Erica Baccus, Research Director Erica Baccus began her career in the high tech industry by launching the 3 1/2” floppy disk as the worldwide advertising manager of Verbatim in 1982. She then worked for the largest independent high tech ad agency west of the Mississippi by helping start-ups like Maxtor and Adaptec build their first advertising campaigns. Later, Erica moved to high tech publishing, first as the Marketing Director for InfoWorld and then as VP Marketing for IDG (International Data Group), the world’s largest high-tech publishing company. There she launched the industry’s first formal study about how technology products are purchased with Buying IT in the 90s. She was VP Strategic Planning & Research at At Foote, Cone & Belding Technology Group from 1993 – 1996. Erica now runs Baccus Research, a research firm specializing in high tech, with a special focus on branding issues including user interface. Erica received her BS from Indiana University.