scottsmigler.com Blog

eCommerce Industry Dinner

December 17th, 2006

Last Tuesday I attended one of the more interesting industry events of my career.

Thanks to a connection from David Teten at Nitron Advisors, Majestric Research (an investment research company) invited me to have dinner with with fund managers and investors from major global investment firms. I was joined by a handful of other industry experts, including Adam Epstein (President & COO of adMarketplace), Joe Myeress (eBay Powerseller placing in the top 200 eBay sellers in 2005), and John Aiken from Majestic.

This was no traditional event. Myself and my fellow experts sat together in a private room in Spire Restaurant, located in the trendy Nine Zero hotel in Boston. We drank wine, consumed delicious food, and were peppered by insightful questions from a select group of the world’s leading investors and analysts covering the Internet space.

- What will happen to Yahoo if they crack down on paid search arbiters?

- How do you explain the low adoption rate of Google Checkout thus far?

- Will the “long tail” become saturated?

- How does Yahoo combat the brain-drain Google has catalyzed by sucking up the best minds from all over the world?
- How will Google’s quality score affect CPC rates?

These are just some questions the analysts posed to the group. In sum, and to put it bluntly, I was shocked at the depth of knowledge these analysts possessed. They knew more about the field than many people who call themselves Internet marketing experts, and the breadth of industry data offered by Majestic would excite geeks everywhere.

This event was small, intimate, and wonderfully challenging. I’d love to do more of these.

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