Having escaped the predatory vendors in the combined exhibition and break area for the last time, I have six hours of travel time to contemplate my first professional conference experience. My goal in attending the Digital ID World was to learn about the current and emerging trends in the user provisioning industry. This combined with the name of the major accounting firm emblazoned on my badge made conversations with most of the vendors excruciating. Most of these conversations started with me inquiring “How is your product different from product Y?”
This quickly progressed to the rep asking “What can we do to entice your company to sell our product?”
I now realize that presenting the rep with a problem statement (how can your product help me solve Z?) would have solicited more of the information I was interested in learning. Vendors are looking for a problem they can assist in solving; approaching them without a problem put both of us in unfamiliar territory.
I enjoyed myself at the conference despite not knowing anyone else attending, and a pounding headache that lasted throughout the week. Apparently, I am allergic to San Francisco or perhaps the Bay Area in general. I stayed on Nob Hill at the Stanford Court by Renaissance nine blocks up California St. from the conference in the Hyatt Regency. It was a blast commuting on the cable car. I had a chance for a brief trip around downtown San Francisco on Monday, and it was a surreal experience to visit the Fisherman’s Wharf due to all of the time I have spent vicariously experiencing the area with the Tony Hawk Pro Skater line of video games. I found the Sea Lions, but no tourists needed to be rescued.
I will try to write something respectable about the content of the sessions I attended while I am on the way home.
