ILM East is coming back to Boston March 26-28 with a lineup of do-ers and innovators that are transforming and re-defining the local space.

Highlights include a featured keynote from industry legend Ted Leonsis (Groupon Vice Chair/Amex Board Member/Sports team owner/AOL mastermind), along with keynotes/interviews from Jason Calacanis, Leslie Berland, Jay Herratti, Michael Zimbalist and Michael Silberman.

Other highlights of the 2 ½ day event includes a pre-conference rundown on Local search run by Andrew Shotland of Local SEO Guide; a full plate of Top BIA/Kelsey research and forecasts; a special Venture Capital panel; and innovator panels on Social, Mobile, Deals, Video and Hyperlocal (the latter co-moderated with Merrill Brown.)

KEYNOTES/KEYNOTE DISCUSSIONS
• Ted Leonsis: Owner, Monumental Sports (Washington Capitals, Washington Wizards;) The Vice Chair of Groupon;, Board member of Amex, former Vice Chair of AOL; Author, The Business of Happiness
• Jason Calacanis: CEO, Mahalo; Investor. Calacanis’ career has been at the cutting edge of local and social media and reflects all the big trends, from his development of The Silicon Alley Reporter to Weblogs (AOL), Mahalo, and the creation of TechCrunch50 and Launch.
• Leslie Berland, Vice President, Social Strategy, American Express. Berland’s a major deal maker deeply involved in Amex’s mega FourSquare and Facebook deals.
• Jay Herratti, CEO, CityGrid Media. Herratti always gets top rankings at our events. He runs IAC’s super quad of the CityGrid Media Network, Citysearch, UrbanSpoon and InsiderPages.
• Michael Zimbalist, VP, Research Operations, New York Times Co. Zimbalist leads the NYT’s 12 person research unit. He’s deeply immersed in cutting edge social, mobile, tablet and video efforts.
• Michael Silberman, GM, New York Magazine Silberman is the mastermind of NYMag’s development of a super set of verticals catering to the “New York state of mind.”).

FEATURED SPEAKERS
• Bill Bice, CEO, SpaBoom
• Merrill Brown, co-founder. MSNBC.com, Court TV
• Jim Douglass, EVP, Cartera Commerce
• Jere Doyle, CEO, EverSave
• Walt Doyle, CEO, Where
• Adam Japko, CEO, Digital Sherpa
• Maria Kermath, Dir.,, New Tech & Sales Apps, AT&T Advertising Sales
• Mark Josephson, SVP, AOL Local
• Charlie Kim, CEO, Next Jump
• John McIntyre, CEO, Pixelfish
• Randa Minkarah, SVP, Revenue, Fisher Communications
• Randy Parker, President, SMB Apps
• Mark Schmulen, GM, Social Media, Constant Contact
• Andrew Shotland, Publisher, Local SEO Guide
• Andy Slater, VP, Digital Agency Sales, Katz 360
• Christopher Tippie, CEO, FindNSave
• Darren Waddell, EVP, Product and Corporate Marketing, Reply.com

Join hundreds of senior level local executives at ILM East for the local community’s best networking and insights. You can register here for earlier bird rates.

Internet Pioneer Ted Leonsis

A few years ago, the location of businesses became a big question mark, as well as a strategic issue, as people wanted to shop or dine nearby. These “geo-fencing” issues were especially important for Yellow Pages companies.

Since then, search has become more the norm, along with GPS-based phones, which have location baked into them. What hasn’t changed is that you still need the geo-fencing data tied with other meta data for local discovery. You still need to know what subway line is near, where the nearest parking garages are, or what your choices are for dining when you are visiting your friend in Chelsea.

Companies such as Maponics, Urban Mapping, Zillow and others are still licensing or providing their geo-fencing results. And now, the customer base is more universal among companies in the local space, along with key verticals related to schools, real estate and other verticals. Other companies, such as Yahoo, have used such data to introduce Proximity Search.

The result can be a seamless paradigm that integrates local mapping information with coupons, deals and other merchant information. But not everyone gets it.

“Some publishers still don’t get how to have cross platforms,” suggests Maponics CEO Darrin Clement. “They’re still looking for leads in the social world; still bolting on coupons to their results. They’re too intent on protecting the existing paradigm.”

Clement says mobile users, especially, need seamless roaming of information. He notes that some local services will just use the Zillow API. And it works well for startups. But Zillow only has 7,000 neighborhoods,” he notes. “We have 160,000. Zillow has 100 cities. We have 2,300 cities.”

The idea of an online marketplace has continued to evolve dramatically in 2011. With the emergence of deals, we now have full-fledged Interactive Local Commerce in place, in addition to advertising.

It seems that everyone has jumped into the pool. Where Marketplaces had previously been dominated by players such as AutoTrader, eBay and OpenTable, everyone from Facebook to FourSquare to Visa have developed non-advertising (or advertising +) Marketplaces strategies. As we approach our year-end ILM West conference, what can we expect for 2012?

Here’s some of our top-line “predictions”:

1. Amex, MasterCard and Visa along with banks will seek to differentiate themselves from others by making key acquisitions in the vertical and mobile space during 2012.

2. SmartPhones will increasingly be seen as transactional tools for food ordering and other services. In many cases, transactions will prove to be the real road to mobile adoption, more than apps and content.

3. Point and Rewards/Membership programs will evolve for local shopping, with more companies trying to rope-in frequent ,high value buyers as members that have minimum purchasing requirements. The prototype, followed by Living Social and others, are credit card promotions and Amazon Prime.

4. eBay will continue building its international classifieds business, and will extend into local retail via Milo. But inventory (or eBay) won’t reach deep into the SMB space in 2012. They’ll mostly focus on larger retail sites.

5. Review sites such as Yelp are currently one-size-fits-all. But they’ll be increasingly differentiated by targeting and social technologies that better personalize reviews and other content, and move into transactions/reservations as well.

ILM West is shaping up to be one of the great ones. Taking place Dec. 12-14 in downtown San Francisco, ILM West really reflects a sea change in local marketing from advertising to the new hybrid model of advertising and commerce (i.e. prepaid deals, reputation management, mobile app sales etc.).

We’ve made some big additions since our last update, starting with Google and Facebook. These add to the existing lineup, including our “rock stars” (Clear Channel CEO and industry legend Bob Pittman AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher, Media News Group/Journal Register CEO John Paton and Deseret Media and former Harvard Business School Professor Clark Gilbert), and major sessions on deals, offers, verticals and the whole spectrum of local trends.

We will pursue three unique angles on Google at ILM West:

1- The local efforts, under Marissa Mayer’s local team. Jeff Aguero, head of local marketing, will present on everything local, from Zagat, to Google Places, to the Big G’s new “Get Online” program for SMBs. These strategies have really developed since this summer.

2- The global reseller effort. Global Channels head Todd Rowe will engage in an in-depth conversation with BIA/Kelsey President Neal Polachek on all his efforts.

3- Google Mobile. Mobile and Local Search exec Surojit Chatterjee will provide insights into this critical area for Google as part of our All SoLoMo morning on Day 3.

We’re also going deep with Facebook at ILM West. Facebook’s new local leader Matt Idema is our afternoon keynote on Day 2, with a lot of new details and a progress report on the local and vertical strategies. On Day 1, we are also taking a special look at working with Facebook’s platform with execs from Trada, Oodle and Kenshoo Local/Social weighing in. Eager but not sure how to play with Facebook? You will be when ILM West is done.

The SoLoMo event on Day 3 itself is going to be quite the cornerstone for ILM West. Curated by the research teams from our Social Local Media and Mobile Local Media programs, SoLoMo features top line data; and indepth and fresh looks at SoLoMo implementations from leaders at Google, AT&T Interactive, Zaarly, PayPal, XAd, JiWire and AppStack (Steve Espinosa’s new project.)

You can see the full agenda here. And register here.

Remember: We are making a donation to the SF/Marin County Food Bank for all registrations that come in by Thanksgiving.

Matchbin has spent $10 million to acquire 800 radio and TV accounts from Navteq’s Radio and TV Group (formely Traffic.com). It has also raised $12 million for working assets from Silicon Valley Bank, and is rebranding the combined entity as Radiate Media. The money to acquire the Navteq broadcaster accounts came from Level Equity, Greycroft Partners and vSpring Capital.

The company will have dual headquarters in Malvern,PA and Salt Lake City, with additional offices in several media capitals. Radiate Media CEO Chris Rothey will now assume the same title for the combined entity, while Matchbin CEO Hal Widlansky becomes President and COO.

Matchbin been one of many vendors vying for local media partners to build an ad network and provide online services such as directories and SEO. It has been competing with the likes of CItyGrid Media, Local.com, Datasphere, Local Thunder, Planet Discover, Triton Online Services, MediaSpan, Ellington, ShopCity and others. The challenge has been to differentiate itself from the pack. One way has been to assert itself as a cutting-edge technology provider. Along these lines, it has focused on such things as providing mobile apps and iPad specific services.

The purchase of the Navteq broadcast accounts is a bolder move. It includes the accounts that had been grandfathered from Navteq’s $210 million purchase of Traffic.com in 2007, but never deeply integrated into the main business of providing map and data content to mobile carriers.

The new accounts will be added to Matchbin’s 1,300 existing media accounts – which are mainly newspaper and local news media. They now put Matchbin in 49 of the Top 50 markets, reaching 50 percent of U.S. households. Previously, Matchbin’s largest market was Orange County, CA via The OC Register. More typical markets were Marietta,GA and Albuquerque, NM. The company also reports having a base of 6,000 advertisers.

COO Hal Widlansky told us he likes the new positioning because it creates a network of 4,000 ad spots a day on the network. He also notes that the former Navteq properties will provide near-term cash flow, accounting for roughly 75 percent of the company’s revenue. Over time, however, he anticipates that the provision of online services from a variety of players will even things out. Much of the growth of the new company will come from the digital side of the business.

Mobile also figures largely in the company’s plans, adds Widlansky, especially with HTML 5 changing the mobile dynamic away from apps.

The two year old, venture-funded site has 40 employees. It raised $1.5 Million in a Series A round, and is looking at a $5 million Series B round.

The site is now fully launched in New York, Atlanta, Washington D.C. and San Francisco. It also has “lite” versions in Boston, Chicago, Nashville, Dallas, Denver, Austin, Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle. Soon, it will also launch in San Diego, Phoenix, Houston, Miami, Philadelphia and Charlotte.

A key to the site is that it refers customers to deals via a phone’s geo-location capabilities. Indeed, 60 percent of its new traffic is coming in via smartphones, says site founder David Payne. At the end of the month, the site takes a flat $3 or $4 lead fee for each redeemed offer (depending on the size of the market).

Payne told us that he devised the lead fee because he just doesn’t believe that $12 or $15 commissions on a $30 deal is sustainable over time. He compares the lead fee to OpenTable, which charges per diner fees.

Payne also thinks its important for consumers to see “dozens or hundreds” of deals, rather than focus on a single daily deal. Deal curation is also important, and the site has recently been diving into experiential deals such as local tours or coming up, Halloween parties.

To get the best deals, you can’t fake the localness of a site, says Payne. He also notes that the site has been inspired by the way Yelp built local sites around community managers, The fully launched sites have local writers, managers and sales in each market.

Even with that local focus, it takes at least 12 months to hone a subscriber list at the local level, says Payne. He adds that he site now has 300,000 subscribers in Atlanta, its original market, and is moving up in its other markets as well.

Scoutmob co-founder Michael Tavani is speaking on our Deals panel at ILM West Dec. 12-14, along with leaders from CBS Local Media, Belo, Thrillist and Local Offer Network.

Fresh on the heels of the sale of Backyard, a local offers company to Pixelfish, entrepreneur Steve Espinosa has assembled a new team to develop “Appetizer,” a new mobile-centric service that enables restaurants to offer instant deals via push notifications.

Using the service, which costs $9.95 per month, restaurants can also add menu items and contact information. They can also customize the app to fit their branding.

The company has raised some initial funds and is now raising $300,000. “By leveraging the information from the Social Graph, we can build out the boring part of app instantly,” notes promotional literature. “The small businesses can then focus on bringing back customers through deals, specials, rewards and events.”

SinglePlatform, which places restaurant search info such as menus, specials and photos, on search engines and social and mobile media, has raised $3.25 million. The new raise is led by DFJ Gotham Ventures with participation from New World Ventures, First Round Capital and RRE Venture. It is on top of $1.2 million raised in February 2010.

For a few hundred dollars per year, Single Platform, restaurants can publish their listings across a publisher network that includes 11,000 mobile applications, 34,000 hotels, 620 universities, data providers, and travel and food specific destination sites. Mobile optimization is especially emphasized. The company’s tagline is “Get Discovered, Publish your news (or information) to millions online.”

Social media also plays a significant role. Menus can be published within websites, and users can “like” items, as well as search by in real-time by popularity, price, & dish.

More than 100,000 restaurants are said to be using the company’s products now, and the goal is to have 250,000 restaurants. It isn’t clear how many are actually buying services, however. . The company also emphasizes search by cuisine specialties (i.e. “gyros,” instead of Greek). I don’t personally shop for restaurants that way.

Currently, the company has 40 employees, including dedicated sales in “every” major market. The company’s sales people make premise calls with iPad demos that emphasize the need to create a “full browser” self-serve experience, rather than a simple website.

The main revenue model, today, is based off of the yearly subscription fee. SinglePlatform has signed up major publishers throughout the country – and will be releasing these partnerships, as well as a brand new product, next month. Looking forward, SinglePlatform investors have said that the company will expand to other local categories beyond restaurants.

The appeal of real-time promotions allowing SMBs to add or update a sale or special offer on the fly is fairly apparent. It is a segment that’s been chased after by such players as Google, Yext and others.

Add Chalkboard to the list. The year-old, 12-person startup launched with operations in Singapore and Malaysia, where it has 4,300 customers: mostly local retailers, shopping malls and credit card companies. It recently launched a beta in the U.S., setting up shop in San Francisco. It claims 7.8 million total users.

Business owners can run unlimited promotions sent in via the Web-based dashboard, Twitter or SMS for a flat fee, which start at 99 cents per day. Services are also being embedded in apps, including Friendly for the iPad, a popular Facebook app.

The average business can make up to 11 changes a month (although we know from experience that most won’t make more than few, at least initially). Mobile is a special emphasis, as consumers can be targeted to within one mile, or one kilometer, of their location – a feature that retailers have already gotten to know via JiWire’s NearByNow. The site enables promotions to run from 140-300 characters, letting businesses say substantially more than they can on Twitter, which is limited to 140 characters.

CEO and co-founder Saumil Nanavati tells us that the company is based on the idea that businesses “don’t need graphic designers,” they just need to focus on their promotional message. He says the company has learned there are interesting divides between users who come in via the Web and users coming in via mobile. The Web currently accounts for 60 percent of its traffic.

Categories such as restaurants get much more traffic from the Web-based dashboard, says Nanavati – a finding that surprised us, as the mobile-oriented Instant Deals sites, such as Groupon Now, are especially focused on restaurants for mobile. What does better on mobile are things to do when people are walking around, such as art galleries, he says.

Businesses do really well online when they create “events” — as local promotion companies ranging from Zvents to Active.com have discovered. Home Depot has classes. Those are events. Brew pubs have free samples. Those are events, too. And so are REI’s adventure trips. They all pop up on calendars, in search results, and in social media as well.

Brands can jump-start events too, sometimes in partnership with retail. Last night’s Georges DeBouef and Burger Night” produced by WineTwits was a stellar example. GD, of course, is the original wine event company, with an annual event built around the pent-up demand every year for the release of its Beaujolais Nouveau.

WineTwits boasts 62,000 followers on Twitter, and has produced a number of events for wine brands and distributors, tying in with wine influencers and local retail establishments. It is part of a broader entity that produces similar events for spirits companies and also provides happy hours promotions (the original model, incidentally, for Living Social’s deals).

Georges DeBouef’s goals in having an event were clear from the get-go. It is marketing several red wines that it considers perfect summer time fare for BBQs – but consumers don’t normally think of refrigerating red wine.

Working with WineTwits, GD put together an all star event. It hired Bob Waggoner from PBS’ ‘Ucook with Chef Bob,’ to match its wines with several burgers; and arranged for a live, one hour Rachel Ray-like cooking and tasting Webcast in NYC. It also heated up demand by FedExing a trio of bottles to key influencers around the country, along with the burger recipes – dozens of whom tweeted away.

There was, in fact, a great deal of pre-event buildup on both WineTwits and #GDandburgers. It was a lot of fun, as the tweeters discussed their expectations for the burgers, their related shopping activities etc. 3,500 people have registered to participate in WineTwits’ Virtual Tasting Network. Past virtual tasting events have involved wine bars (i.e. The Wine Loft) and wine restaurants (i.e. City Winery) and retailers (Stew Leonard’s).

WineTwits founder Steve Gilberg tells us there were ultimately”hundreds of parties going on nationwide, generating thousands of tweets” and an estimated reach of 1.75 million people. Gilberg estimates that the event was probably less expensive than “the cost of a TV ad or a couple of full page ads in leading publications. It is certainly easier than having reps travel around the country and host events, which has been the industry’s standard practice.”

More importantly, from GD’s perspective, “the …engagement with the brand is really powerful,” says Gilberg. “You see people talking about your brand. And it creates such momentum.”

For my part, my wife and I invited two couples over, and had a cookout featuring all three recommended burgers (which were quite excellent, although we liked the Portabella Mushroom Burger the most, along with the Beaujolais-Villages.) We got a real kick out of the Twitter stream before and during the event – there was a lot of interesting trivia given about the wines, and their native regions in France, as well as funny stories about individual events.

But we only paid attention to the cyber stuff for a few minutes. For one thing, we didn’t want to spill wine on the iPads and smart phones. Mostly, we just had a really good time. Was the event a success? We’ll certainly think about GD wines – refrigerated – for the rest of our summer meals.