TravelGuide.com
Thailand
- Current
-
- Owner at TravelGuide.com
- Past
-
- IT Manager / Director of Marketing at First Funding Financial Services
- Director of Internet Marketing and Affiliate Programs at Groople
- Business Development Consultant at Concinnity Partners
- Owner / Managing Director at WITG / World Internet Travel Guide
- Business Development at DaVinci Institute
- Nomadic Traveler (Self-employed)
- Director of Technology at The Leap Partnership
- Owner / Managing Director at FX Multimedia
- Recruiter at General Employment
- Education
-
- Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
- Recommended
-
1 person has recommended John - Connections
-
138
connections
- Industry
- Online Media
- Websites
John Berns’s Summary
10 years of experience in online travel industry.
John Berns’s Experience
-
Owner
TravelGuide.com
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Online Media industry)
May 2005 — Present (3 years 3 months)
Online travel website - under development.
-
IT Manager / Director of Marketing
First Funding Financial Services
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Financial Services industry)
April 2004 — March 2005 (1 year)
Started as Managing IT Department for 40 person mortgage banker: PC support, file / fax/ exchange mail servers, network, router & firewalls, etc.
Switched to managing marketing programs for one of Denver's leading mortgage bankers. Created new marketing department for company. Planned & executed direct mail and newspaper advertising campaigns; coordinate development of collateral materials. Maintain web site and execute Internet marketing campaigns. Set up marketing database and sales force automation / CRM system (salesforce.com) to help sales staff more effectively market to existing customer base. Recruited staff and launched new telemarketing department for company. -
Director of Internet Marketing and Affiliate Programs
Groople
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Leisure, Travel & Tourism industry)
August 2003 — April 2004 (9 months)
Set strategy and manage budget for all online marketing programs. Develop and manage affiliate program. Manage Pay-Per-Click (Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing) and other online advertising programs. Implemented Omniture web analytics system to track ROI on advertising spending and increase ad performance. Work with Business Development to develop major channel partnerships to promote group travel booking. Media buying. Work with web development team on search engine optimization: suggest landing pages, develop keywords, write page titles and page copy for targeted keywords. Participate in product design / development to insure the website met customer needs.
-
Business Development Consultant
Concinnity Partners
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Leisure, Travel & Tourism industry)
September 2002 — July 2003 (11 months)
Concinnity Partners is a business development consulting company that specialized in the travel technology sector. Responsibilities: Develop strategic partnerships and new business opportunities for multiple travel technology clients. Left Concinnity, at the request of the company owner, to work with him for our largest client, Groople.
-
Owner / Managing Director
WITG / World Internet Travel Guide
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Online Media industry)
August 1998 — May 2002 (3 years 10 months)
Started a travel web site to sell travel products via a content-rich travel web site. Negotiated a content licensing deal from a major travel guide publisher. Set up business office in Denver and web development team in Bangkok. Designed application architecture and managed all aspects of development of software, interface and content. Negotiated deals with large travel providers in United States and the Southeast Asia region to provide online booking through our web site on a commission basis. Pursued outside investment from Angel investors and VCs.
-
Business Development
DaVinci Institute
(Online Media industry)
2002 — 2002 (less than a year)
Helped to plan and promote "The Future of Money" conference for The Davinci Institute Futurist Think Tank.
-
Nomadic Traveler
Self-employed
(Self-Employed; Myself Only; Leisure, Travel & Tourism industry)
March 1997 — July 1998 (1 year 5 months)
Traveled extensively around SE Asia.
-
Director of Technology
The Leap Partnership
(Public Company; 51-200 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)
April 1996 — March 1997 (1 year)
Leap Partnership was a consumer advertising agency that spun off an Interactive Ad Agency, Leapnet.com.
Primary responsibilities were: Providing technical and strategic direction for the advertising agency’s interactive media clients. Participate as member of the New Business Development Team for New Media Division. Made client pitches for projects ranging from $50,000 to $1,000,000. Evaluate potential investment prospects for related technology companies.
Other technical/management responsibilities included: defining project technical requirements, set projects budgets and schedule, recruiting technical staff, project management, hire staff and contract with third party developers and infrastructure providers; manage staff and contractors. General business management responsibilities included: defining strategy for the interactive branch of the agency, helping to develop creative strategies for clients and strategic analysis of market opportunities. -
Owner / Managing Director
FX Multimedia
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)
June 1992 — March 1996 (3 years 10 months)
Founder of one of Chicago’s first and foremost interactive media and Internet development companies. As president of a small interactive media development company I was instrumental in promoting the company to potential clients as well as delivering new business presentations, estimating project costs, managing projects, negotiating contracts and closing clients on multimedia and web development projects ranging from $5000 to $50,000.
FX Multimedia developed interactive media applications (CD-ROM, kiosks and floppy disk based) and web-based applications. Major clients included: R.R. Donnelley & Sons, Ameritech, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, RJ Reynolds and Square D. -
Recruiter
General Employment
(Public Company; Online Media industry)
1985 — 1986 (1 year)
John Berns’s Education
-
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
BS, Electrical Engineering, 1979 — 1984
- Activities and Societies:
- Alpha Tau Omega
Additional Information
John Berns’s Websites:
John Berns’s Interests:
Travel, travel, more travel. Web development, writing, photography, cycling, mt. biking.
John Berns’s Groups:
Association for Multimedia Communications, Chicago Area Internet Society, Barcamp Bangkok
-
Startups & Societal Ventures Network member -
BarcampBangkok member
John Berns’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- business deals
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
