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Freewebs Developed First Conference For Engagement Marketers

Widget Marketing Association Formed at WidgetCon

SILVER SPRING, Md., July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- WidgetCon 2007, the first conference designed specifically for engagement marketers, reached beyond capacity proportions as more than 170 CEOs, marketers and developers from leading companies, agencies and widget-savvy publishers convened at New York City's Tribeca Cinemas Wednesday to discuss engagement marketing and the widget evolution. Developed by Freewebs, the company that offers the Web's most open personal publishing platform that helps people unleash their creativity online(www.freewebs.com), WidgetCon 2007 was the first conference geared to fostering collaboration between all businesses affected by engagement marketing.

"WidgetCon was the amazing start of what will be a continuing conversation between publishers, marketers, agencies, technology and measurement partners about marketing through distributed content, and how increasing the level of engagement a user experiences will impact the media landscape and advertising practices," said Shervin Pishevar, President of Freewebs.

To ensure the conversation started at WidgetCon continues, Freewebs announced the creation of the Widget Marketing Association (WMA), a professional organization for a new breed of engagement marketers that brings together agencies, brands, publishers and widget companies to exchange knowledge, best practices and help set standards together and with others like the IAB. Freewebs' President Shervin Pishevarwill serve as Chairman and Freewebs' VP of Global Ad Sales, Chris Cunningham, will head WMA's Steering Committee. WMA member companies currently include: Clearspring; comScore; Freewebs; Gigya; Gizmoz; Goowy/Yourminis, RockYou and Widgetbox.

"What we've seen in the past 15 years is an explosive growth in computer literacy and distributive power," said WidgetCon keynote speaker Chris Jones, Former CEO of JWT and Freewebs Advisor. "If we are smart and committed, widgets will become the central ingredient to creating word-of-mouse."

Additional Conference Highlights

-- Chris Cunningham starring in a video asking passersby "What's a
Widget?" (video up shortly at www.widgetcon.com)

-- Freewebs and WidgetBox announced the winner of The Big Widget
Challenge.

-- The WidgetCon bloggers! WidgetCon was live blogged by Freewebs' Andrea
Spiegel and Jeff Hirsch (link), as well as too-numerous-to-mention
attendees and colorful observers throughout the day (see Technorati
link).

-- Shervin Pishevar shared his Seven Rules for Widget Success:

1. KISS- Keep it simple, stupid.
2. Bring the bling. Let people create the brand of 'me.'
3. Speak dog. Speak the same language as your community of users.
4. Eat your own dog food. Authenticity breeds success.
5. Color outside the lines.
6. Be contagious.
7. Be useful.

-- Freewebs' CEO and co-founder Haroon Mokhtarzada demo'd Freewebs'
upcoming Page Editor (on a beta server!). CNET commented: "Despite a
few glitches during the demo, the product looks promising and could
herald a new era in Web page creation for the average user."

-- comScore's Linda Boland-Abraham announced that in last 30 days, the
reach of widgets has increased 24% to approximately 230 million. She
also acknowledged comScore has quite a challenge ahead in figuring out
how to measure and track widgets. "First we have to understand what a
widget is," she said.

-- Overheard at WidgetCon: "It's a widgetopia, a widgetosphere, a
widgetopolis!"

-- Many case studies, demos and examples!

Widgets are so flexible and useful that Freewebs created an exclusive widget to manage the entire WidgetCon 2007 registration process. When a person was invited to WidgetCon 2007, the widget:

-- Confirmed their RSVP;

-- Was used to custom design your conference badge for WidgetCon 2007;

-- Displayed a slide show of all the RSVP'd attendees and their custom
badges,

-- Allowed colleagues to request invitations using the widget and

-- Like all widgets, was easily posted to any blog, profile page or
website.

What are Widgets?

Hot on the heels of TIME Magazine naming "You" the Person of the Year in 2006, Newsweek declared 2007 to be "The Year of the Widget." Widgets are small applications that provide functionality and content online, distributed through a potentially limitless number of websites. They also represent an entirely new way of looking at advertising. Unlike almost all other online ads, widgets are uploaded onto sites (personal sites, profile pages, blogs) by consumers themselves. They are pulled by their audience, instead of pushed by marketers. And the publishers (largely personal publishers) who upload them are far more than affiliates: owing to these publishers' personal dynamic and voice, they become advocates for the marketers whose widgets they help distribute. Widget Marketing is exciting because it allows advertisers to swim with the current, not against it. Now advertisers can be invited into conversations they might not otherwise have access to. It means a whole new way of thinking about marketing, but one that marketers will have to move towards if they want to continue connecting with their customers.

About Freewebs.com

Freewebs is the company that offers the web's most open personal publishing platform, dedicated to ensuring everyone in the world can create a quality multimedia website. For anyone with an Internet connection and something to share, Freewebs provides the toolkit to express their voice on the Web through its versatile publishing platform. To date, Freewebs members have created more than 17 million comprehensive websites including blogs, photos, videos, music, e-commerce and more. Founded in 2001, Freewebs is privately held and based in Silver Spring, MD. Please visit www.freewebs.com today.

CONTACTS:
Jo McKenna
Freewebs
646-382-4291
jo@freewebs.com

Lane Buschel / Chris Macowski
The Morris + King Company for Freewebs
212-561-7454 / 212-561-7459
lane.buschel@morris-king.com / chris.macowski@morris-king.com

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: Freewebs

CONTACT: Jo McKenna of Freewebs, +1-646-382-4291, jo@freewebs.com; or
Lane Buschel, +1-212-561-7454, lane.buschel@morris-king.com, or Chris
Macowski, +1-212-561-7459, chris.macowski@morris-king.com, both of The Morris
+ King Company for Freewebs

Web site:

http://www.freewebs.com/
http://www.widgetcon.com/

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Profile: Media News