Good morning, All,

That was MSFT Explorer’s tag line, for those of us who remember the days before Safari and Bing.

It’s Internet Week in New York and we’ve attended a number of conferences lately, from New York Tech Day to the DLD Conference to TechCrunch Disrupt, all varying in price from free to expensive. Not just to attend, but to exhibit as well, and while NYTech Day was a lot more affordable to exhibit (it’s startups who are exhibiting, most bootstrapped) and free to attend, the question is: is it worth it? Did you get value from it?

Exposure is always good, but who’s walking the floor? Whom do you want to meet? Do you need employees/users? Investors? Angels? Later stage investors? The investors were there, but the signal to noise ratio was so overwhelming that most whom we spoke to afterwards told us that they were underwhelmed. Or rather, overwhelmed by the number of companies whom they spoke with who, when they asked what their business model was, replied: “We have absolutely no idea.”

As for Internet Week, the price of the ticket has skyrocketed from last year and the only discount code available is 15% off. Still, no one is excluded. Although it’s going to cost you for a seat at the table, or rather, just to get in the door. Welcome to the new net neutrality and lest we forget: it’s your tax dollars at work. Onward and forward.