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Internet World Expo celebrated its 17th year at the Earls Court Exhibition centre in London recently (29th April to 1st May) It is one of the major events in Internet Marketing and e-commerce in Europe.
There were 270 participating companies, ranging from from well known brands such as Google, Microsoft, Sun MicroSystems, Affiliate Future to smaller companies. Visitor numbers have not been released yet, but last year there were 13,000 and this year bustled with even greater activity than last.
There were literally hundreds of half hour seminars taking place in seven theatres throughout the three days of the expo. All were well attended. In fact, there were queues forming to get in.
The keynote theatre naturally included some heavyweight players in the industry presenting titles such as “The Future of Social Web” by Travis Katz of Myspace, or “Mobile Internet: A broadcasters prospective” by Peter Mercier, Head of Mobile BBC.
The Internet World Expo actually shared the huge Earls Court with another related show, “The International Direct Marketing Fair” - not that in two days I ran out of stands! However, it was interesting to wander over to the other side.
I also managed to arrange a radio interview with James Drake Brock the show’s director for my regular Tuesday 11.10 slot on Brenda Padilla’s show on Onda Cero International Radio (101.6 F.M. or on the web at www.ondacero.es, click on Onda Cero International). He talked about the trends in e-commerce and mobile internet.
One feature I like about this show is the ease of registration, having a printed name badge with a bar code. Visitors were zapped by a barcode reader upon entering each seminar. Since the show, I have received by email copies of the Power Point presentations I attended. Handwritten notes are still useful but these are much better.
The smarter exhibiters do the same. No need for the old business card. Zapp your name badge and make a note of your requirements. To be honest I am surprised at how few companies do follow up, perhaps because of the Spanish address or perhaps because London companies are not as slick and efficient as they first seem.
The exhibitor stands were divided into sections which gives us a clue as to this year’s trends. In descending order of size these were: Enterprise Content Management, E-commerce and Payment Systems, Search marketing, Email marketing, Online advertising and Affiliate marketing, Analytics and Reporting.
Speaking of trends... Last year it was the popularity of user generated content, then coined Web 2.0. This year it was more about marketers trying to work out how they could capitalize on Web 2.0, or at least push branding. MyTravel invited users to upload video to help make a ‘holiday guide’ travel channel on YouTube. ...And this is not forgetting the competition to create amusing and unconventional television adverts. If you did not see the “we fight to bring you the best prices this summer”, it is worth watching on YouTube.
I also picked up a focus on usability and conversion of visitors to buyers. Catherine Tool the MD of Sticky Content spoke about a trend towards quality of website copy and away from quantity, away from killer applications and back to basics. She has noticed a growing demand for quality copy to help users buy something as speedily as possible. In the highly competitive environment companies were revisiting their websites in order to achieve the industry standard 3% of buyers to visitors. Amazon is said to achieve 7%. This is something we would endorse at Andalucia Web Solutions.