If you can’t “meet” someone here, you’re toast!

Last week, two of us from 2Checkout attended the Internet Dating Conference in Miami, and of course, the puns are seemingly endless describing the number of interesting people we “met.”

So, go ahead and laugh at the fact that an online dating conference even exists, but keep in mind that this industry is highly profitable and professional, very popular with consumers and becoming more mainstream everyday. But, I know that those of you who are not entirely familiar with the online dating and matchmaking industry are asking the question — what could dating industry professionals discuss for two and a half days?

The fact is, i-Date varied little from traditional internet marketing conferences. Exhibits included typical services such as insurance and fraud protection, but also included a mix of industry-unique companies selling products such as security monitoring services designed to make follow up calls to women to ensure they have returned home safely following a date, and white label dating sites designed to make the “do-it-yourself” as easy as possible.

Breakout sessions included standard topics such as search engine marketing, newfound revenue, and fraud fighting. However, industry specific discussions focused on date screening background checks, making sites more female friendly and reviewing new DNA matching systems.

While listening to a fraud-fighting panel featuring industry experts such as Elena Kolyasnikova from Russia’s Pilot Group, we were pleasantly surprised to hear panelists agree that 2Checkout vendor Stop-Scammers.com was an excellent resource to verify potentially fraudulent dating site customers. Stop-Scammers lists thousands of known scammers involved in dating fraud with photos, scam reports, media files, fake documents, scam scenarios and warning signs that industry professionals can share to protect their collective interest. Hearing unsolicited praise for one of our valued vendors was very rewarding.

2Checkout is proud to provide an ecommerce option for dating sites and services around the globe and when it is time for i-Date 2010, we will be there… “it’s a date!”