Update from DMA!

It's Day 2 of DMA and I still have most (well, some) of my brain cells.

Arrived in Las Vegas yesterday. Cold and dry weather. Lots of traffic and people. Too much walking (but, that casino 3 miles away looks so close...). I dropped $10 in video poker, but won it all back. I'm such a high roller :)

Attended the opening exhibit hall session yesterday afternoon. My immediate impressions were: the show was quiet and MUCH smaller than years past. I'd say a good 1/3 fewer exhibitors. And, the big firms didn't have the same level of ostentation--you know the huge, crazy booth spaces. Of course, we can't blame anyone for scaling back in this economy. The other odd thing, I didn't hear of a single party held last night (Sunday). Did I miss something good?

There were some positives, though.

• Good vibe. People were actually stopping to talk to exhibitors. I saw a lot of conversations going on.
• New vendors. I've already met some new providers to the direct marketing industry, and I'm looking forward to meeting more.
  

So far, I've made my way through about 3 of the approx. 12 aisles of vendors. Some interesting companies I spoke to: Boingnet (offers personalized URLs on the cheap) and Jigsaw (they compile business information from business cards, allowing marketers to hone in on those hard-to-target industries and titles).

As always, I enjoyed my time at the Acxiom booth watching their famous magician (they've had this guy for over 10 years, and he's simply amazing--nice, too).

Well, I'm off for more DMA action. I'll be meeting many more firms today and I'd love to hear comments from others here at DMA with their discoveries, too.

As a bonus, check in tomorrow for an update on the two big parties: Experian and Acxiom!