Susie Brown is Head of Communications at the Northern Ireland Assembly. Susie is responsible for developing and delivering a communications strategy for the Assembly. She is responsible for managing the press office, redeveloping the Assembly’s website and social/new media tools. Susie also manages the Assembly’s broadcasting, advertising and publications contracts. Before taking up her new role at the Assembly, Susie was Head of Communications at the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland. Here, she was responsible for media relations, event management, public affairs publications and websites.

Charlene Craig has worked with Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission since June 2007. As part of her job, she is responsible for social media, and manages the Commission’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages. In a previous role, Charlene won a regional Invest NI Award for best voluntary sector website. She will complete her MSc in Educational Multimedia at Queen’s University Belfast this September.

Mark Devenport is BBC Northern Ireland's Political Editor and Chair of the Stormont Correspondents' Association. Mark has reported in various capacities for BBC Northern Ireland since the mid 1980s, covering events such as the IRA ceasefire of 1994, the Good Friday Agreement and the Omagh bombing. During the 1990s, Mark was the BBC's Ireland Correspondent reporting on developments in Ireland for its national and international audiences. Between 1999 and 2001 he was the BBC's United Nations correspondent, based in New York. Mark publishes a regular blog on the BBC Northern Ireland website, ‘the Devenport Diaries’ which cover ‘all things political’.

Kieran Donnelly is a company Director working within the PR division in Morrow Communications and, while involved in all accounts at a strategic level, he currently leads a number of key client accounts including: First Trust Bank, Deloitte, NI Science Park, Fujitsu Services, Momentum, Microsoft, SQS, and John Lewis. Kieran has over 16 years experience working for a broad range of clients in all aspects of public relations, including corporate and B2B PR, media relations, crisis communications, marketing communications, sponsorship and community relations. While there he was voted European Communicator of the Year by his peers across the European network.

Nick Jones is director of interactive services at COI, the Government's centre of marketing excellence. Nick’s team delivers digital projects for public sector clients working with 100 suppliers. Nick also contributes to government guidance and standards on social media and digital engagement. Prior to joining COI he contributed to digital policy at the Cabinet Office. A former Jupiter Research analyst he co-founded New Media Age in 1994. Nick has a Masters in Geography from the University of St Andrews.s

Dr Peter Kawalek is Professor of Strategy & Information Systems at Manchester Business School. Professionally, he has worked to board level with companies, on short projects with government ministers, & at all levels with public sector agencies. These organisations include Chubb Insurance Company of Europe, O2, BT, GNER, Hoverspeed, Fujitsu, Department of Communities and Local Government, Cabinet Office, Office an Taoiseach, Salford City Council, Oldham Council, Leeds City Council, and the NHS. In academia Peter has experience through different roles and contributions in Manchester, Warwick Business School, Instituto de Empresa in Madrid, Trinity College Dublin, Liverpool John Moores, Letterkenny Institute of Technology & Salford University.

Michael Maguire is a management consultant who specialises in business development and who has had a long association with The Chartered Institute of Marketing. In a 40 year career he has held senior positions in national companies and multinationals and in the public sector, and for the last 20 years has worked in professional consultancy.

Davy McDonald is an independent designer with thirty years' experience in the creative industry, mainly spent working in some of Northern Ireland's largest advertising agencies. The clients David has worked with include many of Northern Ireland’s highest profile companies, covering a diverse range of business types and requiring campaigns in all major media channels. In 2010 this now includes the internet and social media networks.

Sam McIlveen joined Independent News and Media in Northern Ireland as Digital Publisher in 2008 following fourteen years with one of Belfast’s leading advertising agencies. As Digital Publisher Sam is responsible for the Belfast Telegraph’s online activity which includes the following websites www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk, www.niCarFinder.co.uk and the recently re-launched www.nijobfinde r.co.uk. The Belfast Telegraph has recently launched a Facebook site which in its first month has attracted over 1,400 fans.

Tim McKane has over thirty years experience in advertising and marketing communications, having been in McCann Erickson and subsequently a shareholder at FireIMC, where he pioneered the concept of integrated marketing communications in Northern Ireland. He has developed communications strategies for many clients in both the public and private sector. At the beginning of 2010 he opened Navajo Talk, an agency to help clients decode social networking, maximise the marketing opportunities for their web sites and create content for the web and social media. He is a Board Member of NI Screen, NI Committee Member of the IOD and a regular commentator on radio and recently television.

Fearghal McKinney is an award winning local journalist with 25 years experience in newspapers, radio and television. The latest focus of his career however is new media and internet news and along with colleagues he has helped set up a new video driven news and community service in Fermanagh. Fermanagh.tv has attracted a wide audience since being set up last May and its hoped the model will be replicated elsewhere.