Come learn how to stand out and remain relevant in a chaotic sea of professionals through forward thinking branding. Panelists will discuss the dos and don’ts of better branding that keeps them at the forefront of the industry.
Moderator: Senta Scarborough
Panelists: Lucio Bernal, Joseph Fenity, Ande Richards, Charles G. Thompson
SENTA SCARBOROUGH is an award-winning journalist and Emmy-nominated producer. She is the founder of Sentamatic Media focusing primarily on screenwriting, journalism and nonfiction projects. Her work has appeared in Adweek, INTO, USA Today, E! News, Us Weekly Magazine and Asheville Poetry Review, among others. She currently serves on the board of directors for the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association. She holds her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts from the University of California Riverside/Palm Desert. She lives in Los Angeles with her wife, Katie, and their dog, Sadie.
LUCIO BERNAL is a 20-year veteran of residential real estate, living in Palm Springs, California. Bernal is a full time Realtor and an instructor with a national real-estate training and marketing company. He has been very involved in his local Realtor association, serving as the 2018 past president, and his passion is educating his fellow colleagues to enhance and strengthen the real-estate industry both locally and nationally so that we can better serve our clients.
JOSEPH FENITY has an answer for everything. Many times when a question hasn’t even been asked! He excels at making instant connections — especially with people of interest and influence. (Don’t be surprised if your number is already in his Rolodex.) He landed his first on-air radio gig at just 17 near his hometown of Austin, Texas. A decade later that same town honored him with “Joseph Fenity Day” for his achievements in ushering in new and innovative ways to deliver news and other digital content. The San Francisco Bay Guardian called him a “podcast pioneer” when they gave his groundbreaking podcast a “Best of the Bay” Award way back in 2006. Fenity later went on to report for SiriusXM’s first LGBTQ station, OutQ News. More recently, he has worked worked at CBS Los Angeles and was also published in Rolling Stone earlier this year. Fenity has always been much more interested in news and networking rather than network news.
ANDE RICHARDS has worked extensively in licensing and merchandising at 20th Century Fox and at Saban Entertainment, where she contributed to the phenomenal success of “The Simpsons” and the “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” properties. She has also worked as a publicist for Markham/Novell Public Relations as an account executive for the renowned Jim Henson Company, where she created and implemented a highly successful campaign for Miss Piggy’s special edition fragrance “Moi.” She serves as NLGJA LA Chapter co-president and is a member of the local chapters of Asian American Journalists Association and National Association of Black Journalists.
CHARLES G. THOMPSON, a Pushcart Prize nominee, lives in Los Angeles, where he writes fiction, nonfiction, plays and memoir. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Storgy Magazine, Writers Resist, Five:2:One, Cowboy Jamboree, Full Grown People, The Offbeat, Printers Row Journal and Reunion: The Dallas Review. Four of his short stories were included in the “2017 New Short Fiction Series.” He was named a finalist in the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival’s 2015 Fiction Contest. His short play “Cherry” won two playwriting awards. He earned a master’s in creative writing and writing for the performing arts at the University of California, Riverside/Palm Desert. He has recently completed his first short story collection and is working on a novel. He is the founder of Pen & Paper Writing Workshops.