The last few weeks have been filled with travel, meetings, insights, and life. So, in a effort to condense them all, I will feebily attempt to bullet point general "learnings."
1) At Lotame, we did our 1st AdTech show the first week of November. We bootstrapped it, by sinply hanging a banner, bringing a few laptops and 2 plasma screens, in order to do demo's for potential clients. I can tell you I was pleasantly surprised for a variety of reasons -- but most of all 2 primary ones: a) We maintained a "soft" presence at the show. We did not have wild party invites, we did not give out beer (although it was cool that some companies had kegs in ther booths) We pretty much hung back, and did not have that "salesy" presence that many companies have, (such as handed out free ipod raffles, if you come back at 5pm) nor did we really give away any freebies (outside of mints) -- and the bottom line, a low tech approach worked really well, provided us many good leads -- and I'm proud to say our booth was pretty much jammed for 2 straight days........with REPEAT traffic, (people who came by on Monday -- and REVISITED TO GET MORE INFO on Tuesday --- "I really want to know how we can work together, as I was intrigued by your message........how do we proceed.") I heard this numerous times and it made me more than happy.....I was proud. b) We had a location that was by all accounts, lousy. I loved it. It was not in the most trafficked area, it was by far the most out of the way place on the floor (near the restroom in the corner) -- but it WORKED OUT perfectly for us.
2) Van Halen rocks. Saw them last week in NJ, and I have to say I was surprised at how good they actually were. I now place Eddie Van Halen on my short list of exceptional guitarists. (My list is: Jerry Garcia, Steve Kimock, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, David Gilmour, Jimi Hendrix, and now......Eddie VH) My friend Mikey B has posted a video from the rear of the floor from his CELL PHONE on his video site, and here is a short clip on Eddie shredding the geetar......
3) There is a "brand contraction' going on in the interactive advertising market these days. This does not mean that companies are not spending money, and growing their online planning in '08 -- it just means that it wont be as much as predicted. The market will continue to grow -- but it may be "new models" and continued performanced based campaigns that pick up some of the inventory. Companies that have reliance on advertising to grow their top line revenue, may grow slower than anticipated.
4) We at Lotame have a one year head start on monetizing inside of Consumer Generated Content. I'm psyched to see that the largest players (My Space and Facebook) have rolled out their enhanced targeting capabilities -- and this further validates our focus, and mission.....
5) If we (Lotame) were a social media website we would be the 3rd largest player in the space. Our 12 publishing clients now account for Lotame touching 19.7 Million unique US consumers -- placing us behind Facebook (24m) and MySpace (72m)......our core difference is that we are AGGREGATING profiles across 12 sites, and this continues to grow, as our pipeline fills with customers focused on monetizing their inventory more effectively.
6) Our team: We have recently added some new members of Lotame -- and we are now over 20 employees. I'm excited that our group is dedicated, and more importantly, ENERGIZED on the opportunity that exists....our new employees are in our growing technology, and optimization group. Welcome AG, GH, and JP. We are thrilled to have you aboard the Lotame train.
7) Opening NYC and LA sales offices very shortly. Stay tuned for this big announcement.
8) I've been reading a blog for over a year that has really been quite amazing. The blog is called "Sack of Seattle." Andy Sack was the founder of Judy's Book. He is a great writer, but most of all -- a very candid person......his account of "winding down his company" -- and basically folding his cards, is a emotional read of fortitude, honesty and decisions. He writes -- " Today was a tough day. For the second time in my life I had to tell a great team of people that the idea they'd worked so hard on was going away. After 3+ years, our management team and board of directors has decided to scale back our operations at Judy's Book and seek a strategic acquiror." He continues in another eloquent post: "I haven't read a lot about the emotions that accompany a wind down. For that matter, I haven't read a lot about the emotions that accompany business in general. This post is about my emotions.
The past week has been filled with anxiety once I knew what was happening and before I told the employees, with relief from telling employees what was happening, embarrassment of having failed and reading about it in the newspaper..." His introspection is hard to find, and his candor is amazing.
9) Nothing to write on #9 so I will add a picture. 
10) In closing, I'm more excited than I have ever been at our strategic focus, our mission, and our team at Lotame. We are gaining momentum as we stay "under the radar, purposely."
Rock on.
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