HAVE a drink and relax. And have a massage, while you're at it too.

Business visitors meeting technical experts from Nokia Siemens Networks got to enjoy foot and back massages while discussing the finer points of networking -- the cables and fibre type, not the social kind.

The Solutions Bar, as it is called, was an idea they came up with last year, so visitors could talk shop in a more casual manner. It was so popular they decided to bring it back this year too, the company's spokesman said.

The drinks start flowing nightly in Clarke Quay's Rupee Room from 6pm to 10pm nightly, for the course of the Asia's largest tech trade show, the Infocomm Media Business Exchange, held here this week.

Before the downturn, and during the dot.com heydays, tech shows like CommunicAsia, which is part of the imbX, and shows overseas like the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, used to be full of the weird and wonderful.

The tech team here at The Straits Times remembers dancing girls, numerous coffee bars at the booths at the exhibition, and gourmet ice-cream being dished out.

These perks are no longer there on such a large scale, but some exhibitors, particularly the multi-national companies, do still try to surprise visitors.

For instance, Yahoo!'s booth in Hall 5 is serving up slushees at a special bar it has put up, while another booth brings in an Obama look-alike twice a day.

Not only do these perks bring in the crowds, perhaps building friendly relations is the new way to doing business too. Can there be anything more intimate and friendly than getting a massage together to cement a new friendship?

PHOTO: SERENE LUO

If you've seen something quirky at the imbX exhibitions, list it below or send an e-mail to stonline@sph.com.