The Great Trade Show Debate

Every year, good times or bad, there is always a debate after the CES/Macworld run over the merits of tradeshows and their value.  This year was no different.  I was at CES and I can tell you, first hand, the floor was “dead” if you compare it year over year or look at the gaping holes on the trade show floor, or use the no taxi line at the LVCC south hall as indicators.  I’m not sure this tells the whole story so here are some comments and observations you might find useful.

Start-Up? No mobs meant more focused exposure (maybe)

I know I’ll get debate on this but it seemed to me that many of the smaller guys got lots more attention from a much more focused group of attendees.  RIM (small company in Waterloo, Canada) had a good size booth with pods for ISVs to show stuff off.  The booth was ‘packed’ virtually all the time but it wasn’t mobbed to the point nobody could talk to anyone.  I spoke to a number of the companies inside the booth and they all said they were very happy.  Others at the Sands or small 10x10 booths generally shared that people who came in, were not just tire kickers but people who made the effort to get to the show and really wanted information, etc. Many felt it was a better show at least for them.

Just Phoning it in

Engadget, TechCrunch, Boy Genius, Blackberry Cool, etc, had the show covered all over the place. “JK on the Run” was another great blog.  So, the big question I had was simple. Did I see anything the zillions of geek phreaks missed?  Obviously, the answer is yes since you can’t expect it all to get covered.  For example, Gentec International was showing off a Digital Picture frame.  The big deal here is that is takes an inbound email which contains a photo and deals with it.  It just gets displayed. It’s designed to send/receive email from the picture frame.  Pretty smart and the expected evolution of the frames. The idea that grand kid can send grand parent an email with a photo (from a phone, flicker, etc) and it just shows up on the frame as a new photo is an idea that is about time.  My point here is that there were things I saw that didn’t make the blogging world (for a million reasons) so, in general, I think showing up is important.  If you can’t? The blogging world will cover 95% of products release as well as trends, etc.

Little Guys Trend Price and Features.

A knock off electronics company (Nextar) was showing off a micro projector. Engadget picked up on it (making the coverage point I was previously mentioning).  I went through the Hong Kong, China, Singapore booth areas and (surprise) found a manufacture of the device.  In decent quantities, I could get better pricing Nextar was offering.  I point this out because Nextar is driving low cost but with a little work, you can find out where pricing really is.  A big brand might say something is whatever price but I assure you that you can hunt down the folks making the guts or knock offs to understand exactly where features, price, etc, is going.  This has never changed in all the years I’ve gone to CES.

To go or not to go?

If you are launching and/or trying to sell a new tech toy, I’d say yes.  You can do it prudently as well as finding some interesting ways to get some coverage.  Just be ready to take orders. I know marketing and PR people will tell you all about press and this and that but for me, take orders is the go/no go. Clickfree who has a super set of back up products were taking orders. They announced the Clickfree Transformer and were taking orders.  The transformer product is basically a USB cable you plug into any hard drive you have laying around then plug it into your computer.  Instant, hands free, no touch, dead simple, back-up server.   The USB cable has firmware in it. There are no other parts or software.  It’s pretty cool.  They had show specials and they were taking orders.  Hardware or software, take orders or don’t go to the show.  I know broad statement but start with if you ain’t selling you ain’t going as your opening position when everybody in the company wants to go to Vegas.

Comments

[stewart]

Are you going to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona??

[Rick Segal]

Stewart,
One of my partners is going.

[stewart]

Does he blog? :)