The light bulb went off for Skip Brickley while attending a conference five years ago at the plush Greenbrier resort in West Virginia’s Allegheny Mountains. Business leaders were ill prepared to make sense of the coming dramatic changes in technology. They were even more confused about who could help them.

The answer? eMarketWorld. Brickley’s creation organized more than 50 industry conferences last year that brought together leading technology vendors such as Intel, IBM and Microsoft with 5,000 to 10,000 executives from the sports, advertising, health care, automotive and other industries. "Their businesses are going through such changes and we provide one of the best forums for them to learn about those changes and what’s the best solution for them," says Brickley.

To help the Richmond firm stay on top of trends and the needs of top business executives, a 25-person advisory group in each of eMarketWorld’s nine "verticals," or industries, meets twice annually. Company employees and analysts then identify the leading solution providers as they put together the two-to-three day conferences. Vendors such as Intel are able to pitch their wares and explain how they can improve services to executives with purchasing authority. And industry executives — usually purchasing officers, senior executives and marketing officers but not necessarily CEOs — are able to learn about the latest technologies and possible advances in their industry.

These conferences allow vendors to focus on the core group of decision-makers and not on the tens of thousands of people who may attend a Comdex or other conference in search of freebies. "We bring the attendees together in a very educationally rich environment," says Brickley. "We appeal to them (vendors) by bringing in a very high-level audience who are experienced and have purchasing authority."

eMarketWorld, a Virginia leader in conference organizing, offers a series of top-to-bottom Web sites designed to focus on all aspects of an industry. Use of the technology helps attendees stay on top of industry changes after a conference. The Web sites also provide registration and updates prior to meetings.

The concept has been a hit with both vendors and attendees. In two years, eMarketWorld grew from $2.5 million in revenues to an estimated $24 million in 2000. Since June of 1999, the number of employees increased from 12 to about 150. In October, the eVentureWorld Summit in Williamsburg drew more than 500 finance industry leaders, Internet entrepreneurs and corporate investment strategists. Gov. James Gilmore was among those who spoke.

Despite eMarketWorld’s success, it has been subject to the same perils as other Internet ventures and tech firms. The company laid off about 20 employees in November including USA Today executive Lorraine Cichowski, who had been brought on board in August to develop Internet strategies. eMarketWorld has also delayed overseas expansion — a proposed Miami office to grow sales in Latin America was axed and Asia expansion is off. A possible public stock offering has been cancelled as well. However, an existing eight-person London office will focus on international growth in Europe.

Even with these setbacks, the $30 billion event-planning industry is a profitable business that attracts the likes of Business Week, Forbes and CMP Publications because of the huge cash flows these meetings provide. eMarketWorld faces tough competition from those companies because of their strong name brands and tie-ins to well-known publications. Yet rather than view this as a handicap, Brickley believes eMarketWorld’s sole focus on industry-specific conferences in areas like food and beverage markets, financial markets and travel provides a profitable niche to explore.