First Take
Comment and commentary on events in government and technology
Technology trade shows dying? Nonsense
Since everyone in the Washington/federal IT community seems to have a comment about the FOSE trade show, last week, I thought I’d weigh in. The show is owned by us, PostNewsweek, so I have both an ax to grind and some inside knowledge.
If you look type FOSE into our gcn.com search box, you’ll see a collection of stories showing the range of information and new products presented at FOSE.
Some folks point to the defunct Comdex show and predict the same for FOSE because it wasn’t crowded Thursday afternoon. I went to at least 15 Comdexes and it flourished when it kept its focus on important new products. In the glare of the internet revolution, it may be hard to remember how Microsoft Windows 3.x ignited the PC revolution. Comdex became in essence a Windows show.
As long as people want to touch, feel and see new products and technologies, and to express their requirements and complaints in person, trade shows will be relevant. Shows that change with the times endure. FOSE has had a 30 year run. At one time it showed Wang word processors and Xerox machines. This year you could see open source software products; radio frequency identification technologies; scanners with network intelligence and connectivity built in; Web software to enable service oriented architectures; and USB drives with application security built in, to name just a few things.
Most of that stuff didn’t exist even a few years ago, and certainly not in the form it’s in now.
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