The event did not feel very large in terms of number of attendees  and network usage did not seem very high as well.  Rather than every attendee carrying a laptop, it looked more like every attendee had an iPhone.  Perhaps its like that at all trade shows nowadays.  Perhaps people are actually paying attention to what is said at this event’s general and track sessions?

Here is what I did learn from OMMA Global Hollywood:

• Cooliris, the neat add-on originally for Firefox is now on other browsers such as IE and Safari and they also have an iPhone app.  They had a pretty cool exhibitor booth set up with a projector with touch interface.  I remember it as just an image viewer for websites that had online picture albums, where it displayed all the images in a collage format in a 3D wall.  They have now further developed it to be able to display YouTube videos.  I spoke to them briefly this afternoon and plans are in development to capture HTML pages as well.  Not bad as a browser addon that is able to search multimedia files in a cool 3D presentation.  I see great potential in it.
• Mahalo.com also had an interesting spin on search.  It is a search engine powered by people meaning all the results have a unique page compiled in a certain templated format kind of like Wikipedia but also includes multimedia, most searched links, and images.  It is sort of like a search engine aggregate, however, I am somewhat in doubt of how much man power it requires to put in a page built on a searched term.  In addition, a term that isn’t in its current database results in a normal Google search result.  One other feature touted is Mahalo Answers which is similar to Yahoo! Answers where members can ask or answer questions.  The difference is that it gives you an option to donate or tip a Mahalo dollar, which is one U.S. dollar, to an appropriate answer.  Great idea but this can end up be a painstakingly tough task to moderate.
• Finally, after leaving the event; I feel I am even more inclined to have a career in marketing.  There is just too much potential and with the web; innovations and creations are endless to be creative and to deliver an idea to the masses.  I better brush up my “lacking” design skills or finish up my GMAT and pursue a degree in marketing.

Pretty interesting stuff and I sincerely hope to be more involved in this industry in some capacity.  At the moment, being a hobbyist blogger, is not going to supplant an actual income to pay for life’s necessities such as a roof over my head.  I do take home a stronger desire though to accomplish a career where I actually have passion in; which is to sell the intangible, an idea to the public.  I hope the next time I am attending an OMMA event, I’ll be there for the right reasons.