It was a very long drive back home to Western New York. With over 8 hours on the road, I have had a chance to reflect on the friends with which I reconnected, the new friends I met, and the one friend I fear is gone forever. I have had the pleasure of attending 6 or the 7 previous eBayLive events, and since it has already been announced that there will be no such event in 2009, I fear that the announced 2010 eBayLive in Orlando will not happen, or if it does, it certainly will not be the event as I knew it, much like eBayLive 2008 was certainly not anything like the 6 previous conferences.

It was defintely sad to see the dramatic change in the atmosphere in this year's event. One eBay employee that I spoke with said that there were 7000 registrations prior to the start of the event, yet I and many of the vendors and attendees  that I spoke with felt the number of actual attendees was significantly lower. One indication of this I saw was at the Gala on Saturday evening when over 25 large boxes of eBayLive 2008 shoulder bags, the bags given out when attendees picked up their badges, were placed out on the Gala floor for the taking. In addition, we noticed that all of the tables at the Gala had several extra bags on the chairs.

Another sign that all was not good at the event was the very noticeable presence of a large security force. Now there has always been security, but not in the numbers and not as visible as at this years event.

The most obvious indication of the concern of eBay members was the mood. From the opening of the exhibit floor on Thursday, the mood of the attendees was in my humble opinion, depressed. The large number of eBay booths on the exhibit floor with large numbers of eBay employees staffing them, were often nearly empty. I witnessed the employees huddled together talking because there were no customers crowding around their booths as in years past. The attendees were subdued, and the exhibit floor was quiet.

When talking with vendors and exhibitors, they all mentioned the change in the demographics of the attendees. In previous years, there was a healthy mix of new users and experienced PowerSellers. This year there appeared to be far fewer newer users and the general feeling is that the vast majority of attendees were more experienced users looking for information on multi-channel marketing. This indicates to me that sellers are looking to move away from eBay to other venues.

The one thing that really glares to many experienced eBayLive attendees is that eBay usually makes at least one major announcement during the event. This year, with the exception of the PayPal changes, and the opening of the eBay API to third party developers, there was no BIG announcement. Many attendees are worried that the usual major announcements will be made in the days or weeks to come via the eBay Announcements Board and email because eBay did not want to risk a major confrontation with the users at the event.

Well, that is just a brief synopsis of my reflections of the event. I certainly will post more as I digest and review my notes and the 10+ hours of podcasts that we recorded and will be available later today on our website www.basicstobusiness.com. Just click on the Archived Programs tab on the navigation bar. Be sure to listen in on Saturday from 10 AM to Noon ET to our weekly live internet streaming radio show ebay & Beyond: Basics to Business as we recap the eBayLive 2008 event and remember to register for our contest and win an autographed copy of Jay Berkowitz's new book The Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing!