According to John Kelsey’s blog (blog.kelseygroup.com), the Yellow Pages is enjoying an optimistic wind blowing from Europe. He was referring to this year’s annual European Association of Directory Publishers (EADP) conference in Barcelona, in which Directories 2.0 was at the forefront of discussions.

Attended by 240 participants from 29 countries, the interactive program included topics such as advertising trends, UGC, blogging and local search, market research and sales, and marketing. The main focus was on today’s changing marketplace for directory publishing, specifically the next generation of interactive services and the evolution of online search and mobile access.

Most of the event’s speakers which included Ana Garcia Fau, CEO of Yell Publicidad, and Cornel Riklin, CEO of European Directories considered the Yellow Pages to be growth businesses.

Fau, who was the keynote speaker of the conference, described to the audience gathered at the Hotel Arts how the directory industry has evolved from viewing interactive products as competition to embracing everything about alternative delivery systems. By recognizing these alternative systems, many European directory publishers were able to generate higher revenues from online products, which allowed them to truly diversify their total portfolio.

Marc Tellier, President and CEO of Yellow Pages Group of Canada,predicted a new era in directory advertising that will be reached through an industry-wide goal of creating value for our customers.

Now that the Internet has become a solid platform with numerous innovations driving its ongoing development, it presents a threat from disruption of traditional directory publisher business models.

But within the chaos of disruption lies great opportunity. Many Yellow Pages publishers have developed competitive online products, while others have stepped up to the challenge ahead by enhancing and moving their printed products forward.