Kate likes to think that she invented the Internet ... but knows that wouldn't be fair to Al Gore. Instead, she contents herself with her invention of "The Canadian", a surprisingly refreshing cocktail containing Wild Turkey, gingerale, cranberry juice and a dash of lime.
A trailblazer from pre-Web days on the Internet, Kate cut her online marketing teeth in 1988 using naught but mailing lists and FTP sites to promote Caper, her research firm, and its edutainment software titles. A move to Canada in 1990 landed Kate in a couple of technical positions where she learned enough about system administration, perl scripting and markup languages to know that she was destined for the softer side of technology. Working as technical support at the University of Waterloo, she learned the ins and outs of token-ring networking and Unix system administration. She also developed content-rich gopher and WAIS sites for the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, as well as for the UW Library. Kate acquired a copy of NCSA Mosaic two days following its release and has never looked back.
During these technical years, Kate contributed to some of the earliest publications about the Internet as a mainstream media channel. She has chapters in SAMS's WWW Unleashed (2nd edition) and Teach Yourself the Internet as well as a feature article in the premiere issue of NET Magazine. During this time, Kate also served as Director of Communications for Project Gutenberg, the oldest producer of free eBooks on the Internet. Kate moved to Toronto in 1996 and joined SoftQuad, one of the founding members of the W3C. At SoftQuad, she worked as an intranet consultant and contributor to the product design teams for HotMetal, HotMetal Intranet Publisher (HiP) and XMetal.
Kate answered the siren call of the interactive agency when she joined ICE Integrated Communications and Entertainment where she started one of the first Information Architecture practices in Canada in 1998. She rode a number of highs prior to the bubble bursting, including user experience consulting work for Procter & Gamble, La Senza, DBRS, FedEx, Nortel Networks, Celestica, the Royal Canadian Mint and Nabisco Canada, as well as serving as Director, Digital at ICE where she managed a 55-person department of project managers, technical staff and interaction designers. After leaving ICE (and changing her name from Karin), Kate joined Infinet Communications as Managing Director, Creative where she served as interactive consultant for a number of clients including Organon Inc., Lawtons Drugs, and Microcell (Fido). Kate also managed the day to day operations of the creative department.
In 2004, Kate left the agency world for the client side and joined Petro-Canada as Senior Manager, Web Evolution. Her mission (aside from explaining her job title) was to ensure that Petro-Canada was taking advantage of existing and upcoming interactive channels to communicate with key audiences and engage customers in relevant and authentic conversations.
Driven by her passion for social media and brand democratization (as well as a secret desire to work on a Web 2.0 project), Kate left Petro-Canada to join Uniserve as Senior Product Manager, where she kicked off the product development of Kinzin - a site for families to gather and share their photos, events, stories and culture. With the launch of Kinzin in the late spring 2007, Kate continued to be involved in its community building and marketing activities.
Most recently (and to the surprise of no-one, except possibly herself), Kate co-founded reinvent communications LintBucket Media, a boutique marketing firm focused on helping brands reconnect with their audiences through digital marketing, social media and audience engagement. Headquartered in Vancouver, Kate and her team serve a variety of clients, from big brands to independent business owners, and work with them to create social media strategies that foster active participation and community-building. Clients include Suncor Energy, CAA, Maple Leaf Foods, ICBC, and BuildDirect.
Kate has been a part-time lecturer in the University of Toronto's Faculty of Information Studies as well as a facilitator of usability workshops for Toronto Interacts. She is the founding co-director of TUXS, the Toronto User Experience Summit. Kate has also served on the Advertiser's Council of the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada.
On the creative side of things, Kate writes about emarketing, online branding, technology, user experience and other topics of note at her blog, mynameiskate.ca. She was the Publisher and Editor-In-Chief of One Degree, a gathering place for Canadian Online Marketers. Kate has also co-authored a play, The Meeting, that lampoons the interactive agency world; it was performed at Summerworks 2005 in Toronto.
Kate has a BA from Trinity University (San Antonio) in ritual theory and philosophy, two surprisingly helpful disciplines in the high-tech, high-touch world of interactive marketing. She lives in downtown Vancouver with her business partner and wife, Rosemary Rowe - noted playwright and creator of the Creampuff Revolution - and her junkyard Shar-pei, Emmy Lou.
