London Online - The Incredible Shrinking Exhibition

Well maybe not shrinking.  But certainly changing dramatically.  This year about a third of the space at Olympia was populated by Information Management Solution vendors who are now sharing the exhibit hall and conference with the traditional Online Information Publishers.  There were plenty of previously unheard of Enterprise Content Management companies and the like, and the presence of these exhibitors was a surprise to many of the regular information industry and knowledge management attendees.  Also surprising was the shrinking number of traditional publishers.  Over the years D&B, OneSource, Datamonitor, Hoover's and others disappeared.  This year's no-shows included Factiva and Freedonia.  But perhaps the most noticeable change was the shrinking size of the presence of many of the larger vendors.  No more two-story stands with spiral staircases, no Thomson Village (just a cul-de-sac) and a sense of cost-consciousness among the market leaders.  Alacra's stand, which I would describe as medium-sized, has been the same for several years.  This year of about 200 stands, only about a dozen were larger than ours.  Something is wrong with this picture...