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Tug of war

Neena Haridas

Even if it is the biggest technology conference held annually, a fair is but a fair. The techniques and strategies used to attract attention remain the same: quiz shows, interactive TV and audio-video shows. It all seems a little forced at times. But things improved at Comdex, Day Two.

If it was Vinton Cerf who pulled the crowds out of Comdex and into Convergence India, today it was Jon 'Maddog' Hall's turn to pull the draw

T O D A Y

• Jon Hall interview

them back to Comdex.

Delegates and visitors thronged the conference hall to listen to Maddog's pitch for Linux during the keynote address. But the easy affability with which Maddog met the people and helped clear technical doubts made the event a hit.

The second day at Comdex seemed more happening than the inaugural session, probably because there wasn't much happening at Convergence India today.

At Convergence India, the conference on FM privatisation in India -- on opportunities for broadcast engineers by Charles Kelly, international committee, Society of Broadcast Engineers, US, attracted a good number of people.

The broadcast industry's views were provided by Sam Miller, managing editor, (South Asia) BBC World. Tapas Sen, executive, products, Times FM, Bennett & Coleman, spoke about 'Seducing the listener.'

At Comdex, Prashant Singh, marketing manager, Microsoft, and Hema Parameswaran, marketing manager, LG Soft, gave their views on the use of information technology in the industry while Rahul Swarup, vice-president, technical, Satyam, spoke about insights into 'Getting the bandwidth you need'. Sury Kant , VP, Tata Consultancy Services, gave a tip or two on managing web-based customers.

If you tired of all this heavy stuff, you get your laughs at the Trend Micro counter. While the guys there flung their sales pitch at the visitors, pretty girls would suddenly pop out of the other and plant what passed for a toy virus on your clothes. That's to let you know that Trend Micro has come out with a virus buster.

Besides, there were the mandatory quiz shows that earned members of the freebies or gifts.

When asked for his views on this year's Comdex an exhibitor commented,

"Well, it's just a fair. I guess it's just an awareness fair." As answers go, just about fair, we guess.

Asked if these conferences help clinch business deals, the exhibitor said, "This is mainly an awareness-building exercise. To know who is who in the IT world, what are the new products hitting the market and who is doing what. I really don't think many business deals happen here."

Now, as coup de graces go, that was a devastating one.

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