I’m roughly shoulder-deep in CES prep now, with 5 cool clients at the show (Boxee, Bug Labs, DeviceVM/Splashtop, TuneUp Media, and a new startup launching a gadget at the show), plus ShowStoppers, and also figuring out the booths I’ll go visit. It’s a lot of work, and I’ve been at it for quite a few years now. My friend Robert Scoble came up to San Francisco this past week, and we had a chance to sit down and chat about CES planning and strategy.
Robert refers to me as “The Three-Time CES Champion” (blush) as I’ve been fortunate enough to participate in three different products worthy of Best of CES distinction. All three times were utterly exhilirating, all for different reasons. At the end of the day, I completely enjoy the entire process of demoing products at CES, and can’t wait for CES 2009!
By the way, for those of you who manage or staff booths at the show, I put some suggestions up on the Stage Two blog. Read the full post for details, but here’s the cheat sheet:
- Ignore the anti-hype.
- Wear comfy shoes.
- Bring supplies.
- Know your audience.
- Funnel your traffic.
- Emphasize the team spirit.
- Don’t mistreat competition.
- Ignore nobody.
- Expect to be on the record.
- Adapt your script.
- Engage in discussions.
- Give no schwag.
- Be neighborly.
- Take and give business cards.
- Be on time.
I’m looking forward to a CES without representing any companies. Hope it translates to more than like 3 hours of sleep a night. 😉
Great advice. Maybe Mothers Against Drunk Driving would be interested in the mp3/breatherizer product? These tips would work in a b2b oriented show as well.