13 Slightly Strange Scenes From XChange '08

Comedian Steve Bridges has to be one of the most convincing George Bush impersonators who has ever walked the planet. Monday at the ARC Awards ceremony, Bridges brought down the house with a hilarious routine that poked fun at the U.S. president.

Kaspersky Lab's booth at XChange featured a fake but scary looking severed hand, and it didn't appear to be a helping hand either. Several conference attendees were observed giving it a wide berth.

Everything Channel Executive Editor/News Steve Burke reacts to getting a pie in the face backstage at the ARC Awards ceremony. HP Channel chief Adrian Jones (left) and HP's Frank Rauch (right) seemed to enjoy this.

Security vendor RedCondor was on hand at XChange '08 to trumpet the virtues of its powerful antispam solution, and was giving away these very interesting T-shirts.

A plastic crocodile guards a treasure chest full of chocolate gold coins at Ingram Micro's booth on the XChange '08 show floor.

Oracle was giving away bottles of bona fide Texas hot sauce to XChange attendees, as part of its efforts to show how partnering with Oracle is one way for solution providers to spice up their channel relationships.

Oh yeah, it's loaded. Software vendor Diskeeper Corp. had a Star Wars style light saber on display, possibly as a deterrent to conference goers who may have been thinking of messing with their booth, or with Texas.

Panda Security, which recently stepped up to the plate with its new, margin-intensive P3 Partner Program, had a full complement of T-shirts and foam rubber pandas to attract attendees to its booth.

Samsung was running a contest in which XChange attendees would be given a key and asked to try their luck at opening the lock to this chest, which, according to rumor, did not contain one of their massive 80-inch plasma televisions.

Intel's little spacesuit dolls were a big hit at XChange '08, a somewhat surprising development given their apparent lack of any practical value whatsoever.

Kaspersky Lab's booth featured these cool, but slightly creepy Polynesian-style balloons. Perhaps their stern faces were meant to convey the unflinching nature of the vendor's security technology. Or not.

HP invoked the Olympics theme to illustrate to XChange attendees the world-class capabilities of its ProCurve line.

One of the more bizarre and fascinating scenes at XChange '08 was this fellow, who appeared to have a large plasma television growing from the back of his neck. He seemed to be a cheerful sort, and was making the best of his condition by setting up the TV to flash advertisements. Perhaps another example of human beings' remarkable resiliency in the face of hardship.