Hey gang, sorry I haven't written the Expo results,
been busy running around Vegas. Anyway let me give you a quick
rundown on the LA show. Took me 45 min to get from the freeway
to the Conv. ctr but that's another story.
I got there Thursday - last day of the show.
Saw many friendly faces - Dianne, Neil, Alan, Dan, Rebecca
(take it easy Elk!!<gg>) and Peter.
I talked to peter and he asked me to pass on a message from him.
To paraphrase: tell those folks on the thread to stop blabbing
about what the company is doing - not the exact words but that
was the gist of it. I told him that folks that were at the SHM
were just trying to reassure newbies on the thread, so that they
don't panic and sell right before the "big time". He said
let them dump!
Anyway, I arrived just before noon, and found FTEL in the
"award winner/best of show" pavilion. There were about 8 or 10
folks huddled around the booth. I talked to Diane for awhile,
she said things had gone well - much better than the NY show.
There's another mini-show coming up at the end of the month in
San Jose, I believe. It won't be as big a setup, it's just a
"table top" show - no big demo setup but Pulver will cover it.
She also said that they had been busy during the show. I asked
about big investors or competitors. (I tried) Somebody from
UUNet was there and made a call before I got there. She also suggested that I check out other gateway makers. I went to Clarent's
booth and was interrogated about who I was and why I was there.
I found out later that they had folks who went to Franklin's booth.
I made calls with both but with Clarent you could only call their
home offices. Sound quality was good but I'm told theirs are more
expensive.
A gentleman from the Internet Buyers Guide interrupted us and talked
to Diane about getting listed in their guide, and they exchanged cards. Also she said that several people had come up to her saying
that they had heard about FTEL. (We're starting to get some notoriety).
I also visited Inter-Tel, they had a big setup w/big screen TV,
miked-up presenters. The audience was about 12 seated and 10 standing. They handed out t-shirts and "El Nino" ponchos.
I also went by VocalTec. THey had a big crowd and were showing off
the PC-to-Phone setup. These folks were ooohing and aaahing and I"m not kidding when I say it sounded awful!! Scratchy, dropouts and the
presenter had to repeat herself a couple of times. Go figure.
Anyway I called my father using FTEL. THe booths were pretty nice,
but the top was open and some noise got in (the expo hubub).
I suggested they completely enclose it and that had been considered
but they left the top off so that it wouldn't get too hot.
SkiBare - I know you wanted much better intel and some good news
about WCOM VIP's busily querying our booth personnel but I hope that
this will give you an idea of how things looked to me.
I probably left some stuff out but I'm paying by the hour at this
internet cafe. And I have a few thousand SI posts to get caught up on.
Hope this helps,
gary |
