So Internet World is over for another year – we’ve spent three long days on our feet, spoken to countless people and made friends across the industry. Whilst it was a successful event for Huddle though, we were left with a sense (as many visitors were as well it seems) that innovation was seriously lacking at the show.

There’s a thriving UK web scene, with loads of exciting products and ideas out there, which visitors would love to see on this kind of stage – so why do we end up seeing the same companies and the same products being exhibited year after year? CMP have promised the show will be moving to a new and bigger venue next year, but if this just means the big boys take larger stands as their inordinate budgets allow, then I’m afraid the event won’t survive. Successful events depend on visitors and they just won’t bother coming.

So this is a call for CMP Media to wake up. Make Internet World about web innovation and excitement again. Get visitors to come because they want to see things they’ve never seen before, be dazzled by solutions to problems they don’t even know exist yet. Hear young, energetic and dynamic companies talking about how they’re changing the face of the web. A Web 2.0 theatre is not enough – let’s have an Innovation area, with opportunities for UK start-ups and small firms with something interesting to say. Or are we all going to have to go to America to find this?