It’s disappointing when you stroll round the exhibition hall and recognise the persons manning the stands. In some cases I could even remember their names. Their products and services may have evolved but a quick run down of the companies exhibiting clearly shows that this year is more of an evolution than a revolution. That fact that I sat through 4 seminars, each of which was peppered with the term ‘revolution’ made it appear all the more evident that the presenters were trying too hard to make an average year in technological advancements seems that bit more impressive. There was a buzz around those showcasing Web 2.0 but this was more down to the mystery which surrounds Web 2.0, and that the average punter can’t get their head around the concept. Web 2.0 is exciting but enabling and encouraging participation through open applications and services is not a revolution. Even after Cheeze’s seminar on ‘Web 2.0 and how it could shape your Digital Marketing Strategy’ I heard a chap walk away from it saying ‘wow, Web 2.0 is a cool technology’. The poor fellow sat through 30 minutes of Web 2.0 for Dummies and still didn’t understand that web 2.0 is more of an attitude than a technology. At least he left the exhibition buzzing that he could tell all his colleagues about the next big technological advancement, whereas I left the exhibition with no such buzz. I considered entering the Bodies exhibition next door so I too could return home with something exciting to talk about.
The day kicked off with the Managing Director from Emap Consumer Media giving a lightweight but enjoyable presentation on the media shift from push to pull. He talked about the changes in the media landscape and unsurprisingly referenced Web 2.0 throughout. Most interesting was when he touched on remixing content, otherwise known as ‘mashing’, and woke up the unresponsive audience with a video mash-up of Destiny’s Child singing bootylicious over Nirvana’s smells like teen spirit. That particular video mash-up is referred to as ‘smells like booty’.
Qube did their usual marketing wizardry by enticing me with free beer and snacks, bunny girls and roulette. 2 beers and a packet of McCoys later, I took one last peak at the scantily clad bunny girls and decided it wasn’t worth hanging around any longer at the risk of being drawn in to a long discussion on IT & Comms Infrastructure.
I met my exhibition favourites, the Endeca crew. They’re always enthusiastic to demo their impressive search and information access solutions. This year it was Tesco that they used to showcase how their guided navigation helps users locate information quickly. At my previous company I often overheard fellow consultants say ‘if the solution does not include Endeca then think again’. It became a mantra for all retail ecommerce proposals. So if any of you aren’t familiar with it I suggest you go check it out at http://endeca.com.
The trick at Internet World is to avoid eye contact and not hang around any one stand for too long, otherwise you’ll be ambushed by a smooth talking sales person who somehow manages to suck you in to a 20 minute discussion on ‘why their CMS is the one’. I was guilty of loitering around the Inoxcrom stand and ended up having a 20 minute discussion, this time about pens! It’s amazing how after a slick sales pitch, a sweet smile and the temptation of a free pen I found myself talking like I was an aficionado of the pen world. 20 minutes later I walked away with my free pen. I served my time and earned that pen so if anyone swipes it off my desk I’ll be mightily upset. The site is crap and doesn’t do the pens justice but they’re quite funky – visit www.inoxcrom.com – or come over and admire mine.
The sandwiches were fairly priced but why stop there when you can indulge in all the free cocoa goodies that are in rich abundance. Internet World is the kind of place that benefits from a severe sugar rush. It wasn’t all beer, snacks and bunny girls. I did chat with a number of companies offering Content Management Solutions (e.g. Immediacy and Squiz) but nothing interesting enough to report. I somehow missed Feedzilla.com who provides blogging tools to manage and enhance their content. Shame.
Emedigital were back again with their photobox studio. It’s a simple concept of a studio in a box but it always seems to grab my attention. I created a demo using a Photobox with a previous company and the result were super sharp photos in double quick time. Check out http://www.emedigital.co.uk/ for a simple but effective solution for putting your products online.
Just when the day was starting to drag the guys at Cheeze lifted the mood by injecting some much lacking emotion in to their presentation. I’ll excuse the presenter for kicking off the presentation with a huge slab of emental on his head since at least he was the only presenter who offered some form of entertainment. Well that is apart from the Streetmap guy who I’ll come to shortly. The Managing Director from Cheeze presented ‘Web 2.0 and how it could shape your digital marketing strategy’. The 30 minute presentation should have been 30 minutes longer as it barely scratched the surface and left most attendees wanting more. I recommend visiting http://www.cheeze.com as they are forward-thinkers when it comes to digital marketing strategies. The bit about blogvertising and podvertising was particularly interesting and something I’ll be investigating further in the coming weeks. So I walked away with some food for thought, along with a branded Frisbee, yoyo and drinks flask.
I’m not sure what there is to say about Streetmap’s presentation, but even the mime artist at the exhibition who wouldn’t stop talking left with more credibility than the Streetmap circus. Streetmap is such a recognised brand that maybe they can afford to waste valuable promotion space by putting on the kind of show I’d expect from a local pub comedy night!
Jonathan Wall, the Marketing Director from Dabs was a nice chap and I left wanting to buy all future electronic items from them. He presented a high-level overview on customer loyalty – ‘how can you create loyalty in a disloyal online world?’ He didn’t present anything groundbreaking but it still amazes me how many companies still can’t achieve the basics when it comes down to customer loyalty. I highly recommend that no-one shops from 7dayshop as I’ve recently been on the receiving end of some shocking customer service at the opposite end of the spectrum to Dabs.
I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t visit at least some of the stands offering Usability and Accessibility services. I avoided engaging in conversation with them and just grabbed some collateral which I read and chuckled over while indulging in another caffeine fix. The spirit of these companies is admirable but some of their collateral is amateurish to say the least. Webcredible were giving away free Accessibility and Usability guides which looked suspiciously like the same one they handed out last year and felt somewhat dated. Usabilitybydesign spied my Company name badge and turned away. Maybe that was my paranoia that they’d see me as the enemy but it suited me fine as they don’t offer anything that the other 99.9% such agencies are offering and by then I was tiring from all one-to-one sales discussions..
This year I was restrained in that I avoided most of the free giveaways and didn’t return home with the usual sack of crap, which clogs up my hallway for a few weeks before inevitably meeting its destiny in a black wheelie bin. So this year I only travelled back with the Frisbee, yoyo, drinks flask, a stress ‘apple’, 2 pens, and a few trees worth of marketing blurb.
All in all not as good as previous years but there’s always something to take away from this event.
Recent Comments