DemoFall swag: Meh
Tote bag, mints, pen, hat...where's my jet pack?
(Credit: Rafe Needleman / CNET)Usually an indicator of the success of a conference is the heft of the goody bag you get when you check in. But although DemoFall 2007 (more) looks to be well-attended and well-supported by sponsors, the "swag bag" at this event is paltry: A hat. Some mints. A pen. Some surf wax (the sole cute item, from Qualcomm). And magazines.
I know that Demo grande dame Chris Shipley is trying to run a high-class joint here and doesn't want to cheapen the event by throwing a load of useless trinkets into our bags, but come on, Chris, let the sponsors load me up with stuff to take home to the wife and kid.
See this video report on the D5 conference's swag, by comparison. It doesn't take much to make a swag bag memorable and fun. Case in point: YouTube tube socks. Arguably a more enjoyable item than the (likely remaindered) Maxtor hard drive everyone got at D5.
Rafe Needleman writes about start-ups, new technologies, and Web 2.0 products, as editor of CNET's Webware. E-mail Rafe. 
- Demo of boring companies
- by michaelo1966 September 25, 2007 7:18 AM PDT
- I've been clicking through the list and it seems like ALL these companies are dull. Maybe they'll make money but the crop seems like what was popping up around the end of the last bubble: "me-too's" or products that add little or no value. They only thing they seem to have in common is that they're connected to interesting people via funding, which -- I suppose -- is how they got into Demo.
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