For those who attend the RSNA meeting to spend serious time at the technical exhibitions, the question of where to start and how to tackle the immensity of the two huge McCormick Place halls generally arises. This issue is of equal concern to exhibitors. Hall positioning can seriously affect booth traffic. Not surprisingly, given the staggering expense of staging a presence at the largest radiology show on earth, geographic distribution of attendees within the exhibit halls is top of mind to exhibitors.

The RSNA endeavors to "balance" the halls with a mix of products and booth positioning. Some years, multi-booth synergies take over. In 2000, the visual dynamics and colorful interplay of the monster Agfa and Siemens booths at the entrance of the North Hall created an electrifying, eye-catching display that left many South Hall vendors muttering about lack of traffic. Attendees gravitated in droves to the North Hall that year.

Not so in 2002. This year, booth configurations are exceptionally well balanced. Attendees are evenly dispersed. Video walls, special-effect lighting, and live presentations that can create distractions are much less in evidence. For the most part, exhibitors' booths are more balanced in drawing RSNA participants, regardless of where they are positioned.

With such an equalized playing field for exhibitors to differentiate their products, PACS vendors in particular are doing a remarkably good job of failing to create distinct identities. Vendors known for expensive large hospital solutions are offering imaging center packages; those known for small configurations or teleradiology have expanded. The focus of almost every vendor on offering a potpourri of identical products is creating a dilemma in decision-making, as blue- and green-badged individuals have been overheard complaining in concession lines and on buses.

What this consultant finds of interest this year is a lack of pertinent facts. PACS technology is established, its novelty diminished. What is different from last year with respect to product changes and improvements? What is your largest installation? What is your customer base? Do you have any customers that I can relate to, and if so, who are they? Since you have installed 50 PACS sites this year, explain what changes your company has made in service and applications support. Since you provide "comprehensive remote maintenance," exactly what onsite functions need to be performed by a PACS administrator? If this diagnostic workstation is so intuitive to master, why can't you give me a competent demo?

Overheard at a coffee shop: one radiology administrator talking to another about the inability to quantify the labor-intensiveness that a specifically defined PACS configuration would impose. The other individual wanted to see demonstrations of what warnings and reports are generated when things go wrong, as well as methods of correcting problems. Can this capability sell a product? You betcha. It's not a topic much discussed this year, nor are there many well-created simulations and demonstrations of system administration monitoring and problem correction. For the person in the line with $3 million in hand, the ability to fix problems easily was of paramount importance. And she wasn't getting the answers or the demonstrations that motivated her to attend the RSNA meeting this year.

A few items of interest observed on the exhibit floor: