ChannelAdvisor Catalyst announced with £50 discount
15/01/2010 at 14:13
ChannelAdvisor have announced the dates for the 2010 Catalyst conference which will run on April 12th – 13th. The venue is once again The Brewery, Chiswell Street, London (where incidentally the food is superb!).
As normal at Catalyst there’ll be senior managers from eBay, Amazon presenting and Scot Wingo, CEO of ChannelAdvisor, will be across from the US. It’s worth noting that in the past eBay have typically laid out their plans for the year. Last year they announced Multi-Variant Listings, Free Pictures, Smart FAQs, Easy Returns and Free Shipping.
Tickets for Catatlyst are priced at £249.00 for retailers (£299.00 for non-retailers) – but ChannelAdvisor are discounting the first 50 places to £199.00 for TameBay readers (first come first served so book early).
If you’re in the US and can’t make the trip to the UK don’t worry – 2010 Catalyst US will be held on May 3rd – 5th in Durham, North Carolina.
Disclosure: ChannelAdvisor advertise with TameBay
John says
4:47 pm on 15/01/2010
A good event for sure. I tried to book, and its asking for full price? Have 50 places really been sold within 2 hours??
John Hayes says
5:06 pm on January 15th, 2010
Hi John – the £199 tickets are still available – although not advertised on the home page – click on the button that shows the £249 price and you will be taken to the booking system – where you will be able to select the £199 offer.
John Hayes says
5:12 pm on January 15th, 2010
Hi John – the £199 tickets are still available – although not advertised on the home page of the catalyst site. Click on the button that says £249 and you will be taken to the booking system where you will be offered the £199+VAT option.
John Pemberton says
10:30 pm on January 15th, 2010
Cheers John, will book up Sat
Jimbo says
5:14 pm on January 15th, 2010
I doubt it.
Steve Antony Williams says
4:59 pm on 15/01/2010
I’ve been to one, personally I wouldn’t recommend it, a waste of time and money IMO.
John Pemberton says
10:30 pm on January 15th, 2010
Catalyst is well worth attending – I went last year and found it well organised, interesting and informative. The venue is super cool (although I trek from the tube!) I also had the chance to meet old friends, make new ones and pick the brains of ebay management.
In addition I like different (and differing) view on how the market is shaping and a global overview on the world of e-commerce.
Its worth £250…and at £199 its even better value – gonna try and book this Sat.
I am not connected to CA, and in fact have used their software (but found it not suitable for my business).
Dom says
5:07 pm on 15/01/2010
£249.00 to listen to a Channel Advisor sales pitch?
James Scott says
6:01 pm on January 15th, 2010
Hi Dom. Thanks for your comment!
Contrary to popular belief, there are no sales pitches at our Catalyst events.
All our presentations over the two days are given by external speakers (with the exception of the opening keynote from our CEO, Scot Wingo, who gives a fascinating update on global online retail trends). eBay and Amazon have already confirmed they will be coming to give an update on their plans for the next 12 months, and we’ll be announcing more speakers in the coming days and weeks.
As we start to add more speakers to the agenda on the website I hope you’ll see that there will be some very engaging presentations from some of the best minds in ecommerce, and therefore lots of reasons for anyone whose business is ‘selling online’ to attend. Take a moment to read Tamebay comments from last year’s event and I think these will support my comments above.
I really hope to see you there, but if not – maybe another time!
James.
Managing Director, ChannelAdvisor UK
Sue Bailey says
6:14 pm on January 15th, 2010
Dom, it’s really not a sales pitch – actually I’ve come away from more than one CA event wishing there *had* been more of a sales pitch (I’d really like to see their software demonstrated, but I haven’t managed to see it yet…!). Here’s what I wrote after the first CA event I went to:
http://tamebay.com/2008/08/the-sales-pitch-that-never-happened.html
Last year’s Catalyst – again, no sales pitch. Scot Wingo’s preso was about the economy, the recession, the difference between UK and US, and ecommence – if you didn’t know who he was, you wouldn’t have thought he was anything to do with CA.
ChannelAdvisor advertise with TameBay, so you’re feel to go “oh well she would say that wouldn’t she” – but I can assure you (and CA), if I thought it was rubbish, I’d say so
Nihal says
6:18 pm on 15/01/2010
Hi
I wouldnt reccommend attending the event. Its just you paying for Channel Advisor staff to have a day out and their meals.
Channel advisor get money from all attending companies who try to sell you their products ie Frooition (whos designs all look the same anyway). And on top of that you are paying to get in too.
Rather than paying £250 + vat, I would suggest you read some blogs forums and check Tamebay every other day. Put that money to good use.
Nihal T
John Pemberton says
10:37 pm on January 15th, 2010
I would say that its great to have 3rd party companies (all together in one place) showing their innovations and services. Nobody is forcing anybody to buy products and services, we all have our own minds and can make decisions for our business based on what we see!
Oh the buffet was damm good last year too!
Liz says
11:54 am on January 18th, 2010
Oh it so was, it’s the same place too.
DBL says
6:52 pm on 15/01/2010
I’ve never been to Catalyst usually above my budget but I have been to the Insite event in Birmingham three years running and always found it very useful and informative.
I don’t use their software or work for them. I find the networking at these events is also extremely useful for my business.
I will be at Insite again this year and would recommend it to anyone.
whirly says
7:23 pm on 15/01/2010
I will be attending Twitter & TameBay, which costs nowt.
Bigpoppa says
1:13 am on 17/01/2010
With all due respect James, and this is just my opinion…It’s systems like Channel Advisor that reduce customer satisfaction on platforms such as eBay.
You are aware of the issues your software has, the problems it causes and the growing number of unhappy business users of your platform..Any search on Google can find this info.
I hope the event goes well for all involved but I would advise anyone attending to think twice and research thoroughly before signing up for Channel Advisor, Frooition etc…
…Use Google to do your research and don’t rely on events such as these.
whirly says
9:33 am on January 17th, 2010
I can’t speak as a seller about CA, I can however speak as a buyer. My experience of it’s checkout system is woeful, it’s when you first realise the seller has not been totally upfront with you and you are not actually going to paypal to pay, no, you are staring at something on a par to the blue screen of death, a simple transaction process has been ruined.
In fact it’s much worse, for me it’s like being transported to the cold hard pavements of SW19 where you find yourself surrounded by 100′s of far left liberal democrats waving Tim Henmen flags, it is at that moment you realise just how grave the situation is, your eyes start to feverishly scour the skylines of Wimbledon hoping to catch the eye of an off duty sniper who can put you out of your misery, but no, he is taking a spring break in the mountains of Uzbekistan, you have to stay, that is the moment when you pray to god that things won’t get worse, but no, it does, the group of ladies next to you who are all wearing ridiculously large cardigans and drinking bovril suddenly have the urge to revive some of that old blitz spirit, oh god no, yes, time for a sing song “Kum bay ya, my Lord, kum bay ya” sweet Jesus ‘when will it end?’ when you finally manage to get through the ticket gates, it rains for 8 days, Tim & Andy get knocked out in the 1st round and you get struck by lightning.
The checkout stage of a transaction is the most important part, it should a)easy b)swift making people think they are going to Paypal, then sending them to a foreign site which most buyers are not used to, then finally sending them to Paypal, so you can then, login to bloody Paypal!! to check the details you just entered again!!! is farcical.
If eBay is an investor in Channel Advisor why in gods name do they not simplify the process?
Sue Bailey says
11:29 am on January 17th, 2010
At 9.30am?! Have a bit more water with it, luv.
Liz says
11:53 am on January 18th, 2010
I do admit that eBay should make the process more like it is with ‘immediate payment’ – buyer goes through eBay’s checkout and the sale magically appears in CA.
The technology is there…. – I love catalyst, even though I have only ever attended as a third party gremlin.
I have sweet treats planned for our booth visitors…
Chris Dawson says
12:13 pm on January 18th, 2010
Sweet treats??? I’ll be popping by all day
Liz says
10:30 am on January 19th, 2010
‘Popping’ is the right word too…..
Richard says
2:07 pm on January 18th, 2010
Poor Whirly.
Though I have to admit as a buyer I avoid buying from eBay listings with third party checkouts too unless there’s no other option.
whirly says
2:48 pm on January 18th, 2010
I have never knowingly purchased an item with the knowledge that I will be sent to a third party checkout system, for some reason they don’t tell you.
If an item offers paypal then it is paypal I wish to be sent to.
John Pemberton says
7:35 pm on January 18th, 2010
As a buyer, the only experience I had was a 5 or so stage process, and when I got to the end, was advised that the checkout had “expired”. There was no other way to pay the seller, as even the option of postal order, cheque etc meant going through the same checkout process. Also it did not seem to bring in all my details from ebay, so I had to type them all in from scratch again. I ended up having a non payment email, and had to call the seller up to explain what had happened (they were mortified) and eventually I had to pay by cheque, and they had to manually adjust everything, inventory etc etc. As a champion of customer service on ebay, it put me off going for this option myself. On a wider point, I try and avoid 3rd party software on ebay, as it anything goes wrong, you are powerless to resolve it…if I make a mess, then I only have myself to blame!
Lino says
7:28 am on January 19th, 2010
Completely agree with everything Whirly and John say.