Thanks for the pespective; your analysis makes sense…

With the spate of unconference evenstdoing the rounds, it might makes sense for event organisers to try out this format more. Even at Barcamps, the sessions tend to be less in focus… people tend to be spending the major time networking, chaiiting etc.

I was there at the Smart Techie Startup City and was as intrigued to behold a exhibition style format. After my presentation , I spent some time moving across the booths , One thing that struck me the moment I entered the Exhibition hall was the number of people who had turned out for the event.The turnout was mammoth.

There was a lot of activity around booths , but its difficult to ascertain if any business resulted , most of the participants were also using the booths to communicate Career opportunities at their respective companies.

My feel is that from a business persepective , the Startups whose services / products are targeted at Startups / people ( Social networks / communities ) would have benefited ( Injoos stall had lots of people )..the startups that have their offerings targeted towards Enterprise may not have gained much from business leads standpoint but visibility wise I think these booths were well worth the amount of money spent. I had a word with NetMagic ( Our partners on web hosting ) who had a booth there, and they were pleased with the response they got.