Oct 14 2003

Yesterday, Destiny and I went to the Upper Great Plains Tech Conference at the appropriately-named Fargodome. We didn't go to the seminars -- all we had time for was the trade show.

I, for one, was disappointed. There wasn't anything cool there. Any cutting-edge technology? A little, but nothing really worth standing around and 'oooh'ing at. Most of the booths were service providers: support, configuration, hosting, connectivity. If you didn't see a broadband vendor, you must've been on drugs: it seemed like HALF the booths were for network access. Voice over IP was another big one: I remember at least 3 booths with phones and routers sitting out to play with...sorry, I've talked on a phone before. The only 'toy' that caught my eye was a Rimage CD burner and printer that looked like lots of fun, but well outside my budget. NDSU had several booths with what looked like student projects. A big cordoned-off area looked like new medical technology, but it consisted of tables with computer screens on them.

The other component were the webdesign firms. Altrudev, Mind Tremors, Sundog...they all had booths there, with pretty posters and videos playing and full-color brochures about how great they are. It's almost depressing, to know that they're what I'm up against in the webdesign market.

I have a niche, tho - small businesses that need full-service support and functional website work, without a big expense.

So, I doubt I'll be renting a booth at the tradeshow any time soon. I make enough to keep my business going, not to spend on pretty brochures and fancy booths. If you're looking for a company with services like mine, drop me a line.