Pepcom

By Bayle Emlein

I’m sure that, even as a virtual entity, you’ve noticed recent increases in traffic and crowd congestion. Looking at the positive side, the implications are that the economy has made significant improvements.

For example, look at Pepcom’s Holiday Spectacular in San Francisco at the end of October. Full of people, full of vendors showing off stuff to buy and gift (as they say in the New Economy) to others or Self. Fifty (51?) vendors, many of whom had multiple items that needed my attention, which did not get distributed evenly over the mere three hours allotted. Looking over my experience, the most impressive is that nothing I looked at or asked about was “about to be announced” or coming out next quarter or maybe second quarter next year. Everything was available right now. When else would anyone want anything? Some items had been announced earlier in the day, some had been around for a while, as-is or in continual upgrade mode.

Details follow, in abundance. Just when the Patent Office thought it could close up shop because everything that could be invented had been invented, along came the Holiday Spectacular to prove government prognostications wrong once again. The Internet is full of things we didn’t know we needed until we saw them. And new needs created when those needs get met. I think I’ve found the definition of infinity.