Exclusive VIDEO interview with eBay CEO John Donahoe at #eBayOL Dallas (unedited)

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FEATURED POSTRichard Brewer-Hay / Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

Exclusive VIDEO interview with eBay CEO John Donahoe at #eBayOL Dallas (unedited)

All,
I was fortunate enough to sit down with eBay CEO, John Donahoe, at the eBay: On Location event in Dallas a couple of weeks ago. We managed to take 5 minutes between sessions to sit down and talk about the event(s). Rather than edit the video down I wanted to give you guys the conversation in its entirety. I apologize for the bad lighting; we had to conduct it in his hotel room to eliminate any background noise. I’ve done my best to fix the brightness and contrast on the video for better viewing.

Enjoy!

Cheers,
RBH
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Tommy Day / May 19th, 2010 at 8:29 am

Sounds like the ebayol venues have been so successful so far, I imagine that the locations will be expanded to the Northeast section of the US? Philadelphia is a prime location! Please?

JC Murphy / May 20th, 2010 at 12:29 pm

Myself and another company employee attended the Dallas event. Overall is was a positiove experience but I feel it lacked some of the advanced information (especially for corporate sellers) that was implied in the advertising for the event. All the basics were covered in a useable fashion and the speakers were excellent. I would like to see more opportunities for advanced training in the future though. Perhaps there can be general sessions for everyone plus breakout sessions for advanced or more established users.

There’s my 2 cents worth.

Regards,
JC Murphy
eCommerce Manager
Playground Music Center, Inc.

Richard Brewer-Hay / May 20th, 2010 at 3:04 pm

@JC Murphy
Thanks so much for the feedback. I’ve heard the request regarding advanced training from a few people. Something to definitely think about for future events.
Cheers,
RBH

Sam evans / May 21st, 2010 at 3:39 am

JD getting around the USA , all sounds very positive , what about the UK , are we important enough for a visit ?

Richard Brewer-Hay / May 21st, 2010 at 9:51 am

Hi Sam,
I think it’s a valid question for future events. If/when these events do go international I would imagine the UK is one of the top countries on the list (would be nice to visit home too so I’d do my part to make it happen). Cheers!
-RBH

Tony M / May 23rd, 2010 at 10:20 pm

I attended the Dallas event, definitely worth doing! I’ve been selling on eBay for close to 10 years, and would recommend the OnLocation event for new to more seasoned sellers.

Personally, I’d like to see a little more for ‘advanced’ sellers – not big corporate sellers, but those (like myself) that are essentially a ‘mom & pop’ seller who are ready to go to the next level. Topics such as hiring help, organizing inventory, automating record keeping, etc.

As for Mr. Donahoe, he seems like a great guy, and says all the right things w/regard to listening to the concerns of us ‘smaller” sellers – who these OnLocation events are targeted to. What I did NOT hear were what actual changes might come, or what changes were in the works – hopefully, that will come very soon! (although I confess to be a little skeptical, I DO have hope!)

BTW – drinks, snacks, and goodie bags were great!

Tony

Mel / May 25th, 2010 at 12:32 pm

Hi Richard,

I think you are doing a great job on this blog. I’m a business shool student and I wanted to know if you consider Ebay blog as a two way symetric communication or is it just a two way asymetric communication knowing that even if there is a dialog you are the one deciding on what subject to talk and it is more source to receiver feedbacks than group to group feedbacks expressed on the website. The communication seems to keep umbalanced effects even if the strategy is very good. Is it right or not? Hope hearing from you soon,

Mel

Kat Simpson / May 26th, 2010 at 3:08 pm

RBH, JD keeps talking about how successful the eBayOL events have been – do we know yet the future direction of this program?

Sue @ Tamebay / May 29th, 2010 at 3:22 am

Just like to chime in a little agreement here –

with JC Murphy: the lack of advanced content has LONG been a problem at eBay events, both at eBay University in the UK and eBay Live in the US. eBay seriously needs to look at this and start developing a real advanced stream. The problem, IMO, is that sellers often know rather a lot more than eBay staff about selling on the site. You started getting it right at Live, bringing in real experts like Seth Godin, Andy Sernowitz and John Jantsch – all of whom covered marketing very well, but there wasn’t much comparable in other areas. How about some business analysts? Get some of those MBAs doing some work for a change ;-)

And with Sam Evans: we definitely need some UK events please!

Emily / May 31st, 2010 at 5:03 pm

RBH, JD keeps talking about how successful the eBayOL events have been – do we know yet the future direction of this program?

Kat Simpson / June 4th, 2010 at 4:32 pm

SOOO happy to hear that JD realizes the issues about large sellers ‘pushing off’ the small guy and says he will help with that. Looking forward to see what he DOES to help . . . .