On Rad's Radar? - conferences Archives

Networking Tips for the Next Trade Show

2013-01-16T17:24:48Z

With ITEXPO fast approaching (Jan. 28th in Miami Beach), here are some tips for a successful trade show.

Are you working a booth? If so, what's your goal? How will you attain it?

Don't talk to other booth members OR play with your gadgets. Play with the crowd, the attendees!

Have specific questions to clarify how your company can help an attendee. Try to make it something different than "What do you do, dude?"

Make a game of it. How many rejections can you get? How much swag can you get from other booths? How much swag can you trade? How many business cards can you collect? What is the best business card you see?

Booths with swag, babes and contests get more attention. If you don't have that, smiling faces work too!

Most important: Elevator Pitch! USP! Value Proposition! If you don't know yours, stay home.

What are you doing today to ensure that you have meetings in place at the show? Social media and your current network are great ways to let others know you will be there and have time to meet.

Not working a booth? That's okay. What are your goals? Rich Bader of Easystreet used to attend ISPCONs with a list of questions he wanted answers to. Where better than a show like ITEXPO to get answers to cloud, VoIP, MDM, BYOD, WebRTC and more. Get the most out of the show - don't just look for numbers, look for good connections and complimentary knowledge.

When networking remember....it's not about the food or the drinks. In fact, getting tipsy at a trade show can work against you. Eat something before you go so that you aren't focused on the food, but on the people.

It isn't about (just) YOU. How can you help others?

Conversation starters:

What did you see on the show floor that you found interesting? What did you think of Peter's sessions?

Don't forget to enter to win the free Jeep!

Are you attending ITEXPO? Let's meet up! I am moderating 3 sessions; hitting StartupCamp; at CVX; and will be in and out of the Press Room, but I would love to chat with you over coffee. Let me know.

Rule 1: Respect the Audience

2012-11-06T17:48:35Z

I might be hyper-sensitive when it comes to sessions - or I have sat through too many at this point in my life. Or maybe both.

Rule 1 when presenting: Respect the Audience!

Respect their time, their Attention (which is a precious gift) and their Intelligence.

If you have 20 minutes, end it in 15 minutes so you have time for a question. Don't run over! You disrespect the event, other speakers, the audience and my attention when you run over your time limit.

Practice. At least once. That way you know how long it will take.

Short, sweet and to the point. We live in an ADD world.

If it is supposed to be a case study, present a case study, not a pitch or commercial. If you can't breakdown the sale for a case study - Who, What, Where, When, Why - I have to assume that you have no idea how you won the deal or why they bought. That's great.

Less is always more. Less slides. Less words per slide. Less talking.

There is never a time when less is not better. Ever. If you can't say what you have to in less than the allotted time, you suck. And I say that with love, because if you had prepared and practiced, you would know that (A) your message was off; (B) you were running long; (C) you were not clear and concise.

Get on twitter. Now! It teaches you to speak in 140 characters, so that you can learn to be concise.

I'm not picking on you or saying I am perfect. I will say that I am always on time, prepared, and have 1 crystal clear thought: What does my audience want to know?

It all comes back to Rule # 1: Respect the Audience. And frankly most speakers/presenters/panelists don't.

Best Practices for Webinars

2012-10-30T20:09:56Z

Just finished moderating a webinar for Kontiki on Adding Live Video to All-Hands. It seemed like a good time to go over some best practices for webinars for speakers.

Do not use cellphones if possible. The feedback from the phone and the poor call quality diminish the speaker's impact.
Speakerphones are not a good idea due to background noise. I have been on a lot of calls with barking dogs, TV blaring, and other noises.
Remember that it is ultimately about the content and the user experience. Be as engaging as possible. That includes being energetic on the call. Monotone speaking will bore the audience.
Use polls, chat, Q&A to keep the audience listening actively.
Practice so that speakers have an idea how it will run and what they will be speaking to / saying.
Don't use slides with many bullets points!
Don't read the slides to the audience!!!!
Login to the platform early.
Have some notes on what you are going to say.
A hard copy of the slides is a good idea.

On the webinar, we discussed testing the platform beforehand and backing up everything (speaker, voice, Internet, platform) to mitigate any problems.

At the end of the day, for the stakeholders it is about a memorable experience for the user (customer, employee, audience member).

ITEXPO West Wrap-Up

2012-10-08T16:03:35Z

I'm home from ITEXPO West in Austin. It was another great show for me. The folks at TMC did another wonderful job putting it together.

Jaime H. juggled my press room meeting schedule on Tuesday, despite my last minute schedule changes. 8x8, Hostway, snom, Centerbeam and others were all able to sit down with me. (Sometimes that isn't always joyful for the marketing/PR folks.) I'm always happy if I can have one or 2 good conversations out of these meetings - and I did.

The sessions were mainly full. I noticed a couple of things: people were not leaving the session rooms but staying for session after session - and they were not just doing that to use a power plug. Most people were not on their devices during sessions, which is unique.

In my Cloud Services Broker Panel, I asked all the attendees why they were there. All said to Learn.

I think our industry is in a lot of turmoil caused by too much cloud hype and consolidation.

The economy, the change, the cloud, and the consolidation makes everyone stressed and fearful of losing their job, when there isn't likely another available (at least immediately).

The marketing machine has ballooned the hype on cloud to ridiculous proportions. The term doesn't mean much to anyone - customers, prospects, vendors, service providers, employees.

With access revenues flat, apps and cloud services are the only way for many service providers to gain revenue. The CLEC industry HAS to be successful in selling cloud services to survive.

Every show has a lot of cloud - so many titles, headlines, banners, etc. It is worse than VoIP was a few years ago. The noise level is deafening - and boring. The industry has to fix this fast.

Startup Camp Comms was enjoyable. Watching Tampa's own startup, Phonism, pitch was exciting. RingDNA won the popular vote though.

I have to say that the keynotes were very good. I have remarked in the past about the commercialized quality of the keynotes, but this time the keynotes were interesting, tweet-worthy, and informative. Thanks to Shortel's CEO Peter Blackmore, IBM's Mike Riegel, and Siemen's CMO Chris Hummel.

Most significant sound byte: "joy of use" is an expectation not a nice to have @hummel_chris."

It is not about the technology or the marketing buzz. It is about Outcomes and UX (user experience). Without outcomes and UX, cloud is just a clumsy way to push technology on a user. That won't last. they won't use it. Then they will stop paying for it. Then you have a lot of CAPEX tied up in dust.

IBM used a Tire Store as a case study. A tire store. You can't get any less tech than that. If a tire store worries about the UX, then shouldn't tech/telecom companies???

Personal note: I either need new shoes or more exercise because my back and feet hurt from walking around the show floor, the halls, the podium and downtown Austin. The parties were mobbed, but I was in bed before midnight most nights. (It's about Outcomes :).

We go to these conferences to learn, to mingle, to network. (That's one reason I organize a dinner at each event.) This show definitely delivers on those attributes.

What did you think?

Want to learn more? Read my tweets or search #itexpo

So You Want to Speak at ITEXPO

2012-06-21T18:49:40Z

As we get ready for the conference season again, I would like to pass on some wisdom to you from Ice T's 10 rules of public speaking : "Practice. Then, practice some more." Please, just run through what you are going to say at least once before you sit in that panel chair. For IGNITE sessions, speakers typically practice 10 times for just 5 minutes!

And keynotes: Don't kill us with your presentation.

Death by PowerPoint

But also make it interesting - not a freaking commercial! I know you want to pitch your company like the shill executive with stock options you are, but remember that it is the audience's time too.

You are representing your company on that stage. If you are unprepared, tired, bored, distracted, boring, looking at your phone instead of the audience, it leaves an impression on the audience. A Brand is the sum total of experiences with your company, employees, services, etc. It has impact.

Want 20% off your ITEXPO badge? Use the code "BLOG13"

A Day in My Brain

2012-05-18T14:19:54Z

I was in NYC (Tribeca) this week to spend the day at a Q&A session with Seth Godin. He is a marketing guru and author of a lot of best selling business books. Like these:

Here are some of the gems that I liked.

"A "brand" is the promise of an experience." [Boy, could I riff on that one!] Brand IS the experience. Accept that most people won't like you. Build a tribe that will.

Commit to one marketplace or two. You can't chop all the trees down in the forest with one hatchet.

"It's way easier to sell water to thirsty people than to make thirsty people. It's OK to remind people they're thirsty." The corollary to that is People buy to avoid pain more often than they buy to gain pleasure.

You can try to create demand for your service, like trying to make people thirsty. Or you can find thirsty people and sell them water.

"Define failure before you start. When you reach that point, stop, learn and move on to the next thing." [It's a concept from Seth's book, The Dip]

"The secret, I think, is in understanding what matters."

"People spend their time and attention and money in places that make them feel valued." Are you making your customers feel valued?

What is the world view of your target customer? Does your marketing line up with that?

For a brief few, Seth talked about working for a start-up versus working for Google or Apple or Facebook. A start-up is about growth If you want fast-paced; to make an impact; and to learn, join the start-up. Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook are in the "keep it going" mode. You won't have an impact there. You will be a cog in the machine. In our world, working for any of the billion dollar LEC's or MSO's is like working for Facebook, only a lot less cool on your resume.

What is Important to you? Tom Peters says that he can tell what is important to you from calendar. What does your schedule say about what's important to you?

It's all about Direct Marketing and Pay for Performance. (Social media is a tool of direct marketing.)

There is no road map.

It's all about connection and association. Are you connecting people?

We have mass disruption going on today. Every industry including our own is being disrupted by the Internet. Why? The Internet is the first device that is both a Receiver and a transmitter. That's the problem.

Hopefully one of these nuggets gets you thinking.

Some notes made it to this Power Point I created.

What is the Market Expecting?

2012-04-01T17:46:30Z

Tuesday I was in Vegas at the Channel Partners Conference mainly for the TCA events. At the TCA Channel Chief Summit, Tiffani Bova of Gartner and Rauline Ochs of IPED Market Bridge Alliance presented research. The take away for me was in perspective.

No one buys the way most service providers sell. That's why we are always searching for Consultative Sales Professionals. Because the whole industry sells what they want - and it is followed up by a series of me-too.

Just because one CLEC is selling Managed Security does not mean that the marketplace wants it or will buy it or that it will want it delivered that exact way. It also doesn't mean that the next eight CLEC's or service providers need to market that same offering.

The market is consuming technology differently. It enters the business via the consumer. About 70% of devices are owned by the consumer in the business environment. Only about 30% are paid for by the business. That means support for devices either isn't available or is imposed on the IT staff by the employees. That's a confusing (and expensive) way to handle it. Don't you agree?

Most of what Bova and Ochs presented had to do with mobility and Cloud. Mobility is a huge problem for most CLEC's as the model for cellular sales is unprofitable - whether they sign a wholesale, agent or MVNO contract - the margin on cellular is thin to none.

And what is prompting Cloud? Two things: ubiquitous broadband and a mobile workforce.

Ubiquitous is really hyperbole because even with 3G, 4G and wi-fi, you can't get bandwidth everywhere and even when it is available it is shoddy (like at tech conference hotels).

Mobile workforce means a couple of things. One that more businesses have accepted remote workers - whether at home locally, across the country or across the globe. The economic downturn (and all the consolidation) has translated into businesses having less workers but expecting more work. This means working at home, while on the road, etc. Hence, not just email, but the application data has to be available from any authorized, connected device. That is the beauty of Cloud.

Cloud changes the way business is done.

Read that again, because that means it has to be sold that way.

It's easier to sell email, because everyone has email and it is almost a requirement. Selling unified messaging gets more complicated. Unified Communications and Collaboration is just too complex of a sale, of an explanation, of an implementation, of a deployment. That's where the service providers want to go, but they neglect the challenge of the sale. There is a lack of the story, the sales triggers, the value proposition, the WHY, and of course the on-boarding.

One thing Bova pointed out was that VDI (virtual desktop) sales have grown in EMEA (Africa and Mid-East) while have stagnated in North America. One reason: VAR's have too big a quota with HP or Dell to take a 500 desktop refresh to VDI instead of selling 500 desktops. Not just the quota for the discount, but to sustain Gold level service. It's the same with Cisco, Microsoft, etc. VAR's will keep selling what they sell for 2 reasons: First, to maintain the current level of vendor support to continue to service current clients in the manner that is expected (or even contracted). Second, making the changes to shift business to an MSP or all service model is complicated and expensive. Bova suggested firing clients and employees to create the business you will need in 5 years, but that's easy to say from a consulting seat. Not so easy from a business owner perspective.

When EarthLink told its channel partners in Tampa that it only wanted Multi-Site multi-access opportunities, it didn't come right out and say that it would stop selling T1's, but that was the underlying message. (And ELNK did tell me that 1GB and 10GB private line, even ON-net, was not what they wanted to sell.) That's one way to start planning for where you want to be. Say no while being specific about what you are looking to offer.

As a whole I don't think the service providers have any idea what buyers are buying or why. Just because you WANT to sell MPLS with security or Hosted UC&C or whatever, doesn't mean that prospects will actually BUY it (that way).

When does something become a commodity? When the customer buys it directly online.

For non-commodity services, you need a well trained sales force that understands the brand, the value proposition, and the target. As an industry we aren't there yet.

I'm going to leave you with that.

Coming soon two posts: (1) Master Agents are like Pharma Reps. (2) Tech Data versus Master Agents.

Channel Manager Best Practices

2012-02-17T17:10:58Z

On Tuesday, March 27 at 11:30AM PT, the Technology Channel Association (TCA) will hold the first ever Channel Managers Best Practices Forum at the Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.

TCA's mission is channel education. The TCA holds monthly webinars for members and has developed a Certified telecom Professional program. In Vegas, the TCA will be holding our 5th Channel Chief Summit alongside this Channel Managers forum. With this event, channel managers will have the opportunity to network and learn from their peers. Four Rock Star Channel Managers will discuss some of their best practices such as:

Balancing 80/20

Maximizing the MMR of the Agent

What is your #1 job responsibility?

How do you balance agent business interest with corporate interest?

Internal relationships

Setting Agent expectations

Lunch will be provided!*

The 4 Channel Manager Rock Stars chosen by TCA members are:

Charles Lomond of Airespring

Crystal Farley of Megapath

Sherrie Hiller at Telepacific

Chris Schubert of Telnes Broadband

Space is limited. Register today!

(*Most of the ticket cost is the lunch from Caesars.)

Enchanting Keynote at Parallels Summit 2012

2012-02-16T17:05:07Z

Guy Kawasaki was the keynote yesterday morning for the Parallels Summit 2012 in Orlando. (Vodka bar was open at 8:20 AM!)

Guy talked about the key points from his book,Enchantment .

One is You Must be Likable. Richard Branson of Virgin is likable. He has a real smile- a Duchenne smile. A Duchenne smile leads to crow's feet. One factor in being likable is to accept others, no matter the color, politics, religion, looks, tattoos, etc. Have a YES Attitude. How can you help other people?

The second point was to Achieve Trustworthiness. In sales, people have to Like you and Trust you to buy from you.

Amazon, Zappos, and Nordstrom have established Trust, because they give customers trust first (with their return policy).

Guy spoke about Bakers. Be a Baker, not an Eater. Bakers know they can always bake more. Bakers are more trustworthy than eaters.

A way to gain trust: Agree on something. Start with that.

Point 3 was Do Something DICEE - Deep Intelligent Complete Empower Elegant

Enchant people with great stuff.

What goes into the ecosystem: software, docs, support, installation, webinars, follow-up, and more for a complete and total product system. More importantly a great customer experience (UX).

LIKE, TRUST, DICEE and LAUNCH.

Launch your product by Telling a Story. Guy says, "Plant many seeds." In other words, tell lots of people, because you have no idea how it will TIP.

Enchant the Influencers. You just don't always know who they are. kawasaki suggested reading Influence by Robert Cialdini. A point in that book was to Invoke Reciprocation. "I know you would do this for me."

Guy says that SXSW was what made Twitter tip (not the A-Listers who use it today).

When telling your story, stop talking tech - calories, MB's, CPU, etc. It's not about calories, but how many miles I have to run to burn it off. It's not how many GB's, but the number of songs or customer records or whatever that it will hold.

Kawasaki gave the example of My Key by Ford, which allows parents to program the car via the key they give their teenager - how loud the stereo can go and how fast the car can go. Great story. Good UX (user experience or benefits).

Another Point: Overcome Resistance by Re-Positioning the Story or by providing Social Proof. For the iPod, social proof was the white earbuds.

Sell the Dream, not the tech. What will it do? What will it be like to own it and use it? Use the technology to Enchant the audience. Social media is a way to enchant by providing value, information, insight, assistance. Social media also means fast, flat and frequent.

3 Pillars: Trust, Quality and Likability.

In the break-out session with Guy, he was asked about the commodity business (like web hosting, since we were at Parallels show. Parallels is a control panel for web hosting companies.) "If you truly believe it is a Commodity that you sell, You Lose." If YOU don't believe that there is something Unique or Valuable about your product -- or that the client is better off with YOUR service -- get out of the game. You can't win. Bah-bye!

Two images to look at: HERE and THERE. If you need help figuring out how to market in a hyper-competitive space, call my office at (813) 963-5884.

5 Tips for Speakers

2012-02-08T22:54:00Z

I'm not the best speaker. I'm still nervous and anxious before every talk, even when moderating. But I prepare for every talk - whether I am a moderator, panelist, keynote, trainer, or co-host. Here are some things that speakers do wrong:

1. Relying on PowerPoint. When technical difficulties occur as they often do, speakers are not prepared to talk without the slides, the crutch. Be ready to talk without a microphone and without the projector.

2. Don't read me the slides! I have been reading since I was 4. I don't need you to read me the slides. I need you to tell why that slide was included in the first place.

3. Have some emotion. Tired or hungover is no way to present. Energetic or passionate is preferable, but at least speak up and into the microphone.

4. Respect the audience's time. Yes it is your time to speak - and you have something (hopefully prepared) to say - but remember that the audience likely paid money to be there. It has to be valuable; not just your talking points.

5. Tell a story or be Engaging. This speaks for itself. If everyone is heads down on their phones, take the hint. (They aren't all tweeting about how profound you are.)

Is it tweet worthy? Have you said anything worth tweeting? Not the ultimate test, but certainly some gauge of audience reaction is social media.

In the end, would you want to listen to you?

In a previous post I mention that teaching is part entertainment. That may not be what you signed up for (to be an entertainer), and I am not saying be Jack Benny, but your points will come across better if you present them well.

Look for me in Miami Beach Next Week

2012-01-26T17:59:23Z

Next week is ITEXPO East 2012 in Miami Beach at the convention center. I arrive around 11 AM on Tuesday for Editor's Day. There are a number of all-day events going on Tuesday like InsightPRM's Sales Management training and the Avaya seminar.

Not surprisingly, most of the buzz around the show is on Startup Camp Comms, which is Thursday at 4 PM with keynote from Sir terry Matthews, founder of MITEL. Four start-ups will be pitching as well.

I have 5 slots this time.

Wed. night on the show floor at the CVX Expo stage, three agents - Dan Vidal, Josh Anderson and myself (fueled with cocktails) will answer questions from Martin Vilaboy, Editor-in-Chief of Channel Vision magazine about issues facing the Channel. Consolidation, Competition, Commissions, Cloud, UC, and the decline of the PSTN. The fun starts at 6:30. Straight from the Shooters: Candid Conversations on Issues Facing the Channel. Details here.

Wed. at 11 AM, I moderate the panel, Social Media Channel Integration, about contact centers integrating social media into the work station in room B210. The discussion will be about business drivers for social media; 4 steps to utilize social media in the enterprise; and hurdles to incorporating SM in the contact center.

At 2:30 on Wed., in room B116, I will be moderating a panel titled Educating the Channel with Industry Standard Certifications. It's a topic that is close to me because the TCA, which I helped found, is all about educating the Channel and rolled out a certification program last year. This will be a good conversation about how we need to education the sales channels as well as the marketplace in order to sell services like UC, Cloud and managed services.

The fun panel will be on Friday morning at 9 AM: Does Your Business Have a Social Media Strategy? Chief Head of Lettuce Antony Francis is an old pal, who likes to get cranky with me, so this panel will rock. You will leave with more info than you thought possible at 9 AM on a Friday in room B210.

At Noon on Friday catch me at the 4GWE session about Fixed Wireless as a wireline replacement (in room A109). Do you think fixed wireless can replace copper?

Look for my tweets from @radinfo and say HI if you see me.

Are You Going to ITEXPO?

2011-12-28T18:48:18Z

It's just about a month away from ITEXPO East 2012 that starts January 29, 2012. The Lowes Hotel is already sold out in Miami Beach.

I am moderating 4 sessions this time. Here they are:

2/1/2012 @ 11:00-11:45am - TRACK: Customer Engagement -- "Social Media Channel Integration"

2/1/2012 @ 2:30-3:15pm - TRACK: Next Gen Service Provider -- "Educating the Channel with Industry Standard Certifications"

2/3/2012 @ 9:00-9:45am - TRACK: Customer Engagement -- "Does Your Business Have a Social Media Strategy?"

At 4GWE on Friday the 3rd at Noon, I will be moderating "Wireless Access Open For Business" where we will be discussing fixed wireless as a last mile access choice. Then we will have an open discussion, kind of an Un-Conference.

You can register for ITEXPO or MSP World or Cloud Comm Summit for $99 until 12/31/11. You can register for 4GWE here. CVX for Agents and VAR's is no charge.

Asterisk workshop on the 31st is free (with any registration).

Julius Knapp, Chief of the Office of Engineering and Tech at the FCC, will be one of the keynotes.

Another keynote is Terry Matthews, chairman of Wesley Clover, MITEL, Newbridge and Counterpath.

Let me know if you are attending so we can meet up for coffee or for the Gathering Dinner.

Why Attend ITEXPO?

2011-09-14T06:10:21Z

So at most ITEXPO's, we try to put together a dinner where we invite everyone to come have dinner and meet someone new. (It is a dutch treat sometimes, but TMC's Anthony Graffeo picked up the tab Monday night.) Great connections have been made here. Nothing like sharing a meal and conversation with someone new.

Great presenters and content going on all the time. (Yes, some presenters could prepare better and get rid of the PowerPoint crutch, but overall.)

Pictures tell the story. See a bunch more here:

Why I Am Skipping Connections

2011-09-06T16:11:48Z

Next week I will be in Austin for ITEXPO from Sunday till Thursday. It starts the fall conference caravan. There are so many conferences in October it is crazy: TelcoTV, COMPTEL, WISPA, FISPA, MUMS, Broadsoft Connections, Metaswitch User Forum, STC and a cloud thingy or two. I can't wait for November!

I do more than 15 conferences a year. Many do not have an actual return on the investment dollars (show pass, hotel, airfare, expenses and meals). I have to consider them branding opportunities or important networking occasions. One show that many of my clients attend is the Broadsoft Connection show in Phoenix. I have been debating this for a while and I'm going to skip it this year.

One reason is the ROI. There has not been real ROI in the two years that I have attended. Many of my clients already bought their softwswitch - Broadsoft in most cases - and have gone to market with a Hosted PBX offering. Most of the big carriers have too, including XO, TDS, Comcast, Cox, Windstream and C-Link. Doesn't really leave anyone to consult with on go-to-market.

I have to attend as a Channel Partner (with a $2500 price tag), but the actual value for that investment is questionable. A logo on a member portal isn't exactly worth it. There hasn't been clear benefit for that money demonstrated or expressed. It seems very telco to call it "Channel Partner", when it seems the real meaning is "help us sell our stuff".

Another reason is the current state of my relationship with Broadsoft. The VP of Marketing has not been cordial since I broke the story of BSFT acquiring Casabi last year. In fact, she told me at CPExpo in Vegas that she doesn't like me. That's fine. There are people I don't like, too. I still do my job though. Pulling two consecutive no-shows for conference calls with clients that we share (that run Broadsoft) leads me again to wonder about the Channel Partnership that I paid for last year.

In addition, this conference will increase travel in October to 21 days on the road. It would be nice to cut that down.

Without clear expressed value for the Channel Partner ticket, I have no grounds to go other than to hang out with clients, which is a good reason until you factor in the $4K price tag. The alternative is to do what is so common today: just show up and hang around. (You can buy a lot of drinks for $2500!) Many vendors do it at conferences, including Broadsoft.

Want to have coffee? You can see me in Vegas the week before Connections or at ITEXPO next week or at other shows in October. Ping me to meet up.

InterOp 2011 in Vegas

2011-05-11T20:17:58Z

Sungard booth at InterOp. With all the Cloud talk I thought more than just Rackspace and Sungard woul dbe here.

InterOp is all about the racks ;)