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To add another perspective to the exhibit hall comments: I got quite a bit
out of them. Arriving in Orlando on Saturday evening made it possible for me
to spend a chunk of time wandering the aisles and checking things out before
it got too crowded. It was educational, especially talking with some of the
translation companies. I would have liked to spend more time with the online
help vendors, but their tables were usually busy. It would be good if
exhibit hall hours were structured so people wouldn't have to skip sessions
to get a chance to talk to people. Maybe STC should schedule hours in the
evening, or at least keep the exhibitors there until the close of the
conference. I did see the announcement in the program that the booth would
not be open on Wednesday so I made it a point of getting to the exhibit hall
during the early part of the week.
As far as Adobe goes, yes there was one woman there, tucked away at the far
end of the hall with one small table, a computer and not much else. I heard
through the grapevine that she was a new employee and that her display
somehow missed the boat (That would explain a lot of things.). Being
involved with our company's trade shows, I know logistics can be a nightmare
and if someone messes up, you might as well not show up. If a trucking
company manages to misplace a crate, or a deadline isn't quite met, you are
in deep weeds. Yes, Adobe made a poor showing. A person would think they'd
be bending over backwards to draw out the crowd at such a concentration of
technical writers.
One thing I didn't get to were the vendor showcases. I hated to skip a
session to watch one of those.
In closing, I'd like to say the conference was well worth the time, but it
would have been nicer at more reasonably-priced location. For my tastes,
Disney was more of an annoyance than a benefit. Next year the conference
will be in Chicago. Let's hope the hotel will be less expensive.
Tom Johnson
Technical Writer
Elk Rapids Engineering Div., Star Cutter Company
johnsont -at- starcutter -dot- com - work
thomasj -at- freeway -dot- net - personal