Peter Shankman, Internet Summit and IAB Q3 Revenue Report

Needless to say, it has been a whirlwind 7 day period in which plenty of things are going on in the interactive world. If you want to ask about my family’s personal tour of the White House we received during the G20 Summit last weekend – then we’re REALLY talking about a whirlwind week (I got to pet Barney without getting bit)! But back to interactive… Peter Shankman was in Raleigh speaking at the TIMA event – and if you have never seen him speak, or don’t follow him on Twitter – or really just don’t know anything about what he’s about – you’re missing out. He’s filled with plenty of stories – and filled with plenty of thoughts and ideas on where the social media/interactive world is going. I’d like to say he speaks with a lot of common sense, but driving 150 miles for a Hardee’s burger pretty much throws that out the window. That being said – he is in tune with modern day technology, and he is well connected and should be followed, tweeted, LinkedIn, etc…

This week was also the inaugural Internet Summit in Chapel Hill… I am happy to say, interactive finally has a major following in the Triangle! The event was sold out (estimated 700+ attendee’s) – and from what I could tell – a smashing success. Bob Young of LuLu and Red Hat fame spoke about how they’re a good company – but should be great if they can get their hands around everything new in interactive. Gian Fulgoni from comScore spoke about online lifts to the offline world. There were plenty of social media “experts” and what seemed to be even more legal folks in attendance. All-in-all – it was an impressive summit and one of the first that I’ve attended that I felt like I actually took more away from it than I paid for. Congrats to the group at CED and Tech Journal for pulling this all off.

And to cap off the week – in this horrible economy we’re in – the Q3 numbers were released by the IAB (which – shameless plug – Media Two is one of only 13 Associate Agency Members) and interactive grew by 11% to a tune of $5.9 Billion last quarter. No – it’s not the 20+ percent we’ve grown accustomed to, but I think you’ll all agree that showing some growth is still a positive. Lot’s going on at Media Two – so more to come, but I have a goal of getting a Twitter account this month. I’ve spoken about it, explained it, followed the phenom (including the latest Motrin/MommyBloggers) – and I think it’s about time I actually joined. Have a good one.