Stage Two Consulting

In the past 9 years I’ve had the privilege to attend CES from so many different vantage points, including working in “traditional” CE booths as well as organizing the booth for tiny startups.  I’ve also attended as a consultant and as press.There’s a lot of tips out there for attending CES (my CES tips at LIVEdigitally, Forbes, SAI’s, etc), but I haven’t come across any good advice for the folks in charge of staffing the booths.  Here are my suggestions:

• Know your audience.   Look for name tags before you get into an in-depth discussion (if someone’s got theirs flipped around, just politely ask them who they are, it might feel awkward, but it’s important).  I watched a junior booth staffer spend 20 minutes with a fairly recognizable, high profile individual, without knowing who he was.  This is a colossal mistake, as it’s vitally important to get the right people talking to the right visitors.  Which brings me to…
• Funnel your traffic.  You should have a game plan for “who talks to who”.  If it’s a member of the press, someone from marketing should get them.  If it’s a senior exec from a big tech firm, someone from your BD/exec management team.  Different audiences get different discussions, and it’s as much a favor to them as it is to you to get them talking to the right folks.
• Wear comfy shoes and carry Purel.  Borrowing from my end-user post, booth duty is gruesome.  You’re standing most of the day, and odds aren’t bad your booth organizer cheaped out on the carpet so you are about 2mm off the concrete floor.  Additionally, you are going to shake several hundred hands per day. Yuck. Purel, and definitely be sure to wash prior to eating!
• Have bottled water handy.  I’ve lost my voice almost every year I did booth duty. Nuff said.
• Emphasize the team spirit. I don’t care what your title is, if someone who is on a 4 hour shift needs a soda or a hot dog or a piece of chewing gum, help them out. When I was at Sling Media, the first year we did a booth I distinctly remember one moment where the VP of Engineering did a coffee run for everyone.  That’s the right spirit.
• Don’t mistreat competition. With the power of blogs and live video streaming today, it’s silly to assume your entire demo WON’T end up online somewhere.  And if that occurs, your competition WILL see it.  So if they walk up to you, camera in hand, just do your normal demo and spiel. You certainly don’t have to give up company secrets, but you really should treat them like any other demo.  Personally, I take it a step further and make the effort to actually meet the person in question, commiserate on the show, etc.
• Ignore nobody. When doing demos I make a huge effort to make sure everyone around me is getting my attention.  Even if the demo you are doing is to some uber-important industry exec, that doesn’t mean you completely ignore the rest.  You can certainly say “hey everyone, I have a schedule demo to do right now, but I’ll be done in 15 minutes if you want to come back then” or something similar.  Also, even if the person looks like a kook (which they probably are), you still have a job to do.  Complain/joke about them later.
• Adapt your script. This year I’ll be doing demos with Bug Labs, and if I get a layman versus a Java programmer, I need to have two different stories to tell.  But not only that, my Wed/Thurs storytelling will differ from Mon/Tues, as I’ll be paying attention to what works and what doesn’t.  I recommend having group meetings at the end of either the first or second day to make changes to your scripts and pitches as necessary.
• Engage in discussions. Unless you are demoing iPhone 2.0, odds are pretty good you won’t have a line of a hundred people waiting to talk with you.  So take some time with the people around you, ask what they think.  More importantly: pay attention!  If three people in a row say the same thing or ask the same question, that should be something you note for your script.  If ten people in a row don’t understand your product, you have a bad pitch, and should fix it on the spot!
• Give useful schwag. The best schwag is stuff people keep and reuse.  The worst schwag is gimmicky stuff that gets played with once then goes to the landfill (mini-frisbees, light-up bouncy balls, etc).  My personal favorite is a deck of playing cards, but I also like pens, notepads, and mints.  Creative stuff is good, but again, if its future landfill supply, then consider skipping on it.
• Take and give business cards. This ritual will hopefully die off in the next few years, but in the meantime, play ball.  I recommend (but cannot say I perfectly practice what I preach here) followup with 100% of the cards you received, even if its nothing but being polite.
• Be on time. If your entire role with the show was being flown in, 6 hours a day of demos, then going back to the office, then you have no clue as to how much work went into organizing it by your colleagues.  Show up when and where you are supposed to, and be on time.  Vegas is about as big a distraction as one can imagine, but that’s a terrible excuse for disrespecting other people’s hard work.

Have a great show everyone!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 at 1:44 pm and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.