chrisbrogan.com - Latest Comments in The New Gig

Re: The New Gig

John Schuler — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 23:31:08 -0000

Chris,
Congratulations on your move. Seeing that you are a partner, wanted to send you a comment that might help in your new venture.

I recently attended the ITEC show in Portland, Oregon, then got a Looooong questionaire asking what I thought.

I would like to commend all of you on what I think was a fine job of organizing and marketing the recent ITEC show in Portland, Oregon.

As a business consultant who helps CEOs of small and medium companies to improve their sales and marketing, I am probably not wholly qualified to give you feedback in the specific format you requested in your email; in addition, I find so many questions to be a bit of a draconian challenge. ;-)

Here is a suggestion for which I usually charge a 3-hour minimum of $360 to present to client: ;-)

When you ask for feedback, consider a limit to your questions of 3 groups of 3 i.e. 9 questions total. With a space for comments.
This will dramatically improve your response. e.g.
What 3 things did you like best?
What 3 things did you think were a waste of time?
What 3 things would you do if it were your show?

That said, I would now like to encourage you by offering a few thoughts - also pro bono - that might help at the 10,000' level.

I feel you did a fine job of marketing by email. At least to previous attendees - of which I was one. Your monthly, then weekly, then daily reminders were VERY well done.

The IT world, as you might know better than I, is a difficult market in itself. Portland, Oregon is a unique (strange?) market which is itself a bit of a challenge. There are only 3M people in the entire State with some 1.5M within an hour's drive of Portland. But very few of those people could be classified as "high tech".

Prior to becoming a management consultant years ago, my forte was helping companies and selling and training teams to sell $M+ Electronic Test systems to manufacturing VPs and CEOs. If we had had to sell those same systems to IT managers, we would have starved to death. ;-)

I believe that one reason that selling to - or providing shows to - IT people is so tedious is that while the hardware and software involved in Information Technology is truly complex, very few people at high levels really understand or care. And conversely, the people doing the detail work seldom really understand the dyamics driving the future.

This means you wind up with - at least in Portland, OR - too many state workers and company IT technician types who are really there to just get some time off from work and perhaps "kick a few tires" - or take a shot at winning a Blackberry.

Most of the booth staffers with whom I spoke were:
* Bored
8 Unchallenged by the audience
* Knowledgeable only at the detail level of their own products;
they were not really up on the macro aspects of IT and its trends.
Many commented that they would not attend again if given a choice - and would tell their managers upon returning home.

Now, having probably thoroughly depressed you with my comments, let me offer some thoughts that might help.

1. Line up some truly high-level "events" like a 20-minute talk on "Cloud Computing" by IBM or Google. e.g. See: Google and the Wisdom of Clouds:
http://www.businessweek.com...

This would hopefully draw more VPs and CEOs.
You might perhaps "close" the booths for an extended lunch hour to draw in customer-managers who are busy in the mornings and under pressure to return to the office later in the day. That way, the vendors could also attend the high-level talks and be educated.

2. Your concept of having the talks right on the floor is a good one. I would suggest better signage and "clocks" to show the name and time of the next session in that area - and have a master board at the entrance with the same info. A number of us were sitting in one area while the talk had already started after moving to another curtained area.

3. Let the CEOs of vendor companies continue to talk about their products and services, but have them first give an intro - perhaps with handouts - that will position their company and their talk so that attendees are able to internalize both the big picture and the minutae of what is being offered.

Remember that the only true money-maker is motivation. And the only true motivation is useful education.

Regards,

John C. Schuler, PhD
Founder & Principal Strategist
OEM Solutions Group - Portland, Oregon, USA
Optimizing the Customer Interface Lifts Margins
Email: johnschuler@comcast.net
Web Site: http://www.johncschuler.com...
Cell: 503-709-5017

Re: The New Gig

Susan Smith — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:59:42 -0000

Er - um - good luck with that. They don't have a great reputaion....I'm a silent reader of your stuff so I hope you can impact them. I've never posted until now.

Check this out:

http://www.whiteroseproduct...

More where that came from...good luck!

Sue

Re: The New Gig

Dan York — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 09:17:23 -0000

Chris,

MANY congrats on landing the new role so quickly! It sounds like a perfect role for you and I wish you all the best with it. It was a month ago today that I started my own "dream job" that likewise came through my blogging about it and reaching out into the community. I'm incredibly pleased with how things are going and absolutely love what I'm doing. I hope that all goes as well for you and I'll look forward to continuing to read your great posts here and catching up with you at various events.

Congrats! You're an awesome guy and they are very lucky to have hired you!

Dan

Re: The New Gig

Betsy Weber — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 22:50:25 -0000

Congrats, Chris! I'm very happy for you!

Do they know how lucky they are to have you at their company?!

Re: The New Gig

Mark Brage — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 20:15:02 -0000

Your small business focus sounds exactly like what I found missing at Blog World Expo. I wish you well and am very glad to have connected with you.

Re: The New Gig

NEENZ: "InfintyPro" — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 23:41:46 -0000

Mr. Brogan:

Congratulations on your new venture.

My continued support and encourage.

ALOHA.
NEENZ.

Re: The New Gig

Steve Woolf — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 20:58:57 -0000

Belated congrats, Chris! Sounds like a good setup for you. One thing I know you'll bring is breaking that bubble that seems to surround us in the online media world. I really like how you always find ways to introduce me to new people and new ideas through your blog, because the echo chamber has become deafening lately. I expect that you will be able to bring all of this to CrossTechMedia, lucky for them!

Re: The New Gig

InhaleExhale — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:03:09 -0000

Par-tay!

Re: The New Gig

SpaceyG — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:52:27 -0000

Chris, as long as you're happy, then the social media world will be happy alongside you! Keep in touch, just like you always do.

Re: The New Gig

Mark — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:32:54 -0000

Way to go, Chris!

Re: The New Gig

charlene — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 10:54:09 -0000

Wow Chris! Congratulations!

Re: The New Gig

Marcel LeBrun — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 10:21:00 -0000

Congrats Chris... a great catch for CrossTechMedia & glad to see you are staying focused on the Social Media space.

Re: The New Gig

Ian — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 09:32:39 -0000

Congrats Chris! I've learned so much about you about the power of the community. Looking forward to whenever you come to New York.

Re: The New Gig

Jennifer Eastman — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 09:20:54 -0000

Congrats on your new moves! Sounds very exciting!

Re: The New Gig

Dale Cruse — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 07:21:44 -0000

Congratulations, Chris! Did you wear the red rubber ball nose during the interview?

Re: The New Gig

compassioninpolitics — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 06:27:31 -0000

Congrats! Glad to hear it! They couldn't have picked a nicer, more qualified guy.

Re: The New Gig

bre — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 05:34:57 -0000

RAWK~!

Re: The New Gig

TedC — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 02:59:45 -0000

Excellent!

Re: The New Gig

christinagreene — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 01:02:07 -0000

Congrats!!!! You know you'll rock them!!! Watch out CrossTech you've got fire under the hood now.

Re: The New Gig

Christopher Robin Baker — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 01:02:01 -0000

I was reading all the comments and just wanted to share my excitement for your new adventure. I went to PodcampAZ and it far exceeded my expectations. I connected with some new and old faces and had a blast! Chris I'll echo an earlier statement - Good things happen to good people :) Keep it up!
CrB

Re: The New Gig

Awais Sultan — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 00:34:20 -0000

Wow, congratulations! Sounds exciting :)

Re: The New Gig

Scott Schablow — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 00:31:53 -0000

Thanks for sharing your thoughts openly. You know you've got many fans and followers (me among them). Well deserved congratulations and well wishes. Was that really your Mom that said: "congratulations son! We are proud of you."? That's really awesome.

Re: The New Gig

Jim Spencer — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 23:52:18 -0000

Thanks for allowing us all to join in celebrating your success. Let your light shine!

Re: The New Gig

Glenda Watson Hyatt — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 23:40:47 -0000

Congratulations Chris, on landing your dream job! Sounds exciting that you'll have the support and space to be creative and to do what you do best! To your success!

Re: The New Gig

whatsnext — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 23:26:00 -0000

Wow! who knew there could even be such a job! and they're lucky to have you to fill it.
Congrats,
BL