Well..I had more than a handful of folks tell me "no I'm not a webmaster I'm here for CES" as they passed by the booth. They took the free calendars and magazines - grabbed some candies and looked for more freebies. That was about it. And yup - those were the guys I saw lining up to get their pics taken with the naked chicks. That's the problem with Vegas - always another geek show in town to attract the lookie loos. :grrr:
KK - I agree with you to a point, it was different when we got started - wasn't it? I mean, we had to work hard, invest more $, invest a lot of time. Today BW is cheap - but I think today's newbie (the one that wants to succeed and make more than beer money) needs to invest more time than money because the prices on hosting/content/scripting has dropped - but those who are finding success ARE investing something. Many are having to become very creative in order to find a foothold in the biz - and many more I think are dropping out quicker than the newbies did back when we were green. I think that's great - it separates the weekend warriors from those who are really in this industry to succeed.
However - I think the booth rates are insane. Yes great for the big companies (less little guy competition) but those big guys still need to watch their bottom lines. There is a booth shrinkage happening as well. Remember some of those outrageous booth designs and giveaways over the years? The whole "everyone gets equal booth sizing" idea @ Miami was a bust - wouldn't you say? What a mess. Premium prices for everyone and the big guys still somehow managed to get bigger booths anyway. *sigh*
But the cost for the webmaster is I think what bothers me the most. This is the guy we're trying to reach - the intricate part of the industry that we are trying to educate, mold, work with and sell our programs to. He shouldn't have to save up for a year just to get through the door - or stay at the cheapo motel 10 miles down the road just to make ends meet that week. It should be easy for him to attend. Unfortunately this also makes it easy for lookie-loos to attend but who cares? They're always going to be there and higher prices won't scare them away.
I like Carrie's ideas a lot - she's so right and dead-on about the things we offer to our booth visitors. I've watched more people walk up to the TCG booth, grab a sandwich and a coke - sit down, rest their expo floor tired feet and then talk with one or more of the reps there about their programs. Talk about a captive audience! And they are happy and willing to stay and listen. Obviously everyone can't do this - it wouldn't work. But I think the booth designs DO need to be more webmaster-friendly, provide a comfortable & inviting place for people to come, talk and do business.
There's always room for improvement and everyone always has a bitch. Carrie's also right in that you can't please everyone. But there is a LARGE target group of folks that come to these events to do business and to do some extreme networking - I think that's the voice that should be listened to. These are the people who will sing your praises the loudest on the boards and in show reviews more for the quality/substance of your show versus the amount of boobies and porn stars.
