8 April 2008
LeadsCon - A Quick Recap
I just got back last night from Las Vegas. I went out last Tuesday for LeadsCon and then stayed out for the weekend to go to a couple of parties (including Hugh Hefner’s Birthday @ Playboy/Moon… wow what an overcrowded nightmare).
The convention was absolutely the best I’d ever been to. There were several hundred attendees, but the expo was only a very small part of it (30 exhibitors I think), so no one really brought out affiliate managers or booth babes… nearly everyone I met was a VP/Director/CEO.
It kicked off Wednesday afternoon with a panel on lead quality, which I really enjoyed. I don’t deal in Mortgage, Auto, or Education leads, which are the largest and most mature markets, so learning about lead scoring, predictive modeling, and tracking used (and hoping to be soon implemented) in those verticals seemed like taking a peek into the future of my verticals.
The next session was a “competition” where 7 companies had 7 minutes to present their new business or product, then an award was given to the most innovative. The winner was SocialMedia but my hands-down favorite was AdReady. AdReady lets advertisers create their own creatives online using a slick web interface (and building off of existing templates that are presented to you along with existing CTR & performance data). It then communicates with several ad networks to get your campaigns all set up for you. You can see all of this technology without even signing up, so go check it out.
After those two sessions was the expo/happy hour. I was able to meet a few more cash advance lead buyers (which I was looking for) and some list managers (which I also need). After the expo I went to dinner with Peter Vogel of Memolink/CPA Storm, Scott Rewick of LSF Publishing, Matt & Lauren of Clash Media, and Jon of Pontiflex. The food (bone in filet @ 9 steakhouse) was incredible and Peter, our gracious host, selected some great wines. Everyone I met was awesome and we had a lot of fun at Ghostbar afterwards.
Thursday I managed to get to the show in time for the first 9am session and stayed for all but the last one and expo (ran out of gas and had to go get a nap). I learned a ton at the sessions and particularly enjoyed the panels on incentivized leads and live transfer leads.
The party Thursday night was at LAX, sponsored by Oversee.net. We had the entire top floor and a bottomless supply of gray goose, veuve clicquot, and don julio tequila.
Friday we had a couple more sessions with the show wrapping up around noon.
I was able to find contacts for nearly everything I went looking for and took 14 pages of notes & ideas during the panels (I think that’s more than I took in a typical semester of college). I can’t wait to go to the next one.