Slumberkins: Doing Well While Doing Good in a New DTC World

Brad Berens has enjoyed a wide-ranging career with powerful storytelling as an organizing theme. As Editor in Chief of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), Berens oversees all thought leadership, research, and event programming. He is also a Strategic Advisor and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for the Digital Future at USC Annenberg, where he was formerly Chief Strategy Officer. Berens is a trusted advisor to a variety of companies, from a venture capital firm focused on artificial intelligence to a startup trying to eradicate media bias, among others. A futurist, he works with companies all over the world and also gives regular domestic and global keynote addresses. Earlier in his career, he had a long tenure as the Global Chief Content Officer at dmg events, having started as the Editor in Chief at iMedia Communications before dmg acquired iMedia. Still earlier, he was Managing Editor at EarthLink the ISP, worked in startups at the dawn of the digital age, and was a Hollywood story analyst for companies like DreamWorks, Mirage, New Regency, and Scott Free. Berens began his career as an award-winning teacher of Shakespeare and writing at U.C. Berkeley. Keeping his hand in, he is presently writing The Shakespeare Strategy, a book about Shakespeare as a business genius. Follow him on Twitter as @bradberens, learn more about him at www.bradberens.com, and read his novel, Redcrosse, a near-future dystopia.

Callie Christensen is the co-CEO and co-Founder of Slumberkins, a Direct-to-Consumer, e-commerce children’s brand on a mission to promote emotional wellness and provide tools to help raise caring, confident, and resilient children. The brand is refreshing the plush toy industry, and resonating with parents that find community on social media platforms and seek out modern, new, and intentional products to bring into their homes. Slumberkins is on the forefront of brand building online as they expand into children’s entertainment by bringing the characters to life in a preschool television series produced by the Jim Henson Company.

Kelly Oriard is the co-CEO and co-Founder of Slumberkins, a Direct-to-Consumer, e-commerce, children’s brand on a mission to promote emotional wellness and provide tools to help raise caring, confident, and resilient children. The brand is refreshing the plush toy industry, and resonating with parents that find community on social media platforms and seek out modern, new, and intentional products to bring into their homes. Slumberkins is on the forefront of brand building online as they expand into children’s entertainment by bringing the characters to life in a preschool television series produced by the Jim Henson Company.