I was fortunate enough to attend the Web 2.0 Summit earlier this week in San Francisco. It is by far one of my favorite events that I get to attend each year, primarily because of the format that lends to open, back-and-forth dialogue between invited speakers and the hosts.

I’ve been at eBay for almost four years now and I have to admit that at times it has been a struggle to explain the technical depth and breadth of what the eBay Inc. portfolio has to offer to even the most sophisticated of tech audiences. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – it emphasizes the extent to which the brand is engrained in the social consciousness. However, I can’t deny that it has been a repetitive case of educating and shifting perception beyond the auction-format focus of the company’s beginnings. Of course, that auction/buy-it-now Marketplace is still a huge part of what the company stands for and works toward, but the partnerships and acquisitions of the past 12 months – culminating in the unveiling of the X.commerce platform and its ecommerce ecosystem at Innovate 2011 last week – made it evident that eBay not only belonged on the Web 2.0 Summit stage this week, but the audience understood why we were on the stage to begin with. It was great to witness first-hand.

Day 1 included a conversation between eBay CEO, John Donahoe, and John Battelle. Here you go:

Day 2 included a conversation with Matthew Mengerink, GM of X.Commerce, and Tim O’Reilly. Here you go:

The next three years of ecommerce – and commerce overall – are going to be very exciting indeed and I think we’ll be looking back at the second half of 2011 as a true inflection point. I just keep pinching myself that I’m the one who gets to cover it here on Ink for you. Amazing.

Cheers,
RBH