The SuperComm Party Report
An abbreviated list of the fun stuff found at the 2002 telecom
blowout in Atlanta
by Lee H. Goldberg
After nearly a year of somber and poorly-attended trade shows, it was good to once again be at an event where the crowds were thick, the booths were flashy, the give-aways were cool, and the parties were everywhere.
Sadly, this report will only give you a small slice of the stuff going on because I stupidly only allocated myself two days to cover a show whose floor space is only slightly smaller than the state of Rhode Island. This meant that rather than having the time to wander aimlessly and spot the unexpected and weird artifacts that add spice and color to the homogenous clutter of a major show, I spent most of my time scurrying between the convention center's three halls, or locked in the tiny airless conference rooms that are always wedged into the back of exhibitor's booths. The 11-hour marathons I scheduled for myself also left little energy to drag myself to more than a small fraction of the SuperComm-related parties happening across the city.
Next year, I'm going to make sure I set aside three days to cover this show (and bring an electric scooter), but for now you can at least get a flavor of what went on.
On The Floor
As usual, there was lots of competition to get attendee's attention using every conceivable gimmick, including the usual assortment of magicians, jugglers, and assorted sexy vehicles (from Hummers to Vipers).
One of the cheap thrills I always enjoy at these events is watching a few of the skits that companies use to push their products. I take a perverse pleasure in spending a few minutes between appointments to watch out-of-work actors perform these live infomercials and watch them stumble over technical words and phrases that they have never heard of, let alone pronounced, until the day the show opens. It's always amazing to watch how much synthetic emotion one of these folks can pump into a phrase like "Maximizing secure throughput with productivity-enhancing VPN protocols over an all-IP-collapsed multi-service backbone" - even when it's the 30th time they've run their pitch that day.
As in the halcyon days of 2000, the floor was still thick with T-shirts, shopping bags, springy clip-on antennae, and other clever give-away items to entice people to sit through a sort demo or sales pitch. While there were several new and unusual items to be grabbed, my hands-down favorite show booty for SuperComm was the "finger rocket" given away by Glovespan-Virata. These 6-inch long foam rockets had a loop of elastic emerging from their nose that is slipped around the front of one's forefinger. The people at the G-V booth got quite skilled at pulling back the rocket smartly and launching them at unsuspecting visitors several aisles away. My daughter loves her unit, although she can only coax it to flights of 10 to15 feet with her little fingers.
As always, there are a few stand-out booths that catch your attention amid the din and visual clutter of the show floor. There were actually two booths that caught my eye, the first being Convergent's "Local Exchange Diner." The scene was complete with a Formica lunch counter and tables, a jukebox, and frighteningly realistic plastic diner food made, no doubt, by the same folks who make the plastic sushi for restaurant displays. Meanwhile the sales and marketing people, dressed as waiters and waitresses, (another homey touch) handed out sales literature, disguised as menus for the diner.
For sheer fun however, I think Centillium took the prize with its NASCAR-themed booth which featured a real race car on display, and an upstairs lounge where you could log onto a Microsoft X-Box and play an eerily-realistic simulation of a NASCAR race. The NASCAR theme spilled out into the evening activities where their party featured southern cooking, a country-western band, and various racing-related door prizes.
Atlanta After Hours
Speaking of parties, I really wish that the companies would coordinate their activities and not cram everything into a single night. I spent all of Tuesday evening dashing between rooms to catch Centillium, PMC and several other companies throwing their parties at the Omni, a stop at the Embassy Suites to see PMC, and finally was too shot to catch the events at the Hard Rock or other venues. It sure would be great to have some of the after-hours activities spread out through the week so we could all actually enjoy them.
As it was, I was so bushed from trekking the show floor that I missed
the big event - a concert sponsored by General Bandwidth. My spies tell
me, however, that the headline act, a band called "Collective Soul"
really rocked the King Plow Arts Center. I also hear the concert was preceded
by a righteous spread of grub that warms the heart of a freebie-loving (read
poor) journalist. From what I heard, it's a shame that fatigue, combined
with pressing deadlines (for this rag) thwarted my plans to make the scene
after the first wave of downtown parties subsided. Ah well, maybe next year…
Dierct your invitations and calling cards to: lgoldberg@green-electronics.com.