Hi Scott,
first assumption I’d make is that you can deliver if you create the demand!? Importantly, you must be able to deliver immediately, otherwise you are wasting your time. Not quite knowing what your Unique Selling Proposition is, but you MUST have one, then keep it simple and LOUD. My own experience with presenting in the US is that people are generally very open to ideas and new things, easily exciteable is a word that comes to mind. The flip-side is a very short attention span, so if you grab ‘em, you gotta’ be able to hold ‘em. The WOW I would consider is offering your services for free for x days/weeks/months but only if they sign up NOW. Trust your servers are scaleable, though….
As for keeping your pants on, yes definitely – remember the Jackson girl accidentally showing her tits at the Superbowl – prudish lot those yanks.

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Paul Ryan Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 5:03 pm

Oh, I don’t know. Going pantless would certainly present one of the more unique selling propositions… It’s Austin, after all, not Crawford, Tx.

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Scott Handsaker Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 9:02 pm

Thanks for the advice Kim..

The messaging (or the USP) is going to have to be top notch, and we will be working on that over the next few weeks. We do have a fantastic marketing/advertising guy who we can call on that we have worked with in the past, so that should help.

Can we scale if we generate the demand? I think we are set up well to do this from a technical perspective (lots of planning has gone into that), but less so from a support/sales perspective. It would be a nice problem to have anyway..

I shall probably leave the pants on…..but if we haven’t got any cut through with our message to any media, amongst all the other exciting companies at the show…welllllll….I make no promises for what might happen on the last day!

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Just some quick thoughts…and I’m sorry…they’re more questions than answers.

Customers – if your target market isn’t going to be in attendance…what words are you going to use to seed to the people that you do get to speak to – how will they pass on your message to your target market? What’s the memorable line or story you’ll use?

Media – unless you have a really compelling story (or can concoct one in the next few weeks) I doubt they will care. So, what’s your compelling story? Did you develope your product for a (to quote derek zoolander) ‘really really’ interesting i.e. newsworthy reason?

Investors – if you’ve already turned down seed capital you must have a model that someone has already seen value in – congratulations! I totally applaud you for believing in your product enough not to settle for an early offer. You’ve also managed to convince the Victorian Govt you’re worth sending to SXSW – nice one! As for getting US investor interest in your product – I’d stick to answering the customer and media questions first and then leverage the hell out of your hopefully solid professional relationships including your Gov backing when you’ve got your compelling story straight.

Good luck!

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Scott Handsaker Reply:
January 21st, 2010 at 1:01 pm

Hiya Lesley – thanks very much for the feedback!

I think you are spot on with focusing on the media/customers message as the number one priority. If we get that messaging right and we truly leverage this opportunity to its fullest, then investors will find us. If not, we will have a much more compelling story when we do approach them anyway.

Good feedback also about ensuring that our message is memorable enough to pass from the trade show attendees to our target market. To be honest many of the attendees will be members of groups who make up our market, as they are all members of sporting clubs, churches, rotary, community groups, schools, etc etc. These all fit within our vertical.

Media – we have a simple and unique message, which positions us differently to our competitors. We have a unique take on our product. But no, we don’t have a Derek Zoolander type story for the media…yet!

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Lesley-Ann Reply:
January 21st, 2010 at 4:08 pm

I wouldn’t rule out dropping your trousers though…nothing like a bit of frat-boy humour to amuse a certain portion of the American population

I’m lucky enough to have the last name TROW which is an endless source of amusement to my US male friends…aparently there’s some low-brow saying that goes something like “hey, dude…don’t drop trow” – meaning ‘don’t drop your trousers over it’ i.e. get stressed/angry etc. Oh how funny it was the first 17 times

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I agree with the above in the sense of having a story to tell – case studies, testimonials – Americans love a good success story and if you can tug at their heartstrings a bit, all the better. Have real-life cases of how people have solved problems using your service. Ideally bring a happy customer or two along with you! (Do you have any customers who will also be attending SXSW?)

Ideally you will be able to describe your USP in one sentence, or even just a few words — eg “it’s like eventbrite but free”, or “think of facebook events but mixed with twitter feeds”, etc… something that will let the Arringtons of the world knock out a quick story with a link or two. And make sure it’s really unique, not just “well we want to be the eventbrite for Australia”, that’s boring. Investors seem to love the short sharp tagline as well — they seem to think that if you can’t describe your USP in a few words, you aren’t focussed enough (maybe they’re right)

And yeah a publicity stunt doesn’t go astray, just make sure it’s something that doesn’t demean your brand too much! Be clever rather than just attention grabbing

Break a leg!

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Scott Handsaker Reply:
January 22nd, 2010 at 8:58 am

Thanks Brendan…excellent advice.

We were trying to work out yesterday what to produce for the actual booth, but hadn’t thought of including case studies. Good idea!

Not sure we could convince any of our customers to come along to SXSW, unless we were paying! As a startup, I don’t think that would be a wise use of funds..

The one sentence USP…..probably one of the hardest things to get right. We will work on it over the next few weeks, as you and Lesley are correct…a well worded, interesting, unique USP that encapsulates what we do and what benefits we bring…that positions us differently to competitors……will be a critical component if we are to break through all the noise at SXSW and get some media attention.

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G’day fellas,

Check out a bloke, he’s from the states, called Joel Bauer. He’s been massively successful over the past 30 odd years as an Infotainer, and his main ‘bread n butter’ was Trade Shows. He figured out how to generate massive crowds around his, and in time, his clients trade stalls.

Google his name and check out his site, infotainer.com. See if there’s any info he has that can help you reach your goals.

He’s the first person that came to mind as I was reading about situation.

Apart from that, a Trade Stand is no different to any other form of marketing… it still has to answer one question the Trade Show attendant is silently asking,

“What the heck is in it for me to come over to your stall? Why should I give a rat’s who you are and what you do?”

Answer that properly with your stall, or however you get people to notice you and you’re on a winner – if it’s the right market and they believe you.

Good Luck fellas

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Scott Handsaker Reply:
January 22nd, 2010 at 9:01 am

Thanks Judd…will check him out!

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Hey Guys,
I’m going to give you some advice from a visual perspective. There are a couple of mistakes most people make in trade shows:
1. Talking to the people – they chat amongst themselves, turn their backs, don’t engage with people walking past. Just because you’ve been given a 3mx2m booth this is not the only place you can “own”. Get out and about and meet the masses… I once did a stand for a gaming organisation and sprinkled stars from the entrance to the stand. I got in trouble but everyone followed the yellow brick road…
2. Blocking access – I see a lot of stands with blocks at the front (desks, couches, chairs, etc). you want to be approachable and have people come onto your stand and feel relaxed. Keep the front open and give people somewhere they can sit and chat to you.
3. Image – work out what your message is above (some excellent advice in there) and use that to make your stand “stand out from the crowd”, so to speak. Sometimes it only takes 1 key message displayed in a different way to have the audience say “hey did you see the x stand, how cool was the x”…. if you know what I mean.
4. Action talks, bullshit walks – If you want people to buy a product that they will use then let them use it. One of the best ways to sell this type of product is to have a couple of demo stations where people can actually interact with it themselves. To enhance this if you have the budget, invest in hiring a couple of plasmas to attach to these stations so that more than 1 person can view the action at a time. You will be surprised at how many people are happy to watch.
5. Goodies – everyone loves a freebie but a lot of companies invest massive dollars when most people don’t even want this stuff. Think outside the square – who is your audience, what would spin their wheels? At most trade shows I end up looking for the stand that has the water, dehydration sets in after 4 aisles… label these and you’re away.
Good luck and hope it goes well for you.

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Scott Handsaker Reply:
January 22nd, 2010 at 11:39 am

Thanks Julie…always appreciate when someone who has done it before gives us some solid advice.

We were planning to hire a couple of 27 inch Mac screens to demo the product. I think that will look pretty good..and we will definitely be allowing people to use the product and have a play.

Hmm…eventarc branded water…I wasn’t thinking that big, but nice idea!

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Julie Reply:
January 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm

If water is too big, then try minties. Americans love them and they don’t have them. 1 bag of minities has gotten me through a lot of difficult situations overseas… or something else uniquely Australian that’s cheap and easy to carry. I think Fantails are also Australian.

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Scott Handsaker Reply:
January 22nd, 2010 at 4:38 pm

We were considering stubbie holders….good or no good?

Wouldn’t let me reply so had to start a new string. I like the stubby holder idea, just remember this is something they will keep more at home than in their office. Maybe encourage people to use it as a coffee holder as well, in the States when you get a takeaway they have these neat holders you put around the cup, I know they do have them here but they’re not common. Your stubby holder could become an all purpose holder..

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Hello Scott,
Check out http://smallbiztrends.com/2010/01/organizing-perfect-events.html
This article may be of use,
If I can help in any way, would love to share some insights:
please contact me: @maxOz (twitter profile)
Cheers
Michele Smorgon
@maxOz

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Scott Handsaker Reply:
January 23rd, 2010 at 8:36 pm

Great thanks Michele – really appreciate it. I will check out the link.

Consider yourself followed on twitter!

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Hi Scott

Have you by any chance checked out what your competitors might be doing at the same trade show? This is important if you do want to differentiate yourself and grab the attention of customers, media and investors. Remember your competitors are also vying for the same target.

An easy way to find out what you might expect is to find out what happened at the Trade Show last year. You will be surprised how people tend to repeat what they did in general, one year to the next.

Once you arrive at the Trade Show though, find out where your competitors booths are, the size, how many people they have allocated, their USP, etc. You can easily pull together a matrix comparing everyone and then adjust if necessary any particular issues for your business.

Hope this helps.
Best
Babette

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Scott Handsaker Reply:
January 25th, 2010 at 1:40 pm

Hi Babette,

Good advice….it got me googling trade shows and watching “how to videos” on YouTube!

Cheers,
Scott.

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For those following along at home, just found this fantastic blog post from Jason Cohen.

http://blog.asmartbear.com/tradeshow-tips-checklist.html

Long, but well worth it.

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