Three days at the show, miles of isles and great people. Plus tons of shwag for the kids. Not to mention the atmosphere of Austin, Texas and barbeque-o-plenty…
Where was I?
Impressions:
1. A $278 billion industry is bound to spawn a few parasitic companies and the hotel industry certainly has its share. Good to see people getting so excited about door locks,
2. Room of 2010 – Interesting ideas. Sign me up for a Wii in every room. I’ll play baseball against anyone in the hotel that wants to take a beating. The mattress-less bed looked intimidating, but must be comfortable. Else, why would they let it be part of the exhibit? And, Sony had a very small 11-inch organic LCD widescreen monitor that was absolutely gorgeous! If you have a HDLCD TV now, you’re going to chuck it out the window when you see the OLCD. (Yet another reason why I still have a TV from 1993. I’ll buy a new TV when the promise to stop inventing cool stuff.
3. The Brand is the Dream – Most of the small to mid-sized vendors in the room are living for that day when a brand says, “You’re now standard install.” We’re part of that group. The real magic is making sure that you have business to keep the doors open in the meantime. Hope is not a strategy. Selling lots of product is.
4. How much can you really fit in a television? – We saw at least a dozen vendors that want to pipe information/content/communications/guestspeak/marketing/stuff through the television. Understandable. The TV is everywhere. All you need is a signal and you have access to the guest.
Of course, I’m glossing over so many hundreds of stories and people we met. There were a couple of competitive vendors in the crowd that visited with us for quite a while. I’ll let their identities remain a mystery, but you’ll know what I’m talking about if you were there.
And, the booth babe from Image Technology Systems was memorable. Holy Cow! What was that red thing she was wearing on Tuesday? I’m not sure what Image Technology does, but they will forever hold a special place in my heart. (I hope my wife isn’t reading this blog entry.)
