 |
|
|
|
|
The Amtower ReportVolume 5, #9, March 6, 2006This newsletter is only sent to those who request it. Sign up for your free subscription at http://www.FederalDirect.net and if you like this newsletter, please pass it along to your colleagues. To unsubscribe, see directions below. The newsletter is posted each Monday at www.FederalDirect.net, and the latest "Off-Center Observations" is on the home page. All back issues available at http://www.federaldirect.net/newsletterarchives.html)
Item: Last week was interesting, but far from amusing. Former Rep Randy Cunningham was sentenced; one of those accused of bribing Cunningham had ties to a senior procurement official at the CIA through a long-time friend; and GTSI news continues to be bad (default on loan). Repeat Item: Question: Is anyone out there using LinkedIn or similar online business networking services successfully? If you would like to share your experience, send me an email at amtower@erols.com . Item from a reader (Peter Cook): Mark, So I’m looking at the events calendar on the Washington Technology website, and the first listing is virtualization webinar by HP. (http://www.washingtontechnology.com/events/19407.html ) Intrigued, I click on the listing, click on the “More Info” link, fill in the required contact information, and what appears next? A white screen that is completely blank, but for the following: The session you have requested could not be found in our database. Please check the URL and try again. It might not sound like such a big deal when I write it in an email, but non-functional web links (particularly when they’re posted by multibillion-dollar companies in an effort to market their products and services) really irritate the hell out of me. Somehow, your name popped into my head when this happened. Maybe next time you’re consulting for HP Federal, you can give them a tip. Amtower comment: the bad link could have been a WashTech error, or an HP error, but it was blamed on HP. When you post things on public calendars, test the links! Item: FOSE is upon us. I am speaking at an exhibitor-only session on Monday and will be walking the floor Tuesday, and attending the Government VAR Business breakfast Wednesday, where they are announcing a new research study. For regular readers, you know I have not been thrilled with some of their past research, so I am hoping they turn a corner with this. Either way, you can read about it all here next week. Item: One of the perks of this newsletter is being able to get a press pass at some events, including FOSE. Along with that I get press releases, some very good, and some not so good. One from CTA Public Relations for Isonics caught my attention. It got me because the CTA logo dominates the top of the page and subordinates the client message. While the text of the release is good, the fact that CTA feels it necessary to dominate the top with its logo (the top 1.5 inches) makes me wonder who they are promoting.
Not that I have an opinion. THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY: TRADE SHOW POKER Events are a big part our market, and represent a big part of what I write about. I am always looking for great success stories, and we have one here. Evan Weisel, a partner at Welz and Weisel Communications (www.w2comm.com) was faced with the problem of making two small companies stand out at two major industry events: the RSA Conference and XChange conference. The answer came from watching what was becoming very popular on television. Here in his own words is the result: Mark, per our conversation a couple weeks ago, two of our clients (netForensics and ZyLAB) held Poker nights, netForensics at the RSA Conference and ZyLAB at the XChange conference. netForensics did not have a booth at RSA so we worked to create an event that would bring together netForensics executives with press, analysts, customers and prospects. We had 35 people play and the event was a huge success. The Xchange conference is an invite-only event for resellers. ZyLAB is working to grow out its channel program and is looking to add resellers. That said, we created a similar event and invited potential resellers to join us. Here is a note from ZyLAB on the success of the event: (comments from ZyLab to Evan in brakcets) {I wanted to bring everyone up to date on the ZyLAB Texas Hold-em Poker event we held this past Sunday night at the XChange Solutions Provider Conference. It was absolutely a HUGE success. We had 25 attendees and about 4-5 media folks that joined us. They all had a great time. We started at 8:30pm and finished right on time about 10:30pm. The dealers and waiters were awesome. As you know we raffled away a ZyLAB VAR kit and the winner is a company in Austin, TX with strong ties to the local school districts. He is excited about reselling our software so it looks like Hugh will have another partner in Texas. I (ZyLab) received the following comments from attendees that night and during the next few days: “What a great idea” “I am going to do this for our user conference” “It was fun and different” “A memorable event” “It was the most fun and best planned event I’ve ever attended at a conference like this” “Everyone is talking about ZyLAB’s poker night” “Lexmark is mad because they wanted to do a poker night but XChange staff would not let them…it was ZyLAB’s idea!” Not only was the poker night a big hit but this conference was probably the best ZyLAB conference I’ve been at since I started working with ZyLAB. Hugh and I were both talking non-stop for the 6 hours of booth time over the two days following the Poker night. We have about 35 reseller leads and I’d say at least 20 of them are qualified. Time will tell but I fully expect ZyLAB to get at least 5 partners signed up from this event. Bottom line is that the Poker Night was an awesome way for ZyLAB to stand out and get noticed… a great branding idea! The event and the conference could not have gone any better. As noted, it was a fantastic lead generating conference. Now it is up to Hugh and me to close some new resellers. Kudos to Evan for coming up with a super way to brand ZyLAB and get noticed. I took pictures Sunday night and will send them to Jack for newsletter and web site, etc. (they are being developed as we speak). I will also write up a little summary for Jack to put in newsletter, including names of winners etc. Thanks to Evan for the idea, Jan for paying for it and everyone at ZyLAB who helped make it happen!} Amtower wrap: Standing out is not enough. You must stand out, gather qualified leads and convert them. This is an excellent example of how to maximize your investment at an event. I will ask Evan for a final comment in a month or so, so we will be able to see the ultimate payoff for ZyLab and netForensics. EVENTS WORTH ATTENDING Beware of the schlock vendors, producing minimal value events, events that eat your money with no significant return! The events listed below are among those I think are worth your time, money and effort. Just because an event is not listed below does not imply it is not worth attending. If you want my opinion on a specific event or producer, call me. This topic is addressed more thoroughly in the members section at www.GovernmentMarketingBestPractices.com. March 7-9, 2006: FOSE https://www.itaa.org/events/registersec.cfm?EventID=1438www.FOSE.com March 8, State of the Government Market Research, VAR Business, Grand Hyatt, Washington, D.C. 7:30-9:00 AM. Call Heather Stein at 516-562-5294 for details. March 22-23, EFFECTIVE IT PERFORMANCE: Keys to Successfully Managing Government Projects, Continental Ballroom, Cafritz Conference Center, George Washington University 800 21st Street, NW, Washington, DC (Foggy Bottom Metro Stop) www.digitalgovernment.com April 3-4 Government Procurement Connections, Houston, TX http://www.houstongpc.com/ April 18, FEDERAL CHANNELS, Denver www.fbcinc.com If you have not been to a Federal Channels event and you are in the Denver area – attend this event! APRIL 19, 2006, Tower Club, Vienna, VA. Amtower & Company presents the one and only Amy Africa and THE ULTIMATE B2B WEB SITE MAKEOVER. For those of you who do not know Ms Africa, she is perhaps the most sought after web consultant in the world, and we have sixty seats available for her first ONE DAY session focusing exclusively on maximizing the impact of B2B and B2G web sites. www.FederalDirect.net/ultimatewebsitemakeover.html April 20, 16th Annual OSDBU Procurement Conference, Upper Marlboro, MD http://www.fbcinc.com/event.asp?eventid=Q6UJ9A00AJ0N April 25-27, GovSec, DC Convention Center. Among the keynoters, one of my favorites, Commander Richard Marcinko, former US Navy Seal, founder of Seal Team Six and Red Cell. Another highlight for those, like me, who collect signed first editions from favorite authors, seven authors will be signing their respective books on security, terrorism and more. May 2-4, 15th Annual Global INFOSEC Partnership Conference http://www.fbcinc.com/event.asp?eventid=Q6UJ9A00AYU6 May 2-5, Air Force Space Command Information Assurance Summit 2006, http://www.fbcinc.com/iasummit/default.asp *** As always, your comments, questions and suggestions are welcome. Thanks The Amtower Report is published by Amtower & Company, and is written for companies targeting the government marketplace. The opinions expressed are those of Mark Amtower unless otherwise noted. Contact us at Amtower & Company, PO Box 314, Highland, MD 20777-0314 (301-924-0058). This material is copyrighted and may not be duplicated, reprinted or otherwise replicated without written permission of the publisher. Email subscriptions are free by request: sign up at www.FederalDirect.net |
| | What We Do | Events | Multimedia | Newsletter | Subscribe | About Us | Contact Us | |
Design: Dragonfly-design.com