AWE Meet Market - hows that work?

seriously

It's where you go to meet people. A networking event.

They have tables setup that companies can go to and you can find a company you want to talk to

its cool

a cocktail hour kinda of thing........
thanks for the reply

tables?? so SOMETHING like the show floor - but sans the displays and eye candy chick? like that ?? any signage at these tables ?
(no signage meaning I have to know ahead of time that the whizbang company is content providers and the 123abc company is hosting )

They will call affiliates to the stage one by one. They'll ask for your name, sites you run, affiliate id, etc. After that the crowd will get to ask you questions.

It'll be fun!

oh yeah. thats sounds grrrreat. seriously, what was so bad about leaving the showroom floor as part of the show??

There is no showroom floor because people realised they were being stiffed paying x for a booth in a room that no one came to.

This is like a ghetto show floor.

I have no clue. Seems stupid to me not to have a showroom.

boy things really did change in the 8 years I was gone. NO ONE came to the showfloor??

this new setup isnt new webmaster friendly IMHO. Am I suppose to walk up to a table and say Hey how are ya? after 4 minutes find out they buy content and so then I say "oh well you cant help me, bye" and leave???

I can see their point on cutting expenses and they DO ROB YOU on that show floor with union set ups and all that. But I have my misgivings on how I am gonna fare in this new situation.

oh well nothing tons of drugs and pints of liquid cant resolve

Will try to give some more details

The AWE Meet Market will take place on the 15th(5-8) and the 16th(12-2).

As far as I know almost all companies that participate have signage, so you can recognise easily who is who.

You can find a list of the exhibitors here and we keep adding more: http://internext-expo.com/meetmarket.html

Personally I also miss the booths concept and I tried to revamp it this year, offering a super cheap package to companies. Times have changed indeed but if there is a place that can support a show floor, thats Vegas. Being the largest event worldwide, still attracts a large number of newbies(that are indeed looking for a show floor to orientate themselves) and has the critical volume of people to now be a dead space.

The main problem though was not the cost, but the fact that most companies I spoke, didnt want to commit being stuck in the booth for many hours, as they want to have private meetings etc.

That is why we tried to find a middle solution and we extended the meet market in the first 2 days, so people can network at the beginning of the event, see what the big companies are offering, have time set up their meetings with companies that want to talk further etc.

Last year was one of the best parts of the show and in Amsterdam has always worked great as a networking experience, so I have no doubt that this time will be even better

thank you for the details. that sounds like a scenerio me and my half developed social skills can manage.

Yeah. There is signage as stated, it's easy to avoid the billers!

It is a much better format I think than the show booths, you can go to who you want to talk to quickly and easily. It has a feel more akin to speed networking in a way. You just talk about whether you can do business together or not, it feels really bullshit free.

Panos organises a great show and I am sure you will enjoy all aspects of it.