The number of exhibitors and participants attending the Direct Marketing Association net.marketing Conference & Exhibition in Seattle, WA--which ended yesterday--have skyrocketed compared to last year.
The number of exhibitors jumped by 66% from 89 last year to 134 this year, followed by the number of participants, which increased 65% from 1,300 to more than 2,000.
"It's a real conference now," said Michelle Feit, president of E-PostDirect, a spinoff of Edith Roman Associates, Pearl River, NY, who was exhibiting for the first time.
The big spike had conference organizers scrambling to reorganize room assignments for the educational sessions to accommodate the number of attendees. DMA representatives - including H. Robert Wientzen during his opening speech on Monday- reminded attendees to get to sessions and luncheons early to secure a comfortable seat.
Some first year exhibitors like zapdata.com, were unable to secure a spot for an exhibition booth until the DMA opened up more space following the heavy demand. "We were surprised at how quickly it filled up," Ryan Applegate, database marketing manager for zapdata.com said yesterday. "But we jumped on it as soon as the DMA let us know there was more room."
DMA spokesperson Amy Blankenship said yesterday that in addition to the opportunities available to exhibitors, the training sessions are a real draw to an industry still in the fledgling stages of its lifecycle.
"It's a combination of direct marketers embracing the Internet and looking for learning opportunities and Internet companies looking to acquire the direct marketing skills they need to be successful in ecommerce," Blankenship said yesterday.
To meet the rapid growth in interest the DMA recently announced that it is expanding the conference to twice per year. The fall net.marketing Conference & Exhibition will be held Sept. 24 to 26 in Boston, MA.
