StoresOnline Internet Conference (1st November 2008)

Rush, rush as usual...was up at 8am to do more unpacking, quick stop at the office to check my emails, met up with my soon-not-to-be-landlord for the apartment inspection, and around 11am, went to pick up Chris for the StoresOnline Internet Conference held at Duxton Hotel on Wakefield St. I received an invitation via post for me and a guest to the conference and thought it might be something Chris would be keen to check out since he's quite an entrepreneur himself. Honestly, I have no idea how this company even got my contact details but it looked rather professional and it was free so why not?

I have to say, I was rather impressed with the whole set up of the event. Very well-organised and so many people attended - the conference room was absolutely packed with approximately 300 attendees! Well, I guess with free lunch, free mini mp3 player and admission valued to $100, anyone would come along. The catch though is you have to sit in on a 90-minute marketing talk before you get your freebies. It was 1 of 6 sessions held in Wellington - just imagine how big scale it was!

StoresOnline is a company that provides entrepreneurs and small business owners as user friendly way to build their own website. In a nutshell, a web hosting company. The speaker for the day was an American chap named Mark Stone and even I felt convinced that this marketing strategy would work if I had a business. The talk was kept light and entertaining but still informative. I watched Chris as he took notes of the slides presented while I was busy jotting notes about the whole experience for my blog - ha!

For $199 one-off payment, you get full access to their web services and support to host your business website, and when you are ready to make it 'live', you would pay a monthly fee of $24.95. If you signed up today, the one-off payment drops down to $50. Hmm, very enticing but it's not for me at this point in time. I do wonder though, how many people did sign up today? There were several who rushed straight to register themselves for what they felt was a great deal and it was very interesting to see how other people reacted. Those who were unsure possibly felt they were missing out and because they saw others 'taking the opportunity', they also got sucked in to sign up. I thought it was a very clever gimmick to earn a quick buck. Can't say if this company is for real but I'm pretty skeptical...

We were given our lunch in a doggy bag consisting of a ham and cheese croissant, chocolate fudge, apple, water and 2 salads, and as we left the venue, everyone was handed a mp3 player. Sweet! Weather was absolute shit outside - raining and gusty wind. I want to go back to Rarotonga! Quick grocery stop for Chris, dropped him home and me, back to sort out more stuff before picking up Chris again and head to Helbert's for drinks and dinner at 6pm.

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