Press Events: January 2008 Archives

This started out as a short preface to DERN @ CES 2008 Report #4: (Some of) The Products I Saw At CES 2008, but got long enough that I decided it was best as an entry of its own. (I originally posted "Products I Saw" as Report #3, and this as Report #4, but since blog entries go most-recent-on-top, I decided to re-arrange them to give "Products I Saw" a little better visibility... at least until I post yet something else.)

For the 4,500+ press, analysts and other media who have multiple turfs, or are generalists, trying to see some of everything at the Los Vegas Convention Center and Sands/Venetian exhibition areas and other meeting areas, not to mention get to any of the press conferences, is exhausting, impossible, or both.

And since the primary purpose of the exhibits and booths is for sales prospecting, it's often hard to get the right people or information at the booth -- although there are a lot of scheduled and unscheduled press chats.

The afternoon/evening multi-vendor press/analyst-only events have evolved as an alternative solution -- bring press, vendors (and their PR folks) into one big room starting sometime between five and seven PM (when the show floor has closed, anyway), add food and drink, and let simmer.

The opportunity math is compelling in both directions.

Journalists have access to anywhere from 20 to 150+ vendors -- and (as I've proven), it's possible to touch base and chat briefly with nearly all these in an event's three to four hours, and still have time to eat, and schmooze with our fellow wizards. (And the odds are that at least a third will be way out of each person's turf... although if they've got an interesting tchotchke (giveaway), we often stop by those tables as well.)

At 20 to 30 vendors per hour, only a few of these conversations will be in depth... but a minute or so is enough for a quick "what is it, who's it for, what's new, how much, available when, let's follow up post-show." More to the point, the next table is only a few yards away.

Similarly, exhibitors get the chance to be seen by hundreds of press and analysts -- many of whom would never take -- or have -- the time to find the vendor's booth on the show floor. Many vendors, in fact, are at Lunch@Piero's, Pepcom or ShowStoppers without being exhibitors at the show itself -- leveraging the show's press attendance.

(I'll write up a longer, more general "do the math" discussion at a later date.)

Note, this "be near the show but not an exhibitor" approach isn't parasitic, in my and other peoples' opinion. Many press folks -- including myself -- wouldn't go to CES, or some other events if there weren't a Pepcom or ShowStoppers event, because without them, we can't count on seeing enough good stuff easily or at all. In fact, Pepcom does some "freestanding" events (ShowStoppers hasn't -- yet), when there wasn't a trade show to also go to... and I've sent myself to some of their New York City ones.

A Few Words About The Events Themselves

The multi-vendor press/analyst events for CES 2008 (that I was aware of, and attended), were, in chronological order:

• CES Unveiled", "The Official Press Event of the International CES," Saturday, January 5, 4PM-7PM. 70+ vendors, with an estimated ~1,000 attendees.

  "CES Unveiled" is CES's kick-off event for the press -- a large roomful of vendor tables plus a steady stream of food.

  When I went to CES last year, I didn't get into town in time to go to this event. Friends who did re-assured me that pretty much every all the vendors there were also at Pepcom, ShowStoppers, or both.

  This year, I scheduled my flight so I could hit Unveiled as well -- since CES is my main marketing & research trip for the year, I figured I should try to get to as many press events as possible. This year it was in the Sands Expo, down the hallway from the Sands press registration and press room -- easy enough to get to.

  Memo to self for next year: get in line earlier, like at least an hour earlier. "CES Unveiled," unlike Lunch@Piero's, Pepcom and ShowStoppers, is open to anybody with a CES Press or Bloggers badge. Even though it was Saturday, the room was packed. Not as tightly as a Tokyo subway car at rush hour (and I was in Tokyo, for the first time, this summer, so I know what I'm talking about :-).

• Marty Winston's Cherry PicksSunday, January 6, 9 AM to Noon. Maximum of 100 vendors. (See CES Report #2 for notes and coverage of this.)

• Pepcom "Digital Experience, Sunday, January 6, 7PM-10PM. ~160 vendors, and an estimated 1,500 attendees. (Pepcom reports 900 for their 2007 CES event.)

  Pepcom's events are usually scheduled for the night before the show floor opens, with ShowStoppers getting the subsequent night. (There used to be more such events, J.P. Davis, and somewhat further back in trade show history, Silicon Valley Northwest, if memory serves. This often meant two such events in one evening, tricky at best to get cross-town in a timely fashion. Fortunately for us press folks, J.P. Davis got bought up, leaving us with a manageable one event per night.)

  Pepcom typically seems to have slightly more exhibitors than ShowStoppers -- but, with only three hours instead of four -- that isn't necessarily a good thing, it means less time to make the rounds and chat briefly with as many as possible. They also had less open floor space, so things were more crowded.

• Lunch @ Piero's, Monday, January 7 and Tuesday, January 8, 11:30AM-1PM. Appx. 20-24 exhibitors, and probably 400-500 attendees.

  Journalists need to eat lunch, and while the CES press room has free lunch (along with breakfast and mid-day snacks), the food's not that great, the line can be long, and if you don't get there in time, it can be all gone.

  Many vendors schedule press conferences around noon and include lunch -- but unless it's an announcement you care about (or are assigned to cover), this can be a bad use of time (and no guarantee the food will be something you like).

  Piero's Restaurant is a short block and a half from the Las Vegas Convention Center. For 23 years, ace PR woman Pat Meier has been renting Piero's out for PR lunches during CES, Comdex (and possibly other Vegas events, for invited members of the press. In roughly one half of the restaurant, vendors stand by tables; in the other, there's good food, tables, and chairs.

  The chat space can be crowded, but Lunch@Piero's provides a good break from the show floor and a convenient way to see and talk with the exhibitors -- many of whom aren't at the rest of the show. (And it's a chance to sit down and talk with colleagues.)

• ShowStoppers@CES 2008, Monday, January 7, 6PM-10PM. Appx. 130 exhibitors, and an estimated 1,500+ attendees.

  ShowStoppers and Pepcom are the two big evening events, these days. I've been going to ShowStoppers events since they began 15 years ago -- back in the days of Comdex, PC Expo and other shows, and when Interop (a.k.a. N+I) was a big show, three or four ShowStoppers events a year. (They're currently doing at least seven ShowStoppers in 2008, but I only expect to get to one other besides the CES one, at most.)

  Slightly fewer vendors isn't necessarily a bad thing -- combined with four hours to Pepcom's three, this meant we had more time to chat meaningfully with more of the exhibitors. Plus, this year's ShowStoppers had more open space than Pepcom -- i.e., less crowding, easier mingling -- and they also had tables and chairs, in addition to the standing-height tables, so we could actually sit, rather than be on our feet all evening after being on our feet most of the day.

There's some exhibitor overlap among these events -- I'm guestimating about a quarter, possibly more, of the vendors were at more than one event. But schedule permitting, it still makes sense, IMHO, to hit Unveiled, if possible, in my opinion; it extends the see-and-schmooze opportunity, and will free up some time at Pepcom and ShowStoppers to see the vendors who are at those events only...or to go back to a vendor with follow-up questions.

Rough totals for these events: 400 exhibitor tables -- factoring in repeats, say, 300 unique exhibitors; 16 hours (staying there the whole time, and going to both days of Piero's, ignoring that some events ran up to half an hour beyond official closing).