New York

Mel joined Microsoft the day the French adCenter pilot started back in the Summer of 2005. As part of Microsoft Advertising, Mel's role is to build relationships within the online advertising community to support, educate & evangelise through www.adCenterCommunity.com industry forums, and to speak about internet marketing at conferences, trade shows & other events.

Mel began his online advertising career as the Shopping & Travel Editor at LookSmart UK over eight years ago, before progressing to Sales Operations Manager for their Performance Listings product on MSN.co.uk. After LookSmart withdrew from International markets, Mel joined 24/7 Search as an Account Director managing search marketing campaigns for a number of blue-chip clients. It didn't take much persuasion for Mel to take the his initial role as Pan-European Search Media Strategist at MSN where he was part of the team that planned & executed the UK roll-out of Microsoft adCenter in August 2006.

Mel has spoken about adCenter, Search & Digital Marketing at conferences in London, Las Vegas, Toronto, Reykjavik, Dublin, Manchester & Tenerife. He also lectures on MBA, MSc and online marketing courses, advising syllabus decision makers at Cranfield School of Management and Birkbeck College – part of London University.

For the last year Mel has been writing a digital blog for Media Week at www.MediaWeek.co.uk/Blogs and at his own site www.MelCarson.com – you can also follow him at http://Twitter.com/MelCarson