I had about an hour before the seminar, so I went out on the South Hall floor again. This time, I noticed something that hadn't registered with me before. The West Hall has a different feel than the South Hall. In the West Hall, where giants like GE, Maytag, Andersen Windows, and Georgia-Pacific have regal presences, the lighting seems softer, the carpet plusher, the displays more elaborate.

The South Hall seems to have smaller outfits, though certainly no less important. In the West Hall the exhibits might have a second floor with conference table reserved for private meetings. The South Hall is filled with booths,featuring posters and computer screens and manned by one or two people. A big West Hall exhibit might have 15 reps, all dressed in matching clothing.

South might be the little guy hall, though exhibitors over there like BASF can hardly be classified as a little guy. But there are certainly lots of interesting things in the South Hall. Like the builders’ software program for the little guy, offered by Automated Trackers (www.automatedtrackers.com). Don’t build 3,000 houses a year? You can subscribe to their Superintendent’s Automated Manager program for $200 a house.

Down South, you’ll find the SnapCourt (www.snapcourt.com) interlocking floor system, which will create a basketball court, or tennis court (the basketball bounce is quieter than the bounce on concrete). You’ll find Packer Industries (www.Packer2000.com) and the Packer 750 Horizontal Grinder that reduces your construction debris landfill footprint. You’ll find the neat skylights of Solatube (www.solatube.com), which can bend light, dissipate heat, and catch the sun from sunrise to sunset and disperse it throughout a room.

Mid Atlantic Vinyl Products (www.mvpweatherwise.com) has a nice display of its vinyl railing, fencing, decking, and columns. They may not be making customized Rawlings baseball bats for people at $40 a pop like they're doing at Delta Tools (www.deltamachinery.com) in the West Hall, but Mid Atlantic Sales Director Jim Torborg will talk to you about why he thinks Harry Homeowner is tiring of the DIY craze. (Note to DIY Network: I’m sure he is wrong.)

In the West Hall, you see lots of coats and ties; in the south, you see more knit shirts and jeans. In the West Hall, you’re likely to overhear a cell phone conversation in which the speaker is saying, “Did you get my email about the meeting?” In the South Hall, the conversation is more like, “You’ve got to get on it—she’s got water coming in over there.”

This apparent difference of styles is actually a good thing. It’s like going to two shows at once. And I haven’t even had a chance to make it to the Outside exhibits.