Digital World Expo Makes Big Impression With Its Second Year In Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS, Oct. 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Last weekend, hundreds of business professionals with tech development, advertising, IT, marketing, and media disciplines gathered in Las Vegas for the second annual Digital World Expo at Palms Casino Resort.

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Some of the world's biggest brands sat next to the tech industry's most promising startup companies for a weekend focused on collaboration and the future of business in a stylized atmosphere.

Thought-provoking predictions from Dennis Bonilla, VP of GP Strategies, intertwined his culminating Saturday afternoon keynote. Bonilla called on his experience working with Microsoft and within the tech industry to make bold predictions regarding the future of open-source business operations.

"I believe there will be a Fortune 50 or 100 company that will elect a CEO by popular vote," Bonilla predicted, "without the use of a boardroom or stockholders, within their organization within the next 10 years."

Michael Pranikoff, Director of Emerging Media for PR Newswire, opened Digital World Expo with a Friday morning keynote discussing public relations, content marketing and the changing workplace.

Kurt Abrahamson, CEO of ShareThis, presented his keynote on Friday afternoon and provided insights to today's consumer behaviors and fluctuating channels they interact with every day.

"Everyone creates their own personal channels," said Abrahamson. "There are an infinite number of choices today. You are your own entertainment channel."

Abrahamson went on to describe how social interactions and events have changed within the last few years, and will continue to change drastically throughout the next 10-20 years.

"You don't even have to go to concerts anymore," said Abrahamson. "These experiences are changing every day."

In addition to the forward-thinking keynotes, a focal point of Digital World Expo was the Digital Startup Speaker Series. The stage provided young tech startups a platform to present their companies in front of the exhibit hall audience.

Hosted by Damien Patton of Banjo, Kevin Fong of GSR Ventures and Jeremy Cooley of Traffek, the startup stage featured Las Vegas startup companies like Tracky, Ayloo and LaunchKey alongside national and international startups such as SeeMail, Shpare, Fuezd, Trademark Panda and Enplug.

The startup stage was the centerpiece of a lounge-style exhibit hall atmosphere. In addition to exhibit hall, expert speakers shared their thoughts within workshops dedicated to development, social media, mobile marketing, affiliate advertising, and much more.

The lounge atmosphere carried over to the workshops as well. Classes were designed to be smaller in size for a more intimate learning experience, and some were held in the Palms' Penthouse and Level 3 Club areas.

Experts such as Mark Wallrapp of Facebook, Jason Mendenhall of Switch SuperNAP, Steve Latham of Encore Media Metrics, and many more shared their professional opinions within these intimate settings, though that didn't stop attendees from helping some classes become standing room only.

Dave Davies, CEO of Beanstalk SEO, cited the lineup of proficient speakers at the conference as one of the reasons for the popularity of the tech and marketing classes.

"For the conference to get the likes of Simon Hesteltine [of AOL Inc.], Tim Ash," explained Davies, "it was an outstanding lineup of really entertaining, engaging and informative speakers. "

SEO professional Kristine Schachinger thought the conference provided an excellent setting for tech and marketing relationships to develop.

"I think the conference has an excellent way of getting people together," Schachinger said. "Especially people who might not get the opportunity to talk to one another in most other settings."

Robert Gagnon, CEO of Xoom, also found the environment extremely inviting and intimate for a large-scale business conference.

"You could walk up to anybody, introduce yourself, and there wasn't the usual strange feeling you get the first time you attend a certain conference," explained Gagnon.

"It's usually very hard to come in as an outsider, but there wasn't any of that at Digital World Expo."

About Digital World Expo

Digital World Expo is an annual tech-media conference in Las Vegas that brings programming, advertising, development, media and IT disciplines together for education, collaboration and innovative discovery.  The diverse curriculum provides attendees with in-depth instruction and hands-on experience around emerging media channels, business application and technical strategy. This year's event was held at Palms Casino Resort on Sept. 27-29. Visit  www.digitalworldexpo.com. For more details, call 702-478-6777 and ask for John.

SOURCE Digital World Expo