I like CES, it is a place for geeks of all kinds to gather, awe, buy, sell, be surprised and/or be utterly disappointed. We (GIMP) booth at CES because it helps our business, as many times as I’ve been told that boothing at CES is not only a waste of time but a waste of money, I can’t help but think they are wrong. We get the majority of our business contacts, deals and empty promises from CES. It is one of the longest weeks we have amongst the tradeshow circuit we hit. We arrive on Sunday and leave on Thursday night or Friday morning. When we get home I don’t know how many people want to know how it went and what new deals we came back with. After talking non-stop for a week straight, telling I don’t know how many thousands of people what we did, giving that damn pitch so many times it makes you loath it by the end of the week.

I spoke with many people saying that they are going to opt out of CES for 2009 and focus more on MacWorld as they feel more innovation is coming out of the Apple arena than any other industry. I have to say that I slightly disagree with that, most people love Apple because it’s pretty and sleek. Apple fully accomplishes that with every product/software release, they excitingly astonish everyone every time. There is innovation at CES but other companies do not market effectively or show off how amazing their product really is.

One word of advice to those speaking with exhibitors, don’t argue with them on why they chose the spot they did, or why podcasting is dead or why new media isn’t podcasting or how you can only think of some weird sexual character in a Tarantino flick when you see our company name. We don’t care why you think whether our spot is good or bad, what you think about podcasting vs. new media or how GIMP only reminds you of Pulp Fiction. This isn’t to say we don’t care about what you think but at a show where we are talking continuously for five days please don’t make me talk to you hurting my throat on a useless conversation.

When we booth at any tradeshow we feel it is only necessary to go talk to your neighbors and see how they are doing and if there is anyway we can help them. It always helps your cause when lost people always find your booth from a neighboring exhibitor because they knowledgeable about what you do. We also make sure to return that favor as well. It is important to truly listen and help people. Business will come to you if you are helpful and a resource. We had some tradeshow newbies by us and they were always coming over asking questions. It was of no bother and we were glad to help them out. Many times large shows like that can be confusing because the amount of paperwork you receive every morning, badge issues and worst of all shipping issues. One of the newbies shipped something to arrive on Monday, it did not arrive until 3 hours before closing Thursday. It was a hard lesson to learn, they became bitter and angry and began to resent coming to CES saying they got nothing by exhibiting.

I feel often it is important that you are able to make your connections/deals without the use of literature, presentations, products, etc. It is YOU that sells anyone on what you do, not your tri-fold!

Overall, I feel CES worked very well for us, however, that being said we may choose a different section to be in as the Podcasting TechZone only had 2 other companies representing besides us. 2008 will really be the test to see how well CES 2008 worked for us.

What do you think about tradeshows? What makes them successful for exhibitors? How do you measure success?