According to show founder Jack Rickard, the
Internet industry used the ISPCON Fall 1998 show as a place to do
business.
In the booths and aisles of the McEnery Convention Center and
in various after-hours parties in San Jose’s restaurants, museums and
art galleries, deals were being made.
“I wish I could tell you specific numbers, but these guys don’t tell me
how much business they did,” said Rickard. “I’m a publisher. They know
I’ll publish it.”
The players and exhibitors themselves were pleased to talk about the
pace of business. With a record 7,014 attendees walking the show floor,
business for many was brisk.
“Based on the deals we’ve made in the last three days, we’re building
two new points of presence we weren’t planning to open this year. We’re
jumping the gun by nine months,” said Reed Caldwell, president of
ServInt, a national backbone provider of wholesale bandwidth.
“This is the best trade show we’ve been to,” said Brad Duffy, president
and CEO of Kidznet, a kid-friendly content provider. “We were knocked
out by the people who physically came to do business, not just to take a
look.”
Some attributed the transactions occurring at the show to the caliber of
the attendees, who ranged from the corporate brass of Fortune 500
companies to the entrepreneurial founders of local ISPs. Most came to
hunt for new items to improve their product lines, not for promotional
T-shirts and giveaways.
“I have been to [end-user] trade shows where a bunch of little old
ladies in white sneakers descended upon my booth like locusts and
grabbed any freebie they could. They didn’t know what the Internet was.
Many of them didn’t even have a computer,” said Dave McClure with the
Association of Online Professionals. “But [at ISPCON] I have been
impressed with the professionals coming by my booth and the questions
they’ve been asking.”
According to Trade Show Director Ron Fippinger, this is because ISPCON
appeals to the integral niche market of Internet access rather than the
Internet industry as a whole. “It’s usually these more focused shows
where businesses send their better people to come and cut deals,” he
said.
Rickard agreed, suspects that at least a few people’s fortunes were made
at the show.
“I bet you nine guys came out to San Jose without enough money to buy a
pizza, and left millionaires,” he joked.
