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If corporate travel budgets are being curtailed because of the downward economy, you wouldn’t know it from the number of attendees who flocked to New York City earlier this month for a slew of media conferences and events.
More than 60,000 people alone attended Advertising Week (Sept. 22-26), according to industry bible Advertising Age. Advertising Week was preceded by Web 2.0 Expo, which drew thousands of Web professionals, marketers and entrepreneurs, and OMMA (Online Media, Marketing and Advertising) Global New York, which focused on the ever-changing media landscape and developments in search, online video, mobile and metrics, among other areas.
While many of these conferences take on a Groundhog-Day quality (and, because of how repetitive they can be, sometimes remind me of what screenwriter/novelist/playwright William Goldman said about Hollywood, “Nobody knows anything”) there was ample opportunity for attendees to pick each other’s brain about trends in social media and online advertising.
During a run through OMMA I got the chance to chat with a few folks whose companies are angling to help enterprises (both large and small) navigate the constant changes online in terms of improving customer relations and building a better mousetrap to buy and sell advertising, both online and off.
In order, I spoke to Tom Gerace, CEO of social networking site Gather.com, who is also founding chairman of the recently launched Social Media Advertising Council (SMAC); David Marks, CTO and co-founder of Loomia, which helps companies to enhance engagement on their Web sites and Shane Vaughan, VP-Marketing of Balihoo, which provides advertising tools for buyers and sellers across media platforms.
Enjoy.
