First allow more time than you think for anything. I guess since it has been awhile for me to do anything like this, I forgot that golden rule. Everything from getting your official badge holder to getting to the next venue takes longer.
I was annoyed with a lot of the exhibitors. Not that there was some great in depth background check, but CEA tried to make it very clear that the “general public” was not the target audience. I also realize the exhibitors are really trying to woo the “stars” that show up. The CNETs, NBCs and such. I am okay with that. However, there is a whole glob of folks in the middle that are not the “general public” and not “stars”. We are your small business buyers. We are the people everyone else calls, emails or tweets for suggestions and support on products.
And being one of the middle I was getting annoyed at the lack of knowledge placed in the booths. Iomega and Netgear stand out a little here. I ask first for the products they are targeting at the SMB and then I assume (falsely) that the person who I am directed to can help. But being told it is in the literature really doesn’t help. Unable to answer the most basic question- how do you work the interface?- really leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Granted Iomega was bought out, so maybe this is an example of why. Needless to say- Iomega drops on my list of recommendations.
There were exceptions- Creative, Asus and Hauppage. Each one of them had a good number of folks that could answer questions or were quickly able to track the answer down. And they promoted their product without being negative towards the competition. As usual these companies stay at the top of my list. Now off to digest what information I did get and line up my week.
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