About: Sanford Dickert (@sanford) is with Contagious Conversations, a social-media consulting firm offering general contracting services for the new age of digital engagement. Sanford has worked with Fortune 500 firms, leading venture funds and promising start-ups through product marketing and development strategies to help teams better understand and execute on customer-focused solutions through the effective use of technology and social media marketing.

Sanford has become part of the New York Tech community, working with businesses, investors and government to strengthen the connections between them and the NY Tech community though his work in coworking (cooperBricolage and New Work City) and various networking organizations.

In other roles, Sanford has been an Adjunct Professor at Cooper Union and Polytechnic, teaching on Web 2.0 concepts and product development, been involved in various Democratic campaigns in roles such as Chief Technology Officer for the John Kerry for President Campaign, and been part of numerous startup companies focused on social software and online community services including eGroups (acquired by Yahoo!), gigabeat (acquired by Napster), hotrecruit (acquired by Trinity Mirror Group in London) and Interoute (largest telecoms provider in Western Europe).

In his "spare time", he also publishes his thoughts on social media (The Social Engineer), political technology (PoliticalWarez) and online engagement (Political Gastronomica).