Even though the temperatures outside Earls Court were hovering around 10-12 degrees Celcius, the temperatures inside were soaring high. The Internet World exhibition at London held from 1-3 May drew endless crowds, sending a strong signal to the outside world that internet in Europe is alive and kicking!
What was overwhelming to note as a Dubaite was the fact that the Dubai Media City had prime position in the exhibition and drew large crowds from Londoners who had already visited Dubai, if not for the internet then at least for the sunny beaches and everything that is packaged so well and sold as 'Dubai - The Dream Destination. The flip side of this was that business executives were more keen to discuss the height and opulence of Burj Dubai and the Burj Al Arab than the business possibilities of reaching out to the increasing number of internet savvy population in the Middle East.
The highlights of the show were definitely the keynote addresses presented by BBC News and Yahoo Europe. The future of the web is clearly going in one direction: Empowerment of the users - where they provide content and earn revenue through online sales and proportionate advertising income. Lulu.com displayed a sound business in the making championing this business model.
Some of 'must attend' seminars covered the following topics:
- Web 2.0
- Analytics & Reporting
- Content Management
- Ecommerce & Payment Systems
- Email Marketing
- Hosting Connectivity & Managed Services
- Mobile-Marketing
- New products
- Online Advertising and Affiliate Marketing
- Search Marketing
- Usability & Accessibility
The Google University drew large crowds with their 45 minute no nonsense 'Adwords' seminar that got the 18 year olds and 60 year olds equally excited.
The bonus was the exhibition on the side that covered Direct Marketing. About 200 organisations drawn from all over Europe made a statement of how each of them had their differentiating strategies to survive in the same space. One that we could call MySpace!
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