London Online: smaller but better?
Jinfo Blog

8th December 2009

By Nancy Davis Kho

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Returning to London Online this year after a three year break, I was prepared for change; the last time I was there, if someone had suggested you Twitter from the exhibit hall, you might have been shocked at their rudeness. And given the expense of trade show participation, I expected the vendors to have a slightly smaller presence than I recalled in 2006 (which was already a slimmed down version of my early years at the show in the 1990s, when the exhibit hall went on for what seemed like miles.) There was bad news and good news. The good news is that yes, the number of content vendors seemed significantly smaller, and those that were there had markedly more conservative booth space...only the Thomson banner rose up towards the balcony where I once remember silks flying like a day at the races. Other stalwarts had opted out completely, and their absence was a topic of show buzz. The floor was still full, but many of the newer exhibitors were showing off technology platforms, not content offerings. But the good news was that the visitors to the Exhibit Hall were among the highest quality I've ever seen there. (I guess when the vendors stop handing out stuffed goats and full size candy bars, only the truly interested bother coming by.) Working in the FreePint stand, I had great conversations with customers about the business information they need to do their jobs right now, in this tough economy, and learned how reliant they are on VIP product reviews for their due diligence. With those conversations in mind I was able to connect with vendors and subjects high on our wish list to look at for next year: M&A-related content providers, mobile applications for traditional content vendors, InfoDesk, etc. I do have a feeling that our 2010 reviews will be looking more at technologies and platforms than perhaps we have in the past, something we started doing with our July review of RightTrade (VIP #68), a media sentiment and financial analytics service. Given the shift in occupancy on the show floor, it seems the right way to go. I'm looking forward to reading FreePint's special user-generated report to confirm my assumptions - don't forget to send in your thoughts, if you were at the show! Make your contribution now: http://www.freepint.com/events/online-info-2009/ And if you were at Online and we didn't have a chance to meet, please feel free to send your suggestions for future product reviews to me at nancy.daviskho@freepint.com; would love to hear from you!

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