12 Interesting "Local" and "Geo-Location" Conferences in 2011
January 24, 2011
I was asked by a Quora user to list “What are the best digital events focusing on ‘localisation’ this year?”. I answered on Quora.com but thought it would be a good idea to share with my blog readers as well.
Here is my top-of-mind list of interesting conferences/events with strong “local” and “geolocation” angles in 2011:
- Conversational Commerce Conference (Opus Research), February 2011
- Local Online Advertising Conference (Borrell Associates), March 2011
- Interactive Local Media East (BIA/Kelsey), March 2011
- Newspapers Association of America conference (MediaXchange), March 2011
- Yellow Pages Association Conference, April 2011
- Where 2.0 Conference (O’Reilly), April 2011
- European Association of Directory Publishers Conference, May 2011
- European Association of Directory Publishers Congress, September 2011
- Directional Media Strategies (BIA/Kelsey), September 2011
- Asian Directories Publishers Association Conference, November 2011
- Local Social Summit, November 2011
- Interactive Local Media West (BIA/Kelsey), December 2011
Check out GeoLoco (http://geoloco.tv/) as well. They haven’t announced anything yet for 2011 but they probably will.
I’m sure I forgot a few. Please let me know in the comments and I’ll add them to the list.
Update:
Other related conferences:
- Navigation Strategies USA (The Where Business), January 2011
New data from iSuppli:
With cell phones increasingly becoming the nexus of the burgeoning markets for navigation and Location Based Services (LBS), the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology in such platforms is set to explode during the coming years, according to iSuppli Corp.
In the fourth quarter of 2011, 79.9 percent of cell phones shipped—amounting to 318.3 million units—will incorporate GPS functionality, up from 56.1 percent in the first quarter of 2009—or 187.8 million units—iSuppli predicts. (…)
iSuppli also sees an increased penetration of embedded GPS in a range of consumer and compute electronic devices by 2014. For example, iSuppli estimates that 18 percent of laptops and 42 percent of portable handheld video game players will have embedded GPS in 2014.
via Four out of Five Cell Phones to Integrate GPS by End of 2011. (found via Laurent_Local)
What it means: this massive deployment of geo-location technology will create new business opportunities that don’t even exist today. Every device and application will be able to have a “local” flavor, a local angle. And I’m fairly convinced people will feel “local” is more relevant.
Local Monetization is Still a Challenge
June 11, 2010
My friend Mike Boland (BIA/Kelsey) discusses check-ins, geo-location startups and monetization over at SearchEngineWatch:
(…) But in all of the excitement, there’s still something missing; a clearly defined path to monetization. Some of the players mentioned above are exceptions with national advertisers, and other revenue streams such as carrier deals. (…)
The problem is that this ignores what those in local space have known for years; self-provisioning ain’t that simple. But the line is still the same from newcomers to the geo-location game: “Why wouldn’t any SMB want to sign up for something that drives foot traffic into their store or restaurant?”
In theory, I agree. But the thinking falls apart with the reality that most SMBs don’t have the time, technical competence, and inclination to launch and manage these promotions. Plus, don’t forget the complexity of countless sales reps and new digital options flying at them from all angles. (…)
via Mobile & Location: Checking in on the Latest (Part 2) – Search Engine Watch (SEW).
What it means: Monetizing online “local” is very difficult. Even Google has had difficulties with it. The only ones who have been massively successful are directory publishers but they forgot to take care of users all these years. It’s difficult to monetize but not impossible. Just look at Groupon. And I think we’re starting to see savvier small merchants out there, who are starting to use the Web in a very strategic fashion. But it will take time.
Sylvain Carle, Praized Media’s other co-founder and CTO, had the opportunity to present at the Where 2.0 conference Ignite session. His session, called “People Suck at Naming Places”, can be seen here on Blip.tv. One of the concepts struck a nerve with Tim O’Reilly, who quoted Sylvain on Twitter. Well done Sylvain!
Sylvain Carle, Praized Media’s other co-founder and CTO, had the opportunity to present at the Where 2.0 conference Ignite session. His session, called “People Suck at Naming Places”, can be seen here on Blip.tv. One of the concepts struck a nerve with Tim O’Reilly, who quoted Sylvain on Twitter. Well done Sylvain!
Twitter's Ineluctable March Towards Local Relevancy
January 24, 2010
Multiple news in the last few days points towards Twitter and Facebook becoming serious forces in the world of “local”.
First, in yet another chapter of Twitter’s improvements to become locally relevant, it has started rolling out its “local trends” for a series of US cities and ome countries (probably based on the ones with the most usage).
Screenshot source: Techcrunch
On a related note, the Kelsey Group analysts issued five predictions for 2010 and one of them is “location and geotargeted advertising will represent a long-elusive revenue stream for Twitter and for third parties that mash up Twitter streams and location data.” They also suggest Facebook will also “integrate automatic location detection into the status updates” .
Third, supporting the permanent shift of user behavior towards sites like Facebook and Twitter, Forrester reports that “a third of all Internet users in the U.S. now post status updates on social networking services like Twitter and Facebook at least once per week.”
Fourth, David Hornik, a well-known American investor, recently attended a Procter & Gamble (P&G) outreach event in Silicon Valley. Asked what they thought of Twitter, Hornik writes: “To P&G, Twitter is a great broadcast medium — it is best for one to many communications that are short bursts of timely information — but as good as it is for timely information, the P&G folks do not view it as particularly relevant to what they are doing on the brand building and advertising side. For those things that Proctor & Gamble thinks are most interesting and important, they do not believe that Twitter will ever approach the value they can get out of a Google or Facebook.” This reminds me of what big brands think of Yellow Pages as a medium. They don’t understand it but it’s still drives business for millions of advertisers. Twitter will be (is?) all about the same thing. And for the record, I’ve always thought packaged-goods companies could have made a killing with Yellow Pages by making their product information locally-relevant…
Fifth, Hitwise’s traffic reports in Australia (as reported in ReadWriteWeb) show that “For perhaps the first time ever, social networking sites have surpassed the traffic search engines receive”. That would explain why in the long run Google is afraid of the new conversational capacity of sites like Facebook and Twitter. And why they’re racing to
introduce social functionalities within Google Maps.
What it means: Twitter and Facebook are both on their way to becoming serious local discovery and communication tools. It is happening.
