| If you are a company looking to make a splash | | | | shown in 8" and 10" digital frames and they |
| at a trade show, listen to the words of Woody | | | | offer integrated Wi-Fi for streaming videos, |
| Allen who said that 80% of success is just | | | | photos, music from your PC to another room. |
| showing up. Same applies to trade shows. If | | | | The product is due out by March 2007. |
| you want a major presence at a trade show, | | | | |
| your company needs to show up on the trade | | | | Another lesson is to aggressively market your |
| show floor with a trade show exhibit. | | | | company's splashy news. |
| Otherwise, you will be conspicuously absent | | | | |
| from the trade show arena. | | | | Think big. Heavily market your news. The |
| | | | legendary Steve Jobs kicked off his company's |
| A case in point --at the CES show in Las | | | | Macworld Conference and Expo 2007 with not |
| Vegas in January, according to Forbes.com, | | | | only a rousing keynote address from San |
| Research in Motion had very little presence | | | | Francisco's Moscone West, but he also has his |
| in Vegas, despite the fact that it seemed as | | | | self-promoting keynote speech on Apple's |
| if every one of the 140,000 people at the | | | | website for anyone to hear at any time. It |
| trade show had one of its products. By not | | | | is video on demand, and everyone can hear the |
| exhibiting with a trade show booth, RIM made | | | | Pied Piper talk about his company's extremely |
| it difficult to believe its recent insistence | | | | successful products and Apple's creativity 24 |
| that it was going after the consumer market | | | | 7. Jobs magically and romantically talks |
| with its BlackBerry Pearl. | | | | about the latest developments and hottest |
| | | | products in the Mac industry. |
| Instead, it appeared that RIM had given up on | | | | |
| the race to get smart phones into the hands | | | | It helps if you are a master of marketing. |
| of ordinary consumers. The message that RIM | | | | There is no shame in self-promoting your |
| had the premiere business phone, however, | | | | company and your new products. With little |
| could have been reinforced to their core | | | | modesty, one week before Macworld, Apple |
| customers at their trade show display. But, | | | | changed the front of its company website to |
| since there was no RIM trade show exhibit, | | | | an eye-catching Apple logo with the promise: |
| the message went unheard. | | | | "The first 30 years was just the beginning. |
| | | | Welcome to 2007." |
| The next lesson is to just do something! Or | | | | |
| as Nike is famous for its slogan -- Just do | | | | Remember, in order to have a successful trade |
| it. | | | | show experience, follow the lessons of trade |
| | | | show marksmanship. They are: be seen, be |
| What Kodak did at the CES trade show was to | | | | active, and be heard. These lessons apply |
| exhibit a soon- to- be released solution to | | | | wherever you have a trade show |
| digital photos that are most likely just | | | | exhibit-whether it is at the McCormick |
| collecting dust on your PC's hard drive. | | | | Convention Center in Chicago, the Kaiser |
| Their answer is to have the EasyShare Digital | | | | Convention Center in Oakland, the Moscone |
| Picture Frames play a slideshow of favorite | | | | Center in San Francisco, the Santa Clara |
| photos and video clips. Music can be | | | | Convention Center or the San Jose McEnery |
| incorporated into the slideshow. Models were | | | | Convention Center. |