Location, location, location

Eventually talk at Sibos settles on the layout of the conference and exhibition hall. While the facilities at the Hong Kong centre are impressive, it has ruffled a few feathers.

The exhibition hall is split between two, completely separate floors, separated by two sets of stairs. The conference sessions are further afield. In fact you can attend all of the sessions without having to go near the exhibition hall at all.

The failure to redirect traffic through the exhibition hall has angered many delagates who are already a tad mifted about the increase in prices imposed by Swift at this year's show.

Most of the banks are on the marginally better attended level 1, while most (but not all) of the vendors are on level 3 - next to the massive Swift booth. Word is that level 3 is a good place to chill out from the pressures of the conference - a place where you won't be bothered by too many crowds.

Meanwhile, BT Radianz, who have not always been welcome at the Swift event, has nestled in on level 1 (where all the banks are) as part of the overall BT booth. So cozy are they, that they are handing out research from Yankee Group, which claims that banks can make an over 50% network cost savings by switching from a DIY Extranet with a collection of leased lines to a IP extranet supplied by...wait for it...BT Radianz! Fancy that. Maybe it's a good thing that Swift are two floors up from BT corner.