Comments on: Taking Control of a Trade Show – Making the Most of It http://www.hotpcb.com/2009/05/trade-show-part-2?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=trade-show-part-2 Cirexx International Sun, 01 Jan 2012 22:10:16 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: Don Lafferty http://www.hotpcb.com/2009/05/trade-show-part-2/comment-page-1#comment-46 Don Lafferty Wed, 13 May 2009 04:17:19 +0000 http://www.hotpcb.com/?p=254#comment-46 Listen, listen, listen and take copious notes in a pocket-sized notepad while attending. Don't even attempt to depend on your memory or think you're actually going to lug a laptop around to capture your notes on the fly. Something that seemed impossible to forget at 9:00 am on day one is often long gone by day two or three of a busy conference. If there's something specific you want to remember about a person for later follow up, note it right on their business card. Use your own system to link the note on the card to your more detailed notes so you can blow them away with timely, detailed follow up at your earliest convenience. David Vye, editor of Microwave Journal, is suggesting Twitter users tag their tweets from the conference with the hashtag #IMS2009. A quick Twitter search on your PDA while at the conference will give you a heads up to any spur of the moment events not on the show schedule. Take as many pictures as you can without being a pain in the neck, and if you're snapping posed shots of people in groups, get their names, including correct spelling. Posting the pics to the show group page in Facebook enables you to tag the people in the shot, creating yet another touch point for building rapport and creates the potential for collaboration. If you have a blog, it's also becoming more common to post event pics on there including meta tags to render the pics searchable, creating a digital footprint, associating you and the other folks with the event. People may grouse about having their photo taken, but they're always happy to see it later when it shows them in the thick of things with other movers and shakers in the business. Listen, listen, listen and take copious notes in a pocket-sized notepad while attending. Don’t even attempt to depend on your memory or think you’re actually going to lug a laptop around to capture your notes on the fly. Something that seemed impossible to forget at 9:00 am on day one is often long gone by day two or three of a busy conference.

If there’s something specific you want to remember about a person for later follow up, note it right on their business card. Use your own system to link the note on the card to your more detailed notes so you can blow them away with timely, detailed follow up at your earliest convenience.

David Vye, editor of Microwave Journal, is suggesting Twitter users tag their tweets from the conference with the hashtag #IMS2009. A quick Twitter search on your PDA while at the conference will give you a heads up to any spur of the moment events not on the show schedule.

Take as many pictures as you can without being a pain in the neck, and if you’re snapping posed shots of people in groups, get their names, including correct spelling. Posting the pics to the show group page in Facebook enables you to tag the people in the shot, creating yet another touch point for building rapport and creates the potential for collaboration.

If you have a blog, it’s also becoming more common to post event pics on there including meta tags to render the pics searchable, creating a digital footprint, associating you and the other folks with the event.

People may grouse about having their photo taken, but they’re always happy to see it later when it shows them in the thick of things with other movers and shakers in the business.

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