IT product fair can be fun and enjoyable, if one...

Always plan your route
Normally, the event hall of any large scale IT fair is like venturing into a giant maze with booths, stalls of vary sizes dotted around everywhere.

Despite the very best effort to widen the walkway that segregated stalls from stalls, many visitors still find it a mammoth task to walk among the crowds. Very often, pushing and shoving being part and parcel of the game while scavenging through the wares.

As the result, it's important to plan your route properly before entering the war zone, so that you need not have to waste your precious time hunting high and low amid the human jam.

Common sight at any IT product fair - WHERE'S MOMMY? (think carefully before bringing small kids to such condensed venue)

Unfortunately, it's not always the case that the floor plan of any fair is made available for the visitors (unless, there are some kind Samaritans who are kind enough to scan and uploading popular message forums to share with the rest.) that one has to be at the main entrance, take a sneak peek before plotting their next move.

Since such an event would spread over the weekend (traditional from Thursday to Sunday) and if I really have the time and something to look for, this is normally what I do.

• FIRST DAY – collect brochures, hand-out of ONLY my desired products
• REST of the EVENT – compared and monitoring the prices fluctuation of those products, while researching for more essential information from whatever source.
• DECISION DAY – it could be any day other the FIRST DAY, when you decided to head down, pay the money and EXIT out of the human jam, unless you still have the mood to carry on.
  

Price-slashing exercise is a common gimmick to draw customers who are constantly on the lookout for best bargain.

Although, I tend to be apprehensive if it's true that best time to get the best bargain would be the LAST day of the event, as numbers of booths are keen to offload their barang, thus carry out price-lashing on the final day.

Know what you want.
My observation is that many people always think you'll get the best bargain in fair like these.

I bought this bluetooth headset, but only to sell it away as I hardly use it because hassle of using it.

True to certain extent with some of those freebies that come along with it, which at the end of day you would realize that either those complimentary gifts are those lower-end or you deemed redundant.

Although, there were case that if some of these complimentary gifts are not required, some consumers would just ask for some other stuff of similar value OR put up for sale on the net to recover some of the costs.

Be firm and don't easily get sway by those sweet-talk by those promoters about how great, wonderful their gadgets are and end up paying dearly for nothing (like a solar-charger- pictured above - which I hardly use it).

Do your homework at HOME
Of course, without saying it's true in this instance.

You can't never depend much on these promoters (illustrated in picture below) for more in-depth information on your desired product, other than asking them the price, warranty and those freebies.

Never my intention to belittle these girls and boys, nonetheless, in my countless of dealings with these kids you can tell that lack of knowledge and uncertainty when dealing with floods of enquiries from those often eager, yet impatient customers.

Once, I asked one of these kids whether a PDA phone I keen on is loaded (pre-installed) with Chinese language software.

"Yes..." he replied confidently.

"So what is the name of this software?" I followed up from what he answered.

Nonchalantly, he added, "No, you must install it!"

Rather taken aback but I pressed on, "And what is the name of software?"

"DUNNO!" he answered.

"#$%*&..." I said to myself after wasting my time at that booth.

So from then onwards, I followed what seasoned consumers always do – researched and concluded everything at all places, except at the venue halls.

Sites like "HWZ" and "VR-ZONE" are places where most IT problems are answered and discussed.

To put it bluntly, it's the commission that these kids count on and consumers themselves have a part to play by not asking those irrelevant or too technical questions that no one really have the luxury of time to explain in such a constrained environment.

Conclusion
At the end of the day, I would say go to any IT product fair can be fun and enjoyable, if each and everyone play his or her part for being more patient, considering etc.

Just sharing some of my insights and please feel free to share your thoughts with me too.