IMC: Thoughts, Reflections, Heading Home

Read all of my IMC posts and view my Flickr photos

The last two days at the Internet Marketing Conference have been great. I learned that companies are using their websites and what most of their goals might be, that many marketers do not yet know the value of social media and SEO (or they do, they just don’t know how to implement it), and that the staff at the Coast Plaza on Denman are extremely nice and accommodating.

I really enjoyed the panelists and workshops today, as well as yesterday’s speakers. They all seemed to have that ideal blend of “corporate suit business talker” mixed with “having an actual grasp on the value of the internet and social media.” Coming from the blogging, podcasting, and social media consulting realm myself it was definitely an education for me as well – just being able to live on the other side of the corporate pond for the past two days.

Update: Final thoughts from John Hossack, Chair of the IMC Vancouver Conference:

– Conversion rates don’t tell the whole story
– The importance of testing (from Tom Leung’s talk)
– Invest more of your people, have a playbook

Update: Final thoughts from James Carter:

“I don’t know how many of you guys are anti-Twitter, but I have gone to the dark side and found out how to use it for business.” James signed up for Twitter during Darren and Julie’s session and what really got his head around it was that you can integrate it with your blog, Facebook etc.

Update: Final thoughts from Jon Husband and the rest of the panel:

Optimize your 404 page (a note I picked up on in the last session about SEO).

“Connect to eco-systems of conversation,” is a note from William’s session.

“Engagement” has been a key message at the conference.

Update: Shout out to Fundfinder.tv and there is also a Flickr group for photos taken at the conference.

On a personal note… Corey and Monique have been posting content on Techvibes and I have been blogging here in almost-real-time. We’ve included links, we’ve promoted speakers and companies, and we had a great time. Thanks to John Hossack at the closing session for giving us a mention (and giving me the chance to give us a shout out). Hopefully those who attended, and those who didn’t, will get some value out of these posts.