Welcome to Edition 16 of the LTR online conference experience. In this edition we will hear from Dr Haluk Akin, CEO & Founder of ('the eHarmony of Turkey'), Pembe Panjur, on the topic of "Managing Multiple Dating Products with a Unified Technology Perspective." Followed by Adam Cohen-Aslatei, who is a dating industry veteran and now runs startup S'More, on the topic "Community as the Evolution of Dating." {Dr Akin gave this talk at LTR SUMMIT Dubai, and Adam have his talk at LTR SUMMIT New York}
LTR is a fast-paced 90 minutes and starts at midday 12pm noon EST (New York time) Wednesday 15th June. There's a half hour of networking followed by 50 mins of presentations, and another networking session.
LTR is designed to help you get to know other CXOs and fellow leaders of online social communities and dating companies, and inspire you to further business growth. This event is small, focused, and by-invite-only.
You'll meet CEOs and top flight executives from a diverse group of leading dating and online social communities. We have some brilliant speakers, and attendees, that can help you think outside the box and inspire you about the future.
The LTR conference is hosted and attended by the Internet Dating Excellence Association (IDEA) and the Online Social Community Association (OSCA).  If you got an email invite, you're in the group, and very welcome to join us. (Email mark@courtlandbrooks.com to inquire about joining IDEA or OSCA).
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Presentations are typically ~18 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. After each presentation you'll have the opportunity to ask questions.
LTR is a unique and 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. Â
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PLEASE NOTE: LTR is by invite only.  Please reply to Mark's email invitation or email mark@courtlandbrooks.com to RSVP. Â
This LTR is kindly sponsored by these technology providers:
 FaceTec - 3D face authentication software used by Tinder and MeetMe
  RealMe - Verification + Background checks. Making dating apps & communities more trusted
  vPaaS by Meet Group - Video at scale
  OneRep - Help daters take charge of their online privacy
Also:
 Courtland Brooks - Internet dating and communities consultancy-agency
Mark runs the niche agency-consultancy Courtland Brooks focusing on strategy, marketing and business development for Internet dating companies and online social communities. He's served POF, The Meet Group, and 120+ companies since 2005. Prior to this, he worked with Friendster, and ran an adventure club in Silicon Valley. Mark has been quoted in press 288 times (18 times in WSJ).Â
He heads IDEA.gp (since 2007) & OSCA.gp, hosts LTR, and publishes the executive news summary services Online Personals Watch (since 2004) and Very Social Network (since 2006). He also runs BehavioralEconomist.com (130k+ community).
Mark is a graduate of Harvard Business School (PLD) and London School of Economics (Exec. MSc, Behavioral Science).
Mark is committed to helping dating and social industry executives connect, learn and share, and get inspired for an even more effective and prosperous future.
Dr Akin is an operations research analyst and web expert. He's developed complex operations research projects for the US Navy and a Fortune Global 50 company. He's also worked for top Turkish social networks, and e-commerce companies on web analytics, and large scale SEO.
Pembe Panjur is a Turkey's meaningful relationships dating service. Launched in 2010 it now has 6M+ users. It uses scientific matching with 60+ socio-economic questions and 60+ personality questions.Â
Pembe Panjur is one of the most recognized online dating sites in Turkey.
Adam has spent 8 years of his career working with leading dating companies. First he worked with The Meet Group, then after some time in consulting he joined Magic Lab as the MD of Chappy. Then he started S'More. "Imagine a dating app that starts with getting to know a person before swiping on them. Where character is considered before physical attributes."
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Prior to dating he worked at Meltwater News, CNN, and Sony Music. Adam studied Management at Harvard.
- Alex Sawiak, COO, Flare Events
- Andrew Nolan, Marketing and Sales Director, Pink Triangle Media
- Andrew Reiner, CEO, Riley
- Anu Ganesh, Chief Relationship & Growth Officer, Banyanway
- Arjun Bhatia, Matrimony.com, CMO
- Arnel Guiang, Founder & CEO, ChatApp
- Bradley Boyd, Founder & CEO, Set For Marriage
- Carmelia Ray, CEO, Carmelia Ray Consulting & Matchmaking
- Christian Mercer, Founder & CEO, Positive Plus One
- Daan Alkemade, co-Founder & Head of Matchmaking & Data, Breeze Social
- Danielle Lay, Principal, NEA
- Dean Mericka, SVP Growth and Alliances, FaceTec *
- Dimitri Shelest, Founder & CEO, OneRep *
- Eddy Ankrett, President, DatingAgencyAssociation
- Elisse Alexander, co-Founder, Ziinkle
- Erin Kapczynski, VP Marketing, OneRep *
- Firas Abdallah, Founder, Ur My Type
- Geneviève Zawada, VP, Brotherton Holdings
- Geoff Cook, CEO, The Meet Group & co-CEO, ParshipMeet Group *
- Gina Levy, Founder & CEO, Kindra
- Gypsy Seaton, Marketing Manager, Together Light
- Heaton Dyer, Chief Growth Officer, Pink Triangle Press
- Hunt Ethridge, Founder, Hunt For Advice
- Hunter Worland, Investor, NEA
- Ishani Patel, VP Corporate Development, Spark Networks
- Jake Kozloski, Founder, Keeper
- Jay Neves, COO, First Beat Media
- Jazmine de Luna, Sr. Influencer Relations Officer, Together Light
- Jean-Marc Larouche, entrepreneur
- Jeffrey Tinsley, Founder & CEO, RealMe *
- Joe Nunziata, Head of Dating Business, Together Light
- Jordan West, Head Of Partnerships, POM
- Julia Chang, Head of Business Development, RealMe *
- Kate Hele, Corporate Development & Investor Relations, Match Group
- Ken Chin, CPO, Spark Networks
- Kimberly Simonetti, Owner, The MatchPro
- Konstantin Poltoran, CEO, Meetville
- Kris Covino, co-Founder, Date.com
- Ksenia Droben, CEO, Ksenia Droben Partnervermittlung
- Lemarc Thomas, Director, The Relationship Consultancy
- Lisa Butkiewicz, CEO, Meetopolis
- Lisa Marie, COO, Sameera Sullivan Matchmakers
- Lluis Carreras, co-Founder & CEO, Mobifriends
- Marcia Rubin, CEO, Yak Network
- Mark Kapczynski, CEO, OneRep *
- Matt Paoli, Founder, Flare Events
- Michele Tobin, VP Partnerships, The Meet Group *
- Mike Carroll, VP Operations, Brotherton Holdings
- Mitchell Wapner, Communications Manager, RealMe *
- Natalie Frangi, co-Founder & CEO, Nuit
- Neil Davis, Chief Business Officer, RealMe *
- Norman Petty, Head of Trust & Safety, The Meet Group *
- Peter Christopher, CEO, Together Light
- Priyanka Sehgal, Founder, Sparkles Dating
- Radha Patel, Founder, Single to Shaadi & The Auntie Network
- Rahul Namdev, co-Founder & CTO, Betterhalf.ai
- Ritesh Bhatnagar, Head of Marketing and Growth, Woo
- Robert Fisher, Product Development & Customer Success Director, Pink Triangle Press
- Sabine Schöler, MD, LemonSwan
- Tammy Shaklee, President, H4M
- Tanvi Gupta, Founder & CEO, SwoonMe
- Taylor Peretz, Manager, Investor Relations & Corporate Development, Match Group
- Timothy Sexton, Founder & CEO, DNA Romance
- Udit Shah, Founder, Ador
- Vamsee Krishna, CEO, HappilyEver Lens
- Vigan Ramadani, Chief Strategy Officer, Dua
- Viktor Cindric, Chief Design Officer, First Beat Media
- Violet Lim, co-Founder & CEO, Lunch Actually
- Vladimir Zoric, Project Manager, First Beat Media
Paul Larsen has been focused on payment processing for 30 years now, and has advised the dating and social industries. He gave us a crucial update on new challenges, opportunities and a recommended list of providers for dating and online social communities.
See invitation site here, with attendees
Bill Alena gave us his and Dating Group's vision of the future for dating and social tech. specifically on how 'digital intimacy' will transform the space. Bill is Chief Investment Officer at Dating Group and actively acquiring and investing. We also had Courtney Kovacevich give us an overview of the Women In Dating initiative
See invitation here, with speakers and attendees
Hal Burg gave us an overview of how product placement works, and walked us through some examples in the dating and social space. David Siegel clarified on the meaning of Metaverse, and how it will warp and advance the way we experience social and dating. LTR online is now only 90 mins long. A networking session. plus two presentations.Â
This time we focused on interesting and inspiring startups. The CEO / Co-Founders of Fika, The Sauce and Himoon presented their founding and growth stories. Six co-founders in all. Denis Sandquist and Oscar Luo from Asian dating app Fika presented "How 'Real' is Better Than 'Perfect'". Emma Clark and Sachin Karia gave an overview of how they had integrated video profiles into The Sauce. Louis Dresse and Michael Couvreur from Himoon shared their founding story, challenges and vision.Â
See invitation site here with speakers and attendees
At LTR 11 Geoff Cook, CEO/Co-Founder of The Meet Group gave us an overview of the creator economy and how The Meet Group is enabling companies to open up in one-to-many social/dating video. Then Neil Davis, CBO of The Real Me presented the year so far for advances in safety. We were then able to capture veteran Eddy Ankrett's personal story, and his thoughts on why the dating industry should work more closely with the matchmaking industry.Â
See invitation site here with speakers and attendees
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All LTR events are diverse. LTR 10 was no exception. At LTR edition 10 we heard from the amazing Professor Pepper Schwartz on the science of matching.  Then Sean Lawrence from The Meet Group gave us an overview of how The Meet Group made video fun with gamification. Finally we got clued in some current issues and growth opportunities on Facebook and Instagram marketing with expert Dennis Yu, who formerly worked in the dating industry many years ago at Yahoo Personals. Â
We enjoyed a phenomenal presentation by Yu-kai Chou, a gamification and behavioral design master, and author of Actionable Gamification. Then Dr Timothy Sexton gave us an overview of how he is on a mission to use DNA to forecast 'romantic chemistry.' Finally, Simon Corbett and Mark Brooks introduced the calendar of IRL GDI conferences and LTR Summits in 2021-2022, an entire year of events pre-planned, and then interviewed each other about their involvement with the dating and social industries.
See invitation site here with speakers and attendees
LTR Edition 8 welcomed author Jon Birger to speak about his latest book "Make Your Move" and the key relevant points for dating communities. Then Barbara Soltysinkska, the CEO of International influencer network Indahash, gave us the inside track on how to work with influencer networks.. Shauny Ullman then gave us an overview of her new service, Clean Bill of Health, (CBOH). There's a need for communicating covid status and other health information, and her platform is an example of one that fulfills that need.
See invitation site here with speakers and attendees
Another sold-out LTR, we were super thrilled to hear Dr Helen Fisher, a powerhouse top-flight anthropologist with a long history in Internet dating. She is Chief Scientific Officer at Match since 2005, and is Senior Research Fellow at Kinsey Institute. Then Carsten Boltz presented on growth strategy. He's CEO of Online Personals Group with properties in 37 countries and a team of 160. Carsten is a member of IDEA Ten Year Club, Anthony Volpe, CMO at Tawkify, overviewed how Tawkify has done well despite the pandemic.
Gitte Bendzilla, the MD of public company, Spark Networks was interviewed by Mark Brooks about her 2 years at Spark. Alex Durrant, the CEO/Founder of Jigsaw talked about the rise and recent raise of Jigsaw. They just raised $3.7m. Henning Wiechers is a long term mega-affiliate in Germany who is an expert on the DACH market and he gave us the benefit of his insights on the DACH markets. All in all, another diverse and fascinating line up, enjoyed by a packed room of online community leaders and luminaries.Â
See invitation site here with speakers and attendees
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