Where in the world?

Publications

Of course, you won't know a lot about all this technological advancement without the publications that bring you this information, be it monthly on the magazine rack or daily on the net.

In the UK, there are a few hubs for content. The obvious one is London. In terms of the online space, you can get your daily dose of cynical English industry gossip from The Register and The Inquirer, both of which are based in the centre of London. They reside almost next door to two of the bigger magazine publishers, Dennis (PCPro and CustomPC) and VNU (PCW and Computing). The other major destination is Bath, which houses Future Publishing (PCFormat, Official Xbox 360 Magazine, PCGamer, PCZone...) If you like your gaming news with a little bit more indie cred, however, you should check our the Eurogamer boys who reside south of the capital, in sunny Brighton.

We mustn't, however, forget the lovely town of Ascot, the famous home of the Royal Ascot horse racing carnival. In some cool little offices there you will find the citizens of bit-tech dwelling, alongside their bigger (and uglier) friends at TrustedReviews.com.

If some brash attitude and very American humour is your thing, you'll surely have come across HardOCP.com . Run by Kyle Bennett and Steve Lynch, the two are based out of Texas and Alaska – not exactly your average publishing locations! Known for their straight-talking-no-BS attitude to hardware reviews, it seems that Texas produces more than just great cattle.

Trade Shows

If you're looking to go and take in some technology in exotic locations, why not jet out to a trade show? Exhibitions often showcase some of the newest and most exciting products, and are generally something of a geek paradise – not least because of the amount of gorgeous women employed to promote the products.

Start the year off in Las Vegas, where the Consumer Electronics Show is held. Forget the Adult Video Expo down the road, there's a huge number of halls packed full of brand new technology – and if you get bored, there's even a sports bar kitted out with more than ten HDTVs.

Move on to CeBit, in Hannover, Germany, which is simply the biggest IT show in the world. 30 halls of technology may overwhelm you, but you can safely ignore the square miles of ATM machines and elevator control units and head straight to Halls 26 and 27, which house all the good stuff. You'll see an awful lot of technology in an awfully large space.

E3 is the biggest computer game event of the year, where the games industry goes to show off hot new titles for the coming 12 months and beyond. Staged in Los Angeles in May, it really doesn't get much more glamorous than this.

If your frequent flyer points can take the hit, why not jet out for Computex, in Taipei, Taiwan? This is where the enthusiast industry goes to do business, with so many of the top companies – like MSI, ASUS, Abit – being based out of Taiwan. Cheap beer and great nightclubs make for a rather interesting week.