About 1,000 e-commerce professionals are expected to gather in Orlando, FL, next week for the IRCE Focus: Web Design + Mobile Commerce conference. The conference takes place from Feb. 10 to Feb. 12 at the Hyatt Regency Orlando.
The conference combines two shows that had carried the Internet Retailer banner: The Web Design and Usability Conference and the Mobile Marketing and Commerce Forum.
“It’s not just a combination, but rather an integration of two complementary educational opportunities for attendees,” says Craig Dooley, senior vice president and group show director for IR Events Group, a division of Emerald Expositions Inc. that is organizing the Orlando conferences. “They will have more choice and flexibility, and ultimately more value, as they can choose and move among the two full agendas based on their business and e-commerce needs.”
Among the changes for this year’s show, according to Dooley, are:
• A larger conference facility.
• Three workshops on Monday, up from two on the first day of the conference last year; Monday will include full-day agendas on mobile and web design as well as search engine optimization.
• An “enhanced opening night and cocktail parties among the exhibitors, so attendees can see the solutions to their design and mobile commerce needs and meet vendors who can deliver them,” he says.
Dooley says the decision to combine the two conferences was an easy one to make. “Design and mobile commerce are two of the hottest trends in e-commerce, and they are so intertwined,” he says. “We wanted to create a stronger, more compelling event for attendees, allowing them to take advantage of both conference tracks, as well as meet suppliers from a broader spectrum on the show floor.”
The IRCE Focus: Web Design + Mobile Commerce conference will include 66 exhibitors and 96 speakers—53 for the web design portion and 43 for the mobile commerce section, he says.
The agenda, constructed with ample help from Internet Retailer editors, tackles some of the most vital e-commerce topics for 2014: responsive design, using Twitter for marketing, changes at Google and Bing, streamlining site checkouts, bringing content from social networks into e-commerce sites, the “mobile-first” design approach, among others. The conference also will include the ever-popular live reviews of site designs, scheduled for Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time.
“Attendees will leave the show with practical and actionable strategies and guidance on how to enhance their e-commerce initiatives, taking lessons from other executives who have successfully addressed the issues they are facing,” Dooley says. “Our goal is to send them home full of ideas that they can begin to implement immediately and connections with experts to support them in doing so.”
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