Ant Hill Marketing

The annual InnoTech conference was held yesterday at the Oregon Convention Center and it appeared to be a very successful year. The overall attendance looked strong, the speaking session line-up was interesting, and the energy was positive. A few members of the Ant Hill team went to take in the speaking sessions, including some from the eMarketing Summit, and we all walked out with a list of things to do, so we must have learned something.

As I took in the experience, I tried to note a few things that jumped out at me about the conference.  Here is my top 10 list:

1. Best Speaker: Eric Dishman, Intel Architecture Group. Eric is clearly a smart guy and he has a knack for taking his vast knowledge about health innovation, synthesizing it down to a few key points, and expressing it in a way the audience can understand. I could listen to the guy all day.
2. B2B Anyone? It struck me that InnoTech is a business-to-business conference, but that most of the eMarketing Summit speakers talked only about consumer mobile and social marketing strategies. B2B companies have a lot to learn from consumer examples, for sure, but it would be nice to hear more of a B2B perspective at a B2B conference.
3. Separate Lives. Thanks to Kelly Feller, Intel’s social media guru, I now feel comfortable with my decision to keep my business and personal life separate when it comes to Facebook.  If it’s good enough for her…
4. Virtual Insanity. I felt sorry for all the exhibitors located next to the ASG Game Truck. I would have had one of those virtual guns pointed at my virtual head if I had to listen to that racket all day. I suspect most of the post-show beer was drunk in that part of the hall.
5. PowerPoint Skills. PowerPoint was introduced in the 1980s, so you’d think users would have it mastered.  Nope. Type-heavy slides, small fonts, and bad artwork are still the norm.
6. Portland Foodies Unite! Cooking Light magazine has a huge spread about the Portland food scene this month, yet our convention center serves up a paltry set of options to our visitors. What do you say work a deal with the food cart vendors to give attendees some quick, easy and tasty options right outside the front doors. Fuego burrito anyone?
7. Buzzword Bingo. Most speakers were pretty good at explaining their ideas in a way the audience could understand and without a heavy dose of selling, but a few just couldn’t help themselves.
8. Good Vibe. It has been a couple years since I’ve been to InnoTech, but the attendance and energy was good. There is clearly some optimism about the future.
9. Parking Deal. Did you know it only costs $9 to park all day in the convention center lot? I didn’t.  I paid $12 to plug my meter. Lesson learned.
10. I’ll Be Back. Sign me up for next year.

This week, the U.S. Census Bureau announced Internet usage statistics based on is November 2007 population survey and The Business Journal reported that Portland ranked #13 in usage among states. While it is interesting to see where our fine city ranks, many of our clients market on a national basis, so I found myself wanting to know a bit more — even if the data is more than a year and a half old (the wheels of government apparently turn a little slowly).

The data summary tables made available on the bureau’s website pretty much reinforce what us digital marketers already know or sense, but I think everyone can find a few nuggets that strike them as interesting.  Here are the things that jumped out at me:

• 38% have no access at home, but 50% of households have broadband access. Even if we’re not reaching everyone, at least dial-up is going away.
• Households are connecting to the Internet nearly twice as much at home than at work.
• 42% of people under 25 years old have no Internet use at home.  No reasons given but mobile devices, school access and cost are likely culprits.
• Blacks and Hispanics are being left out. Better than half of each population have no access at home.
• Mississippi is not helping it’s brand as a back-country state with only 51% of people having Internet access.  Somebody get those people a federal grant. Intel, can you help?
• Male and female access at work is equal, even if the pay still isn’t.
• And get this: 9% of the unemployed have Internet access at work.  Huh?

So, what are people doing online?  Because the census bureau already asks a billion probing questions on other matters, they don’t go too deep here.  But, the survey does show that people are searching for healthcare information in a big way — especially females in the 35-64 demographic who are dealing with the health issues of parents, kids and doctor-avoiding husbands.  Nearly as many are using the web to search for government services.  And I would imagine that data being collected in 2009 show a big jump in job searching.

If you are interested in diving into the data yourself, see the announcement on the U.S. Census Bureau website where you can download Excel files and, if you are really motivated, read 353 pages of data collection methodology.