Going Waaaaaay Back: The End of Comdex 2004
Perusing the Internet Archive for stupid things
Deb had never heard of The Internet Wayback Machine until last night. The Internet Wayback Machine is an archive of publicly available websites going back to 1995. You can view it here.
From 2004 to 2008-ish, I wrote an IT focused career blog titled, “The Notes from the Toolshed.” The title was prompted by my first book, “The I.T. Career Builder’s Toolkit” - which would become, “Building Your IT Career” a few years later.
It is possible that my blog was a factor in winning my first book contract. It had a few thousand subscribers.
Also, my book is pretty entertaining and informative. I was just reading some of it the other day. But it is dated at this point. I don’t recommend you buy it. Providing the link is more a way to bolster my street cred. ;-)
Last night I was perusing some of the archived pages of my blog and found the poem below. It was written in 2004 in response to Comdex announcing they were canceling future shows, particularly, their Las Vegas show. In 1996 Comdex had drawn almost a quarter of a million nerds to Las Vegas.
But, by 2003, the numbers had dwindled greatly and the show was no longer viable.
I had attended Comdex three different years but only when clients paid for it and sent me. I presented once, giving an overview of Citrix Metaframe and thin-client computing.
But, I’d never found Comdex or most trade-shows, to be of much value. As I said, I went if client’s paid my way. My goal was always to take an engineer from one of the vendors to coffee and see if I could get any back-channel information. A $2 coffee and a scone can go a long way.
With that preamble, here is my Christmas time poem about the end of Comdex.
Twas the last night of Comdex When the promoters they said, "The economy is drained The tech industry, dead" They loaded their billboards And their systems with care Pulled the last of the slots Some even pulled out their hair Programmers and analysts Sat glumly indeed For the days of wild gambling No more would be seen And the show girls no longer Viewed geeks with desire Techies were no longer immortal But mere humans for hire And I with my laptop Its monitor bright Pondered these thoughts I even stayed up all night When what did I realize In the dawn's early light That the end of Comdex Might make everything right For the focus at Comdex Was often gadgets galore The emphasis placed On the large conference floor And the after-hours parties And stock that had split And the next hot technology And who had thought of it But the promoters had forgotten And many techs had too Why businesses buy The technology they do For it is not processor speed It's not megapixel fine It's not the latest OS It's not your cert or mine For many long years The industry had neglected The people whose money We should have protected And the CEO's cried And then they got mad They suddenly awoke A realized they'd been had For the money they'd spent They had little to show Perhaps a raised floor and rack Not really much for their dough They stopped paying out They stopped buying new They stopped hiring your friends They stopped hiring you … But a light at end Of this dark tunnel can be seen For in crisis there is Opportunity to glean Business is crying for solution I see They want ROI They want efficiency They want to be heard And to be understood They want tech's to speak business Like they always have should (sorry, couldn't' get around that one) And when they can see What you can create They'll gladly hire you back And now jobs generate And to this wise end I wrote my first book (shameless plug) Detailing how A technologist should look So buck up and smile And get in control Focus on business And technology's role Don't follow the latest Vendor's appeal But evaluate all For the value that's real And then speak to business In terms they can grasp You will find that they smile And in surprise may even gasp For you don't want to be Like a Saturday Night Live spoof Nick Burns was funny But it was humor bound in truth So change their perception And be geeky no more Well, you can with your peers Just not out on the floor Your career you can grow Your profits grow too Your esteem at your company And your esteem in you And so as I head To a new client site I say, "Let's have a great year" "And let's get it right." ###
I’m aware that it is unlikely that I will be named the next poet-laureate of this, or any country but it made me chuckle when I wrote it back in 2004 and it made me chuckle last night.
We have a little churn going on around our home at the moment. Nothing critical but definitely creating some busy-ness. Additionally, Saturday’s gig was cancelled due to weather… Apparently, Saturday forgot that it is springtime in Los Angeles. Outdoor patio gigs are safe to schedule until they are not.
Overheard on Saturday (not kidding at all):
Me: “This weather can go to hail!”
Deb: “You’re stupid!”
But I had already been musing how I am going to view and book gigs going forward. It is part of a thought-experiment I’ve been in the midst of. I’m making a video about it and will be back with that on the weekend.
Let me know what you thought of the poem and thank you for joining me on this journey.
With Love and Gratitude,
Matthew Moran
May 1, 2025