ACCM--by the Numbers May 18, 2007 5:24 PM
, By Heather Retzlaff
JobZone
Search and post jobs for the Multichannel Merchant. Including jobs for brand & agency marketers, e-commerce, catalog marketers, ops & fulfillment, direct marketing and more.
Perhaps the Annual Conference for Catalog & Multichannel Merchants is best measured by the number of attendees expected to walk the show floor this year. Show organizers anticipate more than 4,500 participants at this year’s ACCM, up slightly from last year. In the Exhibit Hall, 240 companies will be represented at 355 booths.
On the programming side, we’ve got you covered with 275 speakers at more than 90 sessions in eight content tracks covering a broad range of multichannel topics, from business-to-business and circulation strategies to management and operations to online marketing.
And don’t forget the one-on-one expert consultations and hands-on labs. In addition to today’s Catalog Critiques, E-mail Marketing Creative Critiques, and Website Critiques, there are the Website Usability Labs, where pros will review Websites throughout the show. And there’s more: the always-popular Multichannel Medical Center, also scheduled to run throughout ACCM; Search Engine Marketing Labs slated for tomorrow and Wednesday; and an Online Merchandising Lab tomorrow morning. Today also saw our inaugural Web Analytics Tools Lab and Tech Tour of Web Analytics Tools.
Also new this year: In-Depth Workshops covering online testing, search engine marketing, catalog production, customer databases, and integration marketing, scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
This year ACCM boasts four Executive Forums, including a discussion with keynoter David McQuillen, vice president, customer experience and voice of the customer at Credit Suisse. And as always, we have two keynote presentations, the Power Forum, and the Annual Multichannel Merchant Awards luncheon. (Note: The Awards luncheon will be held on Tuesday this year instead of Wednesday, so don’t miss it!)
This year marks ACCM’s first return to Boston since 2001, as well as the conference’s first time at the new Boston Convention & Exhibition Center (BCEC). But we’re in good hands: The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority in 2006 hosted 145 events at the BCEC. Hopefully you brought comfy walking shoes to cover the BCEC’s 516,000 sq. ft. of contiguous exhibit space, 160,000 sq. ft. of flexible meeting space, and 40,020 sq. ft. Grand Ballroom. Fortunately there are also 32 escalators and 12 elevators, two pedestrian sky bridges spanning the exhibit halls, and access to any part of the building in no more than eight minutes.
Just how big is the BCEC? The largest building in New England, at 1,600 ft. in length it’s as long as the Empire State Building is high.
And if you’re feeling hungry, the BCEC kitchen has 46 ovens and combination ovens, 22 ice machines, 22 walk-in refrigerator boxes, and three institutional-size dishwashers. There are four moveable conveyor-belt units that allow workers to plate up to 4,000 meals in an hour, and they can brew 500 gallons of coffee at one time. So you have no excuse for nodding off in sessions—not that you ever would here!
