Now that you know that the Mirror Communications PR and Marketing Agency is up and running, I’d like to share another piece of news today. I’ve also launched the Articles and eBooks section with a first piece on events and the myth of the almighty booth.

This section will cover PR and Marketing topics, but not in the usual format of this blog. There will be longer articles and ebooks that will each debate a topic and present it more thoroughly. This first article is intended to show how getting a booth at a trade show is not always the best alternative, especially for the business to business segment and for products with a medium to long purchase cycle.

Hope you like this new section and that you find it usefull in planning yoru PR strategy and in getting more business.

Being at the airport at 5 am is not an easy thing to accomplish! Especially if you didn’t finish packing or got enough sleep the night before. But we got there in time, went through the check in, the security check and had another hour to kill before boarding.

The flight to Munich was easy, the next 10 hour flight no Chicago was a different story. I was planning to sleep a lot, so was Silviana, but none of us actually did. What happened? Well we got to our hotel in Rosemont at about 1.30 pm and ended up sleeping until 7 pm. We woke up to no converters at the hotel and had to go buy one at the nearby mall. And so we said goodbye to our sight-seeing plans.

The next night I could get no sleep of course. Thank God I had 2 series and a half from Angel with me So at 8 am we went to have breakfast and head to the Stephenson Convention Center where ISPCON took place. We were sponsors of the Email Center and also had our exhibiting Kiosk. One of the computers in the center was not working, no browser had been redirected to the AXIGEN homepage and we were told to do it ourselves, if we knew how to Wow! So we paid quite a lot to be a sponsor and an ISPCON IT girl at the same time!

The first day was pretty quiet. So I thought it would be great to go visit the Press Lounge! Maybe some had already arrived! Tough luck, it was empty! And this part of the event didn’t change much over the next two days. But there were plenty of visitors, who turned out to be potential clients, partners or investors. But I was right, exhibiting always stands in your way. Being a sponsor gets you almost the same awareness and you are free to meet everyone you want. Then again, Jupiter Media had a weird deal for ISPCON that did not allow a company to be a sponsor without exhibiting.

On the second day, I had lunch with Barbara Rozgonyi of WiredPRworks. It was really great meeting her and she provided great insight about what we should see in Chicago. If you are wondering, she looks 10 times better than her photo and she has an incredibly warm smile. If you’d like a photo of the two of us and a way better story on our meeting, see Barbara’s entry!

Our time visiting downtown Chicago? About 3 hours. But we tried to make the best out of it. Yes, we were real tourists, went to the Navy Pier, got on the huge wheel near the carousel to take better pictures, bought the photo they took of us while going on it and so on.

We then got hungry, of course. And chose a Mexican restaurant where I had Loco Wings. And that they were, spicy enough to make you go loco, but so tasty I could not believe it! To have a complete experience, we drank Bud

And for the grand finale, we walked among the skyscrapers in the twilight, seeing all of them light up and making it all bright.

The ISPCON event was ruled by men. Only a few women, we were a bit overdressed, the evening events didn’t really appeal to us. If I ever want to gamble, I’ll gamble in Las Vegas, not in some Convention Hall in Chicago. The event is not that big as one would expect considering how well promoted it is. From what I heard, HostingCon is a better alternative for some. I think it still was a great start to find out more on the US market, to find out what people want to know and where they’d like to go.

So on the third day of our story we said goodbye to our Launchpad colleagues packed our banners and went to the airport. Next stop, NYC!

Does your 2008 plan include events to attend? And I mean those industry events everyone attends and for which you need to pack your bags and travel, not virtual trade shows or seminars. Well, my company’s includes quite a few, about 7 this year or maybe more. While planning these events, I have spoken to organizer, our own team, others who have attended such events and have come to quite a few conclusions that I thought I could share.

First of all, let’s start with the type of event you’ll be dealing with. There are two major ones: those dedicated to exhibiting and those dedicated to networking. While the approach is different, most have speaking opportunities and sponsorship packages. You can run into a never-ending list of patter combinations, mixing conferences, exhibition halls, workshops and one on one meetings. Add some spicy parties and you have it all.

Always keep in mind why you are attending

You can find press representatives, potential partners, potential customers and the competition at such events. If you’re there to “gather intel”, than you should be everywhere, listen to everything and see all new cool toys being displayed. If you’re there to network, then don’t put to much effort into your exhibition booth, you won’t be there much anyway. You’ll be busy holding presentations, meeting people and talking to them. If you’re there to catch the eye of the end-user, have a cool booth, contests, and focus on driving them to your booth rather than attending conferences or seeing other companies.

If you’re there for the awareness; want to be a sponsor, speak and promote your product, keep one thing in mind though: some events require you to be an exhibitor before even thinking to sponsor anything. It sucks, but there’s always the option of getting the minimum accepted exhibition space. Don’t waste your time on the booth if your sponsorship requires you to create buzz around a different section of the exhibiting hall.

Don’t Expect the Organizers to Promote Their Event to You

For some reason, probably the fact that everybody chooses the famous event and they all want to be there, there are organizers that aren’t doing much to get your money. If you’re not coming, someone else is. They send out short replies that don’t always contain all the information you had hoped for. Don’t take it the wrong way, the information is there, if you search their site long enough, to see who’s attending, how many of those attending in the past are coming again. You can also use a search engine or go through press archives to see how they covered the event in question.

Ask Millions of Questions

This conclusion is the logical result of the one above. If you don’t ask, they don’t always tell. So make sure you ask all the questions you can think of, as the vast majority of answers will translate in advantages and benefits, if you put them to good use. Ask about the magazines and news papers they are thinking to invite, or for a list of participants, sometimes it might be available a few days before the event. This will help you let the journalists in question know you’re coming and have something interesting to say and to plan all the meetings you’d like to book.

If you’d like to do something, but it’s not on their list, ask anyhow. If they’re smart and you have a great idea, they might help you put it into practice. Besides, if there’s no rule against something, that means it might be possible to do it. You can later negotiate conditions

I am sure many of you have encountered similar issues in your activity. What would you add to my list? What conclusions have you reached that might help others better plan and benefit from their attendance?