David LaPlante
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About David LaPlante

About me…David LaPlante:

Entrepreneur | Skier | Dad | Cyclist | Blogger | Speaker | CEO | Idiot

Currently:

Notable Awards/Recognitions:

  • Inaugural "20 Under 40" list (2007) by the Reno-Tahoe Young Professionals Network and Reno Gazette-Journal
  • "Technology Company of the Year" (2007) Technology Business Alliance of Nevada
  • "Marketer of the Year" (2004) American Marketing Association of Northern Nevada
  • "Business of the Year" (2005)  Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada

Past:

Seleceted Recent Speaking Engagements:

  • [2008] Consumer Electronics Show (CES) | Las Vegas: "Taking the Blogosphere Seriously"; David LaPlante [Twelve Horses], Ryan Block [Engadget], Jerry Johnson [Brodeur], and Blair Polosky [INK Public relations]
  • [2007] Lake Tahoe Tourism Marketing Summit: “Building Brand and Destination Authenticity Through Social Marketing”
  • [2007] Technology Business Alliance of Nevada: "Google Thyself: Personal Branding & Authenticity"
  • [2007] Digital Entertainment and Media Exposition; "Mobile Marketing and Best Practices from a Global Perspective"
  • [2006] CTIA The Wireless Show; "Social Media & the Mobile Channel"
  • [2006] Lake Tahoe Tourism Marketing Summit: “Get to Know Me: Transparency & Destination Branding Using the Online Social Medium"
  • [2006] Governors Conference on Tourism: "Google Thyself: Personal Branding & Authenticity"
  • [2006] Ad:Tech: "SMS as a component of Multi-channel Communications"
  • [2006] The Mobile Marketing Forum, Hollywood: Emcee
  • [2006] CTIA: The Wireless Association; "New Media & Social Marketing"
  • [2006] Consumer Electronics Show (CES) | Las Vegas: "Marketing the Mobile Channel"
  • [2005] Mobile Marketing Roadshow, New York: "Best Practices in Text Messaging"
  • [2005] INBA London: "Branding / Social Marketing"
  • [2005] World Entrepreuneur’s Forum; "Consumer Best Practices in Mobile"
  • [2005] OMMA West: “The Mobile Marketing Solution: How Agencies & Brands Precipitate Results.”

Interestingness about me/my world…

  • Born in Aspen and raised in Crested Butte, Colorado. Ended up in Reno-Tahoe to ski race for the University of Nevada in 1988 (where I met my partner Martin Gastanaga) and got stuck. Fell in love with my wife and the Sierra backcountry and haven’t left.
  • I blew my first student loan on a paraglider and climbing gear. I blew my second student loan on my (then girlfriend) wife’s paraglider and backcountry skiing skins, beacons and Ramer Classic bindings.
  • I love to ski. Skiing is in my blood. My grandfather was a legit "buckskin-wearing mountain man" and longpole ski raced in Aspen/Gunnison in the early 1900’s. My dad ski raced at long-defunct Cranor Hill and Cement Creek, Colorado. He broke his ankle in a downhill in highschool. I grew up ski racing on the Crested Butte Racing Team from 1979-1988. I blew my ACL/MCL/PCL in April 1988 which forced me to go to college.
  • My Dad got me started in business early. I went to SIA Las Vegas when I was 14 (1984) and bought $20,000 worth of Ray-Ban’s, Bulla Loops and Conte hats for his ski shop. It sold out and I was hooked on business ever since.
  • My Dad was an Eagle Scout. I only made it to 1st Class. He was huge in to alternative energy in the 70’s/80’s, always tinkering with solar panels and greenhouses and biomass fuel. He also could’ve constructed a nuclear reactor in our garage had he wanted to. He’s been a huge influence in my life if you haven’t figured that out.
  • I was voted "most unique" by my peers in high school. That was the polite way of saying "freak/geek". Bleached mohawks and Knox gelatin in your hair in the 80’s wasn’t quite as socially acceptable as they are today.
  • I received a Boys State scholarship in 1986 and went to it with an ‘Anarchy symbol’ sunburned in to my back on a dare from my friends. I was elected Senator.
  • I met my wife Jessica on the second day of college and have never looked back. She’s better with shooting .357’s, fixing carburetors and climbing 5.12s than I am. I do whatever she says and she’s usually right.
  • I was scholarship ROTC/Ranger for three years in college before the Army jettisoned me due to my reconstructed knee. I worked at the National Judicial College through most of college and met thousands of judges. This is why I bailed on law school. I ended up with two degrees: BS Finance and BS Economics and a lot of ‘get-out-of-jail-free" cards.
  • While my entire career is largely "Marketing", my only "D" grade I’ve ever received is in college in a Marketing class. I was paragliding with my wife and it was a "ride-of-a-lifetime’ and so I skipped the final. No regrets.
  • When I was 23 (1993) I had a staff of 60 people and managed a 3.5 million dollar marketing budget for a conglomerate of casinos, including the world-famous Harolds Club and the Fitzgeralds chain. We designed the first player-tracking systems that integrated with back-office accounting predating Harrah’s. I placed the record single largest single-malt Scotch order in the history of Nevada in 1995.
  • I bought my first cell phone in 1993 and still have the same number.
  • I attended Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert in 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1999 with my Aztech Cyberspace, Inc. partners Jay MacDonald, and Martin Gastanaga. Good times.
  • In 1994, Jay MacDonald, Martin Gastanaga and I ported a casino player tracking system and hotel reservation system online and made the first "rewards-based reservation". It was just a little ahead of its time.
  • My kids Logan and Cody kick ass. They’re my heroes and I look up to them. Pure genius and creativity unspoiled. I wince everytime their youthful energy is mitigated by adulthood. I Also learn more fro them than anyone else. Logan can ski 45 degree "double blacks" at age seven. Cody at age six. They miss 15+ days of school to ski with their ski team and their Mom and Dad.
  • Recently, my youngest son Cody starred in a Modest Mouse music video when he was 5. The video was shot by Reno-native and world-famous video director Justin Francis. [click here to see the video]
  • All my Republican friends hate me because they think I’m a Democrat. All my Democrat friends hate me because they think I’m a Republican. All my real friends could care less what I am.
  • I prefer cheap beer over wine. I’m not afraid to drink girly martinis…even in public. I prefer Cosmopolitans made with Hanger1 Vodka, Pabst Blue Ribbon and VelvetDew’s — which is a trademarked drink owned by my attorney.
  • Even though I often joke I hate snowboarders, I really do. I’m just joking! Jeezus. 8-)

The Obligatory "Why I blog" section:

So, what we have here is a blog –dating back to 2003 — on things I am compelled to feed in to cyberspace. Like you, I click on ‘About’ pages hoping to discover some perspective, connection or commonality with the writer.

First and foremost I love marketing and the mediums in which marketing travels, particularly of the following flavors: mobile marketing, email marketing, relationship marketing and social marketing. I practice what I preach. Therefore I blog. I wouldn’t advise anyone — client or friend — on anything I haven’t tried myself.

Second, I love branding. Particularly branding as it pertains to transforming online reputation and translating offline brands online and vice versa. Managing personal brand reputation offline and online – particularly among business leaders – is increasingly a branding challenge that occupies a lot of my time and attention. I’ve got a knack for it.

Third, I’m an entrepreneur. Every personality test I’ve ever taken shows that I am down to my very core an improvising creative entrepreneur. I’m addicted to creating things. Speaking in vision-tongue. Love to push my vision on people. Always excited about change and the "new". I’m an idea-a-minute kinda’ guy. It’s who I am. Can’t help it.

Fourth, I’m a parent raising kids in a Web 2.0 world. Being a Dad is what I enjoy most in life right now. I like to write about being a Dada and my family. Because I’m an early-adopter of anything tech, my kids enjoy opportunities to engage with technology much more than most. Thus, I derive unique perspectives and insights that I hope other parents can benefit from. In other words, I gave my kids cell phones when they were five.

Fifth, I love skiing, riding bikes, climbing, flyfishing, climbing, mountaineering, hunting and camping. If it’s ski season, you can expect me to be up in Tahoe every day I possibly can with the kids. If it’s not ski season, I spend as much time as I can on bikes or out in the Nevada desert or Sierra Nevada with the family.

Finally, I love Nevada. Particularly greater Reno-Tahoe, but there’s not too many places in this great state that I am not stoked to be in. I can go from being covered in powder or playa dust to being ‘covered’ at most clubs in Vegas in a day. It’s a good dynamic…it’s a good life. Better than most.

Speaker’s Biography:

David LaPlante is a Reno-Tahoe based entrepreneur, blogger, dad, cyclist, ceo, brand marketer, and a skier. As CEO of interactive marketing agency and web applications developer Twelve Horses, David assists businesses in translating and transforming their offline brands to the online medium. Twelve Horses makes software and provide services (wetware) for businesses that want to communicate more effectively with the relationships that matter to them, particularly on web, email, mobile and social marketing.

Previous to Twelve Horses, David LaPlante was a partner in Aztech Cyberspace, a Nevada-based Internet design and development agency that navigated the uncharted Internet between 1995 thru 2002 as a recognized leader in marketing automation. In 2002 Twelve Horses and Aztech merged. Prior to the Internet, David began his post-college career as one of the youngest marketing executives in the Nevada casino gaming industry. He worked for the Fitzgeralds Group, which owned and operated several casino/hotels nationally, including the world-famous Harold’s Club brand. In addition to managing multi-property marketing, advertising and public relations efforts, David was fortunate to be involved with the gaming industry’s initial CRM revolution where designed and developed the first player tracking system integrated with hotel property management and point-of-sale systems.

David was named “Marketer of the Year” by the northern Nevada American Marketing Association in 2004 and to northern Nevada’s inaugural "20 Under 40" in 2007. Twelve Horses has been recognized as "Business of the Year" in northern Nevada in 2005, and most recently as "technology Company of the Year" by Nevada’s Technology Business Alliance. Additionally, each year Twelve Horses receives dozens of awards for its clients in marketing, advertising and public relations.

The State of Nevada Commission on Economic Development appointed David LaPlante as a founding board member for Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology in 2005 and he currently serves as Chairman of that organization. NCET fosters the State’s annual angel and venture capital conferences, statewide business plan competitions, and dozens of entrepreneur, technology and clean energy focused social and learning events.

David serves on several community Boards, including: Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology; Reno-Tahoe chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization; Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada; Reno’s Holland Project.

When not online, he can be found skiing, cycling, camping, climbing, hiking, hunting and fishing with his family.

Whoops! Almost forgot this: The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not reflect the views of my employer.

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