IRCE hosts Al Gore as special guest speaker

June 07, 2013 Written by NetSphere Category: Industry Events

This year’s IRCE event in Chicago’s McCormick Place kicked off on June 4, 2013, and among it’s 600 exhibits and anticipated 9,500 visitors, the event boasted 205 speakers, including Al Gore, the 45^thVice President of the United States. Despite the long-running joke as to whether Gore invented the Internet, he served as a formidable choice as speaker amongst the assembled collection of eCommerce experts.

For the majority of his 30-minute-long speech, Gore focused on the ever-expanding global marketplace. As the middle class – congruent with the population – expands, the opportunities in the eCommerce sector will inevitably increase. To paint the full picture of that ever-growing consumer base, he delivered the following stats:

By the end of this decade, there will be a projected 50 billion smart devices connected to the Internet.
Approximately every 15 years, we will add 1 billion to the global population until it levels off to around 8 or 9 billion.
Of that population, 2 billion are currently in the middle class. In the upcoming years, that number will more than double.
Recently, the number of iOS and Android devices in China surpassed the number of those in the United States.
In China, the number of people who get their information online far outpaces the number of those who get their information from the television.

Overall, Gore stressed that the world is delivering more opportunities to the eCommerce industry than ever before. And for the majority, he reminded attendees that the population wants to interact with the world in a way that makes for a better planet. The way that they will interact will be, of course, through the Internet. In a nutshell, he said:

Go global – the possibilities are endless.
Look to emerging markets for untapped opportunities.
Search within to see how you can connect in a meaningful way. Your success can empower unending change.

Gore’s relationship with the eCommerce industry goes far beyond what many may have initially been aware of. In addition to speaking at the biggest eCommerce event of the year, he’s a director at Apple as well as a senior advisor at Google.

Throughout his speech, he repeatedly reminded those in attendance that eCommerce is the fastest-growing industry in the history of the world. And when a former U.S. vice president speaks at an eCommerce industry event, it’s not so hard to believe.

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Abbe Miller is the marketing manager at NetSphere Strategies, located just outside Chicago. NetSphere Strategies is a boutique eCommerce company positioned to help businesses transform their online presence by providing a full complement of services that starts with our strategic consulting and creative design teams, then continues with building innovative solutions and providing ongoing post-project support.

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