Inaugural Internet Summit Held in Chapel Hill, NC
Learning from Industry Experts
By: T. Quantá Holden
Chapel Hill, NC – On Wednesday, November 18, 2008, the inaugural Internet Summit was held at the Friday Center at UNC Chapel Hill. The Summit welcomed a sold-out crowd of approximately 650 individuals interested in learning from technology leaders about the possibilities that the Internet offers and get a glance of what industry leaders think the future holds.
A number of attendees wanted to know what the long range forecast is for the Internet considering the current economic status of the world. The question was asked what role would the Internet play in the world’s economic recovery. Doug Griswold, a local consultant stated that he attended the conference because he wanted to know how the web is and will fare during these tough economic times.
The panel of speakers for the Internet Summit ranged from major corporate executives like Bob Young, Founder and CEO of Lulu.com, Co-founder and former CEO Red Hat; Thomas Jacobik, Operations Manager for Google to local entrepreneur, Ryan Allis CEO and Co-founder of iContact, a email marketing firm based in RTP, NC.
Bob Young was one of the feature speakers that got the day off to an exciting start. Taylor Barr, who works in Public Relations for iContact, commented that the day got off to a great start with Bob Young’s speech. Barr noted that the Lulu.com CEO was very insightful and engaging, yet he did not use PowerPoint or any other media to make his points.
Young credited his success with at Red Hat and Lulu.com to doing something he has a passion for. He noted that the Internet connects every person on the planet to every other person on the planet. “Success on the Internet is all about organizing content and making it make sense to your customers.” He also encouraged everyone to find that which he or she has a passion for, because one will have more fun and do a better job in the long run.
The Summit was composed of twelve panels ranging from 45-60 minutes each, with industry leaders sharing their experiences and answering questions from the audience. Six of the panel topics:
- Blogging and New Media
- Internet Venture Outlook
- Marketing in a 2.0 World
- Social Networks & Communities
- Next Generation Email Marketing
- The Present & Future of Search
Blogging and New Media
Brad Hill, director of Weblogs, who was one of the members of the “Blogging and New Media” panel, stated that blogging and new media allow one to have a more transparent and honest conversation with consumers. Tim Schigel, CEO of ShareThis, believes that President-Elect Barack Obama’s campaign will be studied for years to come as it used new media to open source the Obama campaign, noting that this could be a key to his victory.
Internet Venture Outlook
Many attendees of the Internet Summit were interested in the “Internet Venture Outlook” considering the world’s current economic situations. This panel agreed that new ventures are risky at this point and time but expect an economic turnaround in 12-24 months. William Staffnen, World Wide Venture, shared that he attended the conference looking for investment opportunities in the areas of texting and mobile distribution. Members of the New Media panel noted these as areas for future potential growth.
Marketing In 2.0 World
Jim Tobin, President of Ignite Social Media, moderated of this panel and took questions via Twitter to display how Web 2.0 is influencing everything we do. The panel noted that Web 2.0 supports the power shift that is taking place in the world of media. Web 2.0 allows audience to talk back and interact, which, differs greatly from 1.0. Reggie Bradford, Founder & CEO, Vitrue, commented that President-Elect Barack Obama’s presidential victory was a great measure of the return on investment of a successful Web 2.0 campaign.
Social Networks & Communities
The “Social Networks & Communities” panels discussed how these demand fulfillment and demand generation need to be analyzed to determine what role they can have in the future of marketing. The panel pointed out that successful social networks can be used obtain information about what people want and have potential to provide depth into what consumers desire.
Next Generation Email Marketing
IContact, CEO and Founder, Ryan Allis shared his success in helping his clients use email as a primary form of communication. The entire panel was in agreement that email is the last thing that companies will get rid of, even during these difficult economic times. The panel noted that email is an easy way for clients to track return on investment.
The Present and Future of Search
Michael Marshall, Co-founder & CTO of PointMetrix, explained to the audience that you couldn’t just throw branding dollars at search engines, without measuring the effects of Web 2.0 first. Marshall gave an in depth explanation into how important search engine optimization is to success online.
Kevin McFall, VP of Product for Rushmore Drive, explained the business model behind Rushmore Drive, which was launched in April of 2008 as a search engine targeting the African-American community. McFall noted that this search engine targets a specific demographic and that IAC hopes that it is just the beginning of a market for search engines that utilize the value of cultural bias. IAC believes social search engines will have great market value because they will allow marketer to track trends and therefore provide valuable data that can be leveraged in the search engine industry.
The inaugural Internet Summit was concluded with featured speakers, Divya Narendra, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss founders of ConnectU who have settled a lawsuit with Facebook. The trio was limited in what they could say about how they planted the seed that blossomed into social network leader Facebook because of the settlement. The attorney of Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, was in attendance, from San Francisco, CA, to monitor what the plaintiffs said.
