Categories
Archive

TechXNY 2002 – Wrap-up


New York, N.Y. — On Tuesday, I had the good fortune of taking a train into New York City to check out the happenings at the Jacob K. Javits Center. The combination of PC Expo, DV Expo East and Web Services Expo (now called TechXNY) turned the Glass Palace of New York City into a madhouse of tech-savvy and knowledge hungry people rushing from the exhibit halls to their next conference session.

I spent a majority of my time on the PC Expo Exhibit Floor looking at the booths by Bluefish Wireless, Compaq Computer Corp., Kyocera Wireless Corp., Palm, Inc., and Sony Electronics. These companies were among the few show-stoppers that displayed their superior hardware or software.

A brief amount of my time was devoted to venturing through the DV Expo East Exhibit Hall. It seems that a lot of the DV software and hardware has not changed, except for tweaks and upgrades (but hey, isn’t that what most companies do anyway?). I have attended a number of DV Expos and they all present the same atmosphere: a boring environment with a herd of uninterested sales representatives and a profound lack of wireless access points.

This is the first PC Expo that I have attended and it certainly differs from a show like Macworld Expo. At a PC Expo there is a complete lack of community. The people that attend are not in love with their hardware or software, but they persist in submitting to the next revolution created by big brother Microsoft.

At PC Expo this year, it seemed that the exhibit coordinators tried to make the exposition seem larger than it really was by bringing in no-name, small companies that were simple space-fillers. This can be partially attributed to the post-9/11 economy but the ploy did not fool me. Although it is always a treat at any expo to learn something about a no-name or startup company, it saddened me that the exhibitor coordinators would use these companies to try to expand the show floor.

By Jason O'Grady

Founded the PowerPage in 1995.