Do real career forums still work?

I raised the hackles no doubt of my friends at The Appointment when I posted my thoughts on their latest Career Forum.  But do recruitment fairs still work or are virtual recruitment fairs the future?  Is Ed Waller accurate in his Sun reader, sensationalist, negative, slag off the competition style reporting about the likes of Second Life i.e. they are full of porn kings.  Although he did add a small piece of positivity at the end just to show his objective approach.

I think that both have a place but the employer needs to decide which fits their strategy.  One mobile telco was at a career forum where they spoke face-to-face with real applicants then sent them away to apply online in their own time.  Other retailers conducted interviews on site whilst they had the applicant with them.  It makes sense of course to do the latter if you have spent money to attend but if online suits your brand better, then why bother to be there?

So, as uncontroversial as it may seem, both can work and both may no doubt get some very strange attendees.  Which is no different from online ads V offline ads, e-mail marketing V paper based marketing etc.  Maybe Ed just needs to get out more and keep off some of those little islands he has managed to find in Second Life.