2024 Schedule
Thursday May 2nd
TIMES IN EDT
9:30am Welcome from William Keep, Dean Tammy Dieterich, TCNJ School of Business.
9:35 – 10:00: Keynote: Kati Daffan, Assistant Director, Federal Trade Commission, Division of Marketing Practices
10:00 – 11:00: Session 1: FTC Rulemaking Process
Erin, John & Maddy will discuss the Federal Trade Commission’s rulemaking process, rule proposals that may affect multilevel marketing conduct, and how rules can shape the conduct of consumers and businesses.
Erin Witte, Consumer Federation of America
John Breyault, National Consumer League
Maddy Gitomer, Democracy Forward
11:00 – 11:15: Break
11:15 – 11:45: Session 2: Opportunity Costs: Deceptive MLM Earnings Claims
Bonnie Patten, TINA.org
11:45 – 12:30 Session 3: Recent Academic Publications
Presenters will share recently published MLM-related research in the fields of psychology, marketing, media studies and sociology
Lucas Dixon, PhD, The University of Queensland
William Keep, PhD, The College of New Jersey, Emeritus
12:30 – 1:30: Lunch
1:30 – 2:15: Session 3: Recent Academic Publications (cont.)
Mara Einstein, PhD, City University of New York
Jessica Pearce, PhD, University of Louisiana, Lafayette
2:15 – 3:00: Session 4: Words: Industry word use and misuse
Presenters discuss striking and disturbing examples of how MLMs manipulate consumers via language
Máire O Sullivan, PhD, Munster Technological University
Marco Moukhaiber, Social Media Activist
3:00 – 3:15: Break
3:10 – 4:00: Session 4 (cont.)
Gina Marie Longo, PhD and Frankie Mastrangelo, PhD, Virginia Commonwealth University
Jane Marie, award-winning journalist and author
4:00 – 4:30: Q and A
Friday May 3rd
TIMES IN EDT
9:30 – 10:30: Session 5: Recent Cases Against MLM Companies
Presenters cover successful cases in the US and Poland, public and private
Dariusz Lomowski, Director at Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, Gdansk, Poland
Jonathan Ware, Federal Trade Commission
Jason Jones, Assistant Attorney General
10:30 – 10:45: Break
10:45 – 11:15: Session 6: Neora Decision
An idiosyncratic court position inconsistent with the core of pyramid scheme case law.
Peter Vander Nat, PhD, Senior Economist, FTC, retired
11:15 – 11:45: Session 7: How Vietnam gutted its own regulations to create an MLM-friendly environment
Presenter will show regulatory changes in Vietnam and their immediate aftermath.
William Keep, PhD
11:45 – 12:45: Lunch
12:45 – 2:30: Session 8: The Roles that Coercive Control and Undue Influence Play in Multi-Level Marketing
Kat Garcia-Benson, RDN, CSSD, Social Media Activist
Julie Anderson, Social Media Activist
Kalika Kanitkar, Social Media Activist
Alanda Carter, Social Media Activist
Brandie Hadfield, Social Media Activist
Gladys, AKA MLM Exit, Social Media Activist
Melissa Henry, Social Media Activist
Megan Williams, Social Media Activist
Chris Shelton, Social Media Activist
With Support From: Roberta Blevins and Michelle Carpenter, Social Media Activists
2:30 – 3:00: Q and A
3:00: Close conference