inluminent

I attended the Central Texas Direct Marketing Association luncheon today and the topic was “How to maximize the Internet for Direct Marketing”. The luncheon was moderated by Lee Sellers of Dell, and the panelists were include Bill Cutshall of Tocquigny Advertising, Interactive + Marketing, Curt Finch of Journyx and William Leake of LCG.

It was a fucking joke. I paid $35 to attend a luncheon where I could learn more about online marketing, and all I got was a sales pitch for two agencies that I can’t afford. Curt Finch was great, but Bill and Bill just talked about what they’ve done for Dell and other large enterprise level clients. I can tell you that no one in the room was in any shape to use any of the advanced knowledge that they (sort-of) shared.

The sad thing is this is the third professional marketing association I’ve visited during an online or internet presentation and every time I go, I get to hear from someone from Dell, someone from Tocquigny, and someone from T3 or LCG… Argh… one more marketing association that offers little more to me than a few opportunities to network with people without actually learning anything that’s practical.