Joined-up thinking, cross-channel reality

Last night, as we headed back down the M4 with our buckets and spades (thanks Sage) and other post-show paraphernalia, we reflected on a week at Internet World. It was great to spend some time with our friends from EPiServer UK and also to meet-up with the wider EPiServer team from Sweden, the US and as far afield as Australia.

So, an enjoyable social experience, but what about the show itself? Well, despite many visitors referring to it as feeling like a “much smaller show”, we think it turned out to be a small, but well-formed gathering. As always the theatre presentations were a big draw, but perhaps a better barometer of the market was a marked increase (compared to 2011) in the number of ‘real’ conversations about ‘real’ projects. Over the three days we also spotted a clear trend. Many of these conversations were about genuine multi-channel projects encompassing web, mobile and social. So what? I hear you ask, people have been speculating about the importance of cross-channel in blogs and social channels for some time. But, that is exactly the point. The theme for us was the fact that there was a noticeable shift in these conversations from speculation and research /information gathering to a strong appetite (and budget commitment) to initiate projects that will deliver on a joined-up web, mobile and social strategy. While we (Auros) have seen (and delivered) a few of these projects already, the big news was that this has become a consistent theme reinforced by well thought through strategies within both b2c and b2b organisations.

Exciting times ahead!