Online Marketing Blog

One of the organizations I am involved with is MIMA, the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association. It’s been a great experience working with so many talented individuals. There really is an abundance of interactive marketing talent here in the Twin Cities.

Over the past few years MIMA has grown tremendously and this year the size of the board of directors has nearly doubled. Below is a press release:

MIMA ANNOUNCES BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Interactive marketing association changes leadership for 2006

(MINNEAPOLIS) – The Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA.org) welcomes 15 local interactive professionals to its board of directors.

The new board welcomes Kristina Halvorson as its new president. Halvorson has been on the MIMA board of directors since 2002 and is the founder and president of Brain Traffic. MIMA’s outgoing president is Bret Busse, the CIO of Evantage Consulting, who began his term in 2004.

“It’s been fantastic to watch MIMA grow and I really appreciate all the hard work the board and volunteers have put in to make these past two years a success,” Busse says. “Now I’m excited to be able to focus on developing our executive advisory board.”

Halvorson accepts her new role with a sincere appreciation of what has been accomplished while Busse was president, “During Bret’s tenure, our membership doubled. Event attendance tripled. Throughout this time of enormous change, Bret has led with a cool head, a steady hand and a killer sense of humor.”

The 2006 MIMA board of directors includes:

• Brad Borg, treasurer. (CFO, Ciceron)
• Bret Busse, executive advisory board chair.
• Chris Beltmann, membership chair. (manager of e-marketing development, Carlson Hotels Worldwide)
• Courtney Remes, co-vice president and web & technology chair. (principal, Synthetic Kit, Inc.)
• Curt Olson, member at large. (senior business development manager, ExactTarget, Inc.)
• Emily Small, event planning chair. (principal, senior project manager, The Small Company)
• Greg McGee, sponsorship chair. (director of business strategy, b-swing)
• Joe Rueckert, programming co-chair. (director, digital direct marketing, MRM Partners)
• Julie Vollenweider, secretary and communications chair. (communications editor, Greater Minneapolis Convention & Visitors Association)
• Kate McRoberts, programming co-chair. (senior consultant, Evantage Consulting)
• Kelly Burkart, co-vice president and marketing & branding chair. (principal, senior copywriter, 5th Street Communications)
• Kristina Halvorson, president.
• Lee Odden, online marketing chair. (president, TopRank Online Marketing)
• Michael Kraabel, development chair. (interactive creative director, Gage)
• Nagesh Shinde, creative studies chair. (assistant professor, University of Wisconsin ‚Äì Stout)

To best serve MIMA’s 300 members, the board strives to provide quality events, like the upcoming February seminar, “The Big Picture: Putting the User Experience in Context.” Find more information on this event and others at the MIMA events page.

ABOUT MIMA
Founded in 1998, the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) is a networking and professional development forum for interactive marketing professionals. Members include professionals from all disciplines of design, media, promotions, content development, product development, publishing, marketing, usability and experience design. At MIMA, we connect, educate and partner with our members and guests to elevate the quality of interactive marketing practiced here and around the country.

MEDIA CONTACT
Julie Vollenweider, 612.767.8044, jjvollenweider@aol.com