This is the 6th edition of the LTR online conference experience. LTR is a fast-paced 2 1/2 hours and starts at 11:30am EST (New York time) Thursday 18th March with a half hour of networking followed by presentations and then another networking session to close things out.
LTR is designed to help you get to know other CXOs and fellow leaders of online social communities and dating companies, and help you further perfect your masterplan. This event is small, focused, and by-invite-only. 80 places only.Â
You'll meet CEOs and top flight executives from a diverse group of leading dating and online social communities. We'll also have some select, brilliant people from outside our industry that can help inspire you to think outside the box, and to the future.
The LTR conference is hosted and attended by the Internet Dating Excellence Association (IDEA) and Online Social Community Association (OSCA).Â
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Presentations are ~20 minutes each and will reveal a core idea. You'll hear ideas on growth opportunities and user experience, challenging issues worthy of collaboration, interesting new technology and inspirational and informative stories to help enhance your understanding and sharpen up your strategy.
This will be a unique, uplifting and essential event that will help you and your company align with the best of what the dating and online social community industries will become. LTR will help you evolve and help you connect with and get more perspective from your peers.
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This is a closed-door session and is by direct-invite-only from your host and organizer Mark Brooks. You can simply reply to Mark's email invitation to RSVP.
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PLEASE NOTE: ALL PRIORÂ SUMMIT & LTRÂ EVENTSÂ WERE FULL WITHIN 72Â HOURSÂ OF INVITES BEING SENT
Kindly sponsored by:
  RealMe - Check for real users & raise your ARPU
  vPaaS by Meet Group - Video at scale
 Utopia Analytics - Next generation AI Moderation
  Real Gifts - Real gifts plug-in for online communities
 Tawkify - Partner with America's leading nationwide Matchmakers
 Courtland Brooks - Internet dating and communities consultancy-agency
Mark runs the agency-consultancy Courtland Brooks which is focused on serving strategy, marketing and business development services to Internet dating companies and online social communities.Â
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He supports the dating and online social community industries by heading IDEA & OSCA, hosting LTR, and publishing the news summary services Online Personals Watch, and Very Social Network.Â
Mark is an HBS grad and recently completed an Exec. MSc in Behavioral Science at London School of Economics.
Gitte took over the helm at Spark Networks as MD in December 2018. Previously she held several senior legal positions with a number of companies including Juniper Networks. Gitte is MD and Chief Legal Officer and COO of Spark.
Spark Networks acquired Zoosk in July 2019 and since then Gitte and Eric Eichmann and their team have integrated and streamlined the property into Spark Networks.
Mark Brooks will interview Gitte about her first two years in dating, Spark strategy, and what the future holds for the group of hallmark dating brands.
Alex was an accountant in a former life. Now he runs Jigsaw, which just raised $3.7m.
Jigsaw is the anti-superficial dating app that puts your personality first. The app covers the faces of hundreds of thousands of single Brits and Americans with a jigsaw puzzle, revealing each other piece by piece.
We've seen a rise in the number of apps combating Tinder with new and interesting approaches to swiping. Â
Alex will tell us the story of Jigsaw, their challenges and opportunities, and their recent raise.
Henning is a 'mega-affiliate' and knows the German and DACH region like no other. He started Metaflake 21 years ago, and is an SEM/SEO and native ad expert in the context of dating.
He will share some fascinating observations about the DACH market, how its evolving, and some key numbers about the European market.
Few people have such deep marketing experience in dating and Henning rarely speaks in public, so this is a special treat for us.Â
{Henning is on the 'Instant Advisory Board'Â team with Courtland Brooks}
* supporting sponsors of LTR
Adam Pogach, Director, Business Development & Partnerships, RealMe *
Adekunle Adeniji, CEO, 2CanPlay
Alex Leshan, Product Owner, DatingPro
Alex Pinto, CEO, ForHimDating
Allan Henning, CEO, Dating Gold
Amanda Rose, Founder & CEO, Dating Boutique
Andrej Matijczak, Founder, La La Love
Andrew Yaroshenko, CEO & Founder, FantasyMatch
Anil S. Kumar, CEO, FreeElective LLC
Anthony Volpe, CMO, Tawkify *
Arjun Bhatia, CMO, Matrimony.com
Arnel Guiang, Founder & CEO, ChatApp
Arvia Few, CEO, Dottie
Asher Snyder, Founder, Mesh Labs
Ben Goodman, Marketing Manager, CitySwoon
Bernadett Simon, Head of Marketing, Dating Central Europe Zrt
Bill Alena, Head of M&A, The Dating Group
Bill Broadbent, Founder, Instinct Marketing, Inc.
Blake Barrett Kuhre, Advisor, The Dating Group
Bradley Boyd, Founder & CEO, SetForMarriage
Brendan McCormack, Founder & CEO, Fitafy
Bruno Mustone, Managing Director, Forcespenpals.co.uk
Carmelia Ray, CEO, Carmelia Ray Consulting & Matchmaking
Carsten Böltz, MD, Insparx GmbH
Catherine Cook Connelly, CMO, The Meet Group *
Chon Donnelly, co-Founder, Polo Singles
CJ Carter, co-Founder, LOV App
Courtney Kovacevich, VP Partnerships, RealMe *
Dániel Farkas, Head of Product, Dating Central Europe Zrt
David Minns, Founder & CEO, Platformdating.com
Dennie Smith, Owner, OldStyleDating.co.uk
Eddy Ankrett, President of DatingAgencyAssociation
Elizabeth Flores, Business Development Coordinator, RealMe *
Erica Arrechea, co-Founder, Cinqe
Es Lee, Founder, Crushh
Felix Hoo, Head of Subscriptions, EME Hive
Garfield Wright, CEO, Rumpur
Geneviève Zawada, CEO, ElectClub
Gustav Borg, CEO, Motesplatsen
Haley Fradkin, co-Founder, Revibe Social
Hanna Kozlowska, Reporter
Harrit Diwan, Founder & CEO, Curius
Heather Dougherty, CEO, Date Evolution
Higinio Dillinger, President & Owner, Cebcor
Hristo Zlatarski, CEO, Elitebook.bg
Hunt Ethridge, Founder, Hunt For Advice
India Simpson, COO, Dottie
Dr Isabell Springer, Founder, LoveEd
Jakob Moser, CMO, Lemonswan
James Leftwich, Founder, NoLongerLonely
Jane Ramadan, Account Manager, Business Development, RealMe *
Janet Van Zelderen, Founder, Vidate
Jens Kammerer, CEO, Jaumo
Jessica Alderson, co-Founder, SoSyncd
Jimi Tele, CEO & Founder, Chekmate
Judith Bosire, co-Founder, DNA Romance
Julia Chang, Business Development Coordinator, RealMe *
Karima Ban Abdelmalek, General Counsel & Secretary, Happn
Karina Datashvili, MD, Simantov International
Karinna Karsten, Founder & CEO, SacredLove.com
Katia Loisel, Founder & CEO, The Love Destination
Konstantin Poltoran, CEO, Meetville
Ksenia Droben, CEO, Ksenia Droben Partnervermittlung
Laticia Austin, CEO, Its A Real Date
Laura Brashier, Founder, RomanceOnly
Lemarc Thomas, Founder & CEO, Lemarc Thomas Matchmaking
Leon Gomez, CEO, MyCircles
Lisa Butkiewicz, CEO, Meetopolis
Lluis Carreras, CEO, Mobifriends
Louie Felix, CEO, Matchmaking VIP & COO, Agape Match
Maria Avgitidis Pyrgiotakis, CEO, Agape Match
Maritza van den Heuvel, co-Founder, Intentions
Mark Owen, President, Events and Adventures
Martina Čakajdová, Founder, Najdi Partnera
Matt Paoli, Founder, Flare Events
Mauricio Botero, CEO, Prelinker
Meet Kanodia, co-Founder, Go Gaga
Michael Blakeley, Founder & CEO, CLiKD
Michael Carter, President, Passions Network
Michele Tobin, VP Partnerships, The Meet Group *
Mike Carroll, VP Operations, Brotherton Holdings
Nadav Mills, Director of Product, DOWN
Neha Kanodia, co-Founder, GoGaga
Neil Davis, CBO, RealMe *
Niklas Wikblad, Senior Business Development Manager, Utopia Analytics *
Olga Freiman, Founder & Director, Bespoke Matches
Paul Uhlig, co-Founder, LemonSwan
Péter Weiler, President & co-Owner, Dating Central Europe
Radha Patel, Founder, Single to Shaadi
Ritesh Bhatnagar, CMO, U2opia Mobile
Ross Williams, Founder & CEO, Venntro Media Group
Rowen Ash, CEO, Speakeasy Dating
Ryan Surratt, CEO, Wonder
Saar Robert Adi, CEO, Astrodita
Saichithra Swaminathan, Chief Portal & Mobile Officer, Matrimony.com
Sam Moorcroft, President & co-Founder, ChristianCafe
Sanjay Panchal, Founder, Elate
Santiago Osorio, Business Development Manager, Utopia Analytics *
Sid Klein, CEO, Matchmaker2Matchmaker
Simon Corbett, Owner, Global Dating Insights
Sneha Ramachandran, Head of Operations, S'More
Spencer Koppel, CEO, Geek2Geek.co
Stephen Liu, Founder & CEO, Privy Circle
Sunali Aggarwal, Founder, As You Are
Taly Mathiteyahu, Founder, Blinkdate
Tammy Shaklee, Founder & President, H4M
Thomas Nomaksteinsky, co-Founder, Mektoube
Dr Timothy Sexton, CEO, DNA Romance
Torab Arya, Enterprise Account Executive, Sensor Tower
Trea Tijmens, Founder, SuccessMatch.ch
Uwe Thomas, CEO, Icony.com
Valon Asani, Founder & CEO, Dua
Victoria Aagaard, COO, Wonder
Viktor Cindric, Chief Design Officer, First Beat Media
Yanar Evdokimov, CEO, Pilot Group
Yaroslav Sergeev, COO, Mamba
Zach Casler, co-Founder & CEO, Round
Zach Schleien, Founder, Filter Off
Zam Ong, CTO, Viola.ai
Edition 5 in Feb 2021 featured celebrity matchmaker Patti Stanger, a.k.a. the millionaire matchmaker. Patti produced and starred in "The Millionaire Matchmaker" for 7 years and is probably the world's most famous matchmaker. Geoff Cook gave us an overview of the vPaaS product which enables PlentyoffFish and is opening up to work with more dating and online social communities. Zach Zhleien is a startup CEO with a penchant for data and video, and gave us his thoughts on video dating.
See invitation site here with speakers and attendees
Our 4th LTR featured noted conversions and digital design specialist Tim Ash talking through some fascinating pricing model designs. Ross Williams from White Label Dating appealed to the industry to work together more and gave some examples of lucrative ways to do that. David Minns of Platform Dating talked us through some of his extreme niche products and gave us insight on why the products work, and how well they're doing.
See invitation site here with speakers and attendees
LTR #3 was another landmark event. Harvard Business School's Professor Ashley Whillans gave us an overview of her findings from behavioral science on how our time can be used in a more personally fulfilling way. Dr Mari-Sanna Paukkerri, CEO of Utopia Analytics, shared how advanced language independent AI is being used for UGC review. Then Catherine Connelly, a notable long termer in the dating industry started her company at age 15, and has guided The Meet Group to it's current $360m a year.
See invitation site here: shows speakers and attendees
Once again, LTR filled to capacity within 72 hours of invitations being sent out. The CEO/Founder of Hornet explained how he transitioned Hornet from being a dating app to being an online social community. The CEO of RealMe defined how reputation data is making users safer. Professor Robert Metcalfe walked us through how we can measure consumer value. We also got a half hour networking session before and after the speakers session, so attendees could meet fellow industry leaders on small tables of six. Â
See invitation site here: shows speakers and attendees
The very first LTR online conference happened September 10th, 2020 and was attended by 99 leaders and luminaries (including 72 CEO/Founders of dating and online social communities). Professor Iyengar of Columbia University spoke about the Art of Decision Making. Geoff Cook, CEO of The Meet Group gave us the inside-track on the rise of video. The Godfather of reality TV, Jon Murray, was interviewed. Â
See invitation site here:Â shows speakers and attendeesÂ
The third formal event took place at Harvard Club New York in early March 2020 and was hosted by Geoff Cook, the CEO/co-founder of The Meet Group (NASDAQ: MEET). We enjoyed a wonderful prior evening of dining and full day of idea sharing and discussion, followed by an IDEA WOW (World Officers Weekend) in New York.
See invitation site here
The second formal event took place in December 2019 in Berlin at the Spark Networks (NYSE: LOV) board room, hosted by Jeronimo Folgueira, the outgoing CEO and Eric Eichmann, the new CEO. An all-star group of executives from some of the top dating and matchmaking companies on the planet were present, and presented their growth ideas to the group. See photo below. Â
See invitation site here
The first formal event took place in April 2019 this year in Chennai, India which is the home of Matrimony.com. The weekend prior to the event we held a WOW, World Officers Weekend, where we toured the sights and sounds and culinary delights of Chennai. Then the first IDEA SUMMIT was held in Matrimony's boardroom and was hosted by Muru, the CEO of Matrimony.com.Â
See invitation site here
IDEA mixers have been happening for the last 10 years but the first semi-formal event was in Malta in November 2018. The World Officers Weekend brought together a group of dating executives to learn and share and have a long weekend in Malta.
See invitation site here