Official attendance at the Internet Retailer conference going on this week in Chicago was 5200, according to Marketing Director Linda Ragusin. With two days of workshops and another two days of sessions and an exhibit hall, there was plenty of learning and networking to keep those attendees busy.

Exhibitors hawked ecommerce services from fulfillment to online payments, from inventory management to shipping solutions (http://www.internetretailer.com/IRCE2008/images/Exhibits/exhibitor_list.pdf). Sessions included tracks for "the small guys"; "the chains"; web 2.0 technologies; web marketing; security, payments and operations; and web technology to "attract, influence and sell." There was a wide range of retailers in attendance, from small to large, but according to exhibitors and the attendees themselves, they were all looking for solutions to help them grow their businesses.

Kevin Harmon, President of Inflatable Madness, got his start on eBay and said he saw many large eBay sellers on the day he attended (Tuesday). "When you're used to selling on 3rd party sites, IR was like a foreign country. I have a lot to learn about web marketing before I can even figure out what questions to ask to what companies."

The exhibit hall was brisk on Tuesday with steady traffic swelling when sessions let out. Next year's IRCE conference will take place in Boston June 15 - 18, 2009 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. With eBay holding no conference in 2009, there may be even more eBay sellers at IRCE next year.

See the AuctionBytes gallery of photos from Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition 2008 at http://auctionbytes.com/irce2008/gallery.html and comment on the AuctionBytes Blog at http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2008/6/1213126753.html