February 15, 2007

3G sado-masochism

It’s my first trip to 3GSM, the mega-shindig of the GSM CartelAssociation (shh, Martin, they’re a sponsor of yours — only kidding guys, really).

And wow, I can tell you all three G’s of 3G are hot:

  • GGGuerilla Marketing. Chocolates, dancers, strange costumes, segways, mints and mimes. Err, and piles of our own event leaflets secreted in special places (but you guessed that, didn’t you). Although nobody had the cojones to bring their duct tape and put some ads above the boys’ urinals.
  • GGGirls. I guess “content” is easier to spell than “naked chicks cavorting with beachballs”. We’re not in Kansas any more, son.
  • GGGuns. Only conference I’ve been to where all bags go through an X-ray machine on entry which nobody is watching whilst you walk around the security hoop with the semtex and Beretta in your jacket pockets. As the attendant said to me: “It’s a little bit random.”

The whole event appears to be a form of self-flagellation where over-dressed businessmen (and telecom is 99.386% men) spend 40% of the day sweatily barging past each other along the sunny boulevard in a frantic rush between meetings. A bullfight without bulls. All we need now are the tomatoes for the handset vendors (“We’re the product, you’re just the truck”) to throw at the operators (“we’re the product, you’re just the box”).

Posted by Martin Geddes at 01:15 PM
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Comments

Wow, I think that was the first honest account I've seen of 3GSM. Thanks :)

Posted by: at February 15, 2007 03:32 PM

C'mon Martin I was expecting something much more insightful on the gathering of "Everybody who is anybody in the mobile world"... Looking forward to more.

Any way, nice to see you're included in the sect of mobile shakers and movers.

Posted by: at February 15, 2007 05:35 PM

ha,ha,

Great post, Martin. I've never been at 3GSM and I don't really understand why I should need to attend, but the chance to meet some interesting people in person (which I could do in other places).

What you can find at 3GSM is a lot of proof that technology works. (A dual phone which works, a femtocell which works, a voip software which works, an HSDPA node in a pocket which works...) Tecnology works, we all know and this has never been the problem.

I think about 3GSM like a lot of mobile operators showing off and saying their investors: 'Keep calm, we earn so much money that we can allow to waste it in this mega show'

Anyway, enjoy your trip!

Posted by: at February 16, 2007 09:07 AM

"over-dressed businessmen (and telecom is 99.386% men) spend 40% of the day sweatily barging past each other along the sunny boulevard in a frantic rush between meetings"

That's the most accurate decription of 3GSM i've ever read

Posted by: at February 16, 2007 10:37 AM
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