PG Dating at iDate 2011: New conference, new faces, great content!

iDate Miami 2011 took place on January 19 - 21, 2011. It’s already the 8th annual Internet Dating Conference. I was there representing PG Dating and PG Social networking scripts for the 4th time. For those who do not know, this event has become the definitive business event for owners and executives in the Online Personals, Professional Matchmaker and Social Networking industry. So in case you have or want to start a dating site, iDate is a perfect place where you can meet all vendors and service providers in one place. We met many interesting people this year in exhibit hall: our partners Userplane, DaoPay, Flashcoms and (hopefully) future partners Scientificmatch, BilltoMobile, CommerceGate, Transparensee and many more. I should mention that there were many reps from payment systems this year - big potential for niche market development for us and our clients!

PG Dating was a “Dating Industry Sponsor” this year at iDate again. There was a very high interest to our dating site platform from perspective clients during all three days of the conference so I was busy making online presentations and answering marketing & technical questions. Moreover, it was very pleasant to meet in person with our current clients at iDate Miami. The number of such is increasing every year and I want to say again “thank you” for your trust and business. It’s always a pleasure serving you!

Also, this year (surprisingly) there were very many new faces at a conference - fresh start ups and venture caps. Lectures were very interesting. One, devoted to latest trends in dating industry, confirmed that everything we were doing for PG Dating Pro is right: mobile versions, niche markets, geo targeting.

I was so busy that I managed to visit only one or two lectures on Social Networking side of the conference, but it was very exciting. Christopher Harvin from “Sanitas International & Barbaricum” basically explained how they work with public views, another speaker mentioned ways to handle wars with strategic communications techniques; how they use social media in the process. Very challenging.

January 19th, there was “Buyers & Sellers” session, where I could not go: dating software vendors are not allowed there. People were selling and buying their online businesses. The next evening (Jan, 20), 2nd annual iDate awards took place. PG Dating Pro was nominated “Best dating software provider” and I had to be there. We did not win… May be next year with your support we will. But it’s the 2nd year in a row PG Dating is among the finalists - something to be proud of too! The awards dinner was fun: they had a comedian there to laugh a bit, winners to admire and great food to eat. Then everyone went to Mango’s - best latina club in Miami Beach to my mind. No details here from my part… We were dancing and next day went back to work at a conference.

Last day of the conference ended with final panel debate (as usually with beer and potato chips). Most of the time was spent discussing free vs. paid models for monetizing your dating site. A very important notice here: if there are too many valuable free dating sites, paid sites won’t be able to operate the old way anymore. They will have to make significant changes in their business plans. And I thought: “I’m glad that Dating Pro has options to make site free and charge per services or add memberships…”. Niche dating sites was another topic at a debate. They appear to be the best option for newcomers to enter competitive online dating market now and profit.

You can see a few photos of the event at http://blog.datingpro.com/news/idate-2011-miami-impressions.html.