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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."
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.
Anytime you need hot pumping lights and dance music to get 'journalists' interested in tech, you've already proved that CES is a waste.
When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
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.
That's a bit of a jump, there's no reason to suspect that startup companies turning up to CES aren't quite far along in development. Otherwise they'd not exactly have anything to show.
But yeah, it's pretty obvious to anybody that a massive trade show isn't the best way to get exposure. Getting key evangelists on board with your concept will get you far more exposure in the long run and for a lot less money than a booth at a trade show.
Every company I've ever worked at that's done the trade fair thing has done so simply because they're already high up in their game and they have to go to maintain their image, otherwise everyone just assumes they're not doing as well any more if they don't show or have a small booth. But it's not really about publicity - I know when I've been to the show myself, there's basically loads of people wandering aroudn just trying to get as much free stuff as they can. Possibly only 1% of people you turn up to your booth actually wants to know about your product and most of them won't actually generate any business.
Why do people pay for booths at trade shows?
Because sometimes they actually work. They attract customers and investors. They put you in front of people who might not otherwise see you.
They aren't trying to sell to you personally, Mr. alphatel. They are trying to sell to 1% of the people who will walk past their booth. Or maybe they are going after the 0.01% of people walking past their booth who are looking to invest.
Advertising doesn't have to be on target to 100% of the people out there. It just has to get enough of the message to enough of the right people, at the right time. Trade shows put two out of three of those within the grasp of anyone who can afford to present at one.
John
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.
No, if you want to stand out at CES, just use some buzzterms like "3-D printed," "green," "wearable," etc. for your products (whether they apply or not). By the time anyone notices that your tech doesn't actually use any of that stuff, you'll already be the darling of the show.
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
Right, and it's a demonstration of how poisonous innovative culture in the US is. Everything is about being noticed and spectacle, not about useful ideas, even when targeting so-called experts. Marketing permeates American culture and destroys everyone that doesn't buy into the catastrophic tragedy of the commons it creates.
...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.
you're supposed to sell to best buy and other retailers at these shows
not to end customers
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.
They're good for the big guys - Microsoft, Google, Apple, et al. For smaller companies, I don't see the point - people usually aren't there to see them.
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.....
I can say that I've never had a single sale at a tradeshow
Our company has never closed a sale at a show, but we've certainly come back from many shows with leads that translate into business. I staffed a show last year that resulted in one $60K sale alone... Assuming our cost to attend was $20K, that's $40K that wouldn't have been in our pocket otherwise - And that's just one example of many.
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
But it's not really about publicity - I know when I've been to the show myself, there's basically loads of people wandering aroudn just trying to get as much free stuff as they can. Possibly only 1% of people you turn up to your booth actually wants to know about your product and most of them won't actually generate any business.
The reason why? Easy - if I want to know about your product, I'll go Google it, see if your company/product turns up, then maybe call you up if I want/need more information about it.
Trade shows are a vestige of the pre-Internet age. They formed at a time when getting info on new and upcoming tech was actual work, or involved slogging through phonebook-thick magazines containing up to 80% ads, 15% fluff, and 5% actual useful information.
Back in the day, you went to COMDEX, NetWorld, and all those shows because that was the only way you were going to learn jack about the products. You also got something the trade pubs and (at the time) embryonic web could not provide you at the time: a working demo of the damned thing. Even on a non-generic level, you didn't go to Novell's Brainshare to take in the party atmosphere of Salt Lake City in Winter - you went so you could learn something, and to test out the new bits before you committed a purchase order to it.
COMDEX and NetWorld died a long time ago. CES is IMHO an anomaly - a holdover from that era.
Some hybrid trade shows cropped up (see also VMWorld), but the trade-show aspect is secondary to the goal of testing/teaching/advertising by the primary sponsor (VMWorld also had a neat trick of allowing selected customers to speak directly with various developer teams, so that you could suggest features, bitch about stuff that didn't work so hot, and show off tricks and tips you learned independently of them. In return, they got feedback on potential products they were building in pre-Alpha stage.)
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
100% agreed. Excellent points.
I think the anomaly that allows CES to continue is that it is for the journalists, not for us.
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.
The reason why? Easy - if I want to know about your product, I'll go Google it,
And how are you going to Google for "the latest, greatest, newest product that I don't know about yet"? Google is great to get more information about stuff you heard about already. These fairs are meant to find stuff you don't know about yet.
Now how useful is your great idea, if no-one knows about it?
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...
If you are looking at a physical product I find it's MUCH easier to gauge both the product and the company by seeing the object, even if just a prototype, in person. Can it still be junk or vaporware if they have a booth and demo? Of course, even from major companies sometimes. But it's still vastly more information talking to a person, getting a card, and looking at the physical item then some random spec-sheet from a company you've never heard of.
Also sometimes searching through a stack of papers for that random product you remember glancing at 3 years ago rather then trying to search through browser bookmarks works a lot better, for me at least.
What i don't need though is a huge stack of paper spec sheets for every single product and iteration, that I can get online, thank you.
Trade shows need major improvement. People don't take them seriously. They are, mostly, a waste of time and money.
There are an infinite number of useful ideas, almost none of them end up as for-sale products or services. It all comes down to the ability to deliver something people want to trade for, which is far less common than simply having a useful idea.. Think of it like the peacock's tail: a simple demonstration that the bearer is strong enough to be worth considering.
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
That's the thing - when it comes to the motivation for looking, you usually have a problem and are looking for a solution to it (hence Google), or have come up with (or in reality get stuck with) a project, and you're looking for means to help complete it, so you go looking, and...
The 'gee whiz that's new!' stuff usually comes to you courtesy of whatever new sites you frequent, and again, if something blows your dress up, you can search online for more info.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
For physical objects, I agree that hands-on is best.
On the other hand, if you're doing this professionally, it's trivial to have the potential vendor drop off a demo unit that you can test on-site (or if it's a big item, arrange a trip to go see it in action on someone else's site.)
Case in point? A few years back, I wanted something that worked well with VDI on a production floor, but didn't require the expense and upkeep of even a thin-client. We wanted something cheap that you could use and toss into the trash w/o worry when it breaks, because the production floor was sometimes a dirty, merciless place. Literally a couple hours of searching later, I found these little guys, which were cheaper per-unit than the typical thin-client. I called the company, had a quick conference call, and they happily sent out four of them for me to play with, as did a few other potential vendors with their low-end thin clients. The little units worked perfectly for the task during trials, so we wound up buying a few hundred more. They were on-hand to walk me through what was needed to get them hooked up, integrated and running.
The point is this: I didn't need to spend a week on-the-road while trying to keep up with workload and family demands, nor did I have to try and have a serious conversation about some product in a noisy hall full of literal bells and whistles going off.
Don't get me wrong - once in awhile a junket is a beautiful thing. If I prepared for it in advance, the workload was (usually) light while I was out, and I took the missus along so that she could have some fun while I'm sniffing around the booths and learning about new stuff.
I will admit one thing that the shows had, which I do not find a parallel for nowadays: The chance to talk to peers outside of the local network/bubble.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
...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]