Having been to most IBC's since the days of Brighton, 2007 will go down on record as one of the worst in living memory. Amsterdam, and the RAI Congress Centre, is one big building site. You could imagine that since they are unable to offer a full service (especially when it comes to parking), that RAI might offer some compensation - like hotel deals or better service at the restaurants. Nope. The hotel prices are up again, so is parking, the food at the RAI is expensive (6 Euro for a chicken sandwich) and the taxis are ripping everyone off (so what's new).
I have heard plenty of comments that IBC should make good on their threat of a few years ago to try out other European cities and make Amsterdam come up with serious improvements. It is not just 8000 hotel extra rooms that are needed - it is a return to providing service! Amsterdam keeps boasting that IBC at 45,000 visitors is the biggest media event for the trade. Wrong. Barcelona with the mediaworld congress gets 60,000. And why does the IBC exhibition hate the congress so much - deliberately NO publicity for the congress at the exhibition. Why does IBC fail to see what's going wrong before their very eyes?
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