Last weekend i’ve joined the second Wireless Battle Mesh. Hackers and wireless activists from Belgium, France, Netherlands, Swiss, Poland, Germany and Taiwan were meeting in Brussels to evaluate and test the most popular open source wireless mesh routing protocols B.A.T.M.A.N., BABEL and OLSR. Rather than fighting, we flashed a big pile of cheap routers with the latest software, talked about various configuration and monitoring strategies and tried out different experimental patches and new approaches to improve mesh performance.

I’ve used the event to meet with the other B.A.T.M.A.N. developers and to discuss release strategies (we are aiming for the Linux mainline kernel), new approaches such as mesh channel bonding, interface hopping and multicast performance improvements. We also set up an emulation environment to evaluate the performance of unmodified Linux firmwares in different topologies.

Thanks to the guys from Hackerspace Brussels and Okno for the kind hosting.

The trade show in London is finished. You can tell that by sitting totally shattered in the airport lounge at six o’clock in the morning writing a block article.  Four trade shows within ten weeks leave their marks. I have done many trade shows in the last twenty years, but the show in London was somewhat different. Not the usual day to day business on the show, but the buildings, the  show was held in. The building has seen better days, it was a rather rotten place. Besides the attendees and visitors, attending the show, the only thing that was missing, where the rats.  We have also learned, that you are not allowed to put carpet on carpet, however it is allowed to ruin the carpet with a forklift truck. What difference does it make? We haven’t been told.

The trade show was very well attended, but as noticed on similar events this year, the number of exhibitors decreased. Nevertheless we were glad to meet so many industry and wireless experts. How can you tell that you are talking to experts? Two questions are missing “How far?” and “How much”. We did have a good deal of visitors at our booth and our file with leads is filled. Unfortunately there were many visitors on the booth, who where not in possession of business cards. As we were not willing to rent a business card scanner for an outrageous amount of money, we were forced to write down names or we must hope, that we left a positive impression on the visitors. We have also handed out many data sheets, so that we are expecting feedback from that corner as well. The show is over, but in sales the work starts now. We need to find these five to ten percent of leads, who are working on solid projects and then turn business cards into Euros. Was the show successful? This question can be answered in some three months. But we will work hard, that it will be successful

A often requested theme was the WiMax-theme. Especially for customers comming from africa the theme WiMax was very important. Our opinion is that bringing broadband access to the people in areas with low infrastructure and a low budget, with the WiMax technology is not the best way. Our arguments in this case are: High license-costs for WiMax-licenses, high costs on base-stations ans high costs on client hardware, which customers can not effort. These arguments compare to what providers of WiMax-networks reported to us.

It was precisely 8 a.m. when we arrived ready for action at the gates of the Olympia Hall. In just minutes we were kindly told and in no uncertain terms that exhibitors were expected on the conference grounds at 10 a.m. and no sooner. Our material had been sent on the truck on the 14^th of May but it didn’t show up until 11:30 a.m. So we used the time wisely to settle a few things like getting the electricity hooked up.   We were in the middle of laying our carpeting when the management forbade us to continue. Unfortunately we weren’t able to come to a compromise to be able to lay the carpet anyway. We however did not encounter any other problems thanks to our dedicated team.

We hit the road at 7 a.m. Sunday morning, destination London. Collected the team and then it was off to Frankfurt. The autobahn was empty of course making the drive to Frankfurt extremely pleasant. The flight however, especially the descend to Heathrow airport, was extremely unpleasant due to high winds. The drive to the hotel via the London underground was an experience in itself. If you’re the type who feels vulnerable when the lights flicker on and off in small stuffy places or you’re agoraphobic I recommend avoiding the tube.

What about the CTIA wireless in Las Vegas? Is this convention comparable to other trade fairs like the CeBIT in Hanover?
The CTIA is much smaller, the CTIA is only for components that have more or less to do with “wireless”. By the way, I learned that designer-cell-phone-covers for the iPhone seem to have something to do with wireless?! Weather apart, which is much dryer and much hotter than a regular german day in April (Las Vegas: 77-86°F, humidity >20%), what is the difference between those both conventions concerning visitors, exhibitors and customers?

I can tell you this: there are a lot of differences between those both exhibitions!
The biggest difference is the behavior of the customers. At the CeBIT, the standard customer wants to get as much information as possible about your product and about your company. At the CTIA, the standard customer only wants to get a brochure or a catalog and walks away without saying just a single word, except: “Hi, how are you?”, but this seems only to be an american catchword, saying nothing.
Furthermore you can say, most customers are already informed and are familiar with terms like “meshing”. This is not surprising, because it is a specialized fair for wireless components.
A really big difference is also in dealing with business cards. At the CeBIT everybody exchanges business cards nearly the whole day. At the CTIA you’re lucky to catch one with a standard paper business card! If you ask for a business card in regular case the customer grabs his badge and asks for the scanner! Nobody asks for any scanner on the CeBIT.

Summarizing the whole exhibition: it is a great new experience and a completely different way of doing business. But apart from all the differences, the CTIA wireless in “Vegas” as the locals call it, is as well as the CeBIT in Hanover mainly for getting into contact with customers and with contact persons coming from absolutely various industries.