A Grand Day out at InternetWorld 2009, Earls Court

Mark Dodsworth of Europartnerships and I decided to get up and meet some real people behind the headings in the InternetWorld catalogue of Exhibitors. The intention was to see how relevant and how interesting any might be for our Autumn IT delegation from Germany. To aid my memory and as a benefit to those we accosted, I took the occasional photo and asked for their tweet texts.

The first thing to note was that most companies sounded far more interesting and were very enthusiastic when spoken to as opposed to their exhibition guide entries. A few stood out particularly.

In a competitive word of web designers and service providers, Jilly Welch of Fortune Cookies stood out in the way she communicated with visitors to her stand. Warm, engaging and informative, her knowledgeable approach was more that of a conversation between business friends instead of the heavy and often technical sales pitch so often encountered. I am sure others will remember her all the more for it and approach her more readily in the future.

Walking by the Chillifish stand, with its framed pictures and no other explanatory text, I was intrigued enough to talk to Louise. A company specifically targeting the marketing of high value brands! Brilliant concept which fitted in with the brand image approach of the stand. Chillifish also provided the best free gift for me personally, the book "It's not how good you are, It's how good you want to be." By Paul Arden who used to work for Saatchi & Saatchi.

Everyone was talking about accessibility but Nomensa really meant it with solutions for the visually and otherwise impaired. One of their products was a dating game for the RNIB (organization supporting blind and partially sighted people) as well as making flash more accessible (damn – it’s that word again!).

The InBox Warriors also presented a totally different look to the suits and conservative attire, with their relaxed T-Shirts, cult film “The Warriors(?)” running in the background and a stand with giant soft cushions to sit on. Their avowed aim was to ensure E-Mail campaigns by their clients actually hit the in-boxes of the prospective customers. With a Job title on the business card of “Client Slave”, Tony brought a smile to my face.

I could go on about all the others I met – perhaps the Tweets below will give you a flavour.

The exhibition was well organized, however there was one sour note – the food. The Baked Potato at Internet world yesterday was another example of exploitation - nearly £6 for a baked potato - skin was forming on baked beans, the chilli con carni had an unappetising black dried out crust on top, fortunately the cottage cheese & chives was OK. And service? the indifferent serving staff made it more like receiving slops than a meal (and I can normally entice a positive smile from most serving counters). Also the little shop serving chocolates had Mars bars at £0.70, where you could get them for £0.55 at a kiosk within 100yds outside near the station

Overall though, Internet World was a positive experience and we make plenty of contacts who were either interested in talking to us later in the year re our delegation or would be able to pass us onto relevant people.


Tweets (most recent first)

@miltoncontact Best InternetWorld freebie from Chillifish - Book "It's not how good you are, It's how good you want to be." http://bit.ly/jMJ2n #iw_expo

@miltoncontact "Innovative integrated security for cross-platform applications" Sharp http://bit.ly/16vRLR on Gridsure http://bit.ly/IR91Z #iw_expo

@miltoncontact "Protection, intelligence, growth, consumer protection - the power of association" the DMA http://bit.ly/NU4Jp #iw_expo

@miltoncontact "Providing advice , knowledge and support to Austrian companies" Austrian Chamber http://bit.ly/x1FAy #iw_expo

@miltoncontact "Digital pen and flipcharts for annotating presentations - only £99!" Papershow, Hamelin Paper brands - http://bit.ly/nyl94 #iw_expo

@miltoncontact "Widescreen eye-tracking to optimise your site; with detailed analysis" Acuity http://bit.ly/OUGC0 #iw_expo

@miltoncontact "Getting your message into your clients in-box!" Inbox Warriors http://bit.ly/18Em3E #iw_expo

@miltoncontact "Hi end brand internet marketing" Chillifish - http://bit.ly/17arZR #iw_expo

@miltoncontact "Don't miss important parcel deliveries whilst out on business" ByBox http://bit.ly/JirK8 #iw_expo

@miltoncontact "Reward customers, increase their loyalty and generate extra revenue" Adaptive affinity http://bit.ly/k7afs #iw_expo

@miltoncontact "Dating game for RNIB and other unique accessibility services - humanising technology" - Nomensa http://bit.ly/4DGAo2 #iw_expo

@miltoncontact "Web design & Development specialising in accessibility and useability" Fortune Cookie http://bit.ly/4l5iH #iw_expo

@miltoncontact "Leading international professional body for marketing" - the Chartered institute of Marketing http://bit.ly/NaUOu #iw_expo

@miltoncontact Due to poor internet connection at Internet World 2009, entering my tweets after return home #iw_expo