eBay held a summit of its Certified Providers at its San Jose headquarters in early February. Twenty-two of the 23 certified providers attended the summit and were able to meet with eBay category managers. Certified Providers are third-party vendors who successfully complete an annual certification process, and there is an annual $3,000 fee to participate in the program.

Eight of the approximately 30 Category Managers for eBay made presentations to the certified providers in attendance, outlining the unique needs of their categories. Category Managers were then able to spend time with the providers, each of whom had a table where they could demonstrate their services in person.

Greg Isaacs, head of the eBay Developers Program, said they may expand next year's summit based on feedback from attendees. He observed providers networking with each other, and said it was a side benefit of attending.

Deb Levitt, President of As Was, a Certified Service Provider, said, "We have found that other providers whose core specialty differs from ours are sending us leads that they feel are better for As Was. There are excellent opportunities for synergy and to help each other grow our businesses."

Ryan Murden, Senior Director of Strategic Alliances for Truition, a Certified Solutions Provider, said the overview from eBay Category Managers was helpful, giving providers perspectives about their vertical markets and letting providers know what eBay is planning in those verticals down the road. But he said of most value for him was the chance to access multiple personnel at one time and one place.

Most Category Managers are busy, Murden said; they have a community to serve and it's hard for them to engage every vendor. But at the Summit, "You had their mindshare and time, and they could learn what you were about."

Truition's Murden said he will be exploring several new relationships with companies that offer complementary services, and said it was extremely useful to meet the eBay France country manager.

In addition to the annual summit, Certified Providers have access to lead generation, free placement in eBay's Solutions Directory and special logos that can be displayed on their websites.

eBay also recently launched a marketing handbook for all of its developers, available in PDF format (http://developer.ebay.com/DevProgram/marketinghandbook.pdf).

http://developer.ebay.com/certifiedprovider