Laura Fitton: Laura "@Pistachio" Fitton is leading the charge of sussing out intelligent and productive business uses of emergent technologies like Twitter, where she is read by thousands of community members. The first to publish a white paper on "Enterprise Microsharing" (popularly called "Internal Twitter"), she also writes for and runs the TouchBase blog and is an early beta tester of Seesmic and Qik. She relaunched Pistachio Consulting in September 2008 to connect businesses to new ideas and innovations using all the tools of microsharing. Pistachio comprises the TouchBase blog (covering business use of microsharing), the TouchBase Link Blog (stream of Twitter and microsharing articles for businesspeople, wherever they are published), and serves clients like Johnson & Johnson, Ford Motor Corporation, PeopleBrowsr, The Sister Project, Transplant-1, and CommuNteligence.
Laura is a magna cum laude graduate of Cornell University's eclectic College Scholar program. In "past lives," she studied science writing with Carl Sagan, rock climbed, sailed on a schooner, raised a niece, ran a hobby farm, traveled, and lived abroad.
Today she lives in Boston with two toddler daughters and a giant Leonberger. She practices Ashtanga yoga and plays ice hockey in her "spare" time and is a stroke survivor dedicated to raising awareness.
Michael E. Gruen: Michael E. Gruen has earned significant respect in the corporate sphere and within the startup community as a trusted advisor since 2003. In many cases, he has fulfilled the role of interim Chief Operations/Chief Technical Officer with several organizations in need of innovative leadership during crucial developmental periods. In 2006–2007, Michael briefly joined Morgan Stanley as an Analyst. Currently, Michael is the CEO of a healthcare technology company.
Michael graduated cum laude from Hamilton College as a Senior Fellow with a BA in Computer Science. He lives in New York City and, on the off-hours, races taxis on his road bike through the city streets.
Leslie Poston: Leslie Poston is passionate about helping people and businesses find their way to success via technology. As a writer, she has more than 200 ebooks and books in her repertoire and several more in development.
As a speaker and leading authority in social networking, new media, brand and business development, she is the Founder and CEO of Uptown Uncorked social media and business development consultancy. She is also the cofounder of Film Pop!, a digital and new media services development agency for independent film as well as a long-time consultant to the entertainment industry for new media development and marketing.
A firm believer in translating online relationships and successes into the offline world, she has also founded Social Media Breakfast New Hampshire, PodCamp NH/ME, and the nationwide Strong Women in Tech initiative. Her educational background is in English Literature and Clinical Psychology.
When she isn't watching or playing sports (especially hockey and UFC/MMA), playing piano, hiking, sailing, skiing, supporting local bands, playing with her Rottweiler, or working, Leslie can be found on Twitter, meeting new people and making connections with the world.