Global Online Marketplaces Summit 2022 Miami Beach: Meet the Speakers

In case you hadn't heard, Online Marketplaces' legendary conferences are back in person this year after a 2-year Covid hiatus. We'll be kicking off this year's conferences in the glamourous surrounds of Miami Beach from the 8th to the 10th of June, here's what you can expect from some of the confirmed speakers if you're joining us...

Simon Baker, ex-REA Group CEO, a serial investor in and advisor to classifieds businesses and the founder of Online Marketplaces

Bio: Few people have more experience in the online classifieds sector than Simon or have been involved in more of it. Simon is not only an industry expert but also an experienced and accomplished speaker having founded the series of Property Portal Watch conferences way back in 2012.

Topic: Web 3.0, crypto, NFTs and metaverse are words we read and hear a lot nowadays. Simon will be exploring these technologies, how they actually impact everyday life and what opportunities they might create for online marketplace businesses.

Malcolm Myers, founder of European Internet Ventures and longtime consultant to the online classifieds industry

Bio: Anyone who has been lucky enough to see one of Malcolm's presentations at past events knows that he not only knows his stuff but can back it up with data and convey it brilliantly. Malcolm has spent the last 15 years buying, selling and raising capital for online marketplace businesses and was head of M&A at Prosus / Naspers so he's seen it all.

Topic: In 2019 Malcolm made some predictions about the future of the online classifieds industry. Three years later he is back to reflect on how those predictions went and how much progress classifieds players have made in getting into the transaction.

Robin Lingg, Ringier board member and former Head of Marketplaces and former Scout24 board member

Bio: Robin Lingg has extensive online classifieds experience in Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Asia-Pac. He's been deeply involved in the top-level strategy of companies such as Ringier and Scout24 as well as several other online media companies and has hands-on management experience as well.

Topic: A case study of Ringier, one of the most important online classifieds companies in the world. The talk will cover Ringier's view on transactions, its joint venture in the Swiss market, and its local strategies for building market leaders in emerging markets.

Arne Halleraker, Partner at FJ Labs

Bio: Arne is a partner with FJ Labs, the world’s leading marketplace venture capital firm. He co-leads the investment arm and oversees hundreds of investments each year, and a portfolio of ~670 active startups. Over the years, FJ Labs has invested in the likes of aptuno, Knock, Kodit, loft, OLX, OpenSooq, Spotahome and VivaReal.

Topic: Web 3 is changing the playbook for how to build marketplaces; Arne will discuss minimum viable communities, vampire attacks, token incentives and other ways in which building marketplaces on the blockchain differ from web 2.

Andries Oudshoorn, CEO of OLX Brazil

Bio: Andries Oudshoorn has worked with online marketplaces in Europe, Asia and Latin America since 2008. After acting as COO of Southern Europe and SVP Emerging Markets at Schibsted Classified Media he moved to  Brazil in 2011 to launch Bom Negócio, a C2C horizontal marketplace. After several years of accelerated growth, the merger of OLX and Bom Negócio in  2015 and the acquisition of Grupo Zap in 2020 he is now in charge of the integrated business of OLX Brazil, the largest online marketplace for real estate, motor and C2C goods in Brazil with over 100 million buyers and sellers annually.

Topic: Huge companies like OLX Brazil have a lot of experience and a lot of data on how to truly digitise the experience around big purchases. Andries will be speaking about how

Felix Heesch, Vice President at EQT Private Equity

Bio: EQT is a huge investment company and the majority owner of the leading Southern European portal group, idealista. Felix was involved in the €1.3 billion deal for idealista in 2020 and works in the company's technology sector team.

Topic: Who better to talk to delegates about the investment opportunities in the online marketplace industry in 2022?

Tolga Idikat, CEO of Emlakjet

Bio: In 2017, Tolga was made Chief Growth Marketing Officer at Emlakjet.com and shortly afterwards was promoted to company CEO. He has overseen the Turkish portal company's move into that riskiest of operations, iBuying.

Topic: Emlakjet made big waves when it launched its iBuying service, Jetsat and has seen double growth in key performance metrics such as traffic, net income, and unique visitors over the last few years - Tolga will be telling delegates the company's story.

Konstantin Kalabin, Strategy Director and Senior Consultant at The AIM Group

Bio: Konstantin has over 20 years of consulting and general management experience in the marketplaces industry. He has undertaken numerous consulting projects for automotive, real estate, professional services, travel, and vertical marketplaces in EMEA and North America, as well as for the leading private equity and venture investors in these industries. His senior operating experience includes leading the EMEA Market Growth team at TripAdvisor, and, as General Manager, leading Slando.com (now part of Avito and OLX) from launch to leading positions in Ukraine and Russia.

Topic: The online classifieds industry's journey toward the transaction has been a hot topic of conversation at our industry events for many years and this year is no exception. Konstantin will be looking at the transactional transformation for classifieds businesses and the challenges and opportunities around it.

Edmund Keith, Head of Content at Online Marketplaces

Bio: I started out at Mitula Group (which later become Lifull Connect) where I worked directly with hundreds of online classifieds companies around the world in the content and SEO departments. I've been the Editor of OnlineMarketplaces.com since March 2020.

Topic: I might not have the credentials or experience of the other speakers on this list so it's just as well that I spent three months this year collecting data to back up what I say. I'll be using some of my data to show where the online real estate vertical industry might be going and what metrics matter.

More speakers are being added all the time. Head to the Global Online Marketplaces Summit website to check out the full agenda and get your ticket.