General Info • Register • Schedule • Session Descriptions • Speaker Bios
The following people will be presenting at the Hello Etsy PDX conference. For the most recent schedule and session information, visit the Schedule Page. Use the list below to jump to a particular speaker.
Susan Beal • Jennifer Coleman • Betsy Cross & Will Cervarich • Diane Gilleland • Luna Jaffe • Jack Joyce • Emily Kanter • Andrea Mansfield • Amanda McCloskey • Alicia Nagel • Rebecca Pearcy • Jackie B Peterson • Rosalee Rester • Duane Sorenson • Noah Stitelman • Isaac B Watson • Kim Werker
Susan Beal
Susan Beal is a craft writer and designer and the author of four books—Modern Log Cabin Quilting, World of Geekcraft, Button It Up and Bead Simple—and the co-author of Super Crafty with Rachel O’Rourke, Torie Nguyen and Cathy Pitters. She also teaches at PNCA and Maker Faire, and contributes to craft magazines, websites and books. Her blog is at westcoastcrafty.com, and she makes things, drinks coffee and hangs out with her preschooler (Pearl) and baby (Everett) in Southeast Portland.
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Jennifer Coleman
Jen Coleman holds a BA in theater with a concentration in scenic design, and an MFA in creative writing poetry. She has served as Outreach Director for the Oregon Environmental Council (OEC) for two years, after moving to Portland from New York where she was part of the communications team for Environmental Defense Fund for 11 years.
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Betsy Cross & Will Cervarich
Betsy Cross is the founder and creative force behind betsy & iya, a handcrafted jewelry line that now anchors a jewelry and lifestyle boutique of the same name in Portland, OR.
Betsy is a self-taught designer and business woman, holds an MFA in Physical and Ensemble-Based Theatre and grew up in Roanoke, Virginia. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband, Will and their dog, Gingham MacPherson.
Will Cervarich is the husband of Betsy Cross and has worked full time at betsy & iya since August of 2010 as the Director of Development. Prior to his work with betsy & iya, Will worked his way partially up a corporate ladder he decided wasn’t for him, tried his hand at electrical engineering and was an actor for a handful of years on the east coast.
betsy & iya began in a 125 square foot studio as a response to a boring day job, a huge leap of faith, and a desire to live a full-time creative life. Now, three and a half years later, the line can be found in over 85 indie boutiques across the country and abroad, on numerous blogs and publications. The business was profiled in the best selling book, The Handmade Marketplace, by Kari Chapin and was recently awarded Business of the Year for Business Growth and Job Creation by the Portland State University Business Outreach Program.
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Diane Gilleland
Intentional Growth Keynote
Diane Gilleland is deeply interested in the point where creative work, the internet and small businesses intersect. Her blog, CraftyPod.com, began in 2005 on a whim and has since grown an international following of over 50,000 visitors monthly. She produces podcasts, publishes ebooks, and teaches online classes.
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Luna Jaffe
Luna Jaffe has never bought the common notion that one must sacrifice passion or forfeit creativity in order to get serious about money. Teacher, artist, entrepreneur, life enthusiast and visionary, Luna believes that true wealth embraces all your values, not just the numbers on your ledger. Luna excels at financial planning and thrives on serving her clients. She especially benefits those who don’t know how to handle their finances, who are intimidated or fearful, or who have no interest or time to do for themselves what a trained and trusted expert can do better.
Entrepreneurial from a young age, Luna was the president of her own wearable art company, LunaSilks, by 23. Later, she turned an interest in Jungian sand play therapy into a mail-order business to fund her education as a depth psychotherapist. Throughout her eclectic career as artist, dancer and psychotherapist, Luna has continued to break down the barriers between disciplines and pioneer innovation. Equally comfortable in the traditionally left-brain pursuits of organizational development in the high tech arena and financial advisor for a major investment broker/dealer, Luna turns what she loves into thriving businesses.
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Jack Joyce
Success Spotlight: Rogues Ales
Jack Joyce along with friends from college began Rogue Ales in 1988 in Ashland, but later moved the business to Newport, where Jack received support from the owner of Mo’s Restaurant. When the pub opened they had an instant fan following. Joyce says, “We try to do four things—keep making great product, keep trying to make our packaging great, keep trying to integrate ourselves in our communities, and keep creating unique thunder (in promotions).”
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Emily Kanter, BALLE
The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, or BALLE, is North America’s fastest growing network of socially responsible businesses, comprised of over 80 community networks in 30 U.S. states and Canadian provinces representing over 22,000 independent business members across the U.S. and Canada.
BALLE believes that local, independent businesses are among our most potent change agents, uniquely prepared to take on the challenges of the twenty-first century with an agility, sense of place, and relationship-based approach others lack. They are more than employers and profit-makers; they are neighbors, community builders and the starting point for social innovation, aligning commerce with the common good and bringing transparency, accountability and a caring human face to the marketplace.
Emily Kanter is the former Programs Director of Sustainable Business Network of Greater Boston, a BALLE network in Massachusetts. She currently lives and works in Portland.
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Andrea Mansfield
Andrea Mansfield’s educational background is in social work where she learned how to connect to people and really hear where they wanted to go in life. To reconnect with her creative self, Andrea launched a small creative jewelry production business in 2007 and began the life of a nomadic and online seller with instant success. In early 2010 she evolved the business to include a line of accessories geared at the bridal industry, where she learned her true love was for the creative business process. After being approached by several creative business owners and brick and mortar shops to help translate their vision, Andrea started work on Brand & Bloom.
Andrea opened Brand & Bloom in 2011 to coach and motivate small creative business owners to a place where they feel confident in their ability to see and utilize their memorable brand. A small business brand is about value, transparency and connection to the ideal customer—Brand & Bloom shows small creative businesses how to discover theirs. At Brand & Bloom, Andrea coaches through one-on-one sessions, workshops and seminars, digital guide workbooks, a daily blog and a growing email list.
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Amanda McCloskey
Amanda McCloskey, Executive Director of Trillium Artisans, is a craft-fair-kid turned neighborhood organizer turned nonprofit administrator extraordinaire. She grew up in a family of makers and entrepreneurs and is a stickler for good customer service.
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Alicia Nagel
Business owners large and small, non-profit organizations, design and marketing firms have called upon Alicia’s branding expertise on a strategic as well as design level. Having worked in design for the past ten years, Alicia started out in advertising which gave her a keen awareness of the purpose and story behind a design. In advertising, design serves a purpose and a function—if it’s not believable, interesting, and relevant then no one will be paying attention. Bringing this focus and a natural story-telling know-how to the design world shaped Alicia into the brand strategist and designer she is today. She holds that brands are not created, they are discovered through research and in-depth questioning of company owner and customers—a belief that has led her clients to call her a “brand therapist.”
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Rebecca Pearcy
Intentional Growth (Keynote)
Rebecca Pearcy started her company, Queen Bee Creations, as a one-woman show working out of her bedroom. Since then she has expanded to include Chickpea Baby and Rebecca Pearcy Textiles in her family of product lines. All of the company’s bags, accessories and housewares are hand made in Portland, OR.
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Jackie B Peterson
Jackie Babicky-Peterson is a CPA/entrepreneur, writer, consultant and coach who has owned her own small businesses for over 30 years. She has also taught numerous business classes for private clients, the Small Business Development Center and entrepreneurship programs at various universities.
Jackie is known as a community activist around small business issues. For three years she chaired the Portland Small Business Advisory Council, which works directly with the Mayor and City Council on policy and development of programs designed to ensure small business prosperity. In her recently published work-book, Better, Smarter, Richer, Jackie shares client stories and her seven “must do” business principles for solo and creative entrepreneurs that teach this growing population of business owners how to achieve financial success.
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Rosalee Rester
Rosalee Rester launched her website babywit.com in the fall of 2003 on a credit card. She quickly garnered national attention with her nontraditional baby products and has been featured on MSNBC, The Christian Science Monitor, Daily Candy, ePregnancy, New York Observer, Redbook, Bust, Bitch, Time Out New York, The Washington Post, The Daily Herald, The View and more. Her business has operated in the black in a competitive market space for eight years.
Rosalee was selected as a Farber Intern and graduated with honors from SF State with an MBA in Business Analysis in 1999. She worked in San Francisco during the dot com era as a Marketing Manager and Product Development Manager for two search companies. Currently she resides in quiet Portland, Oregon with her two small children and runs her online business out of her home.
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Duane Sorenson
Intentional Growth (Keynote)
Duane Sorenson spent years in pursuit of the best quality coffee, which has revolutionized the coffee business and grown into the Stumptown Coffee empire. With numerous coffee shop locations in Portland and now in Seattle and New York City, Sorenson spends considerable time visiting farms in person and is willing to pay high prices for coffee he deems worthy—occasionally three or four times fair trade prices—to turn out an exceptional cup of coffee. He has offered atypical perks to his employees such as paying for a compilation album to be produced of their various bands and hiring a full-time on-staff massage therapist. To continue taking his business to the next level Sorenson has recently taken on an investor (a move that stirred much controversy in Portland), but he is still very much in charge of the company.
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Noah Stitelman
Etsy Welcome and Socialize Q&A
Noah Stitelman is a member of the Etsy customer support team residing in Brooklyn. As a member of the Etsy support team Noah has a comprehensive knowledge of all things Etsy including Features, Policies and Seller Tools. In addition to helping the Etsy community with their questions, Noah plays in a band and is an avid photographer.
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Isaac B Watson
Isaac B Watson is a man of many hats. In addition to a full-time job in academic communications and marketing, he serves as Co-Chair of I Heart Art: Portland. In his spare time, he upcycles broken camera parts into jewelry as Focal Length Designs and oversees MGS Development, an iOS app startup. With a passion for social engagement, collaboration and shared success, he believes strongly that the best way to balance our commodity-driven culture is to contribute to the community through the open exchange of knowledge, ideas and information.
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Kim Werker
Embracing the Ugly Side of Your Business
Kim Werker is a writer, editor, speaker, author of crochet books, blogger, crafter and founder of the Mighty Ugly project. When she’s not eking out her living from some creative project or another, she’s chillin’ with her kid, reading good fiction, watching sci-fi or trying to find time to knit. Say hello and catch up with her at kimwerker.com, on Twitter @kpwerker and on Google +.
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General Info • Register • Schedule • Session Descriptions • Speaker Bios
