Issue #189 | Mayday, 2009 | by Andy Kowl

How is the show going? How did it go?

That is what everyone asked me during this week's RFID Journal Live! event in Disneyworld. (Gotta love the Fantasyland irony.)

Part of my job at these shows is reporting for articles on RFID Switchboard and now our new IT Sales Network. In any beat I've covered, people know you are "talking to everybody," so you become a natural barometer.

At the opening cocktail reception Monday evening there was a collective sigh of relief at the packed show aisles. Attendance projections by the Journal had been down, as indeed it was – no surprise, as trade shows are down across all industries, with a fair number of annual events skipping this year entirely, or folding.

I don't know or care about the official counts; and the show floor had an unusual shotgun configuration which made comparative estimates tough even for on old show hound and reformed event producer like me. Whether there were just more than half the attendance of last year, or two-thirds, became irrelevant when the exhibitors began doing business.

The economy was the elephant in the room. Let's face it, in October business came to a crashing halt. Not the RFID business; every business. The Big Pause. Nobody was allowed to spend money. For anything. So the big question in the room, verbalized or not and which largely went unanswered, was have we come out of it yet or will we soon?

Kudos to Mark Roberti
This was my fifth Journal Live show. It has grown from a conference of dreamers and devotees in a Chicago hotel to become the institutional event for an expanding industry, economic interruption notwithstanding. Much of the success comes from a passion for quality content and attention to detail.

This year I noticed a theme that needs to be said, because it can never be written in RFID Journal. An unusually large number of people shared with me how excellent a job they thought Mark Roberti, Journal publisher and face of the industry, is doing.

There were comments about how well he plans useful content for these events; about how genuinely appreciated attendees felt, due either to his thanks to the crowd or his personal words to individuals; about how he "is responsible for the RFID industry's growth;" and the inevitable, "he's the only one making money!"

I know Mark would be the first to deflect some of this praise to others and to tell you the industry would be doing just fine without him. But having had the opportunity to see his professionalism over the years, and the chance to have a variety of interesting interludes with Mark during this time, I wanted to broadcast the crowd consensus.

Sample reviews of the annual conference
Perhaps the best indicator was a gentleman I met over a sandwich Wednesday, the last day. He was attending as point-man for one of the world's major industrial companies and huge supplier to the airline industry. We talked about RFID compliance issues his customers like Boeing and Airbus have in place.

The most hopeful sign was when I asked if they are planning to just tag outgoing orders, or if they are considering "bringing the value inside" and tagging earlier in the process. He said the company had an inkling that maybe they could derive value using RFID for internal efficiencies, rather than simply make it all additional cost, the common complaint of mandate-meeters. After attending the sessions and speaking to vendors, he is determined to make the case his company can gain great savings throughout the manufacturing process by tracking each step.

For an unadulterated opinion of Journal Live, I knew I could count on James Heurich, president of RFID Inc., known as the oldest RFID-specific company. I have come to appreciate James' off-kilter sense of humor and no-holds-barred opinions. RFID Inc., in a potentially disastrous dark corner of the oddly shaped show floor, had a model railroad running in front of their exhibit, with their signature 433 MHz tags and readers included to demonstrate ease of reads.

"We made some great contacts," James said. "They were the kind of buyers that are perfect for our solutions and we feel great about the potential sales that should result." Mind you, this from a wily industry veteran who has been exasperated by more than his share of tire-kickers.

As exhibitors were tearing down, I had a chance to catch Jim Donaldson, marketing guru at Impinj, another pioneering RFID company and one which was a key force shaping the Gen 2 standards of EPC Global. I had not had a chance to say hello to Jim since he and his colleagues in the large, centrally located exhibit, seemed to be constantly talking with clients, prospects and partners.

"This was a great show for Impinj," according to Jim. "We did a lot of business here."

Not that there were no disappointed exhibitors or that every company would have the same opinions as these two gentlemen – but for now, I'll take it, won't you?