Today at ILM West in Los Angeles, digital media investor and ex-Ticketmaster CEO Sean Moriarty talked to his former Citysearch colleague Matt Booth about what gets an investo/VC excited in today’s environment.

Moriarty offered some fundamentals.

As an investor, “”You have to  focus on the things that you believe in and like.”

Any entrepreneur approaching Moriarty cannot think small.

“It has to be a big category,” Moriarty said. “If it is not a big opportunity, I am not going to spend much of my time on it.”

A category that gets Moriarty excited is supply aggregation. Think Ticketmaster, Amazon, OpenTable, even AirBNB.

“There are a lot of great opportunities around demand aggregation, but I like businesses that aggregate supply.”

Moriarty is also focused on platform businesses. One of his investments is Triton Digital, which provides digital platforms to terrestrial radio stations.

Finally, Booth and Moriarty talked about the start up environment in Los Angeles and Southern California, which lags Silicon Valley as a hub for tech start ups.

The big reason is that investors concentrate in Silicon Valley, which breeds an expectation to site the business in the Valley.

Moriarty noted however that most of today’s great Internet brands are based somewhere other than Northern California. Think Match.com (Dallas), Living Social (Washington, D.C.), Groupon (Chicago), among others.

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Mobile and local is in the middle of a “perfect storm” of opportunity that represents a “once in a generation opportunity,” noted Internet legend Bill Gross, CEO of IdeaLab, who provided the opening keynote at ILM West today in Los Angeles. “There has never been a better time to be in mobile and local,” said Gross, one of the most prolific developers of new companies in Internet history, with four IPOs to his credit.

Gross said that new technologies typically take about a decade to become new paradigms. The movie camera, for instance, never become a hit until it was possible to edit movies. “Then a whole new story- telling capability came about. That is where we are with mobile and local.”

New technologies typically begin modestly. With mobile, “we’ve ported the billboard and the TV screen down to tiny proportions.” But so much more is possible. Mobile devices should be seen as “super computers on our bodies.” The operating paradigm is “Mobile = Local = Me.”

“Give me exactly what I want right now and what is relevant to me,” Gross said, about what consumers want. “Tell me exactly what I want.” Companies that provide these services are best suited to “conquest customers” with promotions and other lead generation tools. Small companies are especially well suited to compete because they are “more nimble. David slays Goliath.”

There is especially strong opportunity with mobile advertising, adds Gross. “Mobile advertising runs with the law of physics. ‘Nudging’ costs (of consumers) is magnitudes lower because their bodies are nearby,” he said. “Proximity equals probability.” Mobile ads perform 5-18 times better than banners.

Gross also notes dayparting is “super powerful” on mobile. All the attributes of mobile together suggest that mobile advertising will reach usage and expenditure parity with other advertising within five years, and could surpass other advertising within 10 years. Today, 13 percent of usage is mobile, but just one percent of ad spending is mobile.

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As many in our  interactive local media community can attest, the pace of change and disruption in social media is dizzying. New networks, native ads, SoLoMo, social commerce…we could go on for days.

At BIA/Kelsey’s ILM West 2012 conference in L.A. Dec. 4-6, we’re placing a major focus on social media business models. The headliner is a Day 3 keynote from Dan Levy, who is running Facebook’s global SMB initiative. Many of the pieces that Facebook has been working on in local are coming together, and Levy will provide insight on what that means for the marketplace.

Another key part of the ILM agenda is a Day 2 Superforum on social entrepreneurship. Rather than focus on just one subject, we’ll present a full menu of “social business innovators,” with specialties across commerce/ads, search, content and CRM.

Darren Waddell (SVP Marketing) will discuss why Payvment believes social commerce can be an effective channel for SMBs…more effective, in fact, than for brands. He’ll also share how ads and deals fit into the commerce picture, and take us deep into Facebook’s Open Graph.

Matthew Berk (a longtime local thought leader, formerly of Marchex) is working on a new initiative at Lucky Oyster – that social signals have fundamentally changed the search experience that users demand. He’ll share his vision for satisfying that demand by aggregating and organizing search experiences through social context.

Todd Klawin, CEO of MoonTide Media, sees a gap in the social graph…and that’s around location. He’s working on a community-oriented social application that leverages Facebook and integrates with local publishers. We’ll get a sneak peek at the show.

Finally, Mark Gilbert, VP of Product at Hearsay Social, will share the company’s unique twist on social CRM for national enterprises with widespread local footprints. Smart, consistent social management at a local store/affiliate level has been an elusive problem for many brands. Hearsay is solving that problem for everyone from banks to insurance agents to gyms.

The session will be loaded with innovative thought. Check out the full conference agenda here, and sign up today to lock in your best rate. See you in L.A.!

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It has been a great year of networking and learning at BIA/Kelsey events – which focus on “what’s important and why” in local. Our biggest show of the year is ILM West, which has attracted 600-700 senior level execs in recent editions. It is common for industry executives to ask each other: “Will I see you at ILM?”

This year’s event takes place Dec. 4-6 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles – a favorite venue. It’s been beautifully renovated, but we still like to mull over its history. Ronald Reagan actually had his office in the executive suite upstairs. Downstairs, in the ballroom, the Oscars used to be held. The outdoor pool has long been a center of LA society.

Some of the top newsmakers are already set for this year’s event, along with the new brands for their companies. We’ll eventually have 50+ speakers, but here’s an initial list:

David Krantz, CEO, YP
Scott Moore, CDO, hibu
Jason Fingerr, CEO, CityGrid Media
Mike Hodges, President and COO, U-T San Diego
James Moroney III, CEO, Dallas Morning News
Dave Galvan, CEO, The Learning Annex
Doug Neil, SVP, Digital, NBC-Universal
Jordan Glazier, CEO, Eventful
Victor Ho, CEO, Five Stars
Greg Hallinen, CMO, Verve Mobile
Tobias Dengel, CEO, WillowTree Apps

So let us ask you: “Will we see you at ILM?” Sign up now for discounted early rates.

The post The Plan for Interactive Local Media West (Dec. 4-6, Los Angeles) appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.