Chairperson

Alison Simpson
President, Enterprise Creative Selling
Alison brings twelve years of expertise in advertising, marketing and sales to Enterprise Creative Selling. The majority of her career has been spent with the top advertising agencies in Canada, where her ability to develop more creative solutions - that drive sales - has set her apart from those around her. During her career, Alison has worked across a vast spectrum of categories including: technology, packaged goods, retail, telecommunications, entertainment, beer, electronics, pharmaceuticals and tourism. Alison is a big proponent for developing original creative for the Quebec market. Her team at Enterprise is behind the incredibly successful Quebec campaign for Tim Hortons - the campaign is renowned as one of the most-liked campaigns in the province, and has delivered double-digit sales growth. In March, the Enterprise team launched a new Quebec campaign for Club House, which is quickly garnering attention and strong sales. In addition to strong business results, Alison's advertising initiatives have also been recognized by numerous national and international awards.

Speakers

Thierry Baulu
Associate, MapInfo Canada Inc.
Thierry Baulu is an Associate with MapInfo Canada and works out of their Montreal Office. He holds a Masters degree in Geography (M. Sc.) and his interest lies in the business applications of Geographic Information Systems technology. Mr. Baulu has worked in this sector for almost 8 years and has helped numerous organizations in their quest to find ways to leverage their CRM investments through the use of GIS technology and geodemographic data.

Françoise Bertrand
Partner, SECOR
Françoise is an expert in business strategy and communications. A much sought-after speaker, Ms. Bertrand was formerly Dean of Resource Management at the University of Quebec (at Montréal) and CEO of Télé Québec. While Ms. Bertrand was chair of the CRTC, the local telephone exchange market was opened to competition; long distance services were deregulated; and the Internet was made exempt from independent regulation.

Jean-François Bouchard
President, Diesel
Co-founder of Diesel in 1993. Educated in law and marketing. Well-known entrepreneur in Quebec. Speaker at numerous marketing events. Finalist as Young Entrepreneur of the Year (1998). Under his leadership, Diesel was selected as one of the 50 best managed private companies in Canada. Founded in 1993, Diesel is a successful Montreal-based agency specialized in mass communications & personalized communications. This is what we call our com & com approach. The firm is sought by clients that are looking for a modern vision of communications such as Cirque du Soleil, Sleeman Brewery, Aldo Shoes, Canadian Tourism Commission, Loto-Québec, Reno-Dépôt, Workopolis, etc. Diesel is one of the leading creative agencies in Canada with several industry recognitions in Quebec, Canada and abroad for both its advertising and interactive work.

John Burghardt
Creative Consultant, John Burghardt Consulting Inc.
A regular columnist for Strategy Magazine, John Burghardt has worked as an advertising executive for four decades in three countries (the US, Italy, and Canada). He currently focuses his consultancy business on strategic planning and creative thinking.

Marc-André Chaput
Strategic Planner, Bos
Marc-André has 13 years of experience in the advertising business. In 2001, he returned to Bos to become a part of the strategic planning team, which has today resulted in some of the most memorable and effective ad campaigns in Quebec.

Martin Dalpé
Director of Research & Development, Optima Market Analysis Inc.
Martin has worked in the market segmentation industry for 8 years. He has a firm grasp of the mechanics of geodemography, micromarketing and market segmentation and knows how to apply them to their full potential. He joined Optima in 2000 as Director of Research & Development and is the main driver behind FOCUS, the next generation market segmentation system.

René Déry
Strategy & Research Director, Media Services, Marketel

Pierre Dessureault
CEO, Optima Market Analysis Inc.
Pierre Dessureault, President of Optima is an expert in strategic planning with a regional perspective. With recognized expertise in the service and retail industries, his company has supported major Canadian corporations in adapting their product and service offers to specific Canadian markets.

Craig Dorning
Marketing Manager, BBM Canada
Craig is a marketer and researcher with over 11 years in the research business, most of that time spent in media research; first in print, where he worked as Manager of Research and Information at the Newspaper Marketing Bureau, and now at BBM where he is Marketing Manager for BBM's RTS study.

Caroline Gagnon
Vice President, Director of Media, Marketel Média
A member of the Marketel team for the past 12 years, she now heads Marketel Média, a unit associated with the M2 Universal network. She is responsible for the planning and buying units of the department and has personally been involved in numerous international, national and local campaigns.

Philippe Garneau
Executive Creative Director, GWP Brand Engineering
Philippe Garneau is a founding partner and the Executive Creative Director of GWP Brand Engineering. He and his partners launched the firm in 1996 to, as they humbly put it, "invent what will replace the traditional advertising agency".

GWP exists to fix old brands, launch new ones and help successful ones grow. Often that takes advertising, some times other tools, and more often than not they invent new ways of growing a brand. At GWP, everything is strategic.

Since opening their doors GWP has been very busy. In 1998 they launched ING DIRECT the Dutch bank. In doing so they helped create a new consumer category: the alternative financial Institution. Other brands that have called on GWP include Buckley's, Neo Citran, Expedia.ca, Delta Hotels, Roots, Royal LePage, Tic Tac, Kinder Surprise, Rogers, and many others.

In Québec Philippe has recently creative directed the successful launch of ING DIRECT, Expedia.ca, Neo Citran and Buckley's.

In his traditional agency days, Philippe was a copywriter known for his work on brands such as Volkwagen, Canadian Airlines, Nissan, Mr Big, and the "Can a Bank change" campaign for Bank of Montreal which was voted by readers of Marketing magazine as one of the 99 most important campaigns in the history of Canadian advertising.

Alain Giguère
President, Crop Inc.
Alain has been the President of CROP since 1987. Today, CROP is one of the country's leading marketing research and opinion survey firms servicing clients in both the private and public sectors. He participates in numerous conferences across Canada addressing diverse audiences including members of the business community, the media and public who value his insight regarding current events, market trends and social change in general.

Robert Langlois
Vice President, Quebec Services, Sondages BBM
Robert has over twenty-five years experience in market and media research. Currently acting as Vice-President, Québec of both BBM Canada and ComQUEST Research, Robert is responsible for the Montreal operations of Sondages BBM and ComQUEST Research. He has been with BBM/ComQUEST since May 1992 and, for ComQUEST, is responsible for client consultation, survey design and overall project management. He specifically oversees all research activities in the Montréal office.

Tony C Lea Ph. D
Managing Director, Research and Development, MapInfo Canada Inc.
Tony Lea has been with MapInfo (formerly Compusearch Micromarketing Data and Systems) since 1982. He is responsible for developing and overseeing the company's extensive databases, and providing leadership for custom research projects. Over the last 20 years he has led over 200 large custom research projects for client firms in Canada and the US. He also heads up research and development of new products and services. Tony holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Toronto.

Max Lenderman
Creative Director, Gearwerx
Max Lenderman is vice president of creative at Gearwerx. His company specializes in youth and young adult grassroots marketing and next-level marketing methodologies. Lenderman has been the creative lead for clients such as DaimlerChrysler, Unilever, Microcell, Trojan Condoms, Roots, Adidas, Polaroid, VIA Rail, Irwin Toys, Tommy Hilfiger, Guess Jeans and Rogers AT&T.

Carol Levine APR
Partner, Communications MECA
Carol Levine APR, is a principal of Communications MECA, a Quebec-based, national, public relations consulting firm. Communications MECA is the Quebec and Toronto agency partner of the Worldcom Public Relations Group.

Carol's public relations career began in 1970. She went on to establish her own consulting firm, and after twenty years of practice, co-founded Communications MECA, where she provides senior counsel in the areas of corporate public relations, healthcare communications and issues and crisis management. The client list has been impressive: Dairy Farmers of Canada, Samsung Electronics, Burger King, Biovail Corporation, Ericsson Communications, Teleglobe, Priority Management, Ernst & Young, McGill University WYETH, Abbott Laboratories, Paladin Labs, Pharmacia, Merck Frosst. and Mamma.com.

Carol is a graduate of McGill University and is a member of the Canadian Public Relations Society, Public Relations Society of America -Counselors Academy, la Société des relationnistes du Québec, Healthcare Business Women's Association of Canada, the PMCQ and the OPMA.

Christine Melançon
General Manager, Impact Research
Included in the list of accounts Christine services directly are: Loto-Québec, L'Oréal Canada, Cadillac Fairview and Desjardins. Christine has contributed to the magazine Info-Presse since 1994, for which she authors a "Dominance" column every month, which summarizes awareness and perceptions regarding current advertising campaigns across the media spectrum.

Philippe Meunier
VP Creative Services, Senior Partner, Diesel
Philippe co-founded Diesel in 1992. Today he leads a creative team that successfully combines the disciplines of advertising and interactive design. Philippe and his team have worked on brands such as Sleeman, Cirque du Soleil and Réno Dêpot.

Mark Morin
President, Stratégies Marketing Direct
A 25-year veteran of the direct marketing scene in Quebec, Mark Morin has long been a front-runner in this emerging and powerful field. Innovative, dynamic and passionate, Mark has assisted many Canadian and International organizations in their quest for success in the Quebec market, significantly improving their results.

President and founder of Strategies Marketing Direct, Mark pioneered the application of One-to-One marketing to the financial services sector in Canada by creating fully individualized direct response communications that yield superior response, often in excess of 50%. He also developed a powerful proven methodology for generating qualified leads in the business-to-business sector that produce a guaranteed minimum of 20% response.

His agency's body of work has been widely recognized in the industry, having received over 30 major national and international awards over the past few years including Campaign of the Year two years in a row as well as the 2001 Innovation Award from the Direct Marketing and Customer Relationship Association.

Mark also has a broad range of experience using direct marketing to initiate, develop and maintain customer relationships. His clients are prominent advertisers in business services, software, computers, financial services, education, tourism, publishing and consumer goods, in Canada and the US.

Pierre Parent
President, P2P
For close to 20 years, Pierre has enjoyed a high profile in Quebec's communications milieu. His creative energy has produced some of the best promotion activities ever for the Just for Laughs Festival, McDonald's Restaurants, Houbigant Fragrances, the Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec, Rothman's, Molson, Benson & Hedges, Astral Media and Loto-Québec among others.

Nathalie Rivard
President, Indigo Communication
Nathalie has a combined 16 years experience in marketing, brand management, public relations and promotion. She founded Indigo Communication Marketing in 1997, an agency specializing in tweens/teens research and marketing. Prior to Indigo, Nathalie owned Caktus Communication, a Toronto-based company that also specialized in the youth market.

David Saffer
Partner, SECOR
David has provided strategic counsel and marketing advice to numerous retailers in Quebec and across North America. He has lived and learned from mistakes in the market and has been on the winning side of the realities of retail in Quebec.

John Torella
Senior Partner, J.C. Williams Group
John brings 30+ years of experience in retailing and advertising to his role as Senior Partner at the J.C. Williams Group, specializing in the areas of strategic planning, branding, marketing, and communications. An author of three books: "Building a Winning Retail Strategy" , "A Guide to Retail Success" and the recently released "Stop Talking Start Doing Retail Branding", John has been a consultant to clients like Coca-Cola, Sporting Life, Visa, Harry Rosen, Aldo Stores, Microsoft, Holt Renfrew, and The Body Shop.

Dominique Vibien
Business Director, Quebec Market , Enterprise Creative Selling
Dominique Vibien is a native francophone Montrealer who has worked in advertising for the last 8 years. As Business Director for the Quebec Market with Enterpise Creative Selling, she spends considerable time in Montreal, directing the seamless interaction between Enterprise's clients and the Agency's recently established Montreal-based office Enterprise - J.Walter Thompson.