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Australia's first Online Retailer conference

Sydney, Thursday 20  August 2009

The two days of the Online Retailer conference held at the Sydney Convention Centre at Darling Harbour were met with much excitement and enthusiasm. The event remained full and busy even when it was time for exhibitors to break down their displays at the end of day two.

Over 2500 people walked through the doors over the two days of the conference and exhibition, and we saw a constant buzz of interest and excitement by all attendees and vendors.

Tuesday's keynote speakers were extremely well received. Paul Greenberg from DealsDirect.com.au gave an interesting story of his journey from Auction Brokers Australia (an Ebay clearance broker) to the growth and success of Dealsdirect.com.au today. Paul is definitely a good guy of the industry, always happy to speak to people, offer advice etc. A great role model for the industry. Attendees listened to every word seeking clues from Paul that have led to the success of dealsdirect.com.au. In a nutshell, it appears to be a lot of passion, hardwork, sweat and testing until things work correctly. Paul summed it up as "Retail is detail".

The second keynote was presented by Jeff and Bobby Beaver, the founders of Zazzle.com, and also the Australian version Zazzle.com.au. Zazzle is a fascinating piece of technology that provides a platform for users to supply artwork designs and generate revenue by selling these designs on a range of products.

Jeff and Bobby Beaver from zazzle.com.au and zazzle.com approached us at Internetretailing.com.au a few weeks ago requesting a private meeting to assist them in understanding the Australian  marketplace. We will be reporting on this amazing one and a half hour Q&A meeting in a separate article soon.

After the keynote speeches, the conference commenced with two streams of lectures and seminars, and these continued throughout the day. For those that did not pay for conference passes, there were free seminars and speakers throughout day one and two. (see notes on day one here)

We found the exhibiton and conference to be extremely vibrant and this was a great opportunity to demonstrate to the naysayers such as Harvey Norman  that there is a strong industry base in Australia ready to support ecommerce and online retailers, and evidence from succesful online retailers that money can be made in the Australian marketplace.

To be notified when the Beaver brothers/Zazzle article will be ready and our portfolio of images from the conference, please subscribe to our email database in the top right hand corner of this page.