• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, May 3, 2013

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. – Rapleaf’s Cecily Jaros wondered what she had missed at the Email Insider Summit, gesting on Twitter: “I can't seem to find 'monsoon' on the conference agenda -- can you clear this up?”

Sadly, only Mother Nature can and she seems exceedingly uncooperative. There is no sign that the nasty rain and wind, which has rendered the beach outside the Omni Amelia Island useless, will abate until attendees at the MediaPost event have skipped town.

Nonetheless, Jaros was in a jovial mood as she and boss Phil Davis made the rounds at the cocktail party Thursday evening. Jaros, a senior account manager, is attending her first summit.

But Davis, who sat on a panel about data mining earlier, is a mainstay. So is Acxiom’s Ryan Phelan. Even with the weather, he was happy with the decision to move the spring Summit some 400 miles in Florida from its recent Captiva Island home.

Before joining Acxiom, one of Phelan’s clients at BlueHornet was the Omni brand. He’d even done work for the Amelia Island property, but never visited.

The happy-go-lucky Phelan rode out the storm – which brought the cancellation of golfing, fishing and other activities – with about eight others in a hotel bar playing poker (no money involved) before hitting the hot tub.

Others took advantage of a pop-up game room as MediaPost staffers had ping pong and pool tables set up into an empty ballroom. A beer or two might have been consumed along with the competition.

Ali Swerdlow, who had wanted to go kayaking, spent the day working and going to the gym. The LeadSpend executive, who previously worked at the Email Experience Council, is attending at least her eighth summit (that includes winter ones in the Utah mountains).

A pregnant Kelly Briggs, a director in corporate communications for the Dallas Stars, napped. Much to her dismay, she didn’t happy to worry about forgoing networking to watch her team in the playoffs at night as the NHL team didn’t make it.

Looking at his name tag, one could be forgiven for wondering if Andrew Harner had anything to do with the awful weather. Was it part of some financial scheme he’d cooked up?

After all, he works for Monsoon Commerce.

Harner, an email production manager at the ecommerce firm, joked about the Sunshine State offering far worse conditions than back home. “I left 80 degrees and sunshine to come here,” he said regarding the Bay Area. “I should ask for a refund.”

More seriously, though, he said the conference has provided a good venue for networking and he appreciated a presentation made by CareerBuilder’s Scott Burdsall on responsive design and mobile marketing.

Considering her hometown, surely someone who would not be complaining about the rain would be Responys’ Wacarra Yeomans. But, hold it …

“Did you know it’s sunny in Seattle this week?” she said.

Nonetheless, the email design expert said she appreciated Thursday’s keynote from fellow Seattle-ite Donald Parsons, who oversees global email for Amazon. Parsons spoke about the need to make email a two-way conversation with a sense of personalization even if millions are sent out at once.

“Sometimes marketers do forget you’re talking to an individual in a very intimate place,” Yeomans said.

Oracle’s Dennis Dayman, a summit veteran, estimated 80% of the attendees are first-timers based on the show of hands that went up earlier in the day. Dayman said the summit’s collaborative dynamic continues to engender networking tailor-made to building long-term connections.

“I like the size,” said Katherine Youngblood of the InterContinental Hotels Group. “It’s not overwhelming.”

Youngblood was mingling with LivingSocial’s Alan Clifford at the cocktail party sponsored by StrikeIron. Yes, she was not alone. Which might not always be the case on the job.

Earlier on a panel, she suggested email marketers don’t get much attention until executives have product to move and realize there’s benefit in cost-effective, ROI tactics. 

“People think of our team as kind of like rich Uncle Bob,” Youngblood said. “Everyone wants to go to them when they need money, but nobody wants to hang out with them.”