Pictured: The DNN and Cantarus stand at Internet World in London.

I recently attended Internet World in London. We exhibited at the event alongside our UK-based Gold Partner, Cantarus. The conference was one of the largest I’ve ever attended and it went well. We had a steady stream of visitors to our stand. Attendees wanted to learn more about our Content Management System (CMS) and our online community solution. At the end of each day, I'd head back to my hotel room feeling both tired and accomplished.

I spoke with individuals from all types of organizations and job functions and my southern accent was just as interesting to them as their British accent was to me! As attendees approached our booth, some simply had questions, some wanted demos, and some just wanted giveaways.

Pictured: That's my colleague Quintin (in the black shirt) greeting one of our many visitors.

The Challenges Facing Marketers

I was particularly interested in speaking with marketers, as I wanted to get their perspective on the changing role of the digital marketer and to get insight into the technologies they’re using to achieve their goals. As visitors came to our booth, I made a point to read their badge and see their job titles. If they were marketers, then we generally had longer discussions and I jotted down some notes after speaking with them.

I asked every marketer that I met what challenges they face in the coming months and I received various responses. Interestingly, the theme of the responses paralleled a report that we recently published:

Marketing Got Complicated: Challenges (and Opportunities) of Marketers at Mid-Sized Companies

Of all the marketers I spoke with these were some responses that stuck out that really summarized all of the responses:

• My challenge this year is to reach people on mobile devices
• My challenge this year is simply getting new leads
• My challenge this year is to make each piece of content be related to or drive revenue
• My challenge this year is to understand marketing better: it’s getting more confusing with all the different channels, media, and technologies

These responses or variations of these were consistent among the numerous responses I got and they are telling. If you look at the responses they can be narrowed down to the themes of mobile, content, and simplifying. The obvious one was reaching new people which I think is a given.

Europe, America, Asia, etc. Marketers around the globe all face the same challenges and have similar needs. It was good to hear the responses from Internet World attendees aligning with what other reports and blogs are conveying. Reaching mobile users (in context) with quality content through simplified and easy to understand technology represents the challenge many marketers face in the coming year.

Internet World: A Great Experience

I was glad to have had the opportunity to attend Internet World 2014 in London. It was a great experience and we had a blast. Attending conferences is always fun because you get to meet new people, see new technology, and understand the challenges being faced in the market.

Our Partner: Cantarus

Our partner, Cantarus, exhibited great leadership in driving our presence at this event and creating the co-branded media that caught everyone's attention. 

Cantarus and DNN: Expertise and Imagination Deliver Outstanding Results

By Bob Cortale

Our collaboration with Cantarus yielded us high quality leads and regional brand recognition. It's no wonder why they're the DNN Partner of the Year for 2012 and 2013. Have a look at the video (below) that we jointly produced with Cantarus.