How Creators are Redefining Entertainment

Saeyoung is Head of Strategic Partnerships at Captiv8, a leading influencer marketing technology company. At Captiv8, Saeyoung helped Captiv8 become an alpha Partner for TikTok’s Creator API, spearheading business development projects that enabled global expansion into EMEA/APAC, and introduced a first-to-market capability with LiveRamp to prepare clients for a cookie less world. She has worked across the social spectrum of paid, owned, and earned to build social-first brands with clients such as Playboy, J Brand Jeans, Disney, Svedka, Zicam, Burger King & Jack in the Box with award-winning campaigns such as ThinkLA's Best Influencer Campaign & Shorty’s Best Automotive Branded Campaign. Saeyoung has been recognized by Cynopsis as an honoree of their Digital "IT List" Award and is passionate about diverse representation in media and purpose-driven marketing.

Kelsey is a principal analyst at Forrester, focused on media as it relates to marketing strategy. She brings strategic thinking grounded in a deep understanding of the media and advertising ecosystem to clients. Her research uncovers best practices, emerging trends, and critical shifts in consumer behavior that impact how brands should behave in an ever-evolving media landscape. Her consumer-first thinking is underpinned by a communications planning backbone, emphasizing the interplay between media touchpoints across the consumer journey that work together to drive growth for B2C marketing executives.

Katherine joined Amazon in 2021 and is currently the Head of Social and Influencers for Amazon Freevee in Los Angeles. Prior to that, she led Social Strategy for Kraft Heinz at Starcom in Chicago and served as the agency’s partnership lead for Meta. She started her career in New York, where she attended Barnard College and went into fashion, planning media for Cartier and Chloe, and eventually managing global advertising at Calvin Klein and launching the first #MyCalvins campaign.  And, yes, it was just like The Devil Wears Prada.

Sam leads Strategic Creator Partnerships at TikTok, building programs with best in class partners to ensure that all brands on TikTok are tapping into the creator economy. Sam is deeply passionate about creative and storytelling: she spent 7 years at creative advertising agencies and four years at Pinterest in Entertainment Partnerships before joining the TikTok team. She's worked with brands like HBO, Discovery, National Geographic, Comcast, Estee Lauder and P&G on award winning campaigns spanning Super Bowl commercials, global social media toolkits and everything in between. Sam lives in NYC.

Shawn Thomas is a world-raised, Southern-born native with a background in psychology having conferred multiple degrees with a focus on media consumption and behavior from the historic HBCU Morehouse College in Atlanta and Ivy League institution Columbia University in NYC. For the past decade, Shawn has used this foundation to drive impact, innovation and inclusion across both the media and marketing industry for entertainment companies such as TikTok, CNN, and CBS as well as world-renowned brands like Adobe, Nike, and T-Mobile. In his current role, he leads creator strategy for TikTok's entertainment brand partners; connecting the platform's biggest creators with the world's biggest entertainment properties. 

Shawn is also a co-host of QBT, a podcast centered on queer mental health, as well as a freelance producer who concepts, plans and executes events and activations for the Black community in Portland, OR and Los Angeles, CA.