Gitex Diary: Day one

Gulf News web editor Adam Flinter roams around the giant GITEX and GULFCOMMS technology fairs to bring you the real story.

Scrum down
Freebies are an integral part of any good expo, and the public loves it. At Gitex Shopper there seemed to be balls bouncing everywhere. Plastic footballs were being kicked all over the place and bouncy logo laden balls were...erm...bounced.

But the prize for the most topical giveaway goes to Toshiba, who have clearly recognised the fact that Gitex is coinciding with the Rugby World Cup, even if the crowds thronging their stands had no idea themselves.

Whether the man throwing the oval shaped balls out to the waiting masses was doing it in a line out style on purpose I will never know, but the scrum and ruck that followed was pure rugby.

Huh?
I know there are only so many laptops, cameras and MP3 players one can look at, but wandering around Gitex shopper you have to wonder who on earth would be interested in some of the stuff on sale.

Cars and office stationary were amongst the things being peddled in one way or another. Now call me old fashioned, but if I'm hunting for a laptop, I doubt I'll be coming away with a paper weight or some reams of A4.

Rock on
While the stand where people queue up to have their picture taken sitting on a motorbike with three gorgeous women behind them is obviously popular, the fight for second place in the "interesting stand" stakes is a testament to the rise of karaoke.

The Mediacom karaoke stand has staff desperately trying to pressgang shoppers to drop their bags and join them in a rendition or two while manfully wailing on themselves. While the nearby Charged Middle East Guitar Hero stand was thronged by kids all wanting to emulate Kurt Cobain…but with plastic Playstation guitars replacing Les Pauls and Fenders…rock 'n' roll is not dead.