Mixed Reviews For TheMarker’s International Israel Internet Convention

They spoke about Internet marketing - but didn't practice it!

By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem ---- March 19, 2007..... The news release read in Hebrew that 60 senior Internet executives from the USA and Europe would participate in TheMarker’s International Internet Convention.
That convention attendees would be able to meet with the most senior entrepreneurs, visionaries and executives in the international Internet business. But the sad reality was that at times less than half of this Internet convention's auditorium was filled with attendees.

TheMarker Com.Vention was held March 18-19 in Airport City just next to Ben-Gurion Airport between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

This was the second consecutive year that TheMarker has held an International Internet convention attended by so many diverse, influential executives in the Internet business from Israel and around the globe.

Nathan Lipson, convention coordinator and editor stated: “The international convention was a wonderful opportunity to meet senior Internet executives from overseas, who are involved daily in the main Internet development issues which affect and will come to affect us over the next few years. In order to enable these meetings, we have prepared a special are on the grounds of the convention which will make private conversations possible.”

TheMarker’s International Internet Convention was a direct result of KinnerNet, a closed by invite only Internet conference which was organized by Israel Internet guru and founder of ICQ Yossi Vardi. Much that was discussed at Kinnernet was to be revealed at TheMarker’s International Internet Convention. And much was. But given a complete lack of international public relations for the event and a shutout of media coverage by rival Israel newspapers, the conference suffered in getting its message out to both the domestic and global community.

"We are in a private meeting," one of the organizers said to reporters who tried to secure an interview. This arrogant "no comment" attitude was reflected in the fact that the only news release which was issued was sent out only in Hebrew and that not one page of the TheMarker’s International Internet Convention Website was in English.

What we witnessed here was Israel at her very worst in international public relations.
And the question that lingers is that if this is how the private, commercial business community in Israel approaches the international community it's no wonder why Israel's Ministry For Foreign Affairs, the Prime Minister's Office and the Israel Defense Forces suffer in their critical international public relations efforts.

Another paradox is how the professional Internet community in Israel came together. One would think that the Internet would transcend the borders of the State of Israel. That that "60 senior Internet executives from the USA and Europe" attended the conference and yet not one word of English appears on the Net about their participation!

The INA agrees with blogger Guy Horowitz: "why did I say there was something artificial about it (TheMarker international Internet conference)? Exactly because of this close affinity between the Kinnernet, and the variety of Internet-related events around it. The distinguished guests went on and off the stage, some managing to contribute an interesting insight or two (and it's high time we admitted the 'expert panel' concept is not the best way to leverage the expertise of the people on the panel), but in a way COM.vention feels like the leftovers of something that happened elsewhere. This is extremely frustrating especially in light of the real action that's out there. It felt - and I admit this is my own personal view, and others might not share it - as if there was no real reason for having this event, other than for the sake of having it. Most of the guests have already met or will meet most of the entrepreneurs sometime else this week. Unlike many of these industry gatherings, it was not an anchor, and certainly did not feel like a pivotal event."

The first day of the conference was referred to as the "International Day" while the second day was dubbed "Israel" day. As for the quality of those who attended, it was quite high. And for those who were lucky enough to find this Internet event, the learning rewards and dividends were great.

About 25 guests from abroad participated in the panels held on the first day of the convention. The participants included Peter Hershberg – chairman of Technorati, the world’s leading search engine for blogs, Anil Hansjee, Google head of corporate development EMEA, Michael Marquez, senior VP of CBS Interactive, Gary Shainberg, Vice President of Technology and Innovation Support, British Telecom, Ron Moritz, Senior VP of Computer Associates, Loic Le Meur, Senior VP of Six Apart, Jennifer Moyer, chief operating officer, Washingtonpost. and Newsweek Interactive.

The second day of the convention was attended by executives of leading Israeli companies, such as Avi Hochman, chairman of the Israel Postal Company, Nir Lampert, CEO of Dapey Zahav (Golden Pages), Avi Nir, general manager of Keshet Broadcasting, Gil Unger, CEO of Blue Square Israel, Aviezer (Gezi) Kaplan, chairman of Osem Investments, Arik Shor, chairman of Hogla Kimberly and Hagit Adler, Director of the Business and Marketing Division of Tnuva.

On the first day of the convention, the topics which were discussed were: Trend Spotting: Hottest Internet Trends in 2007,“Ubiquitous Computing Rising: Is Wireless Internet on the Verge of Rapid Growth?, “Disruption 2.0: The Way Web 2.0 Challenges Web 1.0, Social Business: How Organizations and Business People Use Online Communities and Blogs to do Business, and Really, is it a Bubble?

A VC view of the Risks of Investing in Internet Startups, was also included in the Internet conference.

As part of the events of the first day of this Internet convention in Israel, a competition was held under the title: “Most Promising Internet Startup of 2007”, in association with Microsoft. Financial consulting for the competition was provided by the KPMG accounting firm.

On the second day, a competition was held for Best Interactive Advertising Agency. Participating agencies competed in eight categories and were evaluated by a panel of judges, based on three parameters: affectivity, creativity and unusual, new ways to utilize the media.

The topics discussed involved the business aspects from the marketing point of view. Company executives will addressed issues such as – “Who’s Missing the Internet, or: How Much the Internet is Worth”, “Is it Possible to Develop a Brand on the Web?” “Internet PR: Everyone has an Opinion – How to Maintain Yours,” “Marketing 3.0,”.

But the question remains: "how can this international Internet conference even begin to address Internet marketing, advertising and PR when the TheMarker’s International Internet Convention's own Website was never touched by a professional SEO - search engine optimization professional?

Lipson, who did speak with the press, and Vardi put together a shining, outstanding 5 star event, taking care of many important details such as bus shuttles to and from Tel Aviv for the international VIP's, but totally overlooked their own Internet marketing.

Good morning Israel. Next time please remember to edit your HTML page titles and add a few, just a few META keywords so that both the global and domestic Internet publics can find your event on the Web!
Oh, yes - can you please also provide at least one optimized page in English?

The author co-created Israel's first commercial Website - NetKing, the first on-line news organization from Israel - The Israel News Agency, co-created the nation's first Website for the Israel Defense Forces, the first site for the Prime Minister's Office and co-created for the first Interactive humanitarian condolence site on the Internet for Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Today, Joel Leyden, who also created IsraelPr - an online real-time forum for crisis communications management for the Israel government - is the leading international Internet marketing SEO professional, having combined over 25 years of international public relations, marketing and editorial experience on the Net.

The Israel News Agency thanks Minnie Katzen for translating the TheMarker’s International Internet Convention news release.