THE 2011 GEOPUBLISHERS.COM EXPO RECAP

Geopublishers Expo 2011 The inaugural Expo of GeoPublishers.com was held in Chicago this weekend, supported by a good turnout of members of the association and others in the geodomain community. After the event was opened by Fred Mercaldo (President) the keynote address was given by Ron Jackson, Editor of DNJournal.com who talked about geodomains as a disruptive force in local media. Next up was Alisa Cromer, who runs Local Media Insider (remember that all GeoPublishers.com members get a free subscription to LMI) who gave a presentation that cut to the chase - 10 tips on how to make money quickly!

The next sessions drew on the experience of our industry leaders, with Don Jones and Bill Hammack sharing what they've been doing with NewOrleans.com; and then Jessica Bookstaff Doppelt and Sara Mannix talked about the importance of branding and marketing strategies, and their role in building successful local sites.

The lunchtime keynote was given by David and Michael Castello, with their "State of the Geos" address, during which they underscored their new strategy of "drilling deep" in a small number of sites.

We then shifted gear somewhat, to focus on mobile, which is becoming an increasingly important piece of the online puzzle. Sandy Martin, formerly director of mobile initiatives at Borrell Associates, and now in a similar role at Schurz Communications, explained how to invest in and exploit the mobile revenue opportunities. With mobile advertising predicted to account for more than 60% of online ad spending in a few years, she showed how to use apps, text messaging and mobile sites in a local and hyperlocal context.

We ended Day 1 with presentations from Mike McDonnell (CEO of GeoPlatforms LLC) who is a driving force in search engine optimization, who spoke on how to win terms and get traffic; and Rick Schneider, who talked about the new Priceline program, and how the travel sites had redefined how people book online.

The growing significance of social media had been a theme of several of the earlier presentations, and we began Day 2 with an explanation from Paul Wagner (CEO of Forkfly) of how to integrate social media into mobile sites and products. This was followed by the Borrell Associates "A Team" and an interactive session on the advertising patterns in specific markets. Drawing on their research, Gordon Borrell, Colby Atwood and Pete Conti presented data on what is being spent in cities where Expo attendees have their businesses.

We will be posting links later this week to most of the presentations.

Despite GeoPublishers.com being the new kid on the block, we had the support of several sponsors (see below!) who helped make this event possible. We had a great venue, a well-attended and superbly catered President's reception on the evening before the Expo, and the event has been extensively covered. To date, see:

http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2011/dailyposts/20111003.htm