Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum co-founders Kent Allen and Scott Silverman join me to catch up on all thing cross-border and talk about the exciting news of the upcoming GELF event in New York, September 28th and 29th 2021!
Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum co-founders Kent Allen and Scott Silverman join me to catch up on all thing cross-border and talk about the exciting news of the upcoming GELF event in New York, September 28th and 29th 2021!
There’s light on the horizon! On September 28th and 29th, the Global Ecommerce Leaders Forum (GELF) community returns to New York City live and in person. This year we’re bigger and better than ever as we join our friends from the CommerceNext team at the New York Hilton!
GELF NYC 2021 will co-locate its annual gathering in New York City with CommerceNext’sIn Real Life (IRL) 2021. Join the GELF community for keynotes, breakout sessions, executive roundtable meetups and networking as our global ecommerce programming grows to two full days this September.
We look forward to getting the GELF community back together in real life after the long layoff since GELF LA 2020, which was our biggest and best West Coast gathering ever!
GELF NYC 2021 will bring together leaders from retailers and brands selling direct-to-consumer. Top global consumer brands will join digital natives from the fashion and apparel world, health and beauty, consumer electronics and other leading retail verticals for two days of education, sharing and networking. Digital commerce innovators, cross-border ecommerce experts and global ecommerce thought leaders will debate how the boom in ecommerce translates into international expansion as the retail world comes back online.
If you liked this podcast you can follow us on Apple iTunes, Spotify, Amazon music podcast channel or your favourite podcast platform, please rate and review with a five star rating and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail and cross-borders commerce industry.
I’m Michael LeBlanc, Founder and President of M.E. LeBlanc and Company Inc. and you can learn more about me on www.meleblanc.co, and you can learn more about the Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum and continue to keep up with the latest on cross-border commerce online at https://www.globalecommerceleadersforum.com/
Until next time, have a safe week!
Michael LeBlanc 00:04
All right, we're back with another great edition of Global E-Commerce Tech Talks podcast, the founder’s edition. So, I'm joined here, I'm Michael LeBlanc joined here by Kent Allen and Scott Silverman. How are you both doing, Kent, how are you?
Kent Allen 00:17
I'm doing well. It's good to actually see you. Now that we've moved from our audio podcast, I suppose to something with a little more visual element, I guess, for better or worse.
Michael LeBlanc 00:28
Scott, how are you today?
Scott Silverman 00:30
Great. Happy Friday.
Michael LeBlanc 00:32
Happy Friday. We're recording this, Friday, mid-June. And we thought it was a great time for all of us to get together and talk about a bunch of things. But the most important exciting news is IRL, in real life, the events that we're planning to put together are going to happen in New York City towards the end of September. So, Kent, let's start with you. You know, in the movie Ghostbusters, it was a lot about, be careful about crossing the streams. But we seem to have crossed dual identities here. Scott, you have a property. Wonderful property CommerceNext. You're also one of the founders of global e-commerce, GELF, which is Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum, Kent. What's happening. What, what exciting news do we have to share with our listeners?
Kent Allen 01:14
Yeah, no, thanks, Michael. And yeah, I'm glad, Scott could get here to join us today. Yeah, no, I'm, you know, we're getting back in, in real life. So, you know, it seems like GELF, LA, 2020 was, was not so long ago. But that was the last time the GELF community actually got back together. I mean, we were super fortunate, back in mid-February, that we got a team together and, you know, had probably are but well, by far our biggest West Coast event and had all that momentum going. And then you know, less than a month later, obviously, we went into a complete lockdown. So, it's just great to see, you know, everybody kind of getting back to normal, I've been on a flight here recently, and I'm hopping on a flight next week. So, we're actually hearing a lot of people will be joining us at, at GELF, New York. It's September 28th and 29th. We were curious as to whether, where things would sit when we made the decision a couple of months ago too,
Michael LeBlanc 02:11
Yeah, yeah.
Kent Allen 02:11
you know, quite honestly make a gamble that this was going to work. So we're just really pleased that we're getting the GELF community back together. And we're super thankful to Scott and his team at CommerceNexts for, kind of, inviting us to you know, kind of all get under one roof together.
Michael LeBlanc 02:26
Scott, for the listeners who may not know about CommerceNext, let's talk about what CommerceNest-, Next is, and then about your event. And then you know, Kent, I'll go back to you we could talk about how we're crossing the streams and putting one, two great events in into one.
Scott Silverman 02:40
Yeah, CommerceNext is a conference series and community for e-commerce and direct-to-consumer leaders. We have been focusing quite a bit on customer acquisition and growth. We're known for our in-person events up until the pandemic and then we transition to virtual and we're really excited for the return of in-person with CommerceNext IRL, we're trying to be younger and hipper, like the kids, IRL.
Michael LeBlanc 03:16
Yeah, yeah.
Scott Silverman 03:16
Yeah, and yeah, like Kent said, it's the end of September, it's, so two days, we're going to have like a series of keynote sessions and breakout sessions, we're going to have four different tracks, including the GELF track that will look at cross-border and international e-commerce, there will be sessions on retention, marketing, and some of the newer things that are going on like live streaming and video a lot on customer acquisition, marketing, digital marketing, there's a whole number of different networking opportunities there that we have roundtable discussions and one-on-one meetings and dinners. We have a fun discovery lounge, where there'll be puppies, among other things.
Scott Silverman 04:05
So, we're really looking forward to getting everyone back together. This was, you know, I'm also a Co-founder of GELF. And so this was a nice opportunity for us to do something together directly, you know, and so far, so good. I think it's gonna be exciting for the CommerceNext audience, which are like I said, you know, these direct-to-consumer brands, folks that are interested, especially, in marketing to get exposed to cross-border and international, which definitely has marketing elements to it. And,
Michael LeBlanc 04:43
Yeah, yeah.
Scott Silverman 04:44
Hopefully, we'll see maybe a little more interest in launching into new international markets or if they're already doing that, picking up some ideas on how to make some improvements there.
Michael LeBlanc 04:55
So, one of you is effectively peanut butter and one of you is effectively Chocolate. So, it's come together, the best of both worlds right to great ideas, combining, I like that idea that there's a call content track for DTC retailers ongoing global. Why not have it all in the same place? Give me a, Scott, last question, give me a not the last, last question. But give me an idea of scale and scope, what are you planning for the fall for September, have you, have you thought about how many people you'd like to have is there, is there a limit? How are you figuring that out?
Scott Silverman 05:26
Yeah, it's a, It's a moving target. So the last time we had this event was in the end of July in 2019, we had about 1000 people and it was double compared to 2018. I don't think we're looking at 2000 people, we're trying, you know, every day, we're learning something new. I'm hearing about full capacity concerts at Madison Square Garden and other venues in New York, I'm seeing, you know, basketball and hockey seem like they're at full capacity, things are moving really quickly. Knock on wood, you can't see me knocking on wood. But we won't take any
Michael LeBlanc 06:05
Let's all knock on wood.
Scott Silverman 06:06
steps back.
Michael LeBlanc 06:08
Yeah.
Scott Silverman 06:08
And we'll keep moving forward. And if that's the case, we may see, you know, considerable momentum at this point, we think it'll be a little more than 600 people. But it's really hard to tell, I think there is absolutely some pent up demand,
Michael LeBlanc 06:23
Yeah.
Scott Silverman 06:23
for folks to get together and be in person, be off of zoom calls, not have to tell people they're on mute, and so on.
Michael LeBlanc 06:31
Right, right on, right on. Kent, you know, the idea of putting the two together, I like the idea of coming together with that content track about global, have you guys started to put any thought into the content, specifically tracks or any kind of sponsors who put their hands up and said they wanted to stay,
Kent Allen 06:51
Yeah, I mean.
Michael LeBlanc 06:51
we're about two months away, but I know you're probably already starting to think about that.
Kent Allen 06:53
No, you're, you're, you're spot on this stuff is, there's a lot of lei time that's important. And, yeah, we've been super thrilled. I mean, you know, great reception, I've, you know, fortunate that I get to talk to people around the world. And, you know, there's certainly some, some areas of the world where they're still in lockdown. And Rumor has it actually that the border is about to open between us and you, Michael, so, apparently there will be no, need to quarantine very soon. That's apparently not official yet. But,
Michael LeBlanc 06:54
Yeah.
Kent Allen 06:57
But yeah, I mean, interestingly enough, I had a call a couple of weeks ago, probably the call, I've, the only time I've ever had a Paraguay call, a Uruguay call, and then another Paraguay call, and just really interesting to talk to people about the, the difference in maybe what you hear on the news, and what's really going on, kind of, on the ground, but, you know, we are hoping that we'll get, you know, folks from obviously all around the, the country, and we'll get some international folks coming in as well, you know, to the topics and things like that. Another reason the, the two of us coming together as a really nice mix is you know, cross-border and international expansion, you know, is, is still largely an operational issue. So, you know, whether it's people screening for fraud, or making sure that you know, all sorts of different global payment of, you know, platforms are available, screening for, you know, what can be shipped internationally doing the, the tariff calculation and all the harmonization as you do the international checkout.
Kent Allen 08:24
And, and then, you know, big topic at GELF has been the whole post order delivery, whether it's international shipping, in fact, I know our partner, Jim, who couldn't make it today, is actually having lunch with the guys at [inaudible]SeaCo. And there'll be some announcements coming from those guys. So, you know, looking forward to having them back as a logistics provider, you know, certainly there's been a lot of capacity constraints when it comes to logistics. So, be interesting, you know, to organize some conversations around that. And then, you know, international returns all these things. So that's not to say that we haven't done a good job over the years at GELF. And talking about some of the top of the funnel things, whether it's international search marketing, or, or all different sorts of, you know, localizing the, the cross border journey, and so forth, and whatnot. So, we're excited to kind of build that out.
Kent Allen 08:35
And we do think it's a good blend of the expertise that the CommerceNext guys have on marketing and really all things e-commerce and being able to bring in some of the operational depth that our speakers do. And you know, speaking of speakers, if I can say that, we're going to be announcing our keynote guys next week, and, you know,
Michael LeBlanc 09:13
Exciting.
Kent Allen 09:13
it's almost like an all-star lineup. I mean, it's been great to hear back from people who have, you know, attended and spoken at GELF. In the past, we've got Jose Nino has been probably one of the most popular speakers he'll be coming back talking about, you know, what US Polo is, is looking at from an international expansion perspective.
Kent Allen 09:47
We've got Kai Li and anybody that's heard Kai speak at our events knows that he's steeped in data and, you know, got some really cool stuff that his company REVOLVE is doing. They're, they're great at you. Reverse engineering a lot of things that other folks are doing and figuring out how to do things, you know, quite uniquely. So, he'll be talking about a lot about localization actually, we've got kind of a first-time speaker that I think Jim and Scott and I have been chasing forever Agustin Farias us from Everlane will be joining and he'll be talking about one of the toughest topics in global which is you know, how to do this profitably. It's, it's you know, it's, it's a big undertaking and there's a lot of moving parts. So, really looking forward to that, you know, we've, we've gotten some, some great speaker ideas from our sponsors the eShopWorld folks, ESW will be back, we've got actually a new diamond sponsor this year, the guys at Reach so, it's a great.
Michael LeBlanc 10:43
Sounds like lots of interest, right? Sounds like its,
Kent Allen 10:45
Yeah, I mean its
Michael LeBlanc 10:45
I mean,
Kent Allen 10:46
It's going really well.
Michael LeBlanc 10:47
Fantastic. Well, you know, I think it's a, you know, such a great idea to put together and there's still, so much, yet to be done. I just made a purchase from an international retailer to shipment, in Canada, and it was a disaster. I mean, I want to introduce them to eShop and some of the vendors because it could be so much more painless. It was like, here's how much it's gonna cost. And then by the time I got it, I got this huge bill from the shipper that I had to pay that I had no idea I had to pay because I thought it was all covered. And, and I'm not like a neophyte. I, you know, I host a podcast about this stuff. You know, so for the average consumer, it's just baffling. I mean, I wound up buying these great pens on 50-off deal, and it cost me 150% of the original price. And it could all been avoided. Right?
Michael LeBlanc 11:34
And I think, i think, i think there's still so much, so much, so much more to be done. So, it's great to see momentum. And of course, the podcast, we should talk about the podcast, Scott, you and I together, and Veronica and the team at CommerceNext have launched Conversations with CommerceNext, as a new podcast thanks to our friends at Wunderkind presented by Wunderkind. And for this, we've kind of been on a bit of a hiatus as we, as we get geared up for you know, Global E-Commerce Tech Talks, we get geared up for GELF. But now I see a nice ramp-up where we can start again to cross, cross-pollinate. And so I think the listeners can look we've already got another episode of GETT, as we call it, Global E-Commerce Tech Talks in the can, so to speak, where we interview some folks talking about B2B, that whole area or that whole aspect of cross border commerce.
Kent Allen 11:34
Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 12:22
So pretty exciting. And I think I feel, I feel momentum, right. I feel it. And you can feel it in the air, here in Canada, we're a little, a couple of steps behind. But it's great to see in the US and, and i know both of you are probably watching NRF, National Retail Federation's call this, this week, where they upped their growth prospects for retail from 6% to between 10 and 14, 13, eight, 13.8% Wow. Right. I mean, you know, there's no question there's pent-up demand the stockpile of cash, I think the consumers are ready, I think people are ready to get together and talk through these issues. I mean, Scott, you know, when I, I was talking to a lot of CEOs last week for a project, and they're all really miss being together in person. You know, they really now I think, appreciate it more because it's hard to, you know, you can't zoom up a competitor or someone you know, it's just, it's just not it's just hard to do. Whereas when people come together, they can meet people, like-minded people who do what they do for a living meet at the coffee station or at the, pet a puppy together. You know, and, and, you know, chill out and, and just, you know, exchange stories about this crazy time we were in, let's start talking about it in the past and really, more importantly, what happens next.
Michael LeBlanc 12:25
Yeah, we're really feeling it. I mean, it's a, it's a compressed time frame.
Michael LeBlanc 13:40
Yeah.
Scott Silverman 13:40
We made the decision to move forward with this a couple months ago, and usually, we get started a year in advance. So,
Michael LeBlanc 13:52
Right.
Scott Silverman 13:52
but the signals are all really strong. I mean, we are seeing people register as attendees from all parts of the country, and they're coming in at a steady clip. We haven't even announced any speakers yet. I mean, we did a little bit of a tease about the Chief Digital Officer and Tapestry, Noam Paransky and Ekta Chopra, who is the Chief Digital Officer at E.L.F. Cosmetics, and we have more to announce next week. But the speakers are signing up. There's not any, when we're inviting speakers, there's no question about, well, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to travel or not or anything like that. It's more of you know, can I fit it into my schedule, do I have other things going on in New York, It's the normal kind of dialogue that we've had. And the, and as Kent was talking about the sponsor activity, please really strong I can totally understand the sponsors wanting to be in person I mean, that's you know, one consider, you know,
Michael LeBlanc 13:52
Yeah.
Scott Silverman 14:55
area, group of people that really benefit from that face to face, everyone does, but they really miss it, I think.
Michael LeBlanc 15:02
Yeah, there's no question. You know, have you, either of you considered the integration of virtual into the real there's some chit chat amongst the conference tradecraft folks that I work with that, you know, now might be the opportunity where you could pipe somebody in from Australia or Germany, who might not want to make the trip to New York. And that would be cool. Like before, in the before time, you wanted all your speakers in real life, so to speak. You know, a speaker on the screen was kind of seen as okay, but really, you were there to see and meet people. What do you think, do you think that have either you consider that opportunity that, okay, I can't make it my schedule doesn't permit. I'm not going to be in New York, whatever, you know, our next guest speaker, we're going to interview him or her from Australia. What do you think, do you think there's room for that in the tradecraft of conferences now, Kent, what do you think?
Kent Allen 15:51
I mean, I'll take a first crack at I'll let Scott talk a little bit more about the streaming, you know, deals that we're looking to put together on this. But I mean, you're spot on, Michael. I mean, it's been great working with you during the pandemic to kind of think through and launch the, the Global E-Commerce Leaders Tech Talk podcast. And, you know, it's great that you're working with the CommerceNext folks as well. So, yeah, I think there's definitely this feeling that there are some, some things we've learned over the last year that are definitely applicable, I mean, you know, just the mere fact that we're going to be doing a series of podcasts with you, featuring some of our speakers and some of our sponsors, as a build-up to the event. I mean, that's something that we just wouldn't have done. And it's like a no-brainer now. And it's like, you know, in two years, we'll be like, you know, of course, we're going to be doing that. So,
Michael LeBlanc 16:38
Right, right.
Kent Allen 16:38
Yeah, I mean, as far as bringing in speakers and things like that, I mean, trust me, you know, it was funny, we, when we kind of had the unfortunate decision to, you know, put up, put the live events on hold, you know, Scott and I, you know, we did joke, it's like, well, at least some of those headaches go away from all the stuff that goes on behind the scenes, but, you know, it's just replaced with a whole new set of, of headaches,
Michael LeBlanc 16:40
Yeah, yeah.
Kent Allen 16:40
you know, working with Michael LeBlanc, and things like that, which is just can be very challenging.
Michael LeBlanc 17:08
No doubt.
Kent Allen 17:09
But yeah, I mean, I think, you know, right now, we're not announcing anybody that's zooming in, but you know, like, at our, the event that we did last fall, you know, we had our keynote speaker, Tom Davis come in from Switzerland, you know,
Michael LeBlanc 17:23
Correct, yeah.
Kent Allen 17:23
he stayed up late that night zoomed-in from, and it was saying, you know, Tom always says a great job with, with the, the keynotes, and, you know, definitely a captivating experience. So the opportunity is definitely there for that. And, you know, I've even pitched this idea of, you know, can we set up one-to-one meetings with people and zoom people in from around the world and things like that, I think we're getting ahead of ourselves on that one.
Michael LeBlanc 17:44
Yeah.
Kent Allen 17:44
But Scott, I do know that we've been talking about doing some streaming, and there'll be a lot of on-demand content available.
Scott Silverman 17:51
But I'm just thinking about the, the, the one-on-one meetings, and I'm picturing some robot with a monitor, and it goes around and talks and things like that. But to answer Kent's question, we, actually we are doing the opposite in that we're piping it out to people who may not be able to make it. And so, we'll be streaming a number of the sessions. And then when we're taking breaks, we're going to be doing some webinars with entirely different content. So, that is interesting. I think it's really just like every other aspect of the society really, where we're trying to figure out the thing, the new habits that we acquired over the pandemic, how many of those continue post-pandemic, if I can say that, I don't want to get ahead of myself, but at some point, I think we'll be at post-pandemic.
Scott Silverman 18:49
And then how many get mixed in, in there's hybrid versions, and I think the conference industry is still figuring that out, there's a lot of, a lot of conversations that need to happen. I, I'm I guess I'm a little more cynical about some of the hybrid aspects like just, I feel like sometimes you either need to optimize for the people that are in the room or you need to optimize for the people that are watching on a screen and it's hard to do both
Michael LeBlanc 19:18
Yeah, interesting, yeah.
Scott Silverman 19:18
and I worry about again sacrificing the experience of one for the other and sometimes it's just simpler just to either do it all and in-person or all in virtual,
Michael LeBlanc 19:30
Yeah.
Scott Silverman 19:30
but I, I'm probably I'll probably be proved wrong that there's some ways to do that. I just haven't seen what they are yet.
Michael LeBlanc 19:38
Yeah, you know, I can reflect on some my experience that I was in a conference in Vancouver, Canada, and it was a global product conference that traveled around the world. So this it happened to be in Vancouver, and one interviews with the I think it was the CEO of Procter and Gamble and, and they happen to be in, in Europe at the time and the basically the, the person stood on stage and, and interviewed live on the screen. And it wasn't bad, right, Like the difference between seeing someone sitting on a stool and being interviewed versus someone on a big screen being interviewed, you know, you don't want too much of it. But maybe there's maybe that's that hybridization that the industry will, will align to. Well, that's it. It's all very exciting. It's all very new. I mean, look, listen to us. Now we're trying to kind of make up the format, we were thinking through the formatting live on a podcast. So it kind of tells you how dynamic but I think dynamism is not a bad thing for conferences adds a bit of something new, I think the first kind of conference is it'll just be new to get together, that'll be new enough for all of us is to get into the same place. Kent, starting with you, where can folks learn more about the Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum? And when you know, we're recording this will be live in mid-June? Where can they go to learn more about, about the event?
Kent Allen 20:48
Yeah, me, you can always just come to our site, the Global E-Commerce Leaders forum.com. So I won't spell that out for you. But thank you, you know, we'll be reaching out to a lot of the people in the, in the community, I mean, you know, we don't really Bill GELF events as invite-only or anything like that. But you know, they do tend to often be retailer only sponsor only type events. And, you know, we'll be back to that, we certainly opened up our content to all takers during the virtual time, if you will. So, you know, people that know us will be hearing from us, and hopefully, they won't be hearing more than they want to hear from us. But, you know, we will be, will be talking and, and again, we've got a lot of overlap between the GELF communities in the CommerceNext community, and you know, in ways thanks to Scott and all the relationships that he's built over the years for that, but yeah, we'll be, we'll be coming out. And you know, Thank you, Michael, for giving us a little bit of amplification here. And, you know, you know, stay tuned on LinkedIn, and some of our social feeds and things like that, we'll be getting the word out. And, you know, now's the time to start, start kind of wrapping up the, the awareness. So thanks again for having us.
Michael LeBlanc 21:55
Yeah, my pleasure, Scott, where can folks go learn more about CommerceNext in the fall?
Scott Silverman 22:00
Well, certainly in CommerceNext comm there's all the information and registration information there. And then you were mentioning, I think, the YouTube channels and we have YouTube slash commerce. Next, we have all of these past, you know, virtual content that we've been doing tons of speakers and the CommerceNext conversations on electronics podcast, the videos that we're housing there as well. So those are a couple places you can learn more.
Michael LeBlanc 22:32
And just to be clear, New York City, September, give me those dates again.
Scott Silverman 22:38
So, Tuesday, September 28, Wednesday, September 29.
Michael LeBlanc 22:42
Alright, and what's the venue?
Scott Silverman 22:45
The New York Hilton Midtown,
Michael LeBlanc 22:47
if all goes well, I might join you in person if I'm a you know, allowed out of the country, the borders open. I'm excited to see New York City in its newest iteration and miss all of you. I miss, miss being there as well, as I'm sure many of our listeners do. So thank you both. For this joining me on this founders edition, bringing everybody up to date. I wish you both continued success and, and safe travels as we start to travel again.
Kent Allen 23:14
All right, thanks, Michael.
Scott Silverman 23:15
Yeah, thanks for having me, Michael.
Michael LeBlanc 23:17
Well, thanks again, Scott for being my guest on this episode of Global E-Commerce Tech Talks. If you like this podcast, you can follow us on Apple iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music podcast channel for your favorite podcast platform, please rate review with a five-star rating. If you're so inclined to be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail cross-border commerce industry. I'm Michael ball founder and president of me lawn company. And you can learn more about me on www.meleblanc.co. Of course, on LinkedIn and you'll learn more about Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum and continue to keep up with the latest on cross-border commerce online and news about the upcoming September event at www.GlobalE-CommerceLeadersForum.com.
Michael LeBlanc 23:56
Until next time, travel safe and have a great week.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Scott, Kent, podcast, speakers, people, global, commerce, event, great, sponsors, folks, cross-border, Michael, talking, conference, marketing, new york, pandemic, September, joining