The technical program was solid and had no drop off in attendance. Exhibitors were not barraged by their competitors and sales rep firms. Less "noise" on the floor was a nice change. MicroApps had better attendance than IMS/2005 and you could hear peoples questions. The hot babe with her Masters in EE from CalPoly leading the sessions made this a pleasant experience. There were real customers roaming the exhibition isles. Harvey missed a good one!

This is from Stockholm, Sweden in Europe. It is too damn expensive! There is no substitute to a personal customer call.

One has to ask the fundamental question of vendors who experience less traffic than last year. Put yourself in an attendees shoes for once "Why would I want to vist XYZ vendors booth?" Does he have anything new to offer from last year? Do his booth people have good people skills? Are you selling a product people still want? Have you put enough emphasis on marketing your new product? Would you rather obtain quality leads or have thousands of business cards with no leads but tons of foot traffic?

I was at the show. Your first two paragraphs were right on. But geez, Jack. The shameless plug to your biggest advertiser undermines your credibility. Since half the vendors from last year opted out, you could argue that there were more "geniuses" than one Harvey Kailey.