An EDA Salesman Gets Social Media ... sort of

A guy whose been kicking around the EDA industry for a LONG time, Dan Nenni, just launched his own blog.  On Linkedin, he calls himself an "independent consulting professional" which means he's a hired gun for small companies.  I've bumped into him a couple of times over the years and I'm glad he's discovered social media as a tool for self promotion.  Hope it gets him a steady cash flow and helps him reinvent himself.


In his first post, he takes on what needs to change at the Design Automation Conference, which promotes the EDA industry and while he has ideas that have been lobbed at the organizers for several years, I was disappointed that he didn't look at the potential of social media to accomplish the same thing... at much lower cost ... with much higher results..

Dan makes some excellent points about the value, or relative lack of, inherent in modern trade shows.  It's expected that investment in even technology conferences, like DAC, is going to drop by as much as 45 percent this next year, and even private conferences are going to be scaled back.  But EDA companies are still investing more than half of their marketing budgets in this conference.  And I don't think it's worth the investment.  

What any industry needs is a market conversation.  That means talking AND listening.  There is no real listening at trade shows.  There is only talking.  Customers walk up to booths and people ask the same questions without listening to the answers.  Vendors nod their heads and show solutions to questions unanswered. Customers have specific problems that the tools don't really solve and the tools are made to solve problems that are not the most pressing (yeah, I know I'm going to get lots of arguments from the vendors on that one).  But social media enforces that needed conversation, because if you don't listen, you get nothing back.  

For trade shows to get back viability and purpose, they need to create an ongoing conversation.  If they throw stuff out and no one responds, that means no one is listening.  Change the subject.  Adapt. Evolve.  Be like Dan Nenni.  He's hasn't really gotten what social media can do, but he's giving it a try and he'll be ahead of most of the people in his industry.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I'm old and you are not. That's good thing.

Image
I turned 64 this year and have been on the receiving end of scams and offers related to social security, dementia and Medicare for weeks now. I'm also getting offered senior discounts without asking. None of that has bothered me as much as getting dismissed because I'm no longer in my 30s (which bothered me as much when I was in my 20s). Today, however I had a revelation and I'm feeling much better about my age. I was doing a session with the marketing team for a small business back by telephone and was in the process of breaking down their preconceived notions about communication when the youngest member of the team asked me, "How do you know this is what our customers are thinking?" "Because I've been doing this for 40 years," I replied. "Oh." She replied.  Then one of the business owners, well into his 70s asks, "Wait a minute. You said you've been doing this fo r 40 years. How old are you?" "I'm 64....
Read more

Speaking of ethics in sponsored content...

Image
An article today in Forbes on ethics in sponsored content  brought back memories of our recent discussions regarding UBM Tech's methodology changes and the larger discussion about whether corporations can be expected to deliver ethical content. The article points out that Edelman has posted their own set of ethics regarding sponsored content that remarkably mirrors Footwasher Media's position:  That it isn't PR or advertising.  It's something different from what most corporate advocates practice and it must be, by nature, ethical or it loses all value. Many people in the news business have taken ethical standards for granted.  They seem to believe that they are intertwined with the genesis of journalism itself.  It isn't true.  The news business, supported by advertising began in the 1700s with Benjamin Franklin's founding of the Pennsylvania Gazette , but the separation of advertising from editorial did not appear until th...
Read more

Why you don't (or do) like social media, Part Three

Image
When you boil down attitudes toward and execution of social media practices, it's all about leadership.  Real leadership, not the popular definition that rises from the horrific misinterpretation  of Geoffrey Moore's book, Crossing the Chasm .  Let me explain that reference a bit more in depth first. Moore stated fairly simply that for a technology company to be successful, it must attain the perception of leadership in a market niche.  The misinterpretation of that concept is what screws up the marketing for so many companies.  Moore's statement was an indicator of success and a strategy, not a tactic.  If you are the perceived market niche leader, Moore explains, THEN you know you successfully crossed the chasm.  Therefore your marketing strategy must revolve around developing the perception of leadership.  However, most companies believe that saying you are a leader in your marketing documents, even when you are clearl...
Read more