Most industrial marketers still don't get the web...

but they realize its where they need to market. So along with these babes-in-the-woods, I visited the second annual Thomas Industrial Network internet marketing seminar.

First, note the new name: Thomas Industrial Network. Looks like the terms Register and Regional are going away. They are also debuting a new site, www.thomasnet.com, on July 1st. While they didn't pitch their services directly, they did explain the goals of this new site. They want it to be a destination site, somewhere engineers can rely on, thus returning time and again.

One may wonder how much Globalspec influenced their design and focus, as the other destination site for engineers. The major differences: Thomasnet allows engineers to remain anonymous, Globalspec provides product detail.

Attendance was perhaps half of last years, in a much smaller room. And the Clarion Hotel in Kalamazoo was dated and poorly kept. There was a portrait of Jesus and one of Mary in the lobby in cheap looking frames that just seemed tacky.

Overall, the content wasn't much different than last year (same presenters), so maybe people didn't come because they heard the message last year. I was just happy to be at a presentation where they spoke my language.

At least the presenters did. I was surprised at the very low numbers of hands that went up when asked about "who knows what PageRank is" or "who uses pay-per-click advertising". I heard one audience member talking to his TIN rep:
In the past we've always emphasized making our site look better when updating it. I think now we need to start thinking about adding more content.
Man this is 2004--You are four years late! Unfortunately, he was probably the average attendee. He was asking the rep if they could help, to which he replied yes.

One presenter cornered the audience: "How many are in the process of redesigning your site? What you really mean is that 'my website sucks and needs to be fixed, but I don't know what to do', and that most likely nothing is really changing."

The fact that I knew more than 90% of the people in the room, made my heart pound with the possibility of a new career helping these folks. But that's a whole different post.