So – our Drilling Down on Local: Marketplaces event in Seattle has finally come and gone. There were some challenges here and there. But in the end, we successfully specced out the Marketplaces vision, and the age-old idea (from Clue Train Manifesto, Circa 2000) that “Markets are Conversations.”
Indeed, two weeks ago The Kelsey Group released research suggesting that vertical and classifieds marketplaces were going to amount to 24 percent of interactive advertising by 2012. This conference showed how it can happen.
There were 46 speakers in all, and most were terrific. My favorites were probably Rich Barton from Zillow, Rob Barrett from LA Times, Michael Yang from Yahoo and Merrill Brown. Other people would probably have a totally different, equally legitimate list. Erik Jorgensen from Microsoft? Mitch Golub from Cars.com? Garry Galinsky from CallGenie?
It was a great privilege to work with Matt Booth and Neal Polachek in producing this great big, 2 1/2 day thing. Special thanks to the 467 attendees (and 26 sponsors) who were willing to try some new things, learn from each other, visit the Space Needle (and eat unlimited Dove bars).
In the works are a couple of extensive, important posts. And maybe some random notes. But for now, you could get caught up in the great rundowns by our hard-working Kelsey team, and by Andrew Shotland’s highly recommended Local SEO Guide and Kate Kaye at ClickZ. I really enjoy their writing.
