Leading in Local: Interactive Local Media, BIA/Kelsey’s flagship show, is now set for San Francisco Dec. 10-12 and we couldn’t be more excited. This year’s edition hosts a totally fresh, new slate of industry leaders.

The show opens with BIA/Kelsey research and the dynamic duo of Joanne Bradford and Kara Swisher. Bradford, of course, has pushed local into new realms during her tenures with Microsoft, Yahoo and Demand Media. Now she is applying her knowledge as President of Hearst’s San Francisco Chronicle. And Swisher remains the fearless interrogator that has dominated tech journalism for over 20 years – the last eight spent as cofounder of All Things D, along with Walt Mossberg. Nobody cuts through the hype like she does.

Other top speakers represent our idea of real innovation (and real fun, too.) Startup Rising Author and former Washington Post Digital and Health Central leader Chris Schroeder lends a global perspective to what works with startups. In the same light, Intel senior researcher Lama Nachman – yes, Discovery Channel’s “Curiosity Expert” – talks about developing the next generation of mobile technologies.

Other initial speakers include DemandForce CMO Patrick Barry, talking about the next wave of one stop local platforms; Hubspot SVP Mark Roberge, going deep on sales organization effectiveness; Weather.com VP Denise Chudhy, talking why weather is the true model for national local; Five Stars CEO Victor Ho on the emergence of Transaction Marketing and Point of Sale integration; Groupon VP Sean Smyth on how Groupon leverages its millions of users in new directions; Telmetrics CEO Bill Dinan on how the new metrics are changing local; and Thumbtack CEO Marco Zappacosta on new ways to leverage directory models for leads.

Indeed, a lot of things have happened in local in 2013. The rise of collaborative consumption via AirBnB, Uber and other companies combining listings, social media and purchase capabilities might be the biggest thing to have hit the industry. As Interactive Local Media, we’re going deep on collaborative consumption with Airbnb director Joe Zadeh, Lucky Oyster CEO Matthew Berk, and two more great names that we can’t announce yet.

Other superforums will focus on mobile wallets and the rise of digital agencies. In the end, we’ll end up with 40+, hand-picked speakers.

Here’s an initial list:

Joanne Bradford, President, SF Chronicle
Kara Swisher, Co-Executive Editor, AllThingsD
Chris Schroeder, Author, Startup Rising
Victor Ho, CEO, FiveStars
Patrick Barry, CMO, DemandForce (Intuit)
Mark Roberge, SVP, Hubspot
Denise Chudhy, VP, Weather.com
Lama Nachman, Sr. Staff Researcher, Intel
Sean Smyth, VP, Partnerships, Groupon
Marco Zappacosta, CEO, Thumbtack
Joe Zadeh, Director, Airbnb
Matthew Berk, CEO, Lucky Oyster
Bill Dinan, CEO, Telmetrics

We’ve extended our Early DIscount rates through October 2. Please register here to save.

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