According to The Kelsey Group’s recently released forecast, interactive advertising revenues will grow from US$45 billion in 2007 to US$147 billion globally by 2012, a 26.8 percent compound annual growth rate. Within this vigorous market environment, The Kelsey Group anticipates a highly energized gathering of the online vertical and classified advertising communities at “Drilling Down on Local ’08: Marketplaces,” April 30-May 2 in Seattle, Washington.

“We’ve designed this year’s Drilling Down to focus on the very compelling opportunities in local verticals,” said Peter Krasilovsky, program director for The Kelsey Group’s Marketplaces practice and Drilling Down conference chairman. “The event is unique in that it brings together the top thinkers and innovators in an environment conducive to speakers and attendees candidly exchanging their views on what’s working and what isn’t in local online and mobile media.” 

The agenda will feature more than 40 speakers from across the industry, including Adam Bain, executive vice president, production and technology, Fox Interactive Media; Rob Barrett, senior vice president of interactive media and general manager, LATimes.com; Rich Barton, chairman and chief executive officer, Zillow; Tom Bates, vice president and general manager, Cox Search; Merrill Brown, founder and principal, MMB Media; Mitch Golub, president, Cars.com; Erik Jorgensen, general manager, Virtual Earth and Live Search Maps business unit, Microsoft; Patrick Marshall, chief new media officer, Yellow Book; Chris Saridakis, senior vice president and chief digital officer, Gannett Co.; Patricia Lee Smith, vice president, new media, The Seattle Times Co.; and Michael Yang, general manager, Yahoo! Real Estate and Yahoo! Autos.

Drilling Down on Local ’08 is The Kelsey Group’s 14th conference since 1997 devoted to interactive local media and local online commerce. Session highlights include:

·      Remaking of the Los Angeles Times (Online)

·      The Revolution in Classifieds

·      Microsoft in Local

·      Localizing National Verticals

·      Leveraging Geolocation: Phone, Wi-Fi and GPS

·      Vertical Breakout Sessions: Real Estate, Travel, Auto, Events

·      The Online City: Close Up on Seattle

·      Leveraging Geodomains

 

Conference sponsors include Acxiom, AgendiZe, Amdocs, Apptus, Call Genie, iBegin, Lat49, Local.com, Localeze, Marchex, Oodle, Orange Soda and Topix. Association partners include Association of Directory Marketing (ADM), Association of Directory Publishers (ADP) and Yellow Pages Association (YPA). Media sponsors are LatinVision Media and TVover.net. For more information about the conference, visit http://www.kelseygroup.com/drillingdown2008.