Teamlab at Cebit 2012: Better to see once than hear a hundred times
No matter what anyone says, the expediency of participating in offline events is a controversial matter. Both in terms of organization, and in terms of evaluating results. One and a half years after the launch of the Teamlab project , we decided to test it ourselves by taking part in the largest annual IT exhibition - CeBIT . About how everything went for our team, what it cost us and what benefits it brought, we will tell in this post.
All the details, as usual, under the cut.
')
* Some of you may already be aware that quite recently Teamlab launched the beta version of the first HTML5 document editor, which will soon be integrated into the platform. Without undue modesty for the first time, we decided to announce our development not just anywhere, but at CeBIT 2012.
The exhibition is annually held for 5 days in the city of Hannover, Germany. This time CeBIT went from 6 to 10 March and gathered under the roofs of 26 exhibition halls more than 4.2 thousand companies from 70 countries of the world.
The scale of the event was so huge that it was quite difficult to fit even one building into the camera lens. In each hall solutions of a certain subject were combined:
Halle 2 (business solutions) and Open Source Park in particular are presented to your gaze. It was here that TeamLab was introduced as a project collaboration platform and an open source CRM system.
But let's go down to our booth!
The exhibition organizers graciously gave us the opportunity to creatively approach the stand design, and we decided that the style of the Teamlab home page is the best option, both in terms of design and informativeness.
By tradition, we could not do without standard BTL tools. 500 press packages and 8000 flyers with a specially created promotional code were prepared, by entering which the user received 2 GB of working space per portal as a gift.
Note that with an abundance of printed materials at all stands without exception, the interest of visitors to them is noticeably reduced. Today you will not surprise anyone with a simple flyer with a QR code, and the organizers had to maximize their imagination to attract attention. A half-sized picture made up entirely of QR codes with encrypted answers is just one such example. By deciphering the correct answer, you could win an iPad 2.
So that Teamlab could not only be seen, but also touched, we thoroughly approached the selection of equipment.
On one side of the stand, we placed the plasma on which the Teamlab commercial was played.
On the other hand, there was a 32-inch touchscreen on which product presentations were held. Visitors could not only evaluate the system “from the inside”, walking along the demo portal specially created for the exhibition, but also create their own, without leaving the monitor!
To the note : in spite of the widespread use of screens with commercials, even if very creative, people are much more willing to pay attention to those devices with which you can work independently.
The scale of the exhibition gave the organizers a reason to conduct guided tours along a pre-planned route. The number of free participants was limited and the selection was carried out on a competitive basis. Since we were able to enter the list of “stations” Guided Tours, which, among others, included Microsoft, SAP and Siemens Enterprise Solutions, we received guests daily.
The most pleasant surprise for us was an endless stream of visitors and their mood. According to official data, CeBit's passability was about 340 thousand people and sometimes it happened that there were simply not enough people and monitors on the stand, despite the fact that we had 4 English-speaking and 1 German-speaking employee and the same number of laptops in our arsenal.
Among the guests of the stand, we were very glad to see not only people who were looking for a suitable platform for doing business, but also our active users. On the fourth day of the exhibition, we were also lucky to talk with one of the developers of the ODT format - Tobias Hintze, whose conversation was based on the possibilities of the Teamlab editor, as well as the prospects for the development of technology.
To the note : despite the “internationalism” of the exhibition and the presence of guests from around the world (including from Russia and the CIS, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, the USA, Australia and many other countries), the venue still plays a decisive role in the linguistic aspect of. About 50% of visitors spoke exclusively German, and it is easy to calculate what losses you might incur in potential partners and users without having a professional Deutsch Sprecher.
One of the key moments of our participation was the press conference, which took place on March 7. As already mentioned, it was devoted to the release of a new online document editor, written in HTML5 - TeamLab Document Editor . The innovative technology in question is the use of Canvas, an important component of HTML5, which allows you to achieve 100% document identity, regardless of the browser used, the device, OC, and the format into which the document is converted.
* All the details about the technology that we used to create the editor, the difficulties that we encountered, "erasing the line between the desktop and online", as well as how we plan to use our development, read our next post.
To the note : despite the fact that the conferences were held during all 5 days of the exhibition, the special activity of journalists is noted only in the first 2-3 days.
In addition, you should pay close attention to the "neighborhood". So, let's say, we were “lucky enough” to hold a presentation at the same time as Microsoft, IBM and Huawei, who treated champions and champagne to journalists and bloggers, as well as Chinese dishes.
During the exhibition, we were once again convinced that the good old methods of attracting visitors, based on natural instincts, always work without fail.
Below we give a couple of examples of what the participants of CeBit 2012 still attracted the attention of guests.
Here, for example, robots from Giles Walker, assembled from scrap metal with a searchlight instead of a head, dancing at the pole to the beat of the music “produced” by the DJ-robot.
However, practice shows that still living people are able to collect much more flash flashes than dancing robots. A prominent example was the German model, Michaela Schafer, who posed for the Novastor.de booth.
Summarizing, we can safely say that all our goals and objectives were successfully achieved:
1) First of all, we managed to declare ourselves as the creators of the first full-fledged online document editor, written in HTML5 and get media attention
2) We were also able to successfully join the ranks of European system suppliers to collaborate on projects and take a worthy place among them.
And most importantly: participation in such a large-scale event is a truly invaluable experience not only in organizing teamwork, but also in live communication with users.
In secret, this was our very first “exit to the people” and from now on, of course, we will try to do it more often.
RIW-2012 is around the corner;)
All the details, as usual, under the cut.
')
Our goals
- The priority goal of participation in CeBIT, of course, was the active promotion of Teamlab as an opensource system for business in the markets of Europe and, in particular, in Germany.
- The opportunity not only to get feedback in the course of live communication with potential users and partners, but also to measure strength with competitors.
- Establishing new business contacts
- And finally, the beta announcement of the first HTML5 document editor *.
* Some of you may already be aware that quite recently Teamlab launched the beta version of the first HTML5 document editor, which will soon be integrated into the platform. Without undue modesty for the first time, we decided to announce our development not just anywhere, but at CeBIT 2012.
Likbez
The exhibition is annually held for 5 days in the city of Hannover, Germany. This time CeBIT went from 6 to 10 March and gathered under the roofs of 26 exhibition halls more than 4.2 thousand companies from 70 countries of the world.
The scale of the event was so huge that it was quite difficult to fit even one building into the camera lens. In each hall solutions of a certain subject were combined:
- ICT Solutions for the Digital Lifestyle,
- Professional Solutions for Business Operations,
- Research and New Technologies for Innovative ICT,
- ICT Solutions for the Public Sector
Halle 2 (business solutions) and Open Source Park in particular are presented to your gaze. It was here that TeamLab was introduced as a project collaboration platform and an open source CRM system.
But let's go down to our booth!
Stand Teamlab
The exhibition organizers graciously gave us the opportunity to creatively approach the stand design, and we decided that the style of the Teamlab home page is the best option, both in terms of design and informativeness.
By tradition, we could not do without standard BTL tools. 500 press packages and 8000 flyers with a specially created promotional code were prepared, by entering which the user received 2 GB of working space per portal as a gift.
Note that with an abundance of printed materials at all stands without exception, the interest of visitors to them is noticeably reduced. Today you will not surprise anyone with a simple flyer with a QR code, and the organizers had to maximize their imagination to attract attention. A half-sized picture made up entirely of QR codes with encrypted answers is just one such example. By deciphering the correct answer, you could win an iPad 2.
So that Teamlab could not only be seen, but also touched, we thoroughly approached the selection of equipment.
On one side of the stand, we placed the plasma on which the Teamlab commercial was played.
On the other hand, there was a 32-inch touchscreen on which product presentations were held. Visitors could not only evaluate the system “from the inside”, walking along the demo portal specially created for the exhibition, but also create their own, without leaving the monitor!
To the note : in spite of the widespread use of screens with commercials, even if very creative, people are much more willing to pay attention to those devices with which you can work independently.
Visitors
The scale of the exhibition gave the organizers a reason to conduct guided tours along a pre-planned route. The number of free participants was limited and the selection was carried out on a competitive basis. Since we were able to enter the list of “stations” Guided Tours, which, among others, included Microsoft, SAP and Siemens Enterprise Solutions, we received guests daily.
The most pleasant surprise for us was an endless stream of visitors and their mood. According to official data, CeBit's passability was about 340 thousand people and sometimes it happened that there were simply not enough people and monitors on the stand, despite the fact that we had 4 English-speaking and 1 German-speaking employee and the same number of laptops in our arsenal.
Among the guests of the stand, we were very glad to see not only people who were looking for a suitable platform for doing business, but also our active users. On the fourth day of the exhibition, we were also lucky to talk with one of the developers of the ODT format - Tobias Hintze, whose conversation was based on the possibilities of the Teamlab editor, as well as the prospects for the development of technology.
To the note : despite the “internationalism” of the exhibition and the presence of guests from around the world (including from Russia and the CIS, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, the USA, Australia and many other countries), the venue still plays a decisive role in the linguistic aspect of. About 50% of visitors spoke exclusively German, and it is easy to calculate what losses you might incur in potential partners and users without having a professional Deutsch Sprecher.
Press conference
One of the key moments of our participation was the press conference, which took place on March 7. As already mentioned, it was devoted to the release of a new online document editor, written in HTML5 - TeamLab Document Editor . The innovative technology in question is the use of Canvas, an important component of HTML5, which allows you to achieve 100% document identity, regardless of the browser used, the device, OC, and the format into which the document is converted.
* All the details about the technology that we used to create the editor, the difficulties that we encountered, "erasing the line between the desktop and online", as well as how we plan to use our development, read our next post.
To the note : despite the fact that the conferences were held during all 5 days of the exhibition, the special activity of journalists is noted only in the first 2-3 days.
In addition, you should pay close attention to the "neighborhood". So, let's say, we were “lucky enough” to hold a presentation at the same time as Microsoft, IBM and Huawei, who treated champions and champagne to journalists and bloggers, as well as Chinese dishes.
From the observations of other participants
During the exhibition, we were once again convinced that the good old methods of attracting visitors, based on natural instincts, always work without fail.
Below we give a couple of examples of what the participants of CeBit 2012 still attracted the attention of guests.
Here, for example, robots from Giles Walker, assembled from scrap metal with a searchlight instead of a head, dancing at the pole to the beat of the music “produced” by the DJ-robot.
However, practice shows that still living people are able to collect much more flash flashes than dancing robots. A prominent example was the German model, Michaela Schafer, who posed for the Novastor.de booth.
Our findings
Summarizing, we can safely say that all our goals and objectives were successfully achieved:
1) First of all, we managed to declare ourselves as the creators of the first full-fledged online document editor, written in HTML5 and get media attention
- Attendance of Html5.teamlab.com during the exhibition increased 5 times, even before the end of CeBIT, the news received coverage in the Russian, Ukrainian, as well as Western media.
2) We were also able to successfully join the ranks of European system suppliers to collaborate on projects and take a worthy place among them.
- According to the most conservative estimates, in 5 days more than 1,400 people visited our stand. It is noteworthy that most of the visitors came for a specific purpose - to find a platform for collaboration on projects, a CRM system for installation on their own servers, as well as a system for online editing documents. Thus, the percentage of visitors aimlessly reaching the booth aspired to zero.
- Attendance at www.teamlab.com from Germany increased by 30% within 2 weeks from the beginning of the exhibition
- For the purpose of further cooperation, about 123 contacts were collected.
And most importantly: participation in such a large-scale event is a truly invaluable experience not only in organizing teamwork, but also in live communication with users.
In secret, this was our very first “exit to the people” and from now on, of course, we will try to do it more often.
RIW-2012 is around the corner;)
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/140449/
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