Fall VON Revisited

It seems that my original post on Fall VON fueled a war of words this week when fellow blogger Tom Keating wrote a saterical post about the Fall VON being more about Video on the Net then Voice. It seems that Tom’s post even got Jeff Pulver’s attention, causing him to make a WTF call to the CEO of Voxilla. (NOTE: Only Eric was disappointed with FALL VON, not Voxilla. They thought it was great.) Alec Saunders, a long time VON supporter, added on his blog that Iotum had a great show and even offered some insights on how an exhibitor can put themselves in the best position to have a “great show.”

As the firestarter, I feel obligated to reclarify my original intent of the post and also to respond to others comments on the Fall VON show.

First, there are facts and there are opinions about the Fall VON show. Here are the facts, and opinions that I see.

The Facts:

• I am the customer of pulvermedia.
• I am unhappy about the traffic at the EXPO.
• I am unhappy about the way my account was handled leading up to the show.
• Fall VON was really two shows, Video on the Net and VON.
• We prepared for this show throughout the entire summer, and invested considerable time, effort, and money.

The Opinions:

• The Fall Von Expo floor was not as active as it has been at past shows.
• Jeff and Pulvermedia used Fall VON as a way to promote their new Video on the Net show.
• Fall VON was more about Video then Voice.
• Fall VON was great.
• Fall VON was disappointing.

The Conclusion:

My orginal post on Fall VON was directed solely at the Fall VON Expo, not the Fall VON Conference. Since I did not attend any of the conferences or any of the panels, I can not comment about them. I did attend all three days of the Fall VON Expo and was disappointed at the traffic as it was nowhere near what was promised by our sales rep. I have also attended three other VON expo’s as an exhibitor and this year’s Fall VON was disappointing compared to the previous three.

I was not the only person (or company) that felt that way, so I decided to have an open discussion about the Expo, not the Conference, Keynotes, or Panels. And yes, Fall VON was great to meet with vendors, partners, and customers. But that was not the point of my post.

An Aside:

What I did find interesting about all of this was some of the things that were written that I took as “shots.” It was interesting that Andy wrote, “The show floor is in my view the culmination of the advance work done to meet with prospective customers and your existing relationships. Planning and having contacts helps accomplish that, but a newcomer, especially one from behind the scenes. is less likely to have been a part of that game, and would obviously feel left out.” Andy are you implying that I or anyone else that was disappointed in the turn-out at the Fall VON Expo are to blame? Is it our fault less people then were promoted showed up? All of the advanced work in the world won’t do squat if no one shows up. Alec, while your post on having a successful show was good, do you think any exhibitor would not prepare adequately for the Fall VON expo given the type of investment necessary to exhibit? Honestly, do you think multi-million dollar companies do not prepare?

Andy, Alec, you both are bright guys. You both have successful companies that are on the cutting edge of their persepctive niches. If one of your customers, in the public domain, expressed their disappointment in your product or service what would you do? Would you get your friends to help in damage control or would you pick up the phone and speak with this customer about their concerns?

I think I know what the two of you would do.

Funny, my phone has yet to ring.