Conferences and Trade Shows

Business Brain the Entrepreneur Show Episode 414 for Wednesday, January 11, 2023 Greetings folks and welcome to. Welcome back to Business Brain, the show by, for and about entrepreneurs where we talk about using our business brains in all aspects of our lives. And we're happy to have you back here. We're happy to be back here. I just got back from Las Vegas here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton.

And in California, I'm Shannon Jean. In Lafayette, California, where it's so dark and stormy, it actually looks like it's nighttime at about one o' clock in the afternoon right now.

I was going to ask if you were impacted by the storm, the rains and all that stuff that are happening.

Only on a small level. In our area. We've had some trees go down, not on our property, but certainly around us.

That's significant. Okay. Yeah, yeah.

Oh, there's trees have dropped everywhere. The. And it's. It's been amazing from someone. I spend a lot of time on the water because I'm a. I'm a duck hunter and I spend. In the winter I hunt two or three times a week and watching the. What was a drought and half of the Sacramento Valley not having any, any water this year, to seeing it just like an ocean and water everywhere over a period of a few weeks has just been incredible. And I mean we definitely need the water. It's great to see.

Sure.

It happen. It would be nice if it was spread out over a few months, but you know, we'll take what we can get.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Well, I'm glad you're all right. That's good.

Yeah, yeah, we're good. We're up on the hill. We're okay.

Yeah, yeah. Right. Yeah. Higher ground.

We have a creek, but it's down at the bottom of the hill. But it is, it is flowing. But I wanted to ask you, how was the Consumer Electronics Show?

So I don't think it's called the Consumer Electronics Show.

What do they call it?

I think it's ces. Yeah, I think they changed it. It's like Kentucky Fried Chicken isn't Kentucky Fried Chicken anymore, it's kfc. You know, I don't. They didn't change what it stands for, but I think a few years ago they. They changed the branding. But of course it started life as, and still very much is the Consumer Electronics show. It had been 20, 20 of January was the last time I was there and I went with just recovering from something that my doctor had a week before described as a coronavirus this is back in end of 2019, beginning of 2020, because it was this cold that I remember going to my doctor thinking, I never go for a cold. But I was worried that I was getting pneumonia. And so I went before I went to Vegas. And she explained that most colds are rhinoviruses. And this one that's going around, she doesn't know what it is, but she's like, it's probably a coronavirus. And they tend to be a little more resilient. It wasn't until a few weeks later that, you know, I heard on the news that same term and was like, hey, wait a minute. But anyway, it was the first time that I went since 2020. I did. I wound up not going last year. They held it, technically, last year, I think they held it because if they had canceled, they would have had to refund a lot of money. That they didn't have to refund would have been my guess. I see people said that it was. It was a ghost town. You know, it about a week before everyone started canceling last year. So. So I. There. There were no people for me to meet with or not enough to justify a week away. So I did not go last year. So it'd been three years, and I didn't know what to expect in terms of who was going to be there, how many vendors were going to be there, how many people. Attendees were going to be there, and it was, it was valuable so as not to bury the lead. I'm glad I went. It was less vendors than previously, normally. Well, actually, I don't know if I judge.

I mean, for those, for those of you who've never been to ces, it. It's usually massive. Spread out across the Las Vegas Convention center as well as a number of hotels. Correct.

Well, it's. It's in two convention centers, so it's in the Las Vegas Convention center and the Venetian Slash Sands.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah. So. And it's in. There's a new hall. There's the west hall of the. The Las Vegas Convention Center. So they use that now, but they don't use the south hall, which I think is great. The south hall was. I got a lot of PTSD about being in the South Hall. It's just massive and. Yeah, it's. It's much better layout now.

Oh, good.

I. I count. I don't know how many vendors are typically there because it's rare. I don't want to say rare. It is uncommon for me to be on the show floor. I go because I'M on media and I am interested in meeting with people that want to meet with the media. That rarely is the case on the show floor. People on the show floor want to meet with partners, vendors, distributors, and media tends to fall to the bottom of the list. So I really go to cs not for the show floor, but for three press events that happen in the evenings. One is held by the cta, which is the Consumer Technology association or whatever it is that puts on ces, that's called CES Unveiled. That happens two nights before the show floor opens. So this already is interesting, right? So I have to get there super early. I flew out on January 2nd. Then I go to an event called Pepcom which happens the night before the show floor opens. That's run by a private firm. I don't know what their arrangement is with cta, but I'm sure there is one. And then the day the show floor opens, that evening is an event called Showstoppers. They are all basically the same thing. They are three to four hour long events. They serve food and drinks just to make sure the press is happy and shows up. But they are for media only. And the vendors that are there, you know, exhibitors that are there are not in the big overdone booths that you will find on the show floor. Those are cool, but they're inefficient. Right. And so at these events, press, vendors, exhibitors are at, you know, six foot long tables. Everybody has the same size, quote unquote booth. Very efficient to get around. Super easy. It's just in one little, you know, conference room kind of thing. A big conference room, I suppose, but. But they, you know, super efficient. They. A friend of mine refers to it as speed dating with the press. And that's a perfect way to describe it. So with that I can tell you that there were less vendors, but there were still more than enough to make it worth my while. Pepcom in a peak year would be at about 210 vendors. Perhaps this year I think it was just at about 150. So, okay, you know, smaller and by a significant number, but not, certainly not half, you know, and certainly not less than half. So it was worth it. Attendee wise. I think there were about a. They were predicting it was going to be about 100,000 attendees versus the normal 140 to 160,000. So again, less but still crazy amount. Yeah, which surprised me, man, because like we've had, not only have we had, you know, effectively three years off because of the pandemic lockdowns and all of that stuff. But we also are in a time where trade shows mean less. Like, unless you're, you're going to have. I mean, don't get me wrong, having meaningful in person conversations with people is hugely valuable. It really is.

It is.

However, it's hard to justify the cost of going to one of these events for an exhibitor that has to do multiple booths and, you know, things all over the place. Just on the. Well, it's better to talk in person than on Zoom. I mean, it is better, but it's, it's incrementally better. It's not game changing better. Right. And so, and then there's also websites where you can go and get all the details about products and, and based on the knowledge of some of the PR people I ran into at these events, you can often get better information from the websites than you'll get in person.

So, of course, it's like buying a car.

Yeah, it's like buying a car. Exactly. Yeah. So I was pleasantly surprised to come out of the week feeling like I got value out of it and I could have gotten more value. It's tough at ces. You got to build your schedule and anyway, you know, there's always mistakes you make, but. Yeah, yeah.

And we've done a couple of shows about trade show. We've done a couple of episodes about trade shows. One is episode 258 and another one we did on conferences and trade shows, episode 208. And we'll link those in the show notes and I'd recommend you listen, go back and listen to those because we've both done a fair number of trade shows. I've exhibited at a bunch of them. And I do really think there's value there. CES is just a monster. But there's all kinds of other shows that are smaller in nature, less expensive, certainly to exhibit at, but. And less expensive to attend. But I think there's some real value. And I had, you know, these previous episodes we've done, we laid out some real tips to make it more productive for yourself and your employees. If you send your employees, you know, we always used to send our guys and. But you have to give, you have to have a plan for yourself. And if you're sending your employees, you have to have a plan for them to make it productive, whether they're working a booth, meetings, walking the floor. If you're not exhibiting, I think, you know, walking the floor is not the most productive.

Oh, no. Setting up, especially at ces, you know, I, I allow myself to wander in exactly one place. And it's the basement or the ground floor, I suppose, of the Venetian Slash Sands Convention Center. They call it Eureka park. And it is where all of the early stage startups go. So you don't get the PR people down there. You get, you know, small little booths all about the same size. You know, everybody's sort of treated equal. It's like Pepcom, but it's early stage startups and generally speaking, you are talking to the CEO, founder, you know, head janitor, like the one productive. Yeah. Oh, it's productive. Yeah. The only problem down there is that probably 80% of those companies will have, are already now defunct. Right. Like they, they spent their budget on CES with the hopes finding how to fund the next stage of their company. And if they didn't find that, it's over. So there's a massive reality distortion field going on down there because every founder is convinced that their idea is going to change their lives and those of everyone else. And, and it's super exciting. But you have to know like, well, but it might not, you know, I don't tell them that.

The other, well, the other section I like is they usually had like a, these smaller halls or pavilions with specific. They. Sometimes they break it down by country. They have a Taiwan, they have a China and they're a similar thing, all small booths. You, sometimes you're really, you know, it's better to have an interpreter with you to go talk to some of these people.

Yes.

But you can make some great connections if you need to source, you know, things if you're in that industry. And it's just those, those are really productive. The big booths, when you go to these big shows. That's cool. I saw your video about the LG booth, which is great. You can see those crazy LCD screens or oled, whatever they are. I, that's great to kind of go check out just for the fun of it. But I think they're worthwhile. I think especially we, we did a bunch of regional ones. We did some ones when we were heavily pushing into the educational area area that teachers events and we would do booths so we could speak to teachers and technology coordinators at school districts. That was huge for us. And it was, you know, maybe there was a couple thousand people there, right?

Yeah, yeah.

But you got to talk to everybody. If you stood at your booth and, you know, had a way to draw people in, which often means standing out in front in the aisle to stop everybody, you really could make some great connections. And I would argue that often you make one good connection, find one really good customer and that the whole event can be worthwhile.

Oh, that makes sense. Oh yeah, yeah. No, I, yeah, it, it, it's easy to make it worthwhile. Your point about going in with a plan at a smaller show, you might be able to still make it valuable if you, if you don't go in with a plan, I don't recommend it. But you, you might get away with that at a show like CES where you literally have to plan logistically because you're not going to be able to go from any one vendors booth to yet any other vendors booth. Like you need to organize it not just by conference center but the hall or even the, the section of the hall and the conference center. You've really. And this year I did a pretty good job with that planning ahead and compartmentalizing things. And then, you know, as I was on the plane, I built my, my path to sort of walk through. And with surgical strikes, I was able to actually make the show floor valuable for me, which it usually is not but, but I was able to. You know, some of the booths, it was like, oh, yep, they don't want to talk to press. Okay, I'm out of here. And I would just cut bait and move on to the next one. But I had the next one. So.

Yeah, yeah, no, that's great. And it is all about planning and it's also reaching out to your partners, whether or your clients because sometimes they're going to be exhibiting at the show and you know, we're going to. Our next episode we're going to do on focusing on social capital and what it is and how to build it up over time. But this is a great opportunity to reach out to those people maybe you've worked with or done something for in the past and see what especially larger companies. Hey, are you guys put holding any events? Can we meet up after the show or do you have a suite somewhere your company that you know we can go to and learn more about whatever get some one on one time. Definitely want to reach out to those suppliers and even clients that you've helped out and connect with them. It's really, I think it's worth.

No, that that's really the key is it's easy. Especially you know, I come from, from the tech industry and as I know you do. And so it's it. We are, we as an industry are filled with people who are shy. Right, right. And I certainly count myself among them. I've learned how not to Be shy. But my default is I will just, you know, I'm happy holing up by myself. And that's all good, but that's not the way to make a show like this or a trip like this valuable. But. And so to your point, it takes, for me, very intentional effort. Again, I've done it long enough that I'm comfortable with it now, but it I have to, you know, put it on my calendar three weeks.

Your calendar show be full.

Right. Three weeks before the show or don't go. I start. And with ces, I really start about five weeks before the show because you've got the winter holidays in the middle there. So as soon as Thanksgiving has ended, and maybe sometimes even just a little before Thanksgiving, I'll start reaching out. Hey, are you doing a pavilion this year? I'd love to set up a time. Are you doing a party this year? I'd love to set up a time. And really by December 15th for a show that I left for on January 2nd. By December 15th, my calendar's full and it's double booked. The way I go into CES is I plan to have to make Sophie's Choice at every moment of every day. Which event am I going to skip or which thing am I going to skip in this very moment? And that way, if something happens and an event's canceled or whatever, I've got other options. Sort of bailed out and it makes it so that my minutes on the ground are valuable. So, yeah, yeah, that's great.

And, you know, lastly, but certainly not least that these shows can be fun and they can get you thinking about things with a different framework and looking at different industries. You know, Dave and I have always been in this tech space like he says, but going to shows and looking at how things are done and then trying to adapt them to your particular business model can be very helpful as well. So encourage it. Check out those other two episodes, 258 and 208 and at BusinessBrain Show.

Yeah, and make sure send in your emails to feedbackusinessbrain show things about your business that you want to share. Questions you you have cool things, you found it doesn't matter what it is, send it in to us. If we feature your email during an episode, guess what? You're entered to win a MacBook Air here in 2023. So, you know, we've.

Awesome.

Yeah, that's it. That's it. Thanks for listening, folks. Keep living that charmed life. We'll see you next time.