First of all apologies for the delay in posting my round up of day three of Internet World 2011. Those that have read the previous two instalments of this trilogy will notice that might site has gone through something of a redesign. This was meant to be all completed prior to the show but other work commitments prevented this from happening and so I have been working all weekend to get the site in a suitable shape to accept visitors! OK, that’s enough from me let’s get back to the reason that you are reading this post.

As I say day three was the final day of this years Internet World and sadly I had to leave a little earlier than I would have liked in order to catch a train. I was only able to attend one talk but it was definitely one to attend.

Advanced SEO for Ecommerce – Patrick Altoft, Director of Search, Branded 3

Patrick delivered a really great talk on ways that you can optimise an Ecommerce website. He started with the initial premise that ecommerce sites can have hundreds or even thousands of products all of which need their pages optimising and that this can be a daunting task that will require a complicated strategy.

Patrick then ran through a roadmap of how you can optimise an ecommerce site. Patrick was also kind enough to make his slides available on his blog which you can access at www.blogstorm.co.uk.

I spent the rest of my limited time speaking to a variety of exhibitors and deciding on who my personal show awards would go to. Here are the winners:

Most Noticeable Stand

This award had to go to Peer 1, the hosting company. You could hardly fail to notice the eight foot, inflatables, Gary and Fabio who were enticing people to see what was on offer. I was advised by an insider that one of the pair was actually a female. Oh, and when I say it was an insider I do not mean it was the person inside the suit.

Most Entertaining Stand

This award had to go to Rackspace, another hosting company. They had employed a magician, Peter Wardell. He used a variety of close hand magic as well as stage magic to attract and entertain.

As you can see from the accompanying photograph he really knew how to dangle a carrot.

Most Innovative Use of Technology on a Stand

This award goes to the guys at Eazy Tiger, the design agency based in Leicester. They used an X Box 360 with Kinnect and invited visitors to take part in a penalty shootout. The overall winner over the three days won champagne and I believe some goodies from the company too.

Most Informative Talk

This award went to Patrick Altoft of Branded 3 for his talk on Advanced SEO for Ecommerce sites. The talk was absolutely rammed with hints and tips on how best to promote any ecommerce website.

Most Entertaining Talk

This award goes to Dave Edmondson-Bird for his talk “Emerging Trends in Digital Marketing”. Dave is a lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University. He imparted a lot of knowledge in his talk, but also left me with things to think about afterwards. He also made me laugh the most of any of the talks I was able to attend.

Best Product at Show

This has to go to Vee24 with their video chat facility for websites. With this product you can have an operator answer visitor questions and even navigate the user round your website. It makes shopping online a whole lot more personal and that has got to have an impact on companies bottom line.

Best New Product at Show

This goes to Malcolm Rosier with his product QuoteToPay. This is a system that allows tradesmen to manage quotes and payments via text message. They do not need to have a smart phone to carry this out. Malcolm has really researched his market and I am sure that this will be a very successful product when it is fully launched later in the year.

Best Cloud Based Product

There were a plethora of cloud based products and services on offer at this years show but the one that really caught my attention was Huddle. This is a project management tool that resides in the cloud. You can assign who has access to the system, set up new projects and track their progress. This seems an ideal product for using cloud systems as it means that you can always access the information even when you are away from your desk.

Most Interesting Website

This award goes to Nominet’s Know TheNet. By first thought was why would Nominet even need to be at a show like this, surely everybody knows who they are and what they do? Wrong! They were promoting a new site that they run called Know The Net (www.knowthenet.org.uk). The site is designed to give free, impartial advice to users on all things web related. One of the features that you can find on the site is a NetCheck. This allows you to compare your online activities against your competitors to give you a snapshot of if you are ahead or behind them. Well worth giving the NetCheck a whirl and you will also find lots of good information about Internet use and best practices.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed this years Internet World. There were three things that really seemed to create all the buzz:

• Cloud Systems
• Social Media
• Mobile Apps/sites

If this show is anything to go by then within a couple of years pretty much everybody will be using cloud based services for a whole range of products and hosting. The search to convert social media into a real money spinner is on going and eventually somebody will make a lot of money by using social. Finally it looks like everybody is going to need an iPhone or Android app. The one thing that I did not notice was anybody saying they were developing for Windows Phone 7, which would worry me if I was Microsoft.

If you attended the show why not leave a comment on how you found it?