Behind The Scenes

Renee Blodgett is the founder & managing editor of We Blog the World. Having lived in ten countries and visited 90, she has a passionate voice for different cultures. She is also the CEO & founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR where she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market, launch products and services and craft smart strategies to get them ahead. Renee’s has authored more than 20,000 articles on travel, food & tech, which includes her Huffington Post column and her award-winning blog Down the Avenue. She has also published five photo books with more on the way. Read more about her, how to work with her as well as more about We Blog the World & its raison d’etre.

Gary Bolles is a Partner at Charrette LLC. and prior to that, the former editorial director for six magazines, including Yahoo! Internet Life, Inter@ctive Week, and Network Computing. He is also the former onscreen host for TechTV’s “Working the Web.” Gary has served as the consulting executive producer of strategic events for clients such as Google,  TED, Singularity University, Dropbox, Yahoo, L’Oreal, and the Interactive Advertising Bureau, and has launched “initiatives with impact,” including serving as the co-founder of SoCap (SocialCapitalMarkets.net); DGREE: The Future of Higher Education; Closing the Gap: Strategies for an Inclusive Economy; and Silicon Valley Meets the United Nations. He is a frequent lecturer and writer on the future of work and learning and can be found at medium.com/@gbolles.

Anthony Compagnone is founder of Speech Synergy, where he is a bilingual speech and language pathologist and therapist who helps people with their speech and language needs. He is also a keen martial artist and has practiced and taught a number of disciplines from Chinese Kempo and Kung Fu to Chin Na and Iron Palm Training and everything in between. Astute at understanding dialects, accents and linguistic nuances, he’s passionate about the power of language and people who are great at code switching when they travel from one country to another. As an advisor on language and culture, he also contributes to We Blog the World on family travel, products, food and culture, where his language skills are a huge asset. He speaks 5 languages but is most proficient in English, Spanish and French.

Celia Canfield is an avid traveler who has a passion for food, sustainability and helping others succeed. Her early years were spent in the south (Alabama and Louisiana) after which she spent time living in Cairo Egypt before landing in the San Francisco Bay Area where she built a career in traditional business publishing and technology publishing on the web. After designing a sustainable home in Sonoma California, she now spends time embracing her passions for food (growing and making), design (for homes and in her communities), and travel. She’s happiest when by the Mediterranean, but considers London or Rome as potential home cities if she weren’t based in Northern California. A blogger who records the details of her renovation projects, Celia depends on what she learns from reading others’ experiences to guide her on where she travels next or what she makes.

Known as a technology influencer, Tommy wears several hats from his home base in America’s beautiful Midwest, from running his blog TommyLog that covers trends, cool new products and life to his current role as Chief Problem Solver at TRC Media. Tommy spent over 25 years in the printing industry and has held management positions running the North American prepress operations for RR Donnelley’s Book Group. Prolific on social media since 2008, he is known online as tommytrc to his fans and followers. His Twitter handle regularly ranks as one of the top 100 Twitter accounts in the world. He is a self-proclaimed Tech Geek, Marketing and Printing guy, Mac Head, PC Guru and passionate about the video and digital world.

Michele Colucci is a lawyer, serial entrepreneur and CEO of Justiquity, a focused search platform identifying lawyers and law firms with experience and expertise in specific legal areas and enabling fee structure negotiations.  She has been honored as a Silicon Valley Woman of Influence by the Business Journal, a Woman to Watch by Gentry and was featured in the American Bar Association Journal. She writes for Huffington Post, HopeAfterDivorce.org & LAFamily and is an eLocal Legal Expert. She has guest lectured and mentored at Stanford University in Entrepreneurship and Global Marketing, and serves as a Board Member for startups and nonprofits.  Michele has owned and operated businesses in the legal, entertainment & retail verticals and holds degrees from Georgetown and the American Film Institute.

Colin Crawford is CEO and Founder of Media7, a consultancy and strategic advisory company focusing on mobile media. He is also an advisor to and an investor in a number of early and mid-stage companies. He is a seasoned executive leader and accomplished entrepreneur with a track record of management success over 20 years in diverse international media businesses, including print, online and mobile properties. Colin held a series of senior executive leadership roles at IDG (International Data Group) where he worked with IDG business units in Europe and Asia.  A passionate believer in education through travel, Colin combines his love of travel with photography and local cuisine.

Kristen Galliani is founder of Oneumbrlla Strategies and a long time innovator and former tech founder in Silicon Valley. She was an incubation founder inside Xerox PARC (where Steve Jobs discovered the Apple interface) and recently advised world famous photographer Doug Menuez, who documented Jobs and Silicon Valley for four years as well as multiple companies in the mobile and artificial intelligence spaces.  In her spare time, she advises start-up founders, based on her own battle scars and writes for various endeavors.  Her real passion is to travel locally and globally with a belief that travel is the best investment one can make. She lives and travels with her soulmate, who captures the world in photographs, while she interprets in words.

Patrick Houston is currently head of strategy for Bambu Tech which develops AI-based sound purification software and has spent 20 years in digital media. Most notably, he served as the editor-in-chief at CNET.com and as the founding GM of Yahoo Tech. He owns a broad understanding of the B2B and consumer-technology markets. Patrick also has deep functional experience in product development, editorial strategy, editorial content, content partnerships, content marketing, social media marketing, media sales, startups, strategy, and venture funding.

A long time entrepreneur, Duncan is the CEO and co-founder of Gainesville Dev Academy, a “coding school” which focuses on preparing graduates for careers in web, mobile and desktop application development as well as starting their own entrepreneurial ventures. Duncan also co-founded business incubator Starter Space and managed enterprise database applications for the State of Florida for many years. Duncan serves on a number of boards, including the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce’s Technology Council, Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce Human Capital Foundation, Institute for Work Innovation, Gainesville Area Innovation Network (GAIN) and the Editorial Board of Advantage Publishing and has served as an organizer and mentor for a number of events including StartupWeekend and StartUpQuest.

Elena Mampusti is a graphic designer and artist based in the Philippines with ten years of professional experience in design.

She inherited her artistic skills from her mother and her priceless patience from her father, who inspired her to study Fine Arts. Although her education is in graphics and painting and she started her career in advertising, like so many passionate entrepreneurs, she left corporate life behind to be a digital nomad so she could create, produce and wow audiences without the structure of traditional methods.  When she’s not performing magic on her Mac, she paints watercolors, digital and charcoal paintings as well as caricatures. Passionate about food, she’s also an avid photographer, a mother of five dogs and can’t live without coffee. Her dream is to explore the world.

Ahmed Masood is a web developer, designer and WordPress guru based in Al Qahirah Egypt. He is known for running successful WordPress camps and teaches others how to create inspirational websites through workshops, tutorials and beyond. Ahmed is a regular speaker and coach on all things technology, websites, blogs, PHP, WordPress and start-ups. He’s passionate about travel and culture and is a force of nature under the hood. He’s also a member of IGCDP and loves to help others succeed.

Aaron Sylvan produces conferences and digital media for innovators and entrepreneurs.  He has taken his knowledge and experience from attending TED for over ten years, to create extraordinary events and experiences for attendees and branded media partners, including TEDxFultonStreet in New York City, where is both curator and producer.  He is also poised at managing strategic partnerships, booking world-class talent, creating broadcast quality video and selling out a room.  As a respected veteran in the technology startup world, he served as CEO and Chief Scientist of an Operations Research company that utilized Artificial Life to solve complex business problems.  Astute at running startups, he has raised millions of dollars in seven rounds of funding, managed million-dollar R&D budgets and closed 6-figure sales with Fortune 500 companies.

Tonya York Dees is president of York Management which specializes in business & economic development related conference, project and event planning, as well as special occasion and sporting events. Before starting her own business, she was vice president of Greater Louisville Inc., the Metro Chamber of Commerce, where she ran the Center for Small Business. Tonya is a travel-holic and loves to discover amazing new places. She also loves to create events that bring people together to create synergies, memories and new business.  She serves on the University of Louisville Board of Overseers and co-founded the Unbridled Charitable Foundation, and the Unbridled Eve Derby Gala, one of the premier events centered around the world-renowned Kentucky Derby. She is also a founding board member for Super Student Athletes and serves on the Family Community Clinic Board of Directors.

We Blog the World curates some of the most passionate voices on the web, where you’ll be enriched by powerful storytelling and digital photography as well as insights and perspectives on every country in the world.

Through more empathy, we can better understand each other’s differences. Regardless of our color, gender or sexual orientation, we will not only prevail but flourish when we accept each other’s everything, the good, bad and the ugly, for this is what it truly means to be human. Check out our contributors and be inspired from their experiences on and off the road