FastPivot’s Director of Strategy, Grant Henry, had this (below) to say upon his return from IR 2010:
This year’s 2010 Internet Retailer Conference in Chicago (#IRCE) represented many things for ecommerce as a whole. The number of paid attendees grew substantially this year, along with the size of the show floor, the number of new buzz words, and an overall confidence in the industry at large from all involved.
Grant Henry (in blue shirt, center)  IR 2010
What did that mean for FastPivot? It means we were busy. We had a larger number of clients, partners, and friends this year compared with years past, and there is only so much quality time you can spend with any one colleague before it’s time to catch that flight home.
You can have all the contact information, pictures and conference calls in the world, but there is nothing quite like sitting down and talking with your colleagues. In an industry where face time isn’t imperative, those moments are extra special. The biggest part of IR for us was the time to connect personally with those we do business with, and that was the biggest win of them all.
The Yahoo! Summit on Friday was especially valuable to our merchants and partners. Internet Retailer was best at skimming the surface of all topics that are a part of the ecommerce landscape, but the Yahoo! Summit really trimmed the fat for Yahoo! Store owners and offered some great takeaways and education this year.¬† I was lucky enough to contribute to the speed reviews session while FastPivot.com’s President, Matthew Ledford, got to season the audience with our experiences in social media-mobile commerce (& orchestrate a 42 inch TV giveaway!). It felt great to split up and offer insight to the Yahoo! Store community in different ways, and the response from both sessions was overwhelmingly positive.We are looking forward to the next Yahoo! Summit in September.
