Surviving Trade Shows

Ξ March 29th, 2007 | → | ∇ |

I’ve been adding to this for a while, but from a first experience here’s a bit on how to survive a trade show:

Camera: dSLRs are fantastic for taking great photos but HUGE in comparison to a point-and-shoot.

Watch: Needed, unless you particularly enjoy asking for the time, which isn’t all bad if you pick the right people ;). The next best thing is finding your phone in the bottom of your pocket.

Phone: Again, communication and organisation is key.

Rollerbag: Essential. Who cares if you roll over a few toes, as long as it’s beefy enough to withstand being kicked it’s better than breaking your back hauling stuff.

Trade/Press versus End User: End users suck. Get as much done on the days when they aren’t around otherwise they fill the place and make the job 10x harder.

Thankfully for CeBIT 08 the first four days will be trade and press only.

The Press Room versus doing it at home: Do it at home, get as much done in the day as possible because by the time you’ve walked to the press room, found a place to perch yourself and logged on that’s 30 minutes eaten up, so to do the same process in reverse it’s a whole hour out of your day.

Organising pockets! So you know where you put everything and you don’t look like a tit searching for your cards to give to someone.

Take only what you need (inc. clothes): Don’t dress for winter if you don’t need to, but are you going out in the evening? It’s a balance between finding somewhere to put unused things and not going the way of the Mammoth.

Good shoes: Because you’ll be walking miles, but you also need to look presentable.

Good breakfast, snacks, caffeine and sugar: Anything to keep you going from start to finish.

Organisation: Knowing where you’re going and the quickest way to get there, what you’ve got to do, what you need to ask & who you need to talk to.

My next one will be “Surviving IDF” although I think that might be a little easier as Intel has put us up in a 5-star hotel