"I know Gee-tex" - "Show me"

The annual GITEX exhibition is in town this week. Along with it brings the usual traffic chaos, oversubscribed hotel rooms and packed bars and restaurants.

This was my first visit having been on vacation last year. I was certainly not disappointed. I found GITEX to be a large and imposing trade show. While not of the ludicrous proportions of CEBIT in Hanover there appeared to be at least branding from the vast majority of major IT vendors in the world.

I am still wondering on the correct pronunciation of "GITEX" - currently I hear:

"Gee-TEX"
"Ji-TEX"
"Geet-ex"
and my least favorite:
"GIT-ex"

Whichever way you chose to say it combined with whatever accent you might have leads to myriad of different ways of the acronym GITEX sounding.

It struck me as I walked around that while there were a number of 'Enterprise" IT Vendors exhibiting the show to my mind is clearly focused at the consumer and SOHO user. Nevertheless I had a productive day of meetings with customers and partners.

During my break from "Stand Duty" I got take a little look around and was impressed by the vast quantity of "gadgets" on display at the show. Notable things that caught my attention:

1. The new iMacs continue to look like works of art - but no sign of the new iPods at the show
2. Playing Wii bowling on a 103' Plasma screen is an amazing experience
3. The number of high end gaming PC's on display made me think my year old shuttle at home has all ready dated significantly:



4. There were so many nice PC accessories on display that I have never seen in Dubai - I think a trip to GITEX shopper might be in order for some retail therapy.

5. Similar to the gadgets - where do the bevvy of attractive "stand assistants" come from?

I left GITEX feeling drained, sore feet and with a rather large headache. Still only two more days to go!

Note: Part of this post was quoted in Gulf News 18th September 2007