Prior to becoming an international award-winning speaker and author, Randy earned his stripes with 23 years as an NCAA basketball official and 20 years filled with much success (and some failure too) as a corporate sales and marketing (as well as operations) leader. Randy has written several prestigious books.

Shawna Suckow is an award-winning global speaker who holds the highest designation a speaker can earn – the CSP, held by fewer than 5% of speakers worldwide. She has insider knowledge of the corporate buyer mindset, having spent over 15 years in that role. She now speaks to audiences across all industries, revealing the secrets they wish their prospects would share: how to capture attention in the best way possible, and do it with less frustration.

Knowing your customer’s mindset is 90% of your success, and it’s changing rapidly thanks to the pandemic and other global and domestic issues. Shawna just released her fifth book: The Roaring Twenties: How to Market & Sell Better in the Post-Pandemic Decade.

In 2008, Blythe was working as a waitress and a blogger with a dream of owning her own company when she received an opportunity to work in the world of logistics.

As an executive assistant to the C-suite, she gained first-hand knowledge of the daily operations of a $140M asset-based logistics provider. Knowing about her blogging side hustle, the executive team allowed her to take on the additional responsibility of the company’s digital marketing initiatives where over the course of 5 years, orchestrated two website redesigns, implemented an inbound marketing initiative, and established a sales outreach plan. 

After 5 years and following the unexpected closure of the logistics company, Blythe chose to seek opportunities in traditional marketing and media. During this time she served as editor in chief of Void Magazine, B2B copywriter for an ad agency, and radio/TV broadcaster in the North Florida market. During this time, her team earned several awards including three ADDY’s plus earning runner-up as Jacksonville’s Best Radio Personality.

Eventually, Blythe would use these skills to fulfill her entrepreneurial goal by founding Digital Dispatch in 2018. Present-day, Blythe and her team oversee a variety of digital marketing and web development projects for their clients with an omnichannel approach.

Using turnkey and custom-built solutions, Digital Dispatch offers worry-free web services and digital marketing training to help freight companies shorten sales cycles and amplify brand awareness. Which is fancy talk for helping you make sense of modern-day digital media strategies so you don’t have to spend hours on YouTube figuring out what all these acronyms mean.

In addition to running her company, Blythe is also a co-founder of the Jacksonville Podcasters Unite community, hosts the tech/B2B marketing show Cyberly on Freightwaves, and serves on the board of the Transportation Marketing and Sales Association.

Mark Derks is currently Chief Marketing Officer for BlueGrace Logistics, a hypergrowth, third-party logistics provider (3PL) headquartered in Tampa, Florida. He leads brand development, marketing strategy and public relations. He also plays a key role in sales enablement, product innovation and customer experience.

Prior to BlueGrace, Derks was a Partner and Chief Marketing Officer for Words At Work, a marketing services agency with offices in Minneapolis, MN and Atlanta, GA. In this role he led innovation and marketing for client strategy, branding, content, creative and digital offerings.

Previously, Derks spent more than 20 years with C.H. Robinson where he served as director of global marketing and led marketing strategy, brand management and external communications for North America, South America, Europe, Asia, India and Australia. He has over 25 years of involvement in supply chain logistics and transportation.

Throughout his career, he has delivered global branding, content marketing, public relations and social media strategies that produce clear ROI. He deploys a “customer-first” philosophy and knows the cornerstone to any campaign’s success is empathy and passion – a combination of client service and listening to leader’s pain points.

He is an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota’s Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication where he teaches a graduate course on strategic communications. He’s a graduate of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities with a degree in English Writing, and a past member of the U of MN varsity golf team.

Chris has 15+ years of experience within transportation with the bulk of his experience in freight brokerage. He is the founder of Freight Coach Enterprises and the host of “Coffee w/#TheFreightCoach” podcast. His experience within freight brokerage includes operations, sales, and leadership ranging from start-ups to one of the largest brokerages within transportation. His passion is training and development of sales and operations professionals within transportation.

Holly LaBoda helps logistics companies of all shapes and sizes get, keep, and grow larger customers. As a Partner and Co-Founder of Luminaries Consulting, she loves working with clients to help them achieve their goals. A pragmatic business success partner, she takes a holistic view of an organization’s, or individual’s, current state and future goals and helps them design practical ways to bridge the gap. She wants to see all her clients get real results, fast.

Christopher O'Brien joined C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. in 1993 and is currently the Chief Commercial Officer. Chris is a member of the senior management committee and is ultimately accountable for all customer satisfaction, strategy and support. In addition to strategy, Chris leads the global corporate teams that support our customers and our business in the functions of marketing, sales and account management.

George Abernathy, Emerge President and Board Member has more than 30 years of supply chain and technology experience. He was named 2009 TMSA Marketing Executive of the Year. Notably, George is the former President of leading industry publication FreightWaves where he was responsible for all revenue and commercial efforts, including SaaS, media, and virtual and physical events. George has a breadth of direct industry background, having held executive leadership positions at Transplace, J.B. Hunt, Logistics.com, and Sabre Logistics.