IBC reminder and fast ways to track new product announcements

A quick reminder: If you're involved with or interested in professional video, the International Broadcasting Conference (IBC) starts this coming Thursday, September 9th, in Amsterdam. As with many conferences of this type, most of the new products are announced either shortly before the conference begins or the first day of the conference, in order to drive traffic to exhibitors' booths. A great way to keep track of new product announcements is a site called Virtual Press Office, or VPO. They distribute press releases and already have almost 100 press kits from exhibitors available for download. (Materials on the site will be updated throughout the show.) You don't need to be a reporter to use VPO, but you do have to register in order to get access to some of the materials.

In addition to VPO, you can also find IBC press releases at BusinessWire and PR Newswire. Not all companies use all three sites, so monitoring them all will enable you to keep track of just about everything.