Business Networking Forum

StarCite provides the world’s leading online meetings management platform, delivering value to both meeting buyers and suppliers.
Customers

StarCite currently works with more than 30 percent of the Fortune 500; 8 of the 10 largest pharmaceutical firms; 10 of the 10 largest technology companies; and, 10 of the 10 largest financial services companies.

Ten of the largest travel management companies use StarCite as their meetings procurement solution. These include American Express Business Travel, BCD, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Experient, Helms Briscoe, ConferenceDirect, and Maritz.

StarCite is the single largest group lead generation source for the hotel and hospitality industry. StarCite technology is used to power the e-commerce websites of several major brands including Hilton, Hyatt, Wyndham and others.

More than 93,000 meeting venues and suppliers are active members of the StarCite Global Online Marketplace.

StarCite provides Web-based solutions that help buyers and suppliers strategically manage corporate meetings and events.
Features for all Applications

Browser-based Application
StarCite’s meetings management platform is a Software as a Service (SaaS) application, which makes it faster, cheaper and easier to deploy than traditional software.

StarCite Global Online Marketplace
StarCite’s online platform connects buyers and suppliers online, making meeting and event planning, procurement and management simpler and more cost effective for corporations, hotels, and meeting suppliers worldwide.

Customer Care
StarCite provides global customer service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; our dedicated staff is available by phone or email. An online knowledge-base and web-based training are also available for customers to learn at their own pace.

Globally deployed
Our platform is deployed by companies around the world and in addition to our Philadelphia Headquarters, StarCite has global offices and account teams located in Europe and Asia to provide localized support. Our platform supports seven major languages, multiple currencies, and metric and decimal measurements.

StarCite

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Bloggers are increasing in influence and that will upset many in the old line journalist news outlets. Rather of CBS news was taken down a notch but so has all of the old media. By time the networks like ABC, CBS, NBC and even CNN report something, it’s old news. If you can’t keep up in the modern world which has become known as “internet time” you will fade away. The old line media is a dinosaur, printing, like newspapers is even in a worse position. Change with the times and use the modern technology or fall. The horse and buggy industry ended as the automobile came on. Blogs will end the old media outlets.

——–
guest said,

on January 22nd, 2005 at 9:07 pm

Thomas’s admission validated the charges made in Bernard Goldberg’s book Bias: A CBS Insider
Exposes How the Media Distort the News, and capped waves of evidence from recent sociological
studies by the Pew Foundation, scientists at UCLA, and others that have scrutinized the establishment that the bloggers call “MSM” (Main-Stream Media). All the evidence shows that the
MSM is extremely left-wing compared to the U.S. population as a whole. Content analysis has
repeatedly demonstrated how this bias both distorts public perception of specific issues and makes most Americans grossly mis-estimate where the political center of popular opinion actually is.

Search engines don’t seem to be “fair”. Nothing has to be fair but at the
same time one or a few search engines shouldn’t have the power over all web sites. It’s web sites that created search engines by being their
“content”. Supposedly make a good site and it will rank high. The problem
is for individuals its not possible to “start” with a great web site. People start new web sites and hope to get some traffic so they can continue to grow their site while seeing some progress and even some revenue. The ranks are often largely based in incoming links. It’s very difficult to get others to link a web site. Some get incoming links with link trades or some gimmick of “viral” marketing. How is being an “expert” at SEO and getting incoming links prove a site is good and will continue to provide valuable information? How do people know something is of value until they read it or even try it?

Originally search was cool in a sense that people would find a new site,
something that never existed before. (the good old days of the net) There were limited amount of sites so every new site got its share of hits and could see they have progress and continue to upgrade and update their site. Only the few can continue to be motivated seeing a handful of hits a day or hit counts flat or in decline. Now it takes money to buy your way into search engines for paid keywords, expensive marketing, or SEO, search engine optimization, experience or paying someone for expertise. Few well established sites get large number of hits in search and even they
are taking a shrinking share each among more and more sites and those that
know how best to SEO or spam the search engines.
A new site has little chance to be noticed and all searches will result in
the same old established sites and nothing really new or different will rank
high unless the person knows a gimmick or has the money to pay.

Who created the search engines? Web site owners did promoting them and
linking to them and being the content for them. Now a few search engines have the power to sink or make a web site. More and more of the search results go to those paying for the listing. A new search engine can easily be promoted by web site owners if they get hits from it. SEO should be scrapped so people can be creative, put video, pictures or what ever without worry about how it will effect their site in search engines. Incoming links should mean nothing so newer sites can more easily be equal in rank all things else equal. Almost any web site owner can make a good site page equal to or better than any other and they shouldn’t be disadvantaged because they are new. What ever happened to meta tags or keywords? A site can decide what they are, what keywords they think their site is about. Meta keywords were the original determiner and was a good idea that can easily be used again.

If only the well established sites or money backed sites are going to be
able to buy their way to the top of search engines, imaginative and new
creative people will not be noticed or get a chance to gain enough traffic
to continue. No matter what determines how a site comes up in a search,
someone won’t like it. Opening it up to more web sites will increase choices
and keep the net interesting and allow changes to take place.

Wikia Search – A project by Wikia to create the search engine that changes everything.

Strong 2006 Performance and Growth Positions StarCite for Productive 2007

With 2007 Pegged by Many as a Watershed Year for Meetings Management Adoption, StarCite Ends 2006 with Nearly $6 Billion in Marketplace Commerce, Continues Strong Customer Growth and Rolls out New Solutions for Smaller Meetings

StarCite, Inc., the leading provider of On Demand Global Meeting Solutions(TM), today reported record 2006 results, highlighted by almost $6 billion of potential meeting and event business flowing between corporate buyers and meeting suppliers through its online marketplace, providing $16 million in daily lead opportunities. StarCite also saw nearly 50 percent growth in unique requests-for-proposal (RFPs) from corporate clients in 2006, and 30 percent growth in attendee registration transactions.

“We are thrilled about the growth we’ve seen this year but even more excited about the value we’ve been able to provide to our customers,” said Michael Boult, StarCite President and CEO. “With all signs pointing to another year of fast-growing adoption for strategic meetings management programs, we’re focused on helping more companies achieve substantial savings and efficiencies with the help of StarCite’s on-demand solutions.”

“At the same time, we believe the industry remains in the beginning stages of meetings management technology adoption,” Boult continued. “We are enthusiastic about continuing to provide a solution that benefits buyers and suppliers alike. Throughout 2007, we’re looking forward to introducing innovative new products, promoting industry best practices and delivering value to corporate buyers and meeting suppliers worldwide.”

Customer Growth and Business Development

StarCite’s momentum continued during the fourth quarter of 2006 with the addition of a series of important new corporate customers, including Biogen Idec, Nestle USA, and Toyota.

StarCite’s new European headquarters was instrumental in securing a large European financial organization and rolling out StarCite technology throughout BCD Meetings & Incentives European operations. StarCite also expanded relationships with many of its existing clients, including Caterpillar, Eli Lilly, Longaberger, and Medtronic.

In August 2006, StarCite merged with OnVantage. The transaction was completed at the close of 2006. The merger more than doubled the resources StarCite can devote to continued product enhancement and global expansion to serve customer needs, while dramatically increasing the size of the company’s electronic marketplace. StarCite continues to focus on its global expansion and will be announcing several new strategic partnerships in the next several months.

Product Innovation

Early in 2007, StarCite reintroduced its EasyBook “Small Meetings Solution”, which allows corporations to efficiently arrange small meetings while capitalizing on their own negotiated corporate hotel rates and preferred supplier relationships. Small meetings of 50 attendees or less can comprise as much as 80 percent of some companies’ meetings spend. StarCite’s enhanced offering greatly expands the ability of corporations to identify and manage spending on small meetings by allowing users to search availability and receive instant rate quotes from the company’s expansive supplier community. The new Small Meetings Solution is the first tool to empower users to book small meetings quickly and efficiently utilizing fixed contracts and standardized rates. It provides increased visibility and control over this critical element of a strategic meetings management program.

StarCite also plans to soon introduce a new “Dinner Meetings Solution”, which will allow customers to manage smaller dinner meetings spend – an especially pressing need for the pharmaceutical industry. The new offering will help companies manage approval processes, communicate and enforce event policies, track costs, manage attendees and utilize negotiated rates.

Industry Recognition

Reflecting StarCite’s strong performance and industry impact during 2006, StarCite President and CEO Michael Boult was named as one of Business Travel News’ most influential executives of the year. Boult was specifically selected for this award after he “led a charge of aggressive growth and development – promising more partners and more business from partners, new products and acquisitions” and spearheaded a “barrage of new initiatives, organic growth, and partnerships”. Boult also recently received Emerald Asset Management’s E-3 Private Company Executive Award. Earlier in the year StarCite founder and head of StarCite International, John Pino was named one of MeetingNews’ “Roll Call of Top Movers and Doers.”

About StarCite, Inc.

StarCite®, Inc. is the leading provider of On Demand Global Meeting Solutions(TM). StarCite optimizes global investments in corporate meetings and events, delivering visibility, savings and control. StarCite provides process efficiency, enabling technology and proven adoption management support to drive significant cost reduction to buyers and enhanced revenues to suppliers. StarCite is based in Philadelphia. StarCite’s equity holders Internet Capital Group (NASDAQ: ICGE – News), TPG Growth, Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), and TL Ventures. For more information about StarCite or its technologies and services, please visit www.starcite.com.

Blog Billboards. For advertisers and blog owners.

Blog Billboards is geared to blogs and other information web sites where readers are considered trend setters, knowledgeable, and influential.

For blog owners: Run ads on your blog and in return have other blogs run your banner ad promoting your blog. Advertise and revenue for blog owners.

For Advertisers: Information to advertise on BlogBillboards.com.

Blog Billboards

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