The prevailing trend the Geeks have noticed this year is that press people suck. This is a generalist statement and this does not apply to all press, but we noticed a few press folks that feel they are entitled.
We noticed some press never feel anything is impressive, but are the first to get in line and demand free press samples. While asking questions, quite a few press members come across as accusatory, aggressive and almost unaccepting in tone. How they get this privilege is beyond me as they are not part of the creative process to bring these new and innovative products to market but somehow they feel entitled to only attack and criticize!
Most press also seem to be self-centered and feel they are the only ones that matter. There were several times when we almost left a booth because the staffers were stuck talking with a press person who had definitely spent too much time at the booth hogging the staffers with questions that you know were self-serving rather than for the story. The Geeks were even interrupted once while interviewing a person staffing a booth because they press guy liked our audio setup for capturing the interview and wanted to know everything about it! How unprofessional is that!
Finally, we noticed two camps of press, the traditional press and the Web 2.0 press.
We met Jeremy Toeman from LiveDigitally, Brian Mitchell from eCoustics, Dave Zatz from ZatzNotFunny, Al from Coolest Gadgets and Jack Cook from Experience Mobility… all Web 2.0 press and willing to talk with us and share ideas. Then we met some people from Bloomberg Radio and BBC who practically ignored our existence like they were the pretty girl in high school while the CNN crew were hanging out with beers in hand.
“Press people leave a lot to be desired.†– Chief Gadgeteer