FOSE: Day 1 -- the Bag Wars

The big thing here today -- and I mean BIG -- are the bags. Yes, there are always bag wars at FOSE ... and apparently size does matter. CDW-G has always had the big bags. But this year, Best Buy is making a play in the government market in a big way -- with big bags. Best Buy, which is best known in the consumer market, is going after all those government credit card buys ... and they have perhaps the biggest bags I have ever seen. I mean, they are enormous. I was walking through Union Station and small kids were looking at this bag with a combination of terror and envy. I even measured it -- almost three feet wide and nearly two feet across.

This year, it is a very different FOSE then it was in years past because of the differentiation among the publications. GCN, which is the government technology authority, has its reporters and editors out and about doing their thing -- they have the best ofFOSE competition going on, which will be announced Wednesday. By contrast, FCW reporters are looking for good policy management stories -- and there are good ones here. I met with Scott Gregory, director of government business unit for CXtech , which buys and sells networking equipment. So they will buy used networking equipment and sell you new equipment -- they call it equal2new. (Ah, marketing!) But they test out the equipment to make sure it works ... and it could save agencies money. The most often asked question from government customers, Gregory said, is whether this is allowed. It is under the FAR, he said.

An aside: The company also has a CXTec Idol contest. I have asked Gregory for more information on that.

And, just a reminder that the FOSE trade show is owned by 1105 Government Information Group, parent company of Federal Computer Week and FCW.com.

More FOSE stuff to come. I'm back there tomorrow and Thursday.