The Asian Directory Publishers Association’s annual conference next month in Thailand has assembled an impressive list of international industry leaders to take a hard look at the challenges of transformation directory organizations. ADPAI represents search and directory companies throughout Asia and the Pacific Rim. The event kicks off November 5 and the Grand Hyatt in Bangkok.

I will be one of the event’s speakers, as well as a session moderator. I’ll be offering an overview of trends in the global local search industry, and sharing insights gleaned from BIA/Kelsey research, including an online survey being conducted exclusively for this event.

I am particularly looking forward to a forum on sales and execution organized by Peter Buxton, featuring a keynote address by Mattias Wedar, CEO of Eniro Sweden. Eniro has adopted a particularly compelling new sales approach that involves dividing the company into two organizations focused separately on legacy and new products.

Another highlight will be a keynote address by Trevor Nadeau of Turkey’s Yellow Medya, who will talk about how he helped rebuild his organization on the fly from a traditional directory business into a business that is all about building digital presence for Turkish businesses. Nadeau was among the mostly highly rated speakers at the recent EASDP Congress in Toledo, Spain.

Finally, legendary industry thought leader Mark Canon, formerly of Switchboard and Yell Group (now Hibu), re-emerges following his departure from Yell to offer his take on what’s next for local search. Canon’s new venture is called SmugCloud, which is apparently a South Park reference.

Other notable speakers include Google’s Todd Rowe and James Sanders; Michael Oschmann, CEO, Mueller Medien, Germany; David Barker, global head of channel sales, Nokia; Sid Gupta, CEO, Getit Infoservices, India; and Pete Donlan, managing director, Superpages Australia.

Visit ADPAI‘s website to find out more about the show and to register to attend. Hope to see you there.

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