ESC showing how it is done

Got a short email from a buddy over at EE Times Group about ESC.  Practically giddy.  Their initial numbers are showing a 30 percent increase in PAID attendance and a preshow increase of total attendance by 25 percent.  We always have to wait for the final numbers but if they show even a 10 percent increase over last year, that's a very positive number.



I only got to go down to one day.  Got to hear Dr. Michio Kaku (and yes I am a fanboy) talk on teleportation and molecular computing.  Probably the best keynote I ever heard and I got there half way through.  I dropped into the TI Day event over at the Marriott, which was packed and probably a reason for the big bump.  The Multicore event, which was stand alone last year, got folded in to ESC this year, which might also explain the increase.  But I wasn't sure starting a new event in this downturn was a great idea.  Having it part of ESC might do it more good than ESC. 



But I go to conferences for the exhibits.  The programs are for engineers but the exhibits are supposed to show us what is happening in the industry.  This year, as others, the traffic on the floor was comparable to other years. In other words it was better than any other tradeshow I've been to in the past five.  Lots of people looking at lots of stuff.  I did notice something interesting about the dynamic, though.



When I saw a booth packed with people I would look to see whose booth it was.  Each time it was a company that I could remember seeing an ad for in one of the many (50+) trade magazines I read.  Each time I saw a booth where the booth team was staring off into space with no traffic, it was for a company I could not remember hearing anything about in any way.  So I see a definite corollary to advertising and trade show traffic.



The exception to that was having a booth that stood out, and for me, there was only one.  A company called Nabto caught my eye for that reason.  They had one of the smallest booths you could buy and didn't have much in it.  What captured my attention was their tag line (simply connect) and the complete absence of typical hyperbole (industry leading... the first.. fastest...)  They just knew what they did well and said it.  It practically screamed at me out of everything else in it's understatement.  Naturally, they are Danish.  Not exactly the flashiest people in the world. 
Denmark-Canada
 So for me, Nabto and Dr. Kaku absolutely made ESC worth the time.  But the rest of you guys need to step it up a notch.



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