Contrary to what its many, many followers may think, Twitter is still positioned as an outsider in the online/interactive/digital world. While at the IAB’s MIXX 2.8 Conference and Expo in New York City last week, I did what any business traveller arriving alone at a media conference would do: Twitter-search for other people in attendance and stalk them mercilessly.

However, the MIXX tweet landscape was rather bleak. There were almost more people not in attendance asking about the show from afar than actual people a-Twitter about MIXX’s goings-on. As far as I could tell, there wasn’t even a MIXX-sanctioned hash code for the event. (Though to be fair, I rarely use hash tags—I find them a touch obnoxious—but still understand what their importance.)

And so, within hours of the opening keynote I came to the following conclusion: A 500-plus person conference hosted by the Interactive Advertising Bureau about digital invention and reinvention had approximately ten of its attendees on Twitter.

Hold that thought for a few paragraphs. Consider that during the Billion Dollar Research Lab: Cross-Media Insights from the Largest Single Media Event Ever session, NBC Universal’s President of Research, Alan Wurtzel, spoke about the station’s integration of multi-platform content during the recent Summer Olympics broadcast.

“We thought that customers would be appreciative of the fact that we had so much across different platforms,” he said. “But nope. They were like ‘obviously!’ They just expected it.”

Because, Wurtzel went on to point out, the internet’s tipped—it’s now mainstream, with virtually the same usage stats as television. (Except for those 66+ for whom TV is still the dominant media of choice.) CBS’s Leslie Moonves echoed this sentiment while in conversation with the IAB’s Randall Rothenberg. He pointed out that even the most eager fan of a TV show will only watch two out of four episodes when it’s actually broadcast—the other two are viewed via streaming or downloading.

So. Back to Twitter. I obviously recognize that watching TV online is very different from engaging with a new social media application. Most cable networks in attendance at MIXX emphasized that they’ve designed online viewing to have a very low barrier of access, with easy navigation tools to appeal to even the most basic user.

But does a low Twitter-to-attendee rate mean that most people at MIXX are from this basic user category? In stark contrast, PodCamp Montreal was held the weekend before MIXX—an unconference so social-media-insular that I was tempted to forget that Twitter existed entirely. But is that all the choice we get? Either an absolute glut or utter void of emerging media at marketing conferences? (True, this goes against Wenda Harris Milard’s MIXX Day Two opening remarks about how “there’s a tyranny in more”—but then again, this sentiment is coming from the Co-CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia aka the place ‘more’ is born.)

The bigger the conference, the wider the audience it attracts, pulling away from that core group of die-hard “if I don’t discover the next new media trend before you I’ll invent my own!” people. For MIXX, I’ll overlook the lack of new media app knowledge, because the conference showcased their progressive and innovative appeal in other ways. Transmedia and the integration of traditional media across emerging platforms was a huge focus of MIXX, supported by insightful seminars and compelling speakers. The expo had well-trained experts, not silly sketchy start-ups. And, best of all, I didn’t have to compete with hundreds of others for online attention while tweeting coverage.