The Birmingham NEC is always good an clean with ample parking and a pleasant walk to the venues. The entrance hall was light and airy, the toilets were clean(ish) and the staff were pleasant. Well that concludes our review of the Gadget Show Live 2009, only joking, it was not that bad. The queue to get in did stretch further than any eye can see (round a corner) and even though it was a large hall, it was packed. At first glance it looked good, lots of big named stalls and plenty of buzz. On closer inspection it was a lot of trade stands trying to sell some main-stream tosh. There were some good stalls with new gadgets hidden within the mass, so we had a chat to them and should hopefully be bringing you some good reviews soon.

Before we went we did say in our Gadget Show Live Preview that we were looking forward to visiting 3 particular parts of the show, this is how we got on:

The Future Home Feature
We were looking forward to having a look round the “three innovative room sets equipped with the latest technology and future concepts for lounge, kitchen and bedroom”. The living room was decorated tastefully with a universal remote for everything. The curtains, lighting, music, TV, were all controlled from one remote. A lot of fun but nothing spectacularly new. The kitchen bored us at it had no gadgets we could tangibly review and the bedroom…. Well the bedroom was actually highly innovative. It was conceptually brilliant and left us with a feeling of wonder. It had no bed, windows, doors, carpet or furnishings. It was a big white space with no technology at all. A bold statement from the designers, but not what we were expected to see.

The New Designers Section
Again we were salivating at the thought of seeing “fifteen of the best prototype domestic product designs that may become essential items in the future” but alas we could not actually find them. We went round the event several times for over 5 hours and did not see one. We put it down to the fact that technology is get increasingly smaller therefore they must have been so small they were invisible to the naked eye.

The Test Track
Surely they could not have forgotten to put this in? We raced to fined it and grab a go on the infamous Segways that they had promoted. Success we found the track and it was quite impressive… but alas, the queue was longer than our patience would allow and there was not one Segway to be seen. Still there was an impressive array of speed machines for people to test out and they all looked super quick, unfortunately the people on them were not what you would call “of a racing bread”. However this did give us the opportunity to half fulfil our promise. If you don’t like laughing at other people’s expense please do not watch the video at the end of this post as it could be construed as cruel. However if you have no guilt and like to laugh at other people learning how to ride new machines come join us in hell and watch away (the production quality is not great as it was done in a hurry).

Final Thought: It was a good stab for a first attempt and will be making the effort to go next year, with slightly lower expectations. If you want to check out more opinions and information of some of the gadgets that were there, take a look at Zath’s Gadget Show Live Roundup!

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The event sold out some time ago but they are doing regular online updates for all the people who were unable to secure themselves a ticket (see video below). It wont be as good as being at the event, but we think it is a great way to get everyone involved. The show runs from Friday the 17th to Sunday 19th of April at the NEC Birmingham and has some interesting stands listed in the pre show bumf. Some of the stands we will definitely be visiting include:

The Future Home Feature
They Say: “walk around three innovative room sets equipped with the latest technology and future concepts for lounge, kitchen and bedroom”.
We Say: “What better place to get ideas for our new office and play with some cool AV stuff”.

The New Designers Section
They Say: “we have selected fifteen of the best prototype domestic product designs that may become essential items in the future”.
We Say: “Get ready for our spin on the latest must have gadgets for 2009”

The Test Track
They Say: “host to a range of vehicles on two and four wheels where you can have a go on everything”.
We Say: “Comedy video anyone?”

If you have anything that you would like us to make a special effort to go and see while we’re at the Gadget Show Live then please do not hesitate to contact our roving reporter at mike@gadgets-for-men.co.uk.

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So we did some very in-depth market research (had a look at a couple of other sights, asked our mums and discussed with mates at the local boozer) into what people really wanted to read.

The same two questions kept coming up about any gadget we looked at. What is it? Why do I want it? So we have listened to what people have said and will now be working on the two question rule for the bulk of our reviews.

What is it?

This section will cover factual information on the gadget hopefully explaining what the gadget exactly is.

Why do I want it?

Now we will attempt to “sell the product” by telling you about how good it is, what its best features are, alternate uses and other such descriptive insights.

We will still do featured posts in our old style of writing and are continuing to work towards video reviewing where we can.

If you have any comments on the above please do not hesitate to “chew that fat with us” and contact Mike@Gadgets-For-Men.co.uk

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