Yesterday, a cattle ranger from Idaho that has a Miva Merchant store front calls us for help with his online store, while later that day 100 pets, made homeless in New Orleans, arrive a few miles down the road at a regional airport here in New Jersey. We may seem geographically far apart but truly we are connected like no other time. The connection made possible though the media and the internet is making us feel united with those in need. Many network reporters publish daily Blogs sharing untold stories from the real trenches. Without editing, timelines, and deadlines these front line accounts will become part of history. As Rita approaches we send our prayers to Texas and Louisiana.

After attending the Miva Small Business Conference last week and learning more about MIVA Merchant 5, I could not be more excited about the future. The buzz about MIVA Merchant 5 is the new Store Morph Technology which gives us complete control over the client’s storefront design. The system also allows you to create Custom Fields. For our clients, this mean we can enhance existing product information by defining custom product fields to be shown on the Product Display screen. And there is so much more.

Back to the conference, I also had the pleasure of being a speaker this year, as I had done last year. My session was entitled A Crash Course in Email Marketing. It was standing room only and I received many compliments from conference attendees.

Talking about the Miva conference would not be complete without mentioning all the fun stuff. The conference was held in Mission Beach, San Diego which is located on a tiny strip of land between the bay and ocean. We were treated to a Luau one night and the last night was the traditional Bahia Bell dinner cruise. This was my third time on this boat and it goes absolutely nowhere.

I am already looking forward to next year. If you are a merchant that uses Miva, this is an event that you should not miss. I'll see you then.