The Internet Retailer 2009 Conference & Exhibition announced today the largest speaker roster in the history of e-retailing. 178 experts from all segments of the online retailing industry will speak at the 5th Annual IRCE conference in Boston on June 15-18. These experts will address every major e-retailing strategy and practice and will weave their presentations into the theme of this year's agenda: "Rising Above—Not Just Surviving—the Economic Storm." Registration information for the conference is available at http://www.irce.com.
IRCE 2009 is also pleased to announced that its keynote speaker will be Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com, No. 30 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide. Byrne, who has been in online retailing for a decade, will provide e-retailers with secrets for thriving in a volatile market.
IRCE's 2009 speaker roster is 24% larger than last year’s and reflects a reduction in the number of general sessions and a significant increase in more targeted concurrent sessions that meet the information needs of more groups of web merchants. Also, the number of conference tracks has been increased from three to four. IRCE will again feature four day-long workshops focused on high-interest areas that are keys to e-retailing success: search engine marketing, the small e-retailer's survival guide, e-mail marketing and mobile commerce.
The expansion of the speaker line-up is a direct response to the show's impressive growth. Long the largest conference in e-retailing, IRCE last November was named the fastest growing conference and trade show in North America by Tradeshow Week magazine, an award it achieved in competition with 13,000 annual conferences in all industries.
"While other conferences are reducing their speaker rosters in light of today's economic climate, we increased our agenda because of today's economic climate," explains Jack Love, publisher of Internet Retailer. "During tough times, businesses need more practical information than ever before on how to succeed. This is particularly true for e-retailers, who are growing faster than their brethren in other retail channels, but who nonetheless are looking at a much more competitive environment than they have ever known. This year will separate the long-term players from the also-rans; those armed with current competitive information will prosper in a gloomy market while the uninformed will suffer."
Other featured speakers at IRCE include a soon-to-be-named key executive of eBay, who will explain how the #1 e-retail portal is evolving to help established web merchants expand their Internet reach; Jeff and Bobby Beaver, who along with their father Robert co-founded Zazzle.com, No. 211 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, in 2003 and who will reveal how they quickly built their nearly $50 million web store by focusing on personalized items; and Mark Kuhns, vice president of e-commerce of Under Armour, the high-performance sports apparel maker and No. 188 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, who will explain how consumer brand manufacturers can use the web to strengthen their customer base during tough markets.
Complete information about the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition, June 15-18, 2009, in Boston is at http://www.irce.com.
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