Eric Brown; President
When Eric Brown created The Urbane Way, a cutting edge social media marketing laboratory, he considered himself a business owner first and a marketer second. Brown’s background is rooted in the rental and real estate industries. He founded metro Detroit’s Urbane Apartments in 2003, after serving as senior vice president at Village Green Companies, a major Midwest apartment developer. He established a proven track record of effectively repositioning existing rental properties in a way that added value for investors while enhancing the resident experience.
With his apartment company, he dared to abandon traditional marketing efforts and instead established a strong online presence. He created sites for Urbane Apartments on Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. Brown established the Urbane Lobby, a social network where residents could share photographs and videos and socialize.UrbaneLife online magazine took that idea one step further, targeting a specific demographic by providing fresh online content daily.
Brown’s social media marketing strategy and fearless approach to business has garnered national media attention and feature stories in Entrepreneur, Business Week, Builder, BizNet and Multifamily Executive. He was named as a Voice of Innovation in Social Media in 2009 and has been profiled locally, and travels across the U.S. to share his story. Brown’s efforts have formed the basis of his next business venture, The Urbane Way.
Eric also writes regular articles for the following publications;
Matt Oberdier received his BFA in Illustration from the College of Creative Studies in Detroit in 2008. He has since worked as a freelance graphic designer & web developer.
In his free time, Matt enjoys playing guitar & singing, cooking vegan food, photography and acting.
Melissa is a modern-day “yours, mine & ours”, as a Mommy of a blended family which includes 2 girls, 3 boys, 1 husband, 5 cats, 2 dogs and way too much laundry!
She is the founder and writer of the popular mommy-blog, Rock & Drool where she finds humor in the day-to-day insanity that is being a mother, wife, and woman. Rock & Drool has been featured in Detroit Free Press, WDIV, and the Dr. Phil Show.
David is an active member and thought leader of our community. A graduate of Eastern Michigan University, David founded the Social Media Club chapter of Detroit, and is a co-chair for FutureMidwest, our region’s largest technology and knowledge conference.
As a member of iDetroit, he has also been featured in David Meerman Scott’s blog, Web Ink Now; and his book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR.
Jane Fader is a 27-year-old female with brown hair and eyes. She is a Detroit-born, Michigan-raised, Royal Oak-bound Midwestern American caucasian, though her loud voice and a somewhat swarthy complexion has been known to raise questions regarding her regional and ethnic origin. Jane received a Bachelor and Master’s degree from the Wayne State University Department of Communication, where she also completed the doctoral coursework track for media studies and instructed courses in film, video production, and television criticism. She has written widely on the topics of sexuality and pornography, and produced an internationally screened and awarded documentary about female ejaculation.
MJ Galbraith; Writer
MJ Galbraith is a songwriter and local musician, freelance writer, baseball enthusiast, lover of travel, and a terrible mechanic. When MJ graduated from Central Michigan University with a degree in Creative Writing, he was immediately barraged with ‘questions’ of “What are you gonna do, teach?” He is determined to not get a job teaching.
Naomi Cremen was born and raised in Oklahoma until 10 years ago when the beaches, sun and the people of Florida lured her in – from there she began working in the property management industry. She went from leasing consultant to leasing manager and loved doing it. “It’s a fast paced and fun environment to be apart of,” said Naomi. Recently married in 2009 she and her husband decided that a move to Michigan was in order to be closer to family.
Along the way she discovered a passion for design and is now studying Interior Design at the International Academy in Troy, Mich. “In this field I hope to space plan for either residential or commercial buildings and would really love to contribute to the redevelopment of Detroit,” she said. “Along
