Curt Schacker is the Global Head of Digital Printing and Packaging at Digimarc. Curt has spent more than 25 years in Silicon Valley, having held positions at Wind River (Intel), Real-Time Innovations, and Arrayent. He co-founded and served as CEO of Embedded Solution Partners, which was named the 20th fastest-growing private company in Silicon Valley during his tenure. Curt has spoken at events around the world, offering education and insight into topics related to the digital transformation of the world's consumer products. Curt began his career developing flight software for the NASA Hubble Space Telescope.
Khoshniyati brings exceptional experience across all facets of near-field communication (NFC), RFID, and the Internet of Things (IoT) on a global scale, most recently serving in senior-level business operations positions with leading RFID manufacturers, including Avery Dennison and Smartrac Technology. His proven track record of exceeding results in the deployment of advanced technology and facilitating fast-paced growth makes him uniquely positioned to expand Identiv’s RFID reach.
As a global leader in the advancement of NFC and RFID technologies, Khoshniyati serves as an Executive Member on the NFC Forum Board that defines standards and processes, and better aligns the technology adoption across various industries. He also serves as the Vice-Chair of the NFC Forum Board’s Healthcare Task Force.
Steve Statler is the author of Beacon Technologies, the presenter of the Mister Beacon podcast and SVP of Marketing at Wiliot, a company he joined shortly after it was founded. Wiliot is a Sensing as a Service, cloud and semiconductor company, providing “Cloud Intelligence for Everyday Things” using its IoT Pixel tags. Prior to Wiliot his consulting company specialized in Bluetooth beacon technology, training and advising manufacturers, venue owners, VCs, as well as makers of beacon software and hardware. Previously he was the Senior Director for Strategy and Solutions Management at Qualcomm's Retail Solutions Division, helping to incubate Gimbal, one of the leading Bluetooth beacons in the market.
John Dwyer is the Vice President of Digital Solutions at WestRock. A 25-year professional in the print and packaging industry, John got his hands dirty in printing while studying finance at the University of Akron. This led to a variety of roles in labels, flexible packaging, financial cards and packaging and merchandising materials. John has a natural curiosity which has enabled a number of firsts in the industry with companies, like Kraft, Visa, Pepsico and Molson Coors. John is currently obsessed with providing every sustainable product with its own unique identity in the Cloud to enable functionality for Supply Chain traceability and Consumer Engagement. When not on an airplane John works from his basement in Stillwater, MN with his direct report, Australian Shepherd, Ted.
Benjamin holds a Bachelor’s degree in Finance and an M.B.A from the University of Akron. Benjamin has spent the last seven years in market research and strategic consulting across a wide range of industries. In this time, Benjamin has participated in all functions of these roles including conducting primary and secondary research, analyzing trends, developing market size estimates, evaluating competitive landscapes, authoring reports, developing strategic recommendations, and conducting presentations.
Benjamin has experience working in a number of commercial, industrial, and consumer research segments, including packaging, consumer goods, oil & gas, transportation, plumbing fixtures & fittings, HVAC-R, and printing, among others. Prior to joining Smithers, Benjamin ran the Private Equity Diligence division of a Public Equity research firm. Benjamin was responsible for all aspects of this division outside of sales.
Salisha joined the atma.io team as Market Development Manager, North America in 2021. Avery Dennison and atma.io’s position as the global leader in connected products, innovation and sustainability, allows Salisha to share her passion while partnering with world class brands across industries.
Salisha has an extensive background working with some of the best known brands & retailers to bring products to market, and leading teams through digital transformations.
Over the last 15 years, Salisha has led teams through organizational transformations, brand launches while modernizing how we reach and engage consumers. Also in that time developed a strong technical understanding of apparel manufacturing as well as software development in cloud technologies.
Salisha grew up in the footwear industry in a family business and holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Philadelphia University.
Pepin Gelardi works at the intersection of purpose and possibility, exploring the role of entrepreneurship and technology in solving future-facing problems. As a Partner at Tomorrow Lab®, Pepin leads the Industrial Design and Mechanical Engineering teams to invent and develop new, impactful hardware products.
After hours, Pepin teaches workshops in design, aspires to become a Pasta Scientist, and creates site-specific art with his wife Teresa.
Hannah Fallaw is an Account Executive at WestRock. Over the past seven years, she has integrated and developed new packaging and display solutions into various retail environments across the nation. Hannah is a graduate of Clemson University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering and a Master of Science degree in Graphic Communications. She took a lead role in developing WestRock’s connected packaging and retail solutions platform. Heavily focused on printed electronic solutions, she successfully developed specialized products utilizing conductive inks to create interactive packaging that connected products to customer’s digital devices, in real time, for an enhanced consumer experience. Hannah earned her certification as a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt through process improvement projects within WestRock’s Innovation pipeline.
Phil Stafford, Global Business Development Director, has over 25 years of packaging, agency and manufacturing experience, including global branding, smart packaging, print technologies and mobile payments.
Prior to his current role, he worked as a manager of Brand and Market Insights WestRock Packaging Solutions and as Director of Global Accounts Brand & Retail Package Solutions at MeadWestvaco (now WestRock).
Navjeet Chhina is the CEO of Genius Ventures Inc, an augmented, virtual and mixed reality firm based in North America. He is responsible for monitoring all facets of the organization including Operations Oversight, Strategic Planning, International expansion and building the senior executive team. He has 12 years of executive and project management experience across various industries; using his predictive approach to bring innovation into the customer consciousness. He uses comprehensive analysis of competitive trends to drive growth with quantifiable metrics to illustrate the benefits of taking on new avenues for brands. From digital marketing to research & analytics to leveraging strategic relationships, Navjeet perpetually pursues avenues for coupling products with consumers, propogating loyal customers and cultivating long-term brand relationships.
Navjeet is currently focusing on expanding operations internationally, showcasing how augmented reality and forward thinking innovative technologies can provide solutions for organizations of all sizes.
