eBay on the road to Salt Lake City

Last Thursday we held what we call "eBay In Person" in Salt Lake City. It was a bit like a live Town Hall - Bill Cobb (President of eBay North America) and folks from around the company flew into downtown Salt Lake to meet with local eBay members, and give them a chance to talk and ask questions. Our team also sent one of our crack members, Matt Winters (from our nearby office in Draper, UT), and he was kind enough to send over his summary of the event. Enjoy!

On August 31st, employees from San Jose and Draper, UT met with over 125 local eBay members to learn and share.  The format included informal mingling and a more formal Q & A session.  Oh, and food, of course. 

Most of the members I spoke with came to eBay in Person because of sheer curiosity.  Some were newer sellers who were starting to take their eBay business more seriously, having seen the power of this marketplace.  Others had been selling for years but had not had the opportunity of attending events such as eBay Live! or Town Hall meetings.  While a few mentioned the draw of free food, most attendees seemed motivated to learn, give suggestions, and take the opportunity to meet with fellow buyers and sellers.  And to meet with Griff, who's posing with a few fans over to the right.

While the initial meet and greet session seemed very laid back, the passion of the Community started appearing in the Q&A session. Griff conducted the session with the panel taking turns responding.  The panel consisted of:  Bill Cobb  (President of eBay North America), Rob Chesnut (Sr. VP of Trust & Safety), Kirstin Hoefer (Product), Monica Paluso (Customer Support), Jeff Clementz (PayPal), Chris Tsakalakis (Stores/Advanced Solutions), and Leigh Goldstein (Shipping). Also attending were about 20 managers and supervisors from eBay's Customer Support center located in Draper, Utah. The most prevalent topic probably related to Global Trade, with concerns about fraud protection, costs and complexities of shipping, and unqualified bidders.  They also hit on a variety of other topics, including spoof emails, combating fraud, billing, eBay Express, excessive shipping, and even one question, "how long are they going to let the item numbers get."  A picture of the panel is on the left - Bill, Rob, Kirstin, Jeff, Monica, Chris, and Leigh left to right.

Panel members received suggestions and very openly addressed questions and concerns.  Rob Chesnut candidly discussed how we fight fraud around the globe, explained the behind-the-scenes workings of spoof@ebay.com (the address where members can report fake emails), and the way in which the Account Guard feature on the eBay Toolbar works.  These details, including one story of eBay representatives in Korea traveling to a remote school to help them restore their compromised servers, seemed to really impress attendees who were not aware of the massive resources eBay uses daily in this arena. You can actually hear Rob briefly describe this on the video we shot of the event (you can find that below). To the right is a shot of Rob talking with a few folks after the Q&A.

In speaking with attendees after the session, there was an almost unanimous feeling of excitement.  Members told me how impressed and happy they were that they attended. The smaller size of the gathering (a little over 120 attendees) created an intimate atmosphere where members could discuss concerns one on one with Bill and his team.  But eBay staff seemed to learn as much as they taught.  Parts of the Q&A session included attendees answering each other's questions, leading Griff to conclude "its usually a community member that ends up giving the right answer".

I had the opportunity of hearing feedback about eBay in general as well.  EJ and Wesley Mahurin (jewelry sellers under the ID of 7ofclubs), after taking the time to enlighten me about opals that I have an interest in, recently had the opportunity of working with eBay's Seller OnRamp team while setting up their business.  They both laughed while telling me that they learned the same principles from OnRamp that they had while the two of them spent tens of thousands of dollars in business and marketing education.

Towards the end of the evening, I stumbled upon our videographer, Adam Tidwell, chatting with Pat and Bill Wendell, who collect and sell video equipment (ID: mrbillca).  Relating his experiences in life and on eBay, Bill queried us to see if we knew what a stranger was, and then told us "the definition of a stranger is a friend tomorrow".  Reflecting on his comment, it impressed me that his definition of a stranger really sums up the trust that members and eBay have in each other.

Adam also put together some video of the evening below. That's Bill at the beginning recognizing the highest-feedback members in the room, and the rest are member questions (and their answers) during the Q&A session. You might see some weird effects for the first couple of seconds of the video - those will pass shortly.