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We ended yesterday's blog with "I have plenty more photos, but IWCE awaits."
It Awaits No Longer
But unlike CES and NAMM, it is a smaller show and makes for a less entertaining blogitem. The WC in its name stands for Wireless Communications and I've been a radio geek since I listened to the Lone Ranger in the early '50s on my crystal radio.
SWAG at IWCE
Although there's always trade-show swag to collect, most of it isn't memorable. Drink holders, pens, T-shirts, trinkets with company names, and, of course sweets of various provenance. The Asian companies often have imported hard candies with non-English names and unusual flavors. Recently I noted some trends:
This year's swag theme was Chip Clips. Three companies were giving them away. They're not very durable and the magnetic ones don't stick to stainless steel. But they prevent one's potato chips from breathing freely, and we're never a replacement away when the current one breaks.
Socks: I've always loved trade-show socks. A couple decades ago we had our company tag line "Eventide the Next Step" printed on the bottom of some cheap socks. Of course, it couldn't be seen while the socks were worn, which I guess was the point. I wish I still had some to photograph. People remember them fondly. I had been forbidden from bringing trade-show socks home until we discovered that the local Humane Society used them for making cat toys. Now they're welcome. IWCE this year wasn't a sock-indulgent show; the cats will have to wait.
One notable swagitem this year: A carabiner with a built-in flashlight. Great for tower climbing at night, I guess.
Ethics
I have never concerned myself with the ethics of attending trade shows and the attendant opportunities for commercial bribery. Although I make light of the possibility of hypothetical IRS exaction of key lime truffles in lieu of a monetary penalty for accepting free chocolate, I don't realistically believe there are ethical issues in walking past a booth and grabbing a pen, chip clip, or even a tiny flashlight. Having lived in Northern New Jersey where in some counties corruption is a way of life, I've seen commercial bribery and this ain't it. Imagine, then, my consternation when I stopped by the Verizon booth!
Please enjoy a Verizon item as your ethics rules allow
Thus saith the sign at their booth. Note it mentions ethics "rules," not ethics per se. There are a lot of government and defense-contractor employees at the IWCE show and perhaps they have more strictures than do we civilians. Even so, I believe many of them cannot be bought by a cup of coffee or gewgaw. Now that I think of it, I regret not inquiring if they had something so valuable with which I could be bought. |
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Eventide
Disclosure: I'm biased in favor of Eventide. Please don't go out and buy one of our recorders based on the photograph on the left just because it's several different shades of blue.
If you happen to run a 911 system (a PSAP, or "Public Service Answering Point) you most likely know about Eventide and the wonderful equipment we manufacture*.
The multi-blue screen photo at the left represents a tiny corner of Eventide's new Critical Insights AI product which by the time you read this will have saved some or even many lives. New software was introduced at IWCE and the screen at left was a tiny portion of the comprehensive display of information with which a call-taker would work..
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| As I was selecting photographs for this blogitem, I realized that almost all of those I took were inappropriate. As I mentioned above, IWCE is for me essentially all business. While I don't find it boring, you probably would. Even I who speak radio and networking and antennas managed to find something more diverting. I could share the photograph of the guy who runs the tower erectors organization—at my behest he was holding his badge near his face—but I don't think he'd enjoy the publicity with which social media and my thousands of millireaders would overwhelm him. |
This Empty Photo Area Deliberately Left, well, Empty |
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Small Show, Divided Hall
The new West Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center could swallow three IWCE shows, but seems to have felt abstemious. One of the folks at our booth pointed to a wall with a temptingly open door and suggested I explore the other side. There I found the much larger Amusement Show.
I haven't been to an amusement park for a decade or to an arcade seemingly forever. I never felt the need to adorn any of the flat surfaces I have available with the likes of the plush mock-creatures depicted at the left. But there sure were a lot of them!
My taste in the amusement category runs to large rides such as roller coasters and other vertigo-inducing devices. My equilibrium has been more than a match for them thus far. |
Cotton Candy
"Yesterday" in my CES and NAMM review there was a photo of a blogger holding a cotton candy with undisguised glee. Unaccountably, when I asked someone to take that photo, I was standing in front of a popcorn machine instead of the Magic Cotton Candy automated confection generator and neglected to photograph the ACG itself. Miraculously,
- It was also at the amusement show in Las Vegas.
- The vendor seemed a lot more lonely at this show.
- But he remembered ME! "It's you!" he suggested, and I agreed.
We had a nice chat. I once again contemplated the advantages of having one of these devices at home or perhaps in our corporate eating enclave. Then I realized that if it were at home, someone would have to clean it, and if it were at my place of striving I would have limited access.
Maybe later... |
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My semi-apologies for not having a better review of IWCE itself. I find it very interesting but, as I mentioned, I've been a radio geek forever, and you almost certainly are not. (If you are, I'll send you on request a photograph of a connector block for quantum computing coaxial cables that mysteriously was at the show and which I happened to spy.)
* Likewise if you're a musician or a broadcaster or a aircraft pilot or even if you're one of the vanishing breed of Hewlett-Packard desktop computer owners.
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