Big Blog

This year’s [eBay Live!](http://pages.ebay.com/ebaylive/) in sunny Las Vegas has Skype all over the place. Just before eBay Live! started, we wrapped up our first and very successful participation in the [eBay Developers Conference](http://blogs.skype.com/sites/devzone/2006/06/legos_kid_lucky_and_the_skype.html), but Live! is a much more massive event. There were about 800 people at the DevCon, but over 15,000 (fifteen THOUSAND) at live.

Our stand is right in the middle of the main showroom and is one of the biggest and most prominent. PayPal has a bigger stand, but they have Skype features in it too. eBay Marketplaces itself does not have a single stand, rather, it has the stands divided up across content areas like shipping, seller scalability, government relations etc.

Elvis saying hi.

]]>Some… hmm… Powersellers?

Some eBay folks are singing how much they like everything about eBay.

PayPal have a cool Skype feature in their stand — they have a soundproof booth which has Skype video and audio in it so you can go talk straight to your PayPal account managers back in the PayPal HQ.

And then it was over to the opening keynote. As part of it, they had giant balloons pop down from the ceiling and people play with them tossing them back and forth over their heads. It was a bit like the Bravia commercial where all those million balls are going down the streets of San Francisco.

Meg talked about how Skype has been great so far and it only gets better. She announced that eBay will be testing Skype Buttons in listing in select categories. This will also soon be up in writing on eBay’s [Announcement board](http://www2.ebay.com/aw/marketing.shtml). Also, the audience applauded and cheered to the North American free phone calls campaign.

I really liked the keynote. Not only because it talked a lot about Skype, which was also great, but also because how it focused in a no-nonsense down-to-earth way on how eBay and its various parts work together and the developments that have happened and will happen at eBay recently and going forward. Bill Cobb announced [eBay blogs](http://blogs.ebay.com/) and [Wiki](http://www.ebaywiki.com/) that are great to hear from Skype, as we are great believers in social tools and interactions and are happy to empower them from our side. There was also discussion of cutting down on excessive shipping charges, plus improving trust and safety by making international sellers more accountable.

Let’s see what the rest of the event and Vegas holds. See deeper Live! coverage in [the Chatter](http://www.ebaychatter.com/).