Stage Two's blog

I wrote a post last year on prepping booth staffs for CES, thought I’d give it another pass for 2009…  Note, there’s a lot of cutting and pasting.

• Ignore the anti-hype. I’ve read a half-dozen stories already on how this year’s CES will, in a word, suck.  Ignore that.  While I’m sure attendance will be down, that doesn’t mean you should go into the event expecting a terrible show.  Have a good time, and if you get extra breathing room between demos, well, enjoy!
• Wear comfy shoes.  If you aren’t tired of standing after 10 hours a day, you’re doing something wrong.  That said, do yourself a favor and wear running shoes with good support.  No high heels, and no Italian loafers – they may look good, but you’ll be in serious pain by the end of the first day. Suits + Nikes are an a-okay match at CES.
• Bring supplies. Bottled water is a must for anyone on demo duty.  Purel should be at your booth as well.  I also recommend: a roll of paper towels, a box of tissues, some juice and/or caffeinated sodas, granola/energy bars, and bagels.  Carbo-loading is a good thing.
• 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.
• 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.  Don’t forget…
• Expect to be on the record. Just because someone’s not wearing a blogger/media badge doesn’t mean they necessarily aren’t one.  Assume you might even be streaming live online, and you’ll probably do a great job more often than not.
• Adapt your script. Thursday the show is full of important media and decision-makers, Friday less so.  By Saturday it’ll be a small handful of the media, and by Sunday it’s pretty much the Las Vegas taxi driveres.  Your pitch should change over time, and be appropriate for your audience.
• Engage in discussions. 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 no schwag. Last year I said give “good” schwag, but let’s all just try to pitch in and kill this silly, wasteful tradition.
• Be neighborly. This should go without saying, but the more you are friendly to and help out your neighbors, the more they’ll look out for you.  Also, if you have media in your demo, vary it over the course of the show (after ‘08 I don’t think I can listen to Sting’s Fields of Gold ever again).
• 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.

That’s it, see you in Vegas!

This entry was posted on Friday, January 2nd, 2009 at 2:56 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.