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Now that I’ve gone through my 111 e-mails after being away for 6 days at the iMedia Breakthrough Summit in Coconut Point, FL from March 20-24, 2010 (sorry for being overly SEO there), I can finally write a full review on what I experienced during those five days in Bonita Springs at the summit that was all about mobile marketing, analytics, SEM and future trends in all of the above.

This year’s Breakthrough Summit took place in Hyatt Coconut Point, which is by far the best resort hotel (and possibly the only one) I’ve ever been to (sorry, I don’t do vacation…why waste the opportunity to cash them in at the end of the year?) This lavish ivory-white hotel spikes up in the midst of a long stretch of palm trees, which mystify anyone from the northeast. At the rear of the hotel is a beautiful sprawl of swimming pools, walkways, a lake, and a really nice outdoors bar and grill. It was my first time in Bonita Springs, and I fell in love with the place. I nearly cried when I had to go back to dirty Jersey.

This was the first iMedia Summit I’ve ever attended. Allegedly, I was part of the minority: everyone at the iMedia Breakthrough Summit seemed to know each other from previous ones. Even during one of the main hall presentations, they asked all iMedia virgins to stand up, and I was one of the maybe 10 out of 115 who did.

The point of day one (March 20th) was called Mobile Boot Camp — it was all about mobile advertising, mobile marketing, mobile evolution, mobile everything! Many of the presentations at the iMedia Breakthrough Summit were nothing short of product introductions by sponsoring companies, but I did learn quite a bit about this field. I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t know a damn thing about mobile advertising. I’m super late to the game, as I’ve just gotten my Motorola Droid about three weeks ago, which also happens to be the first phone I have ever gotten that had an internet plan with it (I really don’t know how I made it throughout the 2000s without one).

It appears as though many of the mobile advertising trends involve iconography: ad-over-video placements have evolved into icon-over-video placements, allowing you to get more information about what you just saw. Later presentations spoke of the amazing future of smartphones: they’ll replace search engines. Yeah. Thank those QR codes. Imagine a world where your searches will be done with that now-nearly-worthless “barcode scanner” app, just by taking a snapshot of a storefront’s QR code in their window display. Price comparisons will be perfected. Scans will bring up all of the information you need. Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate the creation of mobile sites (even though I still hate .mobi, it’s all about m.whatever.com at present).

“Checking in” was undoubtedly one of the hottest topics. The ability to use your smartphone to lock in your location, broadcast it, and leave a comment is only getting hotter by the day. I’m now nearing my 4 month anniversary of using Foursquare, and it was one of the most talked about services at the iMedia Summit – it even had its own segment. Expect the whole “check in” trend to be seen elsewhere: all of the big retailers will start showcasing their own little Foursquare-clones for their own products. In fact, Kraft has already done this with the “iFood Assistant” app. As stated in one of my previous articles, I can’t wait until a “check in” plug-in comes to Joomla or WordPress.org!

We all had the chance to pick one “master class” to attend near the end of the summit: I couldn’t resist my choice…the unveiling of a 3D TV. If you follow me on Squidoo, you’ve probably seen my lens called “3D Movies Make Me Sick!“, and it’s all about my experience getting insanely ill during the 3D screening of Avatar. I was pleasantly surprised to see that 3D TV contains the picture within the screen, vastly decreasing the possibility of hurling from motion sickness. I’ve decided not to get that Sony Bravia XBR after all – it’s all about the 3D with me, now!

Amidst all of the “free show stuff” you get at these events, one in particular took the limelight: digital ad company Adconion promised that if you give their salespeople just a half hour to do their pitch, they will hand deliver you an iPad in April. The room literally fell silent as everyone looked at each other like deer in the headlights. Someone in the front row actually made the guy repeat himself.

Every night was another pleasant surprise at the Breakthrough Summit. The dinners were nothing short of totally awesome: most of them were buffet style, pleasing the all-you-can-eat crowd. One night featured a mini-concert from up-coming band, Company of Thieves, which was sponsored by VEVO (you’ve probably known them by surfing through Youtube: they seem to “present” all official music videos in high-def). Over the course of those five days, I had my fill of everything from fresh ravioli to Cajun food, barbecue and everything in between. iMedia was so thoughtful that they even held a farewell breakfast the day after the summit was over.

Ray Kurzweil, inventor and author of a nerd favorite, “The Singularity is Near,” spoke of distant future technologies. Imagine a world of nanobots that circulate through your bloodstream, oxygenating your body and virtually enabling you to “sit at the bottom of your pool for 4 hours straight.” It’s no BS – it’s coming…but in a good 20 years. Kurzweil also spoke of the rapid acceleration of technology along with the “miniaturization” of hardware. You know, how those room-sized computers of our father’s age are now much faster and more capable, and fit in the palm of your hand. Where does it go from there? Everything seems to point toward nanotechnology.

The iMedia Breakthrough Summit was a huge networking event: picture a mix of marketers and salesmen (not locking horns for once); meeting, drinking and unwinding between attending partial days of lectures. The event itself is invite-only. The only reason why I got in was through the generosity of the creative firm my company hired. While the days were all set forth in an itinerary, there was always plenty of time to enjoy the resort afterward. There was even a recreation day where I got to attend those golf lessons I’ve been putting off since 1998.

Overall, the event planners did an amazing job of balancing work and play: it was a stress free week where you got to learn and relax equally. Mix in part marketing & sales lectures with “offbeat” presentations, recreation and good old “getting blasted at the hotel bar after hours,” and you have yourself one hell of a great week whose memories will stick with you. If you’re a marketer or a sales rep for an SEM company, do everything you can to get on the waiting list or find an invitation to any of the iMedia Summits. It’s truly an experience you’ll want to, well, experience!