Hi Bruce: I have been there before (last year) and I would absolutely be going again this year except the show is May 24th - 26th and my wife is due to deliver our second child on May 28th. Needless to say I'd be a dead man if I tried to suggest to her that I was going to leave the country 4 days before she is due. :)
ITW is a very large event. The organizers rent the entire Marriott Wardman Park Hotel for the event. Every room, every lobby, every foot of floor space is taken by the event. You can't get past the security at the doors without your paid show badge. This also means don't count on getting a room at the Marriott Wardman Park, you will have to look elsewhere. There is a subway station right outside the hotel though (with the biggest/longest escalator I have ever seen), so any hotel near the subway will be fine. The event itself is very good. It's mainly a "minutes exchange" in my opinion. Sellers and buyers of minutes are rampant, with every country represented by one or more companies peddling (and buying minutes). There are some solution (equipment) vendors that take display space as well, but this is mainly a B2B meeting. If you decide to go, make use of their online Dealcenter (assuming they have it again this year). This allows you to browse through the list of attendees and setup meetings in advance with the ones that you want to talk to. This is strongly recommended if you want to make sure you get to speak with the people that you want. I found out the hard way on day 1 last year when trying to speak with people that were too busy with pre-booked meetings. I spent the afternoon on day 1 booking meetings with those people for day 2. Also worth noting, especially for those that know me well, is the parties. This event is the largest of its kind in the world, and as a result it attracts the larger players that throw parties. Most of these parties are held at cool museums so it's a great way to get some free food and drinks while browsing through some of the cool museums that DC has to offer. Last year parties were held by Tata, Rogers, and Switch and Data (among others) so look for those guys as they will probably be doing it again. Last thing to note is that Washington is a very cool city with lots to see and do. If you are taking the time and expense to go down for the ITW show, plan to go a day or two early (or stay a day or two late). We went a couple of days early and spent some time checking out the city on a Segway tour. We had so much fun that we went back and did it again one evening. Hope this helps. Bill > -----Original Message----- > From: Bruce N [mailto:het...@hotmail.com] > Sent: Saturday, April 24, 2010 2:40 PM > To: biz@taug.ca > Subject: [biz] ITW - Useful? > > > > > Hi Guys, > > > I am wondering if anyone has ever been to ITW and if it is a useful > expo where decisions are made or if it's only for show by large > companies. > > > http://www.internationaltelecomsweek.com/ > > Thanks for the input. > > -Bruce > _________________________________________________________________ > Hotmail & Messenger are available on your phone. Try now. > http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9724461 --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: biz-unsubscr...@taug.ca For additional commands, e-mail: biz-h...@taug.ca
