The 2008 Yellow Pages Association™ conference and workshops are scheduled for April 6 - 8th, 2008 Mandalay bay: Las Vegas.

The theme of this year’s Yellow Pages Association™ Conference and Exhibition is, “New Tools, New World.”

YPA will be featuring advertising industry leaders and thought-provoking experts from across the country discussing the changes in technology, sales dynamics and revenue production – the new tools and ideas you need for growth in the new world.

In addition to exciting general session speakers, don’t miss the workshop line up on Tuesday April 8th.

1:00 p.m. - 1:45 p.m. workshops:

Member Sound Bites – Powerful Industry Tips You Can Learn Today and Implement Tomorrow - Palm C
Meggan Manson, Principal, Young & Associates (Moderator)
This workshop brings you an environment to discover some of the best products and services in the industry.

Panelists include:
- Chris Finken, OrangeSoda,
- Trent Moore, President, AdMedia Systems
- Darrell Campbell, Chief Executive Officer
- Antoine Toffa, Founder and CEO, VideoBloom, Inc.
- Ethan Stock, Zvents, CEO and Co-Founder

Yellow Pages - an Advertising Medium for the Future - Palm D
Dennis R. Fromholzer, President, CRM Associates This workshop will summarize key trends in the advertising world. It is becoming increasingly difficult to reach and influence customers in today’s society. The traditional media model is under assault. What does it take to reach consumers and impact their shopping decisions? What do the changes mean for Yellow Pages and its role in the marketplace? What is Yellow Pages value relative to other media? This workshop will address these and related questions that are key to the future evolution of the Yellow Pages industry.

YellowPageAutos.com - Accelerate Your Auto Revenue - Palm B (repeated again at 2:00 and 3:00)
Imagine EVERY VEHICLE LISTED!™, that’s YellowPageAutos.com; a convenient, single online destination featuring the entire vehicle inventories (new and used) of all auto dealerships, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, rain or shine! YellowPageAutos.com is NOT competitive with existing Yellow Pages online web sites. It is an entirely different offering featuring dynamic vehicle inventory listings and representing an additional year-round revenue opportunity. Auto dealers, the largest segment of advertisers in any local market, currently spend only a fraction of their ad budget within the Yellow Pages. Let us show you how we use the proven Yellow Pages approach of including all dealers at no cost, and then offer a number of additional revenue products such as banners, e-mail notifications, logo listings, and online videos, to present the Yellow Pages industry with a fantastic new revenue opportunity!

2:00 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. workshops:

Attracting & Retaining Top Talent - Palm D
Ken Clark, VP - Business Development, Hawthorne Executive Search
In this workshop, Ken Clark, the VP - Business Development from Hawthorne Executive Search, will provide the results of its annual survey of Yellow Pages industry employees to gauge their view of how they feel about their current jobs, and their view for a career path within the industry going forward, both compared with prior years surveys. After presenting the survey results, Hawthorne Search will then take attendees through the changing hiring landscape, and provide guidance to managers on how to work with significant generational differences that exist in today’s workplace.

Managing the Migration to New Media Platforms - Palm C
Matt Booth, SVP & Program Director, Interactive Local Media, The Kelsey Group
Charles Laughlin, SVP & Program Director, The Kelsey Report® and Managing Editor, The Kelsey Group
This workshop will provide an overview of the outlook for local search, print Yellow Pages and IYP, with highlights from The Kelsey Group’s latest directional and interactive advertising forecast. Within the context of a changing marketplace, this workshop will examine what publishers can do to manage the migration to new media platforms— from promotion and product innovation, to leads-based selling. This workshop will look at search ROI versus Yellow Pages ROI, and what’s next for search engines and the impact on local sites.

3:00 p.m. - 3:45 p.m. workshops:

comScore Local Search / IYP Research Workshop - Palm C
Serge Matta, Senior Vice President, comScore, Inc.

comScore to provide you an overview of the trends in both the IYP and Local space. Questions to be answered include:
1) Who’s gaining market share?
2) Who are the leaders?
3) What is the trend relative to local, IYP and
general search? Has that changed over time?
4) What does the profile of these groups look like?
5) How satisfied are these consumers with the
content on the websites?
6) What is the research cycle of these
consumers? Where are they in the buying cycle
when they visit these sites?
7) How loyal are these searchers?

Yellow Pages and the Environment - Palm D
Paul Gordon, Vice President, Directory Paper Sales, Catalyst Paper (USA) Inc.
John Howell, Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Nippon (NPI USA)
The directory industry is facing environmental and legislative threats unlike any in the industry’s history. Paul Gordon and John Howell are on the front lines of these issues. As members of the Yellow Pages Environmental Committee, they will provide a thoughtful presentation about the risks and concerns current environmental threats pose to YP publishers as well as discuss past, present and future industry issues such as landfills, old growth forests, recycle content, certification, carbon footprint, forestry issues, fibre supply and the effects of declining newsprint consumption as a raw material for the directory industry.

Contact the Yellow Pages Association (YPA) at ypassociation.org for more information.