Technokitten goes to Barca

If you're interested to get a feel for what the mobile extravaganza 3GSM is like, then here are my pix. There was way too much to see - 8 halls (think the size of Earls Court or the NEC) and some of them on 2 levels, plus stalls and displays outside as well, it was overwhelming. Fortunately where I was staying was really close by so I could escape for a bit and then come back to it thus saving my feet from overuse.

I did see lots of people I know there which was a real plus for me including Russell at Mobhappy (who I hadn't seen since he decamped to Munich), games guru, Julian Jones, and met some people I'd only met 'virtually' before like Rudy and Carlo. And Swedish Beers was fun too although I don't have photographic evidence of that. Does anyone else?

Not sure that what I saw was particularly interesting in isolation - more a sum of the parts really for me. Surfkitchen was interesting as was Leiki, although Leiki wasn't actually exhibiting. The Satama party was a blast, Julia and Max from Qarea were charming and the FT.com folks were great fun. And of course the group I was with were the business. You know who you are ;-)

In terms of the expo itself, exhibitors could do with learning how to communicate their wares better and what they want people to come and look at. There's so much there, you don't have time to talk to everyone so you need to be able to filter. And the way everything is displayed and organised, it's very hard to do that filtering job. I guess it will get better over time. There was also a lot of bs as captured perfectly by Tom Hume in his flickrstream. Things like 'we hear you' and 'experience true convergence' which don't really tell you anything about the companies involved. And yes, we obviously both liked the mini Marshall amps! I missed the robots though. Tom, where were they?

There's a good article about the event here from the Guardian too which sums it all up [free registration required].

Adios Barcelona. We'll be back next year.