Speaker

Desireé Duffy is the Founder of Black Château, a marketing and public relations agency; Books That Make You, a multi-media brand that promotes books and authors through its award-winning website, podcast, and radio show; and the Webby Award-nominated The BookFest® Adventure, a biannual online event that brings together booklovers from around the world.

Duffy is an advocate for spreading stories, ideas, and making the future awesome. Her expansive marketing, event production, broadcast, and public relations background, mixed with her passion for storytelling, led her to found the multi-award-winning, full-service marketing and public relations firm, Black Château, in 2016.

She is a speaker on topics such as branding, marketing, digital and traditional media. In addition to holding the license and being the lead organizer for TEDxResedaBlvd in 2019, she produces events including The BookFest®, the annual Beach-Bound Book Bash, Scary Stories Around the Fire, Jingle Books, and has programed panels and placed speakers for The West Coast Writers Conferences, Digital Hollywood, the Alliance for Women in Media, Women in Business, the 805 Writers Conference and more.

Duffy contributes to ThriveGlobal.com and Equities.com, where she writes about marketing, technology, writing, entrepreneurship, and digital media. She also hosts, and is the executive producer, for the Books That Make You Show.

Desireé Duffy’s career spans nearly 20 years as a marketing and public relations professional in consumer goods, non-profits, and entertainment industries. Prior to launching Black Château, Duffy was the Vice President of the digital marketing agency, R6S. The creative agency serviced technology, fashion, education, ecommerce, and non-profit verticals. During her early career, Duffy was a radio host, program director, producer, and marketing professional with companies including: The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, iHeart Media’s KFI-AM, and ABC’s and Disney’s ESPN Radio/Radio Disney/KABC-AM/KLOS-FM. Since 2001 she served in roles for the Alliance for Women in Media’s Southern California Affiliate and National Headquarters, including: President, Western Area Director, Vice President of Programming, and Advisory Board chair.

Black Château awards and professional recognitions include: Webby Award nomination in the Online Events Category for The BookFest; Gold Award from the Muse Creative Awards in the Event Category under Festival/Carnival for The BookFest® Spring 2020; Silver Award from Muse Creative Awards in the Publication Category under Books for the cover design of Double Blind: The Icelandic Manuscript Murders in 2020; Silver Award in the Website Design Category from the 15^th Annual w3 Awards for The BookFest® Spring 2020; First-Place Canopus Award for Website Design and Aesthetics from the Vega Digital Awards in 2020; Ascent Award in Website and Brand Design from the Global Trend Awards in 2019; Gold Award in the General Website Magazine Category from the 13th Annual w3 Awards for the Books That Make You website in 2018; Duffy received the Publicist of the Year Award from The Southern California Book Publicists in 2017; Duffy was named the awardee for the Genii Award for Excellence in New Media in 2017; Duffy also received a nomination for the 2016 Los Angeles Business Journal’s Women in Business Awards, and won the Marketer of the Year Award during the Future of Digital Media Conference in 2015.

Professional memberships: The Greater Los Angeles Writer’s Society, The Independent Writers of Southern California, the Independent Book Publishers Association, the Los Angeles chapters of the Women’s National Book Association, the Alliance for Women in Media, the Horror Writer’s Association, and the Book Publicists of Southern California.

Duffy is a graduate of Marian University, and Santa Clarita’s College of the Canyons. She also attended the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. She holds Bachelor of Science degrees in English and communication, and an associate degree in art and in marketing. She also holds certificates in ecommerce business and entrepreneurship. Desireé Duffy spends her time between Southern California, Oklahoma, and everywhere bookish events and booklovers can be found around the world.