Re: COW Articles: NAB Apple Bows Out of NAB 2008

I'll add that millions of buying decisions by pros in our industry have been made without going to tradeshows. They're made in the much closer contact provided by road shows, and in the MUCH closer contact provided by VARs, many of whom will provide eval units for the asking.

There's absolutely not one single thing about a purchasing decision at a tradeshow that can't happen more efficiently and effectively somewhere else.

Not in theory. In reality.

Somebody is going to argue that I'm wrong, that shows are essential, etc. etc. But I see that as theory only, not verified in anything beyond individual experience. I went to all my NABs AFTER I spent more on my equipment than I did on my house, and I lived to tell the tale...as, again, millions of others have.

I'll go farther than Ron did...as I usually do...which is why his are the bylines on such articles. I believe that it's the responsibility of every customer to demand that their favorite vendors NOT have booths at tradeshows.

Sure, go to make deals as Avid and Apple will, but which is better for you as an FCP customer -- better for the entire FCP community today and its future growth: the development team creating artificial deadlines and demos, or spending those million person hours actually working on the product?

A no-brainer. Staying home is best for the product. Best for the company. Best for its customers, all of whom have a multitude of better ways -- ALL of them are better -- to find out the details of a product.

Besides, that $15 million to go to NAB comes out of YOUR POCKET. Why on earth would you want Apple to spend your money like that? Or the proportionally MUCH larger expenditures that smaller companies incur? It's a colossal waste that's not doing you any good, and not doing the company nearly as much good as it might have around the turn of the century.

I'll go further (again) and say that tradeshows are the least reliable ways to find out if a product will work for YOU in the real world, because the people in the booth are the least qualified to tell you anything about how it works in the real world.

Yes, information from actual people is important for making decisions. And there are thousands of people here in the Cow who can tell you EXACTLY how something works -- IF it works -- in far more detail than a product person in a booth will ever experience.

So I go back to my starting point. For every person who makes a decision based on a tradeshow, there are thousands who make their decisions in other venues. HUNDREDS of thousands of those decisions are made outside of NAB every month. It's not going to be any different in April than it is today.