A “Massive” Disappointment
April 15th, 2008 Posted in Business Law, Information Technology
I’ve mentioned before (Joomla Demo Camp) that to call oneself an expert or specialist or otherwise claim to consult to a particular industry, one must keep up to date with that industry itself, not only the law, or accountancy, or whatever other profession is one’s link to that industry. In my case, that industry is Information Technology. Keeping up to date with developments in intellectual property and privacy law, et cetera, is not sufficient.
Example: I know a bit about privacy law. There are statutes, such as PIPEDA; there are concerns, such as unmitigated constitutionally guaranteed free enterprise in the United States; and there are workarounds, such as Safe Harbor. A few weeks ago (a week before the Massive Tech Show in Vancouver), I was invited to the pre-launch party for a local company with global ambitions called “Goodboog“. Knowing something about IT allowed me to ask questions at the party about the location of Goodboog’s servers, in order to address potential privacy concerns of their clients. (They are located in Canada, so their customers can rest a little bit on the security of their personal and corporate data.)
See what I’m getting at? Knowing privacy law wasn’t enough. I had to know about servers, virtual hosting, and a bunch of other techno mumbo-jumbo. I don’t know enough to run my own Goodboog-like company, but my techie knowledge is not so feeble either that my eyes glaze over when an IT company discusses what makes it tick. More importantly, I keep my techie knowledge up-to-date so that I know which questions need to be asked. In other words, when the party was over, Michael-James Pennie (Goodboog’s head honcho) and I had a meaningful conversation about the great directions his company is taking.
Fast-forward one week. I went to Massive, billed as Vancouver’s premium exhibition for the IT industry. I hadn’t gone to anything like it since the days of Comdex, and I was optimistic. Comdex had once been a great show, an opportunity not only to pick up demo-CD-ROMs of new software, but to see what trends are emergent in the industry. Everyone used to want to tell you about what they do and what’s going on in IT. They used to volunteer information, and fairly often, it was useful, even educational. Eventually, Comdex collapsed, and Massive arose from its ashes.
I had been away for a long time, mainly due to being in school studying literature and then law. I got back into the tech community through Tazzu, Vancouver’s top online forum for technology and technology business (and much more). Well, the place to stay up to date with the industry is Tazzu, not Massive. Here are some [edited] excerpts from a discussion on Tazzu about Massive (I was not surprised to find that my disappointment was shared):
First, a description of my afternoon there:
Me: (looking at their banners, trying to figure out what they do or what makes them unique among the other 9000 SEO “masters” who are there, saying nothing)
Them: Hi! How are you today?
Me: Very well, thanks. How are you?
Them: Great.
(End of conversation unless I asked them things like, what do you do, what differentiates you, tell me about XYZ Co., etc.)Learned a minute amount, probably from a total of 4 or 5 exhibitors. Got a few free magazines, a few pens, and that’s it. No trial CD-ROMs, very few meaningful brochures, and the people demoing a new energy drink were only giving out samples that were the size of fluoride rinse cups at the dentist’s office (i.e. half the size of Dixie cups).
Maybe the conference speakers were worth the cost. I couldn’t afford to see them, and the free show used to be worth the opportunity-cost of an afternoon in the past. But the tradeshow presentations looked utterly to be wastes of my not-very-valuable time. I spent that time watching people play Guitar Hero and waiting for someone to ride the mechanical bull. Badly.
But where was the fun? The sense of frontier industries? Being on the cusp of an era?
Another member of Tazzu wrote about the opportunities offered by Massive, the opportunity to create opportunities. My reply:
I had to pull teeth to get people to tell me about their companies and their products. This was a great opportunity to showcase ambition and ingenuity, and both the exhibitors (through their obsessively provincial self-imposed insignificance) and the organizers (through their lack of inspiration to their clients, their self-aggrandizement, and their Valium-laced lack of any “wow” factor) blew it.
This could have been great. Just because venture capitalists aren’t tossing money around like Red Bull at a gaming con doesn’t mean everyone has to assume the demeanour of a Crown-corporation actuary. This is still the most exciting industry on the planet – by its own definitions it is innovative, it manipulates that which is at once the ephemeral and the essential (i.e. information), it is the continuously unfurling future of our society – and at its biggest show in what should be one of its major centres, I needed coffee to stay awake.
Finally, some examples of exhibitors, the bad and the good:
I went up to a company that advertises (on their big expensive banner, next to the fridge of Red Bull and the TV and the couch and Guitar Hero) that they do web design and SEO. So I asked their guy-in-a-suit (as opposed to their chick-dressed-as-a-punk) how they differentiate themselves in the marketplace. I figure everyone and their dog claims to do SEO… He told me that they have seven years’ experience. And lots of high-profile clients like banks. Feeling my question unanswered, I asked him why these high-profile clients choose them; he said that it must be because of their experience.
By contrast, I asked someone at a different booth (a company called “1st on the list“) what differentiates them as SEO specialists. He proceeded to describe the unique strategies they employ to increase both page rank and viewer retention, and he went into detail about viewer behaviour – how to get a viewer interested and loyal. Now that was an answer, but one all too rare at this show.
Overall verdict for Massive:
It is vital for a technology/media lawyer, or someone aspiring to be one, to be familiar with the technology and trends of the industry and to be intimate with pioneers and leaders. Tazzu has been phenomenal to that end. Massive, however, was a nearly complete waste of an afternoon (There were a few high points, but they were identified and canvassed within my first 30 minutes there). Fortunately, I do not yet get to claim a three-figure hourly billable rate, or I would have been really upset.
One final note: Comdex gave us name badges that clipped on. I went through two sticky labels at Massive that kept falling off before I gave up. Shipping labels don’t stick to wool suits. Badges with clips do. Get with the program, Massive; some of us are dressed for business.
