The absolute best way to get the most out of your Demo experience is to take the time to review the people your company met with at Demo and systematically begin follow-up conversations.
Here are some tips that can help you get the biggest bang for your Demofall07 experience.
1. Organize the business cards and contact information you gathered at Demo.
a. Try not to limit your contact lists to the press, bloggers, or venture capitalists.
- Wherever possible make sure the member of your company that met with someone initiates follow-up contact.
2. Designate one person to monitor and track conversations with people you met at Demo.
- Make sure you monitor blogs for mentions of your company or its technologies.
b. Get the people who attended Demo from your company to meet as a to discuss their follow-up conversations.
- Make a special effort to contact members of the press and bloggers you met with at Demo to see if you can provide additional information on your company or its technologies.
- Most reporters, editors and bloggers who attend Demo write “trend” stories that may include your and other company’s products that serve a common market or need.
- Trend stories often appear weeks and months after the end of Demo. Be prepared to provide writers with detailed information about your technologies or news about your company.
- Make sure you can position your technology or product as part of a larger trend story.
- Trend stories let reporters dig beneath the surface of a technology so it’s important that you be able to differentiate your product from others in the same category.
- Make sure you can position your technology or product as part of a larger trend story.
b. Bloggers are more apt to focus on single companies or technologies, than reporters from print outlets.
c. Now that you’re back in your office, don’t be shy about contacting local print and electronic media outlets. Provide editors and reporters with a specific link to your demonstration on Demo’s Internet site.
d. Do contact the news departments, including AM television shows to tell your story.
- Stay in touch with the producers of Demo. Let them know of funding events, product updates or licensing agreements. This information is published regularly in the weekly edition of DemoLetter.
Now that you’re home from Demo, take a couple of deep breaths and get back to work on your products and technologies.
*Becky Sniffen of MCPR2 contributed to this post.
(Mandatory disclosure: I was a Demo producer and editor of DemoLetter and DemoMobile Letter before I retired several years ago. I am not affiliated with Demo. See you at Demo 2008.—Jim Forbes on 10/05/007.
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