I headed out to Chicago’s Navy Pier for HostingCon a conference I had not attended before. I went not as an attendee but a part of the 100+ exhibitors showing their wares and services on the expo hall floor.
I love going to new technology/internet conferences and seeing what type of attendee they attract. Not surprisingly HostingCon brings together a wide varielty of people involved in the hosting industry, people selling dedicated and shared hosting, reselling hosting, server manufacturers, spam control companies, etc…
I really was surprised how very “focused” many people at the conference were on just their business niche. A great percentage of the attendees I spoke to didn’t seem familiar with resources that I take for granted such as WebmasterWorld Forums, WebmasterRadio, PubCon and SMX conferences. I saw the same thing when I attended TRAFFIC in Las Vegas last year where it seemed evident that quite a number of the domainers present thought only of type in traffic to one page domains with advertistements rather than the potential of a developed website optimized for search engines.
Still, in talking with people on the expo hall floor I was impressed with both the business and technical savvy of the average attendee. I walked away with a greater understanding of current trends in the hosting industry, reminded of how many subsections of the Internet business world there is and how important it is to keep up to date in all areas that impact an internet marketer and/or website developer.