I too thought that the Expo was a bit slower this year, but not by much. Having it this weekend, away from Presidents' Day, must have worked against them (Monday off should be a plus for attendance.) One of my unscientific metrics, handouts like t-shirts, pens, toys, etc, was a little off this year too, probably due to cutbacks.
I thought that the big players (eg, TradeStation, TOS, Ninja, Fidelity, Schwab, several Forex outfits) did a better job this year staffing their booths with knowledgeable people. I actually got some good answers, which doesn't happen often. Also, most of the old faithfuls (presenters like LBR, Elder, Capra, et al) did their usual good job as I deduced from attending some of the events and chating with people about others.
For the first time I attended a presentation by Carolyn Boroden and found it quite interesting - I'll take a further look at her work. I particularly liked Oliver and his VCM Trading story - he's a real trailblazer and a very entertaining speaker. Only thing, he's constantly pulling statistics out of thin air (eg, 82% of breakouts work, if...) And we all know, 79.4% of statistics people throw at you are made up on the spot
