I disagree

Read this article on Commercial Integrator and come back.

Point #1
What he saw was most likely booths from companies that had nothing new to offer with no preshow buzz. If there is nothing new to see, there is no need to see the booth. That being said - Cisco's booth is always crowded from open to close and Polycom is rarely as crowded. There are booths that get minimal traffic due to location on the floor as well.

Most small booths are pretty plain to begin with due to:
1. Booth space limitation
2. Cost

In the small booths are small companies with little extra funding to have an impressive booth space. That people disregard these because there aren't flashing lights to catch the moths is appalling to me.

Point #2
We're working on it. His one week slice of a trade show isn't a fair cross section of the companies either attending or showing products. At least in the Unified Communication space, it's very incestuous with many people who work for company X having been with Company A, B and possibly C in the past. Sales people who work the booths got hired for their Rolodex and sales history in the space. That means they are typically older men. I've found more women in engineering and marketing and more men in sales and procurement. Which group do you think would be more represented at this type of show? Infocomm isn't an engineering show.

He may not know what a Rolodex is. Sorry. Smart phone contact list.

Point #3
They are trying that too for some reason. I haven't figured out why the need for name changes. Just browse NoJitter for 10 minutes and you'll see new acronyms flying around trying to define Unified Communication.

"Calling a whole industry by a name that young people do not understand cannot be sustainable. "

ok..."Car" is derived from a word meaning "two wheeled cart". But he may call it that (I know I do) and isn't looking to call it something else. AV is audio visual. That sums up a lot of things within the scope of Infocomm.

"there needs to be a greater reach in order to avoid the problem stressed in my second point."

This I agree with. Yet our leaders (business and political are both insanely at fault) dismiss technical/trade school insisting that a college degree, any college degree, is the key to something. Prosperity? Happiness? I don't know. This won't turn into a political post so I'll end it there.