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Why CES Is a Bad Scene For Startups
Nerval's Lobster writes "If you're a small-to-midsize tech company, CES isn't exactly the best place to get noticed. Every January, thousands of developers and startup executives flood Vegas with dreams of a big score. But they're not headed to the poker and blackjack tables in pursuit of that filthy lucre—instead, many of them have dropped thousands of dollars on a booth at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), arguably the highest-profile technology conference of the year. (In addition to the tens of thousands of dollars it costs to reserve a space on the convention-hall floor, that money goes to demo units, flying employees to Vegas, and much, much more.) If they haven't managed to secure a spot in one of the Convention Center's massive halls, they've set up a demonstration area in a suite at some hotel on the Strip. And if they're too under-capitalized or unprepared for a hotel, they're lurking in the Convention Center parking lot. Seriously. It's a little insane. But in a certain way, you can't blame the startups: at some point, someone told them that CES is the best way to get their company noticed, even if it means blowing the equivalent of three employees' yearly salaries. On paper, the get-a-booth strategy makes sense—aside from SXSW, CES hosts possibly the greatest concentration of tech journalists in a relatively small space. What many first-timers don't realize (until it's too late) is that startups have a hard time standing out amidst the chaos: there are too many companies at too many booths attempting to sell (at top volume) too many variations of the same core ideas. If that wasn't bad enough, a fair portion of those companies are trying to draw attention with flashing screens, giveaways, music pumping at top volume, and other gimmicks. (Hey, it's Vegas.) So not only does your Nike FuelBand knockoff need to compete against a hundred other 'smart bracelets' on display, but you somehow need to make yourself visible despite the plus-size Elvis impersonator belting out 'Don't Be Cruel' in front of that chip-vendor's booth a few steps away. That's just the sort of quixotic endeavor that would drive even the most stalwart startup founder to drinking before 9 A.M."
They should put their money into their product, which by definition is heavily under development and **needs** money. They should put it into hiring just the right rock star developer. There, nuff said.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
And why should anyone care about "Nerval's Lobster"'s opinion? What makes him an authority on the subject?
They just give the marketing people some justification for not ending their lives.
Back in the day Macworld used to have a small company area ("ghetto") so the public and press could easily find them. Was it in the south convention center?
They should do the same thing for any of the big tech trade shows.
Sometimes startups have to go, because one of their investors forced them to. When they money man insists, you go. The above idea should make it a bit more practical...though a targeted show is probably a much better use of your startup's money.
or one of the other dozen gurus to tweet or post you gizmo to google plus or wherever. or call their "journalist" buddies to have them write an article on their website or blog
But it sure is a great place to get laid. And since men go into business to make money so that they can get laid I think disintermediating the process and jumping right to the 'get laid' part is a better business decision.
So, what you're saying is it's exactly like every single major tradeshow for every single industry in existence. The competition for the eyes and minds of tradeshow attendees is a challenge no matter what the industry and no matter what the venue. Welcome to business. Deal with it.
...how you can make such judgment calls for companies you don't even know the name of, all you know is "startup". I'd like to have that crystal ball of yours. Personally, because I don't have such insights, I'm left to trusting that people closer to the action, actually working for those businesses know what they are doing - at least better than me who doesn't even know which business we are talking about.
It's the same "Makerspace" or "Maker Faire" mentality. Put enough geeks in a room and magical things happen because technology.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
CES has a "New and innovative Technology" section (not the actual name I think), in the Venetian (the main show is in the convention center). It's where a lot of smaller and more interesting companies hang out.
CES has done what they can to separate smaller companies with new stuff from the establishes behemoths of the show that have blocks of display space. The real question is, what value can a company gain even if they are noticeable there? For the money you spend going to CES you could reach so many more people in other ways I think, virtual and physical...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Judging from what Scoble has done for (or to) Glass, why would you pay for that exactly?
Scoble should start a racket where you have to pay him monthly not to publish pictures of him and your product in an illicit shower encounter.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
We live in a world of constant information flow. Betting anything on one big discrete burst of information is an anachronism. Trade shows are just one example. The other one that always leaps to mind is quarterly releases of financial information such as employment or sales for corporations. Sales data are being aggregated every second. You know that there is something to be gained from jumping the gun on quarterly releases, and you know somebody is doing that.
Anyway, trade shows are an anachronism. There's no reason to--what? Vegas? Holy crap. Forget everything I just said. Vegas, Baby!
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
a small startup to hire Darl McBride to stand in front of their booth yelling, "I want my $699 you cheap motherfuckers!" It'd definitely get press notice, and I hear he needs to pad his resume with at least one successful gig lately...
Sig Follows: "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
CES is just the physical manifestation of the market in general, which is tough to crack wherever you go. If you think CES is noisy, try hanging out a shingle on the WWW, or hawking your stuff on ebay. The economy is a big casino with not that many big winners.
Slashdot. Where the editors can't even be bothered to break a long submission into paragraphs. Shit, how do I get a job where I get paid to not do anything???
Sweet, now I can fix all the mistakes I did in high school! Diane! Wait! I really *do* like you I'm just shy!!!
Mostly random stuff.
These are VERY important ideas about trade shows from the end of the comment above:
"... there's basically loads of people wandering around just trying to get as much free stuff as they can. Possibly only 1% of the people who visit a booth actually want to know about the product, and most of them won't actually generate any business." [Edited for clarity.]
We need better trade shows. We need trade shows that don't allow companies to give away free things, and don't allow other distractions. And no "dry hustle" booth babes; they are, basically, prostitutes.
At least from a marketing point of view they are poison. Unless you happen to be the best, cheapest and most innovative around. And nobody is all three.
These shows have two key drawbacks for you as a presenter. One, they are at a certain moment in time. And as Murphy's Law has it, either your Next Big Thing (tm) is not done yet or it was done 8 months ago and nobody gives a shit anymore. And second, you're not alone there, everyone you are competing with is there and your customer can compare trivially easily how you fare against your competitor.
Now why the heck would I want that?
You are paying an insane amount of money to put yourself into the shark pit. Instead, if you're a big company, you can easily launch your own private "we have done it" party and invite a ton of journalists where they may report about you, and only you, where you can bombard them with the awesome new features of your gadget without them being able to see that your competitor has all that and more. And if you're small, well, the last thing you need in the first place is to be put next to a monster gorilla who outshines you in every aspect. It's like trying to get noticed with your hot dog booth next to the worlds biggest food court.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
That's exactly why a startup should be at CES.
And thats exactly why if your business model relies on being a copycat product, you should probably rethink your startup. If CES is truly your wakeup call in this regard, well, at least you found out before shipping a product...
The important thing (for any conference) is to realize why you specifically are there, and what you specifically want to get out of it. If you're going just because it's your industry and you think you should be there, then your priorities are messed up and you're wasting your money.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
yea...this: http://www.shotshow.org/
By "You can't handle REAL feedback" I meant the :"royal you", as in every company ever, not just you personally.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Contrary to popular belief CES is not 100% about consumer electronics. The company I work for is currently at CES and have been for the past 2 years(as long as we existed). And guess what: we have no consumer products at all. Everything is B2B. And based on our experience it's been a good place(although not the best) to find big corporate clients. Unless you're a small company/start up trying to get in to a red ocean, you'll be fine.
"What kind of rule could you possibly make to get rid of these metaphorical prostitutes?"
Just say that every person must be technically knowledgeable about the company's products. Have each company rated by everyone who goes to the show.
The show managers have strong reasons to demand the availability of real help and understanding. Otherwise a show can get a poor reputation.
Relevant link: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/29/body-shape-objectification-technology/3287287/
Being investing in many start-ups for 2 decades or so, and been couple of times played that wide-eye start-up entrepreneur role, I really pity the current crop of entrepreneurs.
There have been too many con-artists in the investment scene.
Yes, many of us are there to invest our real money for those with solid ideas - but there are those who went in, pretending to be interested in investing, but some how, for whatever reason they pulled out at the last moment, carry with them great ideas that they often transformed into a sell-out end product.
I know few of them, and I also met with some of their victims.
I count myself very lucky that when I *was* starting up there wasn't so many con-artists rubbing shoulders with us who were looking for funding.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
CES, CEBIT, NAB, IBC, TED, DAVOS, SXSW, Emerge, E3, any ski resort movie festival....
All overrated nowadays, more press motivated, more advertising vaporware, more ideas with no meat, more opinions, more show and dance to potential investors. There's no learning, discovery or real discussion of where tech [or most other popular topics in economics, business, media and 'coolness'] is taking us. They are all cliques of social groups and expensive. In some ways I think running a kickstarter is a better option. But then again, there's no BS filter in that medium.
All have jumped the shark...
That's why a lot go to Pepcom.
Trade shows need major improvement. People don't take them seriously. They are, mostly, a waste of time and money.
Good idea. MOD parent UP.
When I attend trade shows it is to see the future. Not this year, but next year and beyond. I skipped the flashy booths in the middle of the floor and wandered the periphery, seeking out the guys in the suites or the parking lot. One or two might be meaningless, but when you see three or more little guys with the same thing it's time to take notice.
I remember the year I saw 3 card tables on the edges of COMDEX, all offering ISP services. I had to ask what that was, and their descriptions still didn't help, but I took their literature and realized that ISP's were something to explore.
I had friends that showed me their "free" T-shirts, all they had to do was watch a 30 minute presentation on something they weren't interested in. When I asked how much their entire trip cost and what the cost per hour of actual floor time was, they realized that the T-shirt was anything but free.
Why bother making a quality product when aggressive marketing will bury the bad reviews until you're already rolling in cash?
...you say that like that's a bad thing? This is Vegas!
Just make sure you have some potential customers with you and it's your card behind the bar (or in the stripper's hand, etc)
[FrLz]