SNW by the numbers

Another week.  Another storage trade show.  Another chance to question why. This week marked the annual pilgrimage to Dallas, host of the Fall SNW.  As with many SNW's past, end users were a rare species.  Vendors were left wondering how hard the economy would impact their customers. Some analysts were issuing projections that made a few wonder when the proverbial turn-around would come.  And, many sponsoring companies were left questioning the value of their investment by either sponsoring or attending.  Security was in attendance to make sure that non-paying individuals didn't make their way to areas they weren't allowed, like the press room.  News around FCoE, Adaptable Modular Storage, SSDs and thin provisioning was the rage and business development was in full force in the lobby, at the Java Coast and surrounding restaurants and alcoves.

SNW is always about reunions, though.  A chance to see where people are now.  A chance to catch up with old friends, make new friends and try and separate hype from reality.  So as in year's past, we took a look at a few numbers that came out of the conference:

70.  Average number of requests most media received for briefings ahead of or at SNW.

37.  Number of meetings one analyst mentioned he had in four days while at SNW.

1.  Days you can probably shorten SNW by and lose nothing.

66. Approximate number of news announcements with SNW as the dateline.

18.  Approximate number of "new" product introductions.

54.  Number of sponsors, excluding training partners, media sponsors and official wire service.

Less than 100.  Number of qualified leads secured by some companies.  In comparison, VMworld generated as many as 800-1,000 for many companies.

163.  Approximate number of presentations, excluding Hands-On Lab, booths, lobbies, hotel rooms.

Hopefully SNW was a success for you.  Congratulations to those end users recognized by Computerworld, SNIA and SNW in this year's Best Practices Awards.  Congratulations to Mario Apicella for joining Storage Strategies NOW to kick-off the firm's new TPV service.  And, to the many media and analysts for surviving so many requests to meet and the meetings themselves. I hope to see old and new friends at Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando from April 6-9.