I went to the Wired NextFest today, the last day of the exhibition.  Did not find it that satisfying and I might add, there’s something about the JAVITS CENTER that’s uncomfortable - like the design of convention center makes anything within it not be a great experience.

I noticed that in my new work location, I talk to people much more because we all work in an office suite - as opposed to a corporate "park" kind of place, where we used to report to.   I’m not saying one is worse than the other - but if you want to get people to interact with each other, sticking them in a "big box" does not seem to work - just my own experience.  Same thing happened to me at the 3rd Ward this summer when I went to an Art Opening in a large warehouse in Bushwick, Brooklyn.  Aside from it being out of the way, as the Javits Center is also, the warehouse layout made everyone want to just walk by exhibits and look, not talk with each other.

I’m not saying a convention center has to be a place where people interact with each other - but I know that if I’m not comfortable - I’m not going to want to talk to people and part of being at a convention is talking to people.

About NextFest, well, it tried to be a World Fair of Science, and did have some nice exhibits but nothing much you could buy (unless you wanted a 500 dollar Herman Miller LED foldable lamp).  There were a lot of interactive games but tons of people waiting to play them (so you’d have to wait a while if you wanted to play) and a lot of interesting, edge of current science devices - but nothing that went past your imagination.  There was nothing at that show that made me want to yell out and say WOW!!!!  This is Fantastic!!!  It just was not in the show.  

Webmetrics…ok, nothing about Webmetrics unless you want to talk about BUZZ. In fact, there was not much BUZZ, but I thought the idea of giving everyone who attended a free year subscription to WIRED magazine was a smart idea.

And then there was Richard Branson showing off his new spaceship service - something that will be in place in a couple of years - ever the showman - he knows how to capture interest.