ILM East is coming back to Boston March 26-28 with a lineup of doers and innovators who are transforming and redefining the local space. Highlights include a featured keynote from industry legend Ted Leonsis (Groupon vice chair/AmEx board member/sports team owner/AOL mastermind), along with keynotes/interviews from Jason Calacanis, Leslie Berland, Jay Herratti, Michael Zimbalist and …

We’ve wrapped ILM West in San Francisco this week — another terrific show. Lots of great stuff. Thanks very much to the 50+ speakers, 32 sponsors, nearly 600 local leaders and various #ILMWest Tweeters who participated.
Now our attention is focused back on our research and analysis… and to ILM East March 26-28 in Boston, featuring …

The ability to marry store inventory with search and promotions is an intriguing one for interactive local media. But what closes the loop on this vision?
Sherry Thomas-Zon, VP, local shopping, Local Corp. — the new name for Local.com — suggested this week at ILM West in San Francisco that inventory can serve as an …

Google’s local efforts have grown tremendously under the direction of Marissa Mayer, and now encompass a wide range of products, including Google Maps; Google Places; Zagat; Google Offers; and Get Online, a new SMB initiative.
At ILM West this week in San Francisco, Head of Local Consumer Marketing Jeff Aguero provided a rich portrait of Google’s …

Moh Ok, Chief Scientist at PayPal, and Bo Fishback, CEO and Founder of Zaarly, talked about the integration of social, local and mobile to close the loop on driving consumer purchases during a morning dedicated to SoLoMo here at ILM Asia.
Ok and moderator Mike Boland talked extensively about mobile payments, and whether the market will …

Google has experienced five times growth in mobile search during the past two years, according to Google Mobile’s Surojit Chatterjee, who was keynoting our SoLoMo Morning at ILM West in San Francisco.
Mobile usage generally complements the desktop, with huge spikes on the weekend and in the evening and at lunch, said Chatterjee. “When people go …

SMB marketing companies have forgotten that local businesses still see calls as a key driver of new business. That’s the opinion expressed by Marchex Executive VP Matthew Berk during today’s session on “Converting Calls to Local Sales.” To succeed in the calls space, Berk emphasized the need to “go deep” and focus on quality. He …

When it comes to Local Yokel Media’s business focus, it’s all about 15 miles. That’s because 80 percent of consumer spending is done within 15 miles of home. CEO and Founder Dick O’Hare shared that fact at this afternoon’s session on “Local Targeting: Getting the Bull’s Eye.” O’Hare added that geo-contextual relevance is the …

 
Court Cunningham, CEO of Yodle, made news at ILM West this afternoon, announcing a three-year deal with Canada’s Rogers Communicationsduring a 15-minute Q&A with BIA/Kelsey analyst Bobbi Loy Luster. Rogers is a leading communications company in Canada. Its deal to use Yodle’s technology and services to sell online media solutions bundles to Canadian SMBs is …

Local Search Association President Neg Norton announced today at ILM West in San Francisco that the trade group would work with BIA/Kelsey to produce its annual conference, April 21-24 in Boca Raton, Florida.
Norton said the LSA is committed to developing a robust agenda for the April conference. He cited this as a key reason for working …

During a late morning panel on Day 2 of ILM West, local video providers batted around the opportunity in bringing video advertising to the “other 99 percent” of small merchants.
“We know it’s evolving,” said moderator Steve Passwaiter of this democratization of video ads. “Once a television-laden experience has migrated to desktop and is now going …

In the midst of ILM West happenings, call measurement ad provider Telmetrics announced today that it’s bringing its m.Call platform to iOS.
M.Call gives local search publishers and app developers the ability to capture data around the phone calls they’re generating. Notably it does this without the need for traditional call tracking numbers.
This works with both …

The emergence of deals has reinvigorated local merchant promotions, but traditional promotions leaders think they can absorb some of the best parts of deals as part of their “offer cloud” while strengthening their existing direct marketing businesses, according to panelists speaking at ILM West in San Francisco.
Entertainment.com CEO Dean DeBiase said that the traditional Buy …

Dan Hess, CEO of deals aggregator and research company Local Offer Network, played mythbuster at ILM West, using data to set the record straight on where the market is moving…and where it isn’t.
Hess is convinced that there is still ample room for “specialization” across geography, demography and interests…rather than the doomsday consolidation/roll-up  scenarios forecast by …

Dex One Chief Strategy Officer David Sharman shared with us today some of the key challenges the longtime traditional directory publisher is facing as it evolves its business into the digital world. The primary challenge that he sees in the space is the overwhelming choice and complexity of marketing options for the local business.
Specifically for …

Search engine marketers are no longer selling calls to merchants but conversion. Prior discussions among industry insiders focused on calls, but according to a Manta survey, 49 percent of merchants named referrals as the most valuable lead source. This was among the insights shared by moderator Charles Laughlin during the mid-afternoon session, “The New Wave …

Two compelling speakers made the case this afternoon at ILM West that newspaper companies can successfully transform into digital media businesses. One problem is that most newspaper companies are not willing to make the tough decisions necessary for this transition.
Making the case were two respected newspaper change agents, John Paton, CEO of Digital First, and …

Day 1 at ILM West came to a close with a session on how SMBs are using Facebook and social media. This most notably culminated with “3 big ideas” for driving social commerce, from Oodle CEO Craig Donato.
These are derived from Oodle’s work powering Facebook’s own Marketplace, and other things the company has done that are tantamount …

Venture capital leaders at ILM West in San Francisco today expressed optimism about the environment but said there are some challenges coming up.
“It is a great time to start a company and fund a company,” said Michael Yang of Comcast Ventures. Yang noted that entrepreneurs have a jump on getting money from venture. “There isn’t …

Today at BIA/Kelsey’s ILM West conference, prolific Wall Street Journal tech blogger Kara Swisher acknowledged many of the challenges for local media, but was quick to point out that none of these is new.
Some of the sleeping giants moving more and more into local — like Facebook, eBay and Amazon — she argues aren’t sleepers …