Why "IT people" exhibitions and conferences
For IT companies, conferences and exhibitions are important and very interesting. These are moments of meeting customers face to face and observing trends, trends and competitors. BeSmart.net Executive Director Alexander Volfovich shares his experience of participating in such events.
During the year of the public history of our project, we participated in four major exhibitions and conferences. We started with our own conference “EdTech Russia 2014: Monetization of online education”, which we organized and conducted ourselves. Then there was the well-known “Russian Internet Forum” (RIF + KIB 2014), then the “Startup of the Year”, where we did not exhibit, but simply participated as guests, and, finally, the exhibition of modern learning technologies E-Learling in Crocus Expo .
')
Waste and disappointment at RIF + CIB
Every participation in a conference must have a goal, and that goal must be fulfilled. In this sense, RIF was a failure for us. At RIFA, we had a goal to spotlight the product and attract new lecturers to our project. But we failed to achieve it and, most likely, simply could not, because the RIF is not a conference in the usual sense of the word, but a party where people go to drink. At the same time, the cost of the stand there amounts to more than 700 thousand rubles for a small stand (this is twice as expensive as at E-Learning in Crocus). We shared it with another company - Web Effect, which deals with SEO-optimization, but it didn’t come at all expensive, but it didn’t work.
Honestly, our main argument in favor of RIF was this: we need to be there, because we are an IT company, and all IT companies go to RIF. But this turned out to be untrue, and we didn’t need to go there. For us, it was discarded money. You should go to the RIF not with an educational service, about which you need to tell a lot, but with a flagship product, which is doomed to success.
Speaker Hunt for E-Learning
E-Learning has been a success for us. There was one clear goal: we wanted to reach people who can post their lectures on Besmart.net. In some cases, it was impossible to do this without an exhibition. Take, for example, promoted "infobusinessmen" - they can call, write, but you will not wait for an answer. And if you find yourself in the same exhibition with them, then you are already in the same submarine, from which you just can’t get out. And once a person has come, he has a dilemma: listen to another speaker or drink coffee in “Stabrax”. As a rule, “Starbucks” is winning and here we were to arrive in time.
On the telephone, explaining something about our product to the “info-businessman” is quite difficult. You can say this: "It's like eBay, but about educational content." But it’s still not very clear what it is. It is generally difficult to explain anything on the phone: the interlocutor can have employees at his side, wife, mother-in-law. And at the conference, the speaker leaves the hall after the speech, and you catch him hot, sit him down on your stand, pour coffee, and begin to listen to you.
At E-Learning, we agreed with two “info-businessmen” who previously sold disks by mail, so that they spread their lectures with us. One is Ilgiz Valinurov, he is a business coach in the selection of personnel. The other is Alexey Galkin, the founder of safe driving courses. Someone will say that such an effect from the exhibition is very small. But for us, this is a case that we can show to other “info-businessmen” and no longer can explain anything to them.
Personal experience at EdTech Russia
When we organized our own conference, EdTech Russia 2014: Monetization of Online Education, there were two goals. First, gather the audience that we need. There were competitors, heads of educational institutions, courses, different characters who think to go online and monetize their knowledge. It was possible to tie a lot of affiliate offers, which we did. For example, at this conference we agreed on a partnership with SeoPult.TV and place lectures on the heroes of the programs of this Internet resource. The second goal was to find people who would post their lectures on our site. This also happened: we painted our studio work for two months in advance - we recorded, assembled and posted lectures.
By organizing our conference, we even got a plus, albeit symbolic by the standards of business. We counted on 150 participants, but 300 people arrived. Moreover, these 150 people, the arrival of whom was a surprise for us, registered the last week before the event, and the most registrations were the last couple of days before it began. So we quickly had to order a double lunch in a catering company and an additional room in the Digital October center, where the conference was held. In the second hall, we planted free participants (one participant from the company could go for free, for the rest, the conference cost 3,000 rubles) and arranged for them to broadcast from the first hall on the big screen.
The influx of visitors happened without any investment in advertising. The information partner of EdTech Russia 2014 was the Rusbase project (its leader, Marusya Podlesnova, was the conference moderator). Rusbase was the only media platform that talked about the conference. We also used announcements in social networks - Facebook and Vkontakte. From there, market participants learned a little about the conference, contacted us and expressed a desire to participate, and in response we asked them to place banners with information about EdTech Russia on their websites. Market participants are watching each other one after another, and this was the right tactic: all prominent educational online services quickly learned about the event, and their top managers (Gavriil Levy from Dnevnik.ru, Elena Masolova from Eduson and others) signed up for us in speakers
Oddly enough, our own experience of organizing the conference was at the same time the very first experience and the most successful. You can regret only one thing - we did not guess to make an exhibition out of the conference and sell the seats on the stands. Next year we want to repeat the experience and have already opened registration at EdTech Russia 2015 .
Conference by the rules
We have compiled a list of several tips for those who are going to participate in conferences or hold them. There are no technical recommendations that can be found in specialized books. All tips are conceptual and based on our own experience.
Remember the goals
The main advice is to attend most of the exhibitions and conferences as a guest, without renting a stand. But if participation in the exhibition will help in achieving a clear goal, then you cannot save on it. The goals may be different, depending on the exhibition: to tell about the product, about its advertising opportunities - we have already written about it above. In any case, remember that you are not hanging out, and achieve goals. Not for nothing all further advice will be about the effectiveness of the work at the exhibition.
Study the conference topic
Speaking at the conference - study the composition of other participants and the audience. It sounds trite, but many do not. We ourselves made such a mistake. A year and a half ago, a forum was held at the Russian Academy of National Economy under the President of the Russian Federation, where teachers gathered, and there was not a single programmer, and we spoke beautifully about it, talking about the technical part of our project. Everyone looked at us with fish eyes, and then the bravest approached and asked: “But what do you do?” They realized that we were “the smartest”, and nothing more.
CEO and speaker are not synonymous
The speaker at the conference should not be the general director or another top manager, but any person from the company who knows how to hold the hall. Unfortunately, these two things very often do not match. The head can be very smart and lead the company in the right direction, but the first person of the company is not necessarily a media person. For some reason, few people think about this, and as a result, 80% of the speakers at conferences are simply impossible to listen to. Choose a good speaker in your company or hire a writer to the general director if he wants to speak, but the speaker is the same as a Chinese pilot.
Write an informative slogan
Participation in the exhibition is an expensive matter, and it is very disappointing when 100 people came to your stand, and only one understood what you want to show, and the rest passed by. Therefore, the stand must be designed not only aesthetically, but also informatively. In our case, it is not enough just to write “BeSmart.net” and put the logo. Somewhere in a prominent place should be briefly described, what the point is - on the back of a stand or on a booklet laid out in a prominent place (for example, the phrase “Earn on your knowledge” is appropriate).
Promotional girls are not needed
At RIFA, one of the participants hired two completely naked girls who went around the exhibition, painted in the colors of the company. At the conference devoted to education, every second stand was decorated with girls, albeit not bare, but in mini-skirts and with legs from the ears. Yes, everyone likes them, and it would be nice to look at them in an intimate setting. But for many, these girls are inaccessible, like the moon, and the reaction that “IT people” can give out in public can be far from ordinary sympathy. Do not recruit promotional girls, if you are engaged in an IT-business, and if you are hired, then lengthen them skirts and certainly do not let them go naked.
On a stand like in the army
I often come across a situation when I ask questions at the stand, and there they say to me: “Now, wait ... an employee will be released who knows ... one minute, he is talking, he will be released, and he will tell you.” This happens often, because everyone stands up on the stand - from the cleaning woman to the youngest managers. At the same time, ignorance about the affairs of the company is not their only puncture. Often you see that the staff on the stands is lying on the poufs "in complete relaxation" instead of standing or sitting on high chairs. Do not put people on the stand from the side, but if you have to - instruct.
Do not skimp on booklets
"Razdatku" should be done on the most dense paper, maybe even glossy. The fact is that there is a certain reverence for expensive printing, it is not immediately thrown away. In addition, a thick paper advertising booklet is simply physically difficult to crumple and throw into the ballot box.
During the year of the public history of our project, we participated in four major exhibitions and conferences. We started with our own conference “EdTech Russia 2014: Monetization of online education”, which we organized and conducted ourselves. Then there was the well-known “Russian Internet Forum” (RIF + KIB 2014), then the “Startup of the Year”, where we did not exhibit, but simply participated as guests, and, finally, the exhibition of modern learning technologies E-Learling in Crocus Expo .
')
Waste and disappointment at RIF + CIB
Every participation in a conference must have a goal, and that goal must be fulfilled. In this sense, RIF was a failure for us. At RIFA, we had a goal to spotlight the product and attract new lecturers to our project. But we failed to achieve it and, most likely, simply could not, because the RIF is not a conference in the usual sense of the word, but a party where people go to drink. At the same time, the cost of the stand there amounts to more than 700 thousand rubles for a small stand (this is twice as expensive as at E-Learning in Crocus). We shared it with another company - Web Effect, which deals with SEO-optimization, but it didn’t come at all expensive, but it didn’t work.
Honestly, our main argument in favor of RIF was this: we need to be there, because we are an IT company, and all IT companies go to RIF. But this turned out to be untrue, and we didn’t need to go there. For us, it was discarded money. You should go to the RIF not with an educational service, about which you need to tell a lot, but with a flagship product, which is doomed to success.
Speaker Hunt for E-Learning
E-Learning has been a success for us. There was one clear goal: we wanted to reach people who can post their lectures on Besmart.net. In some cases, it was impossible to do this without an exhibition. Take, for example, promoted "infobusinessmen" - they can call, write, but you will not wait for an answer. And if you find yourself in the same exhibition with them, then you are already in the same submarine, from which you just can’t get out. And once a person has come, he has a dilemma: listen to another speaker or drink coffee in “Stabrax”. As a rule, “Starbucks” is winning and here we were to arrive in time.
On the telephone, explaining something about our product to the “info-businessman” is quite difficult. You can say this: "It's like eBay, but about educational content." But it’s still not very clear what it is. It is generally difficult to explain anything on the phone: the interlocutor can have employees at his side, wife, mother-in-law. And at the conference, the speaker leaves the hall after the speech, and you catch him hot, sit him down on your stand, pour coffee, and begin to listen to you.
At E-Learning, we agreed with two “info-businessmen” who previously sold disks by mail, so that they spread their lectures with us. One is Ilgiz Valinurov, he is a business coach in the selection of personnel. The other is Alexey Galkin, the founder of safe driving courses. Someone will say that such an effect from the exhibition is very small. But for us, this is a case that we can show to other “info-businessmen” and no longer can explain anything to them.
Personal experience at EdTech Russia
When we organized our own conference, EdTech Russia 2014: Monetization of Online Education, there were two goals. First, gather the audience that we need. There were competitors, heads of educational institutions, courses, different characters who think to go online and monetize their knowledge. It was possible to tie a lot of affiliate offers, which we did. For example, at this conference we agreed on a partnership with SeoPult.TV and place lectures on the heroes of the programs of this Internet resource. The second goal was to find people who would post their lectures on our site. This also happened: we painted our studio work for two months in advance - we recorded, assembled and posted lectures.
By organizing our conference, we even got a plus, albeit symbolic by the standards of business. We counted on 150 participants, but 300 people arrived. Moreover, these 150 people, the arrival of whom was a surprise for us, registered the last week before the event, and the most registrations were the last couple of days before it began. So we quickly had to order a double lunch in a catering company and an additional room in the Digital October center, where the conference was held. In the second hall, we planted free participants (one participant from the company could go for free, for the rest, the conference cost 3,000 rubles) and arranged for them to broadcast from the first hall on the big screen.
The influx of visitors happened without any investment in advertising. The information partner of EdTech Russia 2014 was the Rusbase project (its leader, Marusya Podlesnova, was the conference moderator). Rusbase was the only media platform that talked about the conference. We also used announcements in social networks - Facebook and Vkontakte. From there, market participants learned a little about the conference, contacted us and expressed a desire to participate, and in response we asked them to place banners with information about EdTech Russia on their websites. Market participants are watching each other one after another, and this was the right tactic: all prominent educational online services quickly learned about the event, and their top managers (Gavriil Levy from Dnevnik.ru, Elena Masolova from Eduson and others) signed up for us in speakers
Oddly enough, our own experience of organizing the conference was at the same time the very first experience and the most successful. You can regret only one thing - we did not guess to make an exhibition out of the conference and sell the seats on the stands. Next year we want to repeat the experience and have already opened registration at EdTech Russia 2015 .
Conference by the rules
We have compiled a list of several tips for those who are going to participate in conferences or hold them. There are no technical recommendations that can be found in specialized books. All tips are conceptual and based on our own experience.
Remember the goals
The main advice is to attend most of the exhibitions and conferences as a guest, without renting a stand. But if participation in the exhibition will help in achieving a clear goal, then you cannot save on it. The goals may be different, depending on the exhibition: to tell about the product, about its advertising opportunities - we have already written about it above. In any case, remember that you are not hanging out, and achieve goals. Not for nothing all further advice will be about the effectiveness of the work at the exhibition.
Study the conference topic
Speaking at the conference - study the composition of other participants and the audience. It sounds trite, but many do not. We ourselves made such a mistake. A year and a half ago, a forum was held at the Russian Academy of National Economy under the President of the Russian Federation, where teachers gathered, and there was not a single programmer, and we spoke beautifully about it, talking about the technical part of our project. Everyone looked at us with fish eyes, and then the bravest approached and asked: “But what do you do?” They realized that we were “the smartest”, and nothing more.
CEO and speaker are not synonymous
The speaker at the conference should not be the general director or another top manager, but any person from the company who knows how to hold the hall. Unfortunately, these two things very often do not match. The head can be very smart and lead the company in the right direction, but the first person of the company is not necessarily a media person. For some reason, few people think about this, and as a result, 80% of the speakers at conferences are simply impossible to listen to. Choose a good speaker in your company or hire a writer to the general director if he wants to speak, but the speaker is the same as a Chinese pilot.
Write an informative slogan
Participation in the exhibition is an expensive matter, and it is very disappointing when 100 people came to your stand, and only one understood what you want to show, and the rest passed by. Therefore, the stand must be designed not only aesthetically, but also informatively. In our case, it is not enough just to write “BeSmart.net” and put the logo. Somewhere in a prominent place should be briefly described, what the point is - on the back of a stand or on a booklet laid out in a prominent place (for example, the phrase “Earn on your knowledge” is appropriate).
Promotional girls are not needed
At RIFA, one of the participants hired two completely naked girls who went around the exhibition, painted in the colors of the company. At the conference devoted to education, every second stand was decorated with girls, albeit not bare, but in mini-skirts and with legs from the ears. Yes, everyone likes them, and it would be nice to look at them in an intimate setting. But for many, these girls are inaccessible, like the moon, and the reaction that “IT people” can give out in public can be far from ordinary sympathy. Do not recruit promotional girls, if you are engaged in an IT-business, and if you are hired, then lengthen them skirts and certainly do not let them go naked.
On a stand like in the army
I often come across a situation when I ask questions at the stand, and there they say to me: “Now, wait ... an employee will be released who knows ... one minute, he is talking, he will be released, and he will tell you.” This happens often, because everyone stands up on the stand - from the cleaning woman to the youngest managers. At the same time, ignorance about the affairs of the company is not their only puncture. Often you see that the staff on the stands is lying on the poufs "in complete relaxation" instead of standing or sitting on high chairs. Do not put people on the stand from the side, but if you have to - instruct.
Do not skimp on booklets
"Razdatku" should be done on the most dense paper, maybe even glossy. The fact is that there is a certain reverence for expensive printing, it is not immediately thrown away. In addition, a thick paper advertising booklet is simply physically difficult to crumple and throw into the ballot box.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/246131/
All Articles