Keynote Presenter (Boston)
Colleen Smith
VP of Software as a Service, Progress Software

Colleen Smith is Vice President of Software as a Service at Progress Software Corporation, a global supplier of software technology and services for developing, deploying, integrating and managing business solutions.  In this role, she develops key strategies and business opportunities for Progress around all of the firms’ SaaS business initiatives.
Colleen joined the company in 2005 with 20 years of software and technology experience.

Previously, she was CMO/SVP at Bristol Technology (now part of HP), responsible for the company's marketing, strategy and business development operations, worldwide.  Prior to that, she was VP/GM of the Business Process and Technology Practices at AMR Research, a provider of independent analysis and actionable advice to more than 5,000 supply chain and technology executives worldwide.  Earlier in her career, she held the role of VP of Research & Development at Geac Computer Systems, and held other senior marketing and sales roles at D&B Software and McCormack & Dodge.  Colleen began her career at EDS as a systems engineer.
She holds a bachelor's degree in Business and Computer Information Systems from Stonehill College, and an MBA from Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts.

Keynote Presenter

Rene Bellei
CEO, Ryma (Feature Plan)

René has more than 15 years of experience in the high-tech industry. He is a co-founder and former CEO of Invidex Inc., a provider of enterprise software solutions to the broadcast industry. Before Invidex, René held a senior sales position at ABL Canada Inc., a provider of hardware and software solutions to the telecom industry. Earlier in his career, he held software and hardware engineering positions at Bombardier and other Montreal companies.

René is a Fellow at McGill's Dobson Center for Entrepreneurial Studies where he regularly lectures. He holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering from Sherbrooke University.

Keynote Presenter (San Mateo)

Peter Coffee

Director of Platform Intelligence, salesforce.com

Peter Coffee is director of Platform Intelligence at salesforce.com. He was formerly the Technology Editor at eWEEK, a national multimedia center of expertise in enterprise infrastructure technology and practice. He has 23 years' experience in advancing and evaluating information technologies and practices as a developer, manager, consultant, educator, and internationally published author and industry analyst.

Based near Los Angeles, Coffee has written product reviews, technical analyses and opinion columns concerning disruptive forces in IT tools and practices; he has appeared on CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox, and PBS newscasts addressing Internet security, the Microsoft antitrust case, wireless telecom policies, and other eBusiness issues. His two books to date are the Ziff Davis Press tutorial "How to Program Java" in 1996 and "Peter Coffee Teaches PCs."

Coffee holds an engineering degree from MIT and an MBA from Pepperdine University, and has taught in the department of computer science at UCLA and at Pepperdine's Graziadio School of Business and Management and the Chapman College School of Business.

Keynote Presenter
Jeff Kaplan
Managing Director, THINKstrategies

THINKstrategies was founded by Kaplan -- formerly a leading industry analyst at IDC, Dataquest, and META Group, and successful senior marketing executive at InterOPS Management Solutions and International Network Services (INS) -- as the only independent strategic consulting firm dedicated to helping enterprise IT decision-makers and technology solution providers achieve their business objectives by leveraging the value of IT/telecom services, ranging from professional services to on-demand services, including application, hosting and managed services, as well as IT and business process outsourcing (ITO/BPO). Jeff has over twenty years of experience and recognized expertise in IT management, managed services, utility computing and outsourcing trends.

He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and contributing columnist for BusinessWeek Online, Mass High Tech Journal, Financial Times of London, NetworkWorld, Business Communications Review, ComputerWorld, InfoWorld, InformationWeek, and Web Host Industry Review on topics including managed services, software-as-a-service (SaaS), utility computing, outsourcing strategies; network and systems operations, service level management (SLM); and IT ROI and TCO calculations.