Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Online Information 2005

And so to Online information 2005at the cavernous Olympia Grand Hall. I went along on Tuesday, the first day of the event, so at least the exhibitors still had a bit of enthusiasm. That is apart from the people on the Information Today stand who seemed a bit jaded even by lunchtime. Or perhaps it was just me not looking like a potential customer. Anyway, there are two ways to approach the whole thing. You either select one or two vendors that you're interested in, speak to them and hopefully do the business, shake hands - then clear off asap. Or, you wander around aimlessly only visiting stands that grab your attention - you know, pretty colours, ladies dressed as fairies/men not wearing suits etc, tasteful bags full to tat. Ah yes, the giveaways. As far as I could see (and I may have missed something) the LexisNexis USB and the John Wiley bags were the best gifts on offer. Lots of useful magazines available.

The seminars are always worth checking out and I sat in on one about Succesful contract negotiation. One of the points made though was that you shouldn't waste vendors' time by showing an interest in a product that you've got no intention of getting. Well, hang on a minute. Surely you need to try and test something before making a decision and what about all the hours wasted by vendors hassling you to 'talk business'? I clapped at end of the talk anyway.

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