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KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Government, industry and academic leaders in information technology and marketing will headline a conference focused on "E-Commerce and Digital Marketing" at Western ¾ÅÒ»Â鶹ÖÆƬ³§ University on Thursday, Nov. 15.

The IT Forum will begin at 7:15 a.m. with a welcome message at 8 a.m. at WMU's Fetzer Center with sessions for industry, academic and student participants. 

The event is open to the public. Registration is $125 for general admission and free for WMU employees and students. Registration includes a continental breakfast and buffet lunch. The event is hosted by WMU's Department of Business Information Systems.

Keynote speakers

Raymond Ribble is president and founder of SPHER Inc., a leader in patient safety healthcare cybersecurity and Fusion Systems, an international IT consulting firm with offices in Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Sydney and Los Angeles. Fusion has developed e-commerce solutions, financial trading systems, cryptocurrency exchanges and multiple cloud solutions for many of the world's leading corporations.

Todd Hufford is director of global digital operations, enablement and brand protection at The Kellogg Company where he leads the global digital marketing operations group within the integrated marketing function. This group focuses on marketing technology capability development and activation as well as global brand protection efforts.

Featured presentations

Angela DeYoung is inbound marketing coordinator at BlueGranite where she is responsible for organizing events, marketing campaigns, social media pages, corporate partnership engagement and optimizing marketing automation. Prior to joining BlueGranite, she worked in various sales and marketing roles in the southwest ¾ÅÒ»Â鶹ÖÆƬ³§ area.

Dr. Joanna Paliszkiewicz is a professor at Warsaw University of Life Sciences and Polish Japanese Academy of Information Management. She is well-recognized in Poland and abroad for her expertise in management issues and has published more than 170 original papers and eight books. She serves on the editorial board of several international journals.

David Wood is technical account manager at Red Hat and assists companies, including global retailers, with their Red Hat products such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux, clusters, authentication, web services, databases and security. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and mathematics. Wood is a Red Hat Certified Architect and Red Hat Certified Datacenter Specialist.

Special luncheon presentation

There will be a special luncheon presentation by Dr. Scott Cowley, WMU assistant professor of marketing, and Dr. Bidyut Hazarika, WMU assistant professor of business information systems.

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  Cowley’s research focuses on how companies can enhance the digital customer experience. An award-winning innovator in digital marketing education, his curriculum is used by dozens of universities worldwide. 
• Hazarika’s research interests include market dynamics of digital products, social media and analytics, e-commerce and IT strategy. His research has appeared in the Journal of Global Information Management, International Journal of E-Business Research, International Journal of Business and Systems Research, Issues in Information Systems and Electronic Library.

Other sessions planned

The conference will offer a number of breakout sessions focused on research in e-commerce and digital marketing, women in technology and technology leadership. The event will also include demonstrations and poster presentations.

For more information and to register, visit IT Forum.

For more WMU news, arts and events, visit WMU News online.