• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, April 26, 2010

Email Insider Summit Cocktail Party, Captiva Island, Florida
April 18, 2010

Note: Special sun-drenched correspondent David Goetzl wrote up the island networking fun. Everything will be back to normal (relatively) tomorrow! - Kelly

The palm trees swayed and the reggae played. Those asked if anything was needed at the bar OK'd.

Another day in paradise? No and yes.

It was the buoyant opening cocktail party at MediaPost's Email Insider Summit, held on Captiva Island, Fla., that spectacular sanctuary in the Gulf of Mexico charming for many reasons. Not the least of which is, no massive Crocs emporiums or any of the "what up dude" surf shops that ring the Sunshine State.

But Sunday, the Sunshine State moniker was a misnomer. Hurricane season starts down here June 1. Yet maybe all those climate change prognosticators were onto something.

The weather was miserable. Torrential rain and an unseasonable chill enveloped Captiva. Palm tress didn't just sway, they looked like they might topple over.

But -- fair warning -- a cliché is coming. None of that dampened the spirits of the email marketers.

Lingering recession? Not in email. We're efficient, affordable, ROI-producing and have continued to grow through the depths. Let's drink!

And yet even as Monday's forecast didn't augur 80 degrees and sun splashes, Return Path's irrepressible Stephanie Miller offered up: "It's going to be a beautiful day tomorrow."

Guess optimism helps. The sun was brilliant by 8 a.m. Monday.

Still Sunday eve, Miller borrowed a North Face fleece jacket -- and was still shivering. Fleece was in, flip-flops out.

Jim Barton, L.L. Bean's email manager, wasn't carping. An extra-long season with winter wear is good for business. And his Maine hometown had snow the day before he boarded the plane.

At 98-year-old American icon Bean, online sales overtook the catalogue-driven business in 2009 for the first time. Barton was at the Summit looking for insight into improving that changing dynamic. A top target: more info on targeted marketing.

"We have so much customer data, it's ridiculous," he said.

Scott Cohen, the copywriter at online Western Governors University, was hoping the Summit might ease his workload. Learn a bunch and then return to Salt Lake City "with ammo" to persuade his boss WGU needs someone devoted to email marketing full time, not Cohen trying at 20%.

While Fortune 500 clients may shop at Armani Exchange, hip email marketers skew more Buffalo Exchange (that's the super-hip vintage clothing store).

John Chase, an independent trusts and estates lawyer in the Detroit area, may fall in the middle with his couture. He's serving a two-year term as a leader in the Michigan Bar Association. and seeking insight into how to communicate with the 5,000 members electronically.

While Chase sought basics, Jordan Cohen -- the new vp-business development at Brooklyn's Pontiflex -- has been around the industry for what seems like eons. He helped push the landmark CAN-SPAM Act in late 2003.

Looking the emailer's part with his black-rimmed specs, he said it's imperative the conference go in-depth about how crucial email on mobile devices is going to be, with geo-targeting and point-of-sale reach.

The infamous fall 2009 Wall Street Journal article arguing email is moribund?

Uh, then why do business meetings turn into a roomful of people looking down at their BlackBerries? And high school kids no longer roam the halls to get the intel on Friday's party, but just check their devices, Cohen said.

Whip-smart, Cohen can speak acronym fluently. So he worked at the DMA, knows ISPs are cracking down and thinks MMS may be overtaking SMS.

Sipping Chardonnay and surprisingly mellow for an investment banker who wheels and deals and has advised companies the likes of Epsilon and Infogroup, Bruce Biegel offered up a preview of his Monday morning keynote. Partly, he'll focus on M&A prospects for 2010.

Looking to get rich? Build a knockout shop with expertise in mobile and social marketing. Blockbuster acquisitions may not happen, but big players are likely to snap up specialists in those capabilities. "That is this year's story," Biegel said.

And what would any marketing meeting be these days without a Twitter pundit? Enter the gregarious Bill McCloskey, who's full of insight into how marketers are using the technology transformer.

His Email Data Source, a competitive intelligence provider, monitors activity in the space, looking to provide advice on how to increase traffic and retweeting.

Apparently, home improvement legend Bob Vila has figured it out. He may be a paradigm in how to use Twitter to revitalize his profile, as he's accumulated a mass of followers.

"It blew me away," McCloskey said.

Photos from the event can be found on Flickr!