Sparksight, Inc.

Christopher Justice

Chief Executive Officer
BOD: Open Source Matters
BOD: Association of Corporate Growth/Austin
Education: BS Computer Science, University of North Carolina

 Christopher Justice is a serial entrepreneur and chief executive officer of Sparksight. Combining wisdom and humor with common sense, Chris is a featured speaker and is a master at building better businesses through a combination of face-to-face and online marketing techniques. Chris has developed local, national and international marketing programs and events that capture the imagination and generate an undeniable sense of opportunity from attendees, customers, partners and employees. Chris successfully pioneered the concept of ‘High Attendance™’ into what has become a standard for delivering more successful conferences, conventions and trade shows. Chris previously held key management positions in the areas of customer-relationship management, sales and marketing technology and process improvement in leading companies and organizations like Computer Associates, IBM, Vignette, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Chris formed his life, business philosophies and customer service approach from his father.

T. Kelly Shores

President
Education: BA Communication, University of Texas

 Kelly has an extensive background in Web technology, content management, videography and event marketing. Before joining SparkSight as a founding partner, Kelly served as general manager of The Summit Group, a Salt Lake City-based strategic-marketing company. There, he worked on a variety of projects, including overhauling Web sites, producing annual user conferences, creating corporate brand videos and developing a variety of Flash and video product demos. Prior to joining the Summit Group, Kelly was general manager of NION Interactive Solutions, where he was responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the company, new business development and managing relationships with key accounts.

Kelly also spent four years with Vignette, a Web content management and portal technology company. He worked with internal and external resources to drive traffic to trade-show booths, user conferences, marketing campaigns and Web landing pages. Before joining Vignette, Kelly spent eight years developing media (videos, CD ROMs, etc.) for corporate events and trade shows.
 

Nicole Taylor

Director of Creative Services
BOD: Austin Advertising Federation
Awards: 2006 Silver Addy Winner
Education: BA Multimedia, University of North Florida; MA Advertising, University of Texas

Nicole has extensive experience in design, programming and consumer research. She spent the last eight years working with clients to create holistic, 360 degree campaigns that generate media and consumer buzz throughout the community. She has experience working in print, web, product design, research development and alternative media. A few of her past clients include Veggie Tales, Anheuser-Busch, BP, Nokia, Wow Playgrounds, Texas Board of Higher Education, Take 5 For Guys, Texas Home and Living Magazine and the Texas Biodiesel Network. She has over 20 currently published websites and recently won a Silver Regional Addy Award and a trip to the 2007 New York One Show for a group client competition.

Before joining Sparksight, Nicole completed her Master of Arts in Advertising from the University of Texas. She spent her time at UT completing the nationally recognized Texas Creative Sequence with a twofold focus on Account Planning and Entrepreneur Management. Throughout her education, she was and currently is an active board member with the Austin Advertising Federation.
 

Katie McKown

Production Manager
Education: BBA, Fort Lewis College

 Katie has extensive experience in strategic planning, event management and production with a vast range of product and service industries including high tech, entertainment, retail, the arts, fashion/beauty, travel/hospitality, health care, medical, finance, and consumer products/service.

Her industry experience helps customers create unique attendee experiences while delivering worry-free conferences and events. Katie is involved in all aspects of conference production from planning audio visual and staging set up requirements, creating agendas, designing specialized food and beverage menus, negotiating with vendors and contractors and designing floor plans and attendee flow. Katie ensures that the financial plan and conference budget are always on target.

Katie comes to Sparksight from Davidson Hotel Company where she has executed hundreds of small and large events. She has assisted many conference planners deliver memorable events to their customers.

Kevin Mitchell

Director of Copywriting Services
Education: BBA Marketing, MBA, University of Texas

 Kevin has more than 20 years' experience managing corporate communications for some of the world's leading companies. He has created and managed strategic-communications projects ranging from executive speeches to Web content, video scripts, corporate magazines, white papers, annual reports, newsletters and sales collateral.

Before joining SparkSight, Kevin owned his own company - Strategic Communications. He consulted for a variety of blue-chip and small-company clients, including UPS, HP, IBM, Texas Instruments, Cisco and a variety start-ups in the high-tech arena. Earlier in his career, he managed executive communications at MCI, where he wrote speeches and other award-winning communications for the president and other top executives. Kevin was also marketing-communications and publications manager at WilTel.

Brent Bayless

Video Production Specialist
Education: BA, Film/Video Production, College of Santa Fe

 Brent attended film school at the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico. His concentration was in Creative Development for Film and Video Production, focusing on the arts of writing, directing and editing. Brent's professional experience involves feature film sets, documentaries, web and television. He is familiar with all stages of production having written, directed, shot, edited and/or produced over 50 projects ranging from narrative and documentary features, shorts, commercials, music videos, promos and interactive web content. Brent's ambition in the cinema arts is to expand his portfolio of work as his skills, philosophy and acquisition of resources develop. His growing artistic vision involves the subjects of nature, universality, iconic myths and transcendental realism.

Kyle Ledbetter

Director of Design Services
Organization Member: Austin Northeast Rotary Club
Organization Member: Meals on Wheels
Education: BA, University of Louisiana

 Kyle began his Web career as a Flash animation artist when Flash was in its infancy. He has since served in every facet of the Web development process and has obtained a truly unique and powerful skill set. From project management to graphic design, Kyle has real-world experience serving a variety of industries through technology-powered Web solutions. With the arrival of content management systems such as Joomla, Kyle combines all previous experience to deliver a relevant, robust online experience.
 

Gary Gisclair

Art Director
Education: BA, University of Louisiana

Gary Gisclair has eight years of web design experience. With a degree in Graphic Design and Fine Art, Gary truly has a flare for the trendy as well as the ability to produce timeless designs. Through the use of Content Management Systems such as Drupal, Joomla, and Wordpress, Gary has crafted a design style that is efficient and timely. Not to be ignored is his Flash expertise. He has produced several interactive web presentations, including WIFI Alliance.