Speakers

Maria Bailey, Author and Radio and TV Personality

Maria Bailey brings an unique voice to today’s moms.

She is an award-winning author, radio talk show host, nationally known speaker and the foremost authority on marketing to moms.   Each month she speaks to over 11 million moms on TV, radio, print and online.  She is the host of The Balancing Act on Lifetime TV and the WE-Women’s Entertainment Network for Women.  On radio, Maria is host of Mom Talk Radio the first nationally syndicated radio show for moms and Co-host of Good Day with Doug Stephan, the #7 ranked morning talk show in America.  Online Maria is the Founder of BlueSuitMom.com, the award-winning Website for executive working mothers and Co-Founder of Newbaby.com, the largest resource of online video for moms.  Her Mom Talk Moments are carried on Nestle’s Verybestbaby.com and she serves  as the Work/Life BalanceExpert on Johnson and Johnson’s Baby.com.  Maria’s articles can be found in Orange County Family, Hybrid Mom among other magazines.

Professionally, Maria is CEO of BSM Media, a full service marketing and media firm that specializes in marketing to mothers.  The client list includes Precious Moments, Hewlett-Packard, Disney, Cartoon Network, Warner Bros., Tahitian Noni International and Chrysler.  She has been an invited speaker to nearly half of the top 100 consumer brands.  Her book, “Marketing to Moms: Getting Your Share of the Trillion Dollar Market” (Prima) was the first to examine the buying power of mothers and the most effective marketing initiatives to tap the $2.1 trillion market.  In  “Trillion Dollar Moms: Marketing to a New Generation of Mothers” (Dearborn) Maria focuses on the emergence of Gen X and Gen Y mothers and compares them to the Boomer mom segment. Her upcoming book, “Mom 2.0” will examine reaching moms with new technologies, such as blogs, podcast and social networking.

Follow Maria Bailey on Twitter @momtalkradio

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Audrey McClelland, Jane Couto and Sharon Couto from MomGenerations.com

Audrey is a mom of 4 boys under 4. She is married to her college sweetheart, and lives in Rhode Island with her family. She graduated from Brown University with a degree in Theatre Arts, with a strength in public speaking. She reads fashion magazines like they are going out of style… which of course, she knows they never will!

In 2005, after working for Donna Karan International in New York City for six years, McClelland returned to her home state of Rhode Island and co-founded the site MomGenerations.com, a go-to resource for the entire family, with her mom, Sharon Couto, and her sister, Jane Couto Porricelli.

McClelland is one of Walmart’s Elevenmoms, a group of mom bloggers who help Walmart in its Social Media efforts. She also is on the Playskool Parents Play Panel, consulting the Playskool team in Social Media.

McClelland co-wrote Preconception Plain & Simple - A Deliciously Smart and Sexy Guide in Preparing for Pregnancy with her mom, and has contributed articles to Conceive Magazine. She has appeared in segments on ABC’s 20/20, Fox News Boston and CBS Boston News. She also has been featured in Woman’s World Magazine, Men’s Health Magazine, Pregnancy Magazine, The Providence Journal and Redbook Magazine

Drawing on her background/inspiration in fashion (and college classes), each Friday night Audrey hosts a BlogTalkRadio.com show called “Feel Good Fashion,” as well as a LIVE MomTV.com video stream show on Sunday nights called “Audrey’s Fashion Sense.” She contributes weekly to the Blissful Style channel on BlissfullyDomestic.com. On January 1, 2009, she launched her now-popular series called “365 Days of Fashion Advice for Moms,” offering one piece of fashion and/or beauty advice each day, either through a blog post or a vlog.

One great achievement is that Audrey was recently named one of the most powerful moms on the internet, listed in “The Power Pack” by Nielson Online.

Audrey also has been a featured speaker/panelist at Jeff Pulver’s SocComm event in New York City, speaking on “Being a Mom in the Digital Social Evolution,” and will be speaking on the topic of “Moms on Twitter” at Pulver’s 140 Characters conference in June 2009. She was recently featured in Huggies’ “30 Moms, 30 Generations” online video campaign, and is also a Johnson & Johnson “Real Moms” vlogger on the J&J Health Channel on YouTube.

Audrey’s social media expertise has been recognized in her home state of Rhode Island as well. She is one of the Senior Counselors of Social Media at The Perry Group, a public relations company, and Rhode Island Monthly’s June issue listed her as one of the most Powerful Twitterers in the state of Rhode Island (ranking 4th).

Follow Audrey on Twitter: @AudreyMcClellan

Jane is the proud mom of two kids… who happen to be four-legged and furry. (Now if only the IRS  would consider them dependents.)

Jane majored in History at Brown University and worked in sales at her family’s commercial printing company before joining her mom and sister at Mom Generations (formerly Pinks & Blues). She also recently began writing as the Providence Dogs Examiner for Examiner.com.

She lives in Rhode Island, and you can find her doting on and constantly photographing her furry kids, Ryder and Seth, and her 9 nieces and nephews.

Follow Jane on Twitter: @JanePorricelli

A member of the “sandwich generation,” Sharon finds herself sharing her life with her 8 (soon-to-be 9) grandchildren, her 4 children and her mother and mother-in-law. She co-owns and writes full-time for Mom Generations with her two grown daughters… but in what seems to be another life, she was a high school English and Reading teacher for 30 years. She has been married for 32 years to her best friend, Barry, who still writes her love notes and leaves flowers near the already-made coffee each morning. They live in a big, old New England home that was built in 1780, and they love renovating it both inside and out. Well, most times they love it.

Sharon also loves to garden, entertain, travel, decorate and exercise. But her passion is writing stories for her grandchildren. She always has a dozen or so in the works.

Sharon co-wrote Preconception Plain & Simple with her daughter, Audrey, and has contributed to Conceive Magazine.

Follow Sharon on Twitter: @SharonCouto

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Sarah Mae from Like A Warm Cup Of Coffee

Sarah Mae is a household engineer (a.k.a stay-at-home mommy of three and wife to one very cool motorcycling husband) who absolutely loves blogging! She owns the blog Like A Warm Cup Of Coffee (home of the 5:16 Club) where she spends her time journeying along side other women who are seeking to find the eternal value in who they are and all they do. She is proud to be called a java-hugger.

Follow Sarah Mae on Twitter: @sarahmaeblogs

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Jennifer Schmidt, from Balancing Beauty and Bedlam

Jennifer Schmidt is a full time family manager that blogs about her never ending pursuit of “Balancing it all” at her personal website: Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.

As a motivational speaker and worship leader from NC, Jen encourages thousands of women every year at conferences, but she still sees her most demanding, yet rewarding, audience as her own family.

As a mom of five and frugal living expert, Jen shares with humor and authenticity on a myriad of topics. Being a relative newbie to the world of social media, Jen has seen tremendous growth in her blog by staying true to her “voice.” She has a passion to see women encouraged in their calling.

You can find her on any given day blogging, meal planning, reading to her kids, thrift store hunting, or quite possibly on a stage sharing both her “beauty and bedlam.”

Follow Jen on Twitter: @beautyandbedlam