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SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING: FREE SKILL-BUILDING ROSS WORKSHOP

The Yaffe Center is pleased to announce its second Workshop on Search Engine Marketing techniques for Ross BBA and MBA students on November 12, Friday. The hands-on workshop will run all day (8.30am – 4pm) and will feature three morning speakers (Elyse Guilfoyle from Google AdWords; Megan Zlatos of Pure Visibility, formerly of Google AdWords; and Melanie Mitchell, SVP of Search Strategy of Digitas). There will be an afternoon team competition on a “real” SEM campaign exercise for a local non-profit (United Way of Greater Toledo), with two team prizes totaling $300, managed by Professor Bud Gibson (who runs EMU’s search marketing program).

Registration for this free workshop is limited to the first 50 students. Register at: http://www.bus.umich.edu/Conferences/SEM . Bios of the speakers can also be found at that site.

When: Nov 12, 2010, 8.30am – 4pm
Where: W2760
For Whom: Ross MBA and BBA students and faculty

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SPEAKER BIOS:

Melanie Mitchell is the SVP of Search Strategy at Digitas. She is responsible for managing the Digitas Search Engine Marketing Knowledge Center that ensures industry trends, new strategies and tactics, and best practices are continuously shared, enabling Digitas to stay on the forefront of this ever-evolving industry for the agency and their clients. Prior to this role, Melanie was VP of Marketing at Folio Investments, Inc where she was responsible for SEO, SEM, display, offline marketing and PR; VP of SEO/SEM at AOL where she developed strategy, processes, procedures, tracking technology, reporting and managed the team tasked with driving traffic to AOL.com's open web business via paid and organic search; and was a Sr. Marketing Manager at VeriSign/Network Solutions where she managed direct response marketing campaigns through display advertising, SEM, SEO and strategic alliances for both Network Solutions and NameSecure.com.

Melanie has over twelve years of experience in web site promotion and over ten years experience in search marketing for major sites across several industries including travel, local, entertainment, finance, ecommerce, news and sports. She has managed SEO and PPC campaigns both in-house as well as from the agency side.

Melanie is a speaker at Webmasterworld's Pubcon, Search Marketing Expo (SMX), Search Engine Strategies (SES), AdTech, Searchnomics, Search Labs, Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), and other noted roundtables as Business Wire and the National Women's Business Center as well as a contributing writer to Search Engine Watch. She is also on the Advisory Board for Webmasterworld's Pubcon.

Melanie graduated from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA with a Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in Marketing.

Elyse Guilfoyle graduated from the University of Michigan with degrees in English Language & Literature and Communications Studies. She is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Information Policy at the University of Michigan while working as an AdWords Account Strategist at Google. Elyse has been a member of the Ann Arbor Google team for three and a half years. Before Google, she worked in marketing and communications for Ford Racing in Dearborn.

Megan Zlatos is a senior analyst and account manager at Pure Visibility, a search marketing firm headquartered in Ann Arbor, MI, where she helps clients maximize return on investment from their online advertising spend. Prior to joining Pure Visibility, Megan was Vice President of Advertising Operations at Justin.tv, a San Francisco based web media startup, where she led their ad-based revenue generation efforts. Megan also previously worked at Google in Mountain View and Ann Arbor, taking on significant training and quality management roles. Megan graduated from Yale with a BA in Spanish and is originally from Indianapolis.

Bud Gibson is a professor of computer information systems and has worked with over 60 organizations in creating Eastern Michigan University's search marketing program. He holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon (Ph.D.), The Wharton School (MBA), and Georgetown University (BS). He also has extensive experience consulting to significant organizations in North America, Europe, and Asia.