I'm way behind getting this up but wanted to get some thoughts up for what it's worth. Most of my AIIM updates a few weeks ago were via Twitter, which was a good exercise in conference blogging since most of it was done using my Samsung i-730 via SMS.
As far as the show,I came away sort of underwhelmed.I made some good contacts and met some fellow bloggers, but the show's excitement seemed muted. I kept digging for some real news or slivers of innovation as I circled the ECM vendor stations. Mostly I came up empty. Yeah, Oracle talked up Stellent and yes EMC was pitching platform updates, but that's just a day in the life of an enterprise software company. And outside of an audio announcement of FileNET's mock trial, they were incognito except for an IBM booth on the OnDemand (print) side. Yawn. Not surprisingly, most of the innovation came from hungrier solution providers and early-stage companies trying to make a name for themselves.
All that aside, I did get the sense there were real buyers roving the show floor. The Attensa guys (more on them later) confirmed my hunch saying the show provided real customers with real budgets..unlike what their colleagues experienced at the Web 2.0 Expo.
I only attended a few sessions and those were just as advertised - very focused and very topical. Luckily I was also fortunate enough to be in Xerox's eDiscovery roundtable, a very fluid session that was not only in-depth but also informative thanks to a good mix of analysts, columnists, and legal practitioners. Here's a link to the podcast. Thanks to Becky Dziedzic at Xerox for her hard work organizing the session.
< Photo | John Mancini and me >
The other thing I kept thinking was Questex Media, producer of the AIIM show, should take a page out of FAST's book and create an online community and year-round blog for the show. I just think it's ironic that one of the largest content shows around lacks any real online horsepower and savvy. There should be plenty of conversations taking place..where's the social networking? Here? Looks like that was for the press only. Note to the organizers: Give your audience a voice and let your community interact. We all might learn something.
The highlights for me were as followed:
- Xerox's new media push ( Ok, I'm sucking up a bit but their Second Life launch was interesting and their panel was impressive)
- Attensa's RSS platform - it's a three dog race between Newsgator, KnowNow, and Attensa.
- The Microsoft Solution Provider Pavilion - K2.Net, ClearView, Meridio , and Russ Stalters' firm were a few that stood out.
< The Attensa team >
link to original post