat who has tarred asphalt cracks, waited tables, and even driven a Zamboni. He spent several instructional years in state government, rode the dot-com wave, and worked at several Fortune 500 companies. He’s now a family man who longs for subtle glimpses of beauty in the ordinary.

Dale Cook, Learn to Live

As Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Dale is the driving force behind everything that keeps Learn to Live on track and keeps them growing. He’s a big idea guy, and won’t take ‘no’ for an answer! His nearly 20 years in consulting, small and large business operations, and relationship management—and his unrelenting focus on building and delivering great experiences for Learn to Live’s members—make him an indispensable part of the team.

Before getting his Master of Business Administration at the University of Chicago, Dale scaled some of the highest mountains in the world, including Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Kenya in Africa. When he’s not lending his considerable efforts to Learn to Live, he can be found playing soccer or guitar with his young son or mountain biking around any number of Minnesota’s great lakes.

Pat Christie, Conservis Corp

Pat Christie has over 20 years of experience in technology development and consulting. Prior to Conservis, he was Executive Vice President of WAM!NET and helped deliver over $1.6 billion of network services under contract with the U.S. Navy. He was also President of Cybernet Systems, a highly profitable technical systems integration firm that generated over $6 million in the U.S.