No Tears for Comdex

Shock! Horror! Freebies and flashy booth attendants are big winners with data center managers on the tradeshow circuit but precious few tears are being shed over the demise of the fall Comdex conference. These were the results of the latest NDCF monthly poll.

After years of wandering the seemingly endless Comdex halls, data center managers breathed a collective sigh of relief following the cancellation of this year’s November event. Of the respondents to our survey, some 44 percent feel that Comdex’s cancellation was long overdue, and 12 percent were drawn to the physical violence alternative if the show resurfaces next year. Only 24 percent admitted to actually enjoying the annual Las Vegas tech-fest.

So, what are data center managers up to when they are away attending conferences? Well, at least according to those taking part in our survey, work is priority number one. The overwhelming majority of respondents (62 percent) said they spend more than three quarters of their time hard at work when they are away at an event.

Only a tiny rebel minority (7 percent) ‘fessed up to spending their tradeshow time in the bar. When you consider that Las Vegas is the current venue of choice for so many tradeshows and user conferences, this is a particularly impressive (if slightly implausible) statistic.

More than three quarters of respondents said that the most useful part of an event is visiting vendors on the show floor, compared to only 2 percent who feel the keynotes are the best thing (don’t tell John Chambers).But, true to form, some 64 percent of the IT managers admitted that they regularly subject themselves to a vendor’s marketing spiel if there’s a good freebie to be had. However, they were a little more guarded about being drawn to a vendor’s booth by the presence of say, some booth attendant eye candy. Only 52 percent would admit to being "that shallow."

What are your thoughts on the great Google offering? Check out this month’s NDCF poll and lets us know (see Gettin’ Googly).

— James Rogers, Site Editor, Next-gen Data Center Forum