Sebastian James has experience leading media and technology initiatives for government and private organizations. Most recently, he worked as the City Leader for Big Data Week Chicago, producing a successful series of live streaming presentations on data and technology. He previously served as Deputy Director of New Media for Cook County Government, growing their social media presence and launching an open data catalog. Sebastian has expertise in content marketing, social media, events, communications, and analytics and is interested in further discussions.

1. 5 Questions about Sebastian W. James

2. Who is He?
I’m “that guy” who has been asked to lead the charge for whatever needed to
be accomplished in media.
As City Leader for Big Data Week, I completed the third installment of “Big Data
Week in Chicago,” a global event with activity in 25 cities worldwide. I was
again responsible for a producing successful series of live streaming
presentations featuring C-levels and other leaders in the local data and
technology sectors.
As Deputy Director of New Media, I was the point man on the re-creation of the
web and social media presence for Cook County Government, in Cook County,
IL. Cook County is the third largest county government in the USA, serving 5.5
million residents. I started and grew their social media presence on Twitter,
Facebook, and Foursquare. I led a small team to create and stock an Open
Data catalog in 12 weeks.
In previous roles, I managed a successful email marketing campaign for a $6
million dollar political campaign. I started a successful email newsletter for the
elected official after the election was won, titled “The Week in Review.”
I started a blog on hybrid and electric cars and grew it to an Alexa rank of
382,000. Not bad, considering the tens of millions of websites out there.
In a previous position, I rose from freelance proofreader to a manager with
responsibility for a $23 million dollar print/paper/postage. I’ve been a
personality on local television, and has read the news on local TV.
As a Field Marketing Manager, I built inbound activity for a direct response
campaign by putting a Catholic nun on radio to talk about her truthful success
with the product.
• Father
• Husband
• Digital Marketer
• Geek
• Informed
• Golfer
• Car Guy
• Landlord
• Semi-Cinephile
• Scotch Lover
• Nut

3. What Has He Done Lately?
Sebastian James has been successfully using media to help people find
information and solve problems.
Most recently, he’s been working with BLUE 1647 to establish CivicBLUE
1647, a civic development program. the City Leader for Big Data Week, a
global festival of Big Data. He produced 3 days of live-streaming events
featuring data and technology professionals from the Chicagoland area.
I used an aggressive Twitter campaign to drive awareness and
viewership. To ensure a broad reach, I created a coordinated strategy to
tweet and retweet between 3 event-related accounts. I leveraged
Conferize, a social media platform for events, to capture additional
viewers. As part of the promotional plan, I created press releases and
collateral web content to showcase Big Data Week presenters and
companies.
A recent check saw that the public watched 174 total hours of event
programming.
Where you don’t see my efforts lately is in government social media.
From 2011 to 2013, my social media campaigns for Cook County
Government averaged 3.7 tweets per day. I maintained a running
engagement rate of 2.5% on Twitter and 3.8% on Facebook. Without
him, the County has tweeted 81 times in the past 90 days—as of May 12,
2014.
I’m rebooting the Hybrid and Electric Car News blog, where I will test
growth hacking strategies to quickly and dramatically build viewership.
• Google me
• Connect to me on LinkedIN
• Review my social media stats, 2013
• Review my social media stats, 2012
• Review 3 years of tweets, 2011-2013
• Check out the CivicBLUE 1647 site
• Watch me on video from Big Data Week 2014
• Read my rebooted Hybrid & Electric Car blog
• Click here for my personal Twitter account
• Click here for my Big Data Week Twitter account
• Here’s my Facebook page (kind of NSFW)
• Here’s a Twitter feed I used to manage(gone downhill since)
• Here’s a Facebook page I used to manage (this one too)
• Here’s a link to an Open Data catalog I created and
managed
• Click here for the Cook County Budget site
• Here’s me on Gov 2.0 Radio
• Here’s Jim Stewart (SEO Guru) talking about the
challenges of what I walked into at the County
• Here’s my presentation before a roomful of state
CIO’s

4. Where has He Been?
San Diego, CA
Delivered a
presentation to
over 200
government
technologists on
starting an Open
Data & government
transparency
program.
Grand Rapids, MI
Created “All the Weight
You Can Lose for the
Price of a 10-pound
Program, a radio
campaign that helped
my company reach
sales of $50k/week.
Ft. Wayne, IN
Creative and Buyer for
TV, radio and print
direct response
campaigns.
Valparaiso, IN
Created and Produced
“House and Home,” a
CATV real estate
listings show. 7-5
win/loss in political
campaigns I produced
media for. Graduated
from Valparaiso
University.
Merrillville, IN
Promotions Manager for a
PBS stations. PR,
Community Relations, and
on-air personality.
Chicago, IL
Digital Manager for
the country’s third-
largest county
government
organization,
serving 128 cites,
towns and villages.
1.066 million
unique website
visitors in 2012,
1.684 million in
2013.
Chicago, IL
Earned a Certificate in Integrated
Marketing from the University of Chicago.
Produced 2 live-streamed Town Hall
meetings, and over 35 other live-
streaming events. Managed all print
production for the largest automotive
aftermarket cataloger in the US.

5. What Can He Do for Me?
Content Marketing Technology and Data Communications
Writing Social Media Facebook Twitter Open Data Live-
streaming Events Video Streaming Radio Social Media Analytics
Events Email Campaigns AdWords Social Media Strategy Creative
Websites SEO Civic DevelopmentFacebook Advertising PPC
AdSense Integrated Marketing Campaigns WordPress
Government Communications On-Air Personality Print
Production Project Management Copywriting Innovation Google
Analytics Public Relations

6. I’m Interested and Want to Know More.
• Resume: Click here for my LinkedIN profile
• Email: Sebastian@SebastianWJames.me
• Phone: 773-879-3538