The Amtower Report

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In this issue:
1) Amtower Off-Center Observations
2) The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: FOSE Notes
3) Events Worth Attending

AMTOWER OFF-CENTER OBSERVATIONS

Item: If you are free Wednesday (3/15) from 9:10 AM until 9:50, tune into www.WBIS1190.com and click on An hour Off The Clock with David Reader and his special guest, Mark Amtower.

Item: Publication changes at or near the top: Chris Dorobek is taking the Exec Editor slot at Federal Computer Week. FCW will probably announce a new owner this week, too. PostNewsweek Tech Media announced the arrival of Jeri Thorne as EVP and General Manager, and Duncan Ballantine as EVP Group Publisher.

Item from Jay Horman of CDWG on the Poker item from last week: Mark, CDWG did an in-house poker tournament for charity.  Lots of fun - we even talked today about doing it again. You'd be remiss to not mention the legal risks though - if there is any sort of prizes, there is risk.  If there is any sort of buy-in, there is risk.  Even, for instance, if the attendees company paid to be at the conference, that could make a tournament illegal. In our office, we collected money to enter and gave 100% to charity. Our legal dept prevented us from even giving a trophy - a handshake was the most we could give to the winner.  Note the difference to say, a golf tournament, where trophies are the norm.  A gambling game (like poker) takes on very different rules from the normal promotional games. At a conference, there are too many giveaways floating around...  I'm not saying it is necessarily illegal and the laws vary greatly by state.  But a raid would be a really bad black mark on the host company and the event.  Poker certainly has high visibility now. Just saying to be careful where you steer clients.

Item: The Government VAR breakfast at the Hyatt during FOSE did not break new ground with the research they presented. The panel was pretty good, the session attracted about 100 people and was a great networking event. I spent some time with publisher Bob DeMarzo, and it is clear that CMP will devote time and attention to Government VAR to ensure its success. This will include the publication, the web site and events for the government channel players.

Item: Seen lurking on the exhibit hall floor at FOSE, a contingent of Best Buyers, probably wondering what the show would be like if they had a booth, or probably admiring all the big red bags.

Item: Customer service lives! A sales rep at CDWG got a call from an overseas Navy buyer (in Italy) inquiring about a Navy procurement vehicle (BPA) announced in a press release buried at the CDW web site. Though the sales rep did not know about the BPA, they did refer the inquiry to Barbara Crystal, PR director for CDWG. Barbara knew of the press release and referred the matter to Max Peterson, VP of Sales for CDWG.  The problem, it seems, was that orders for this particular BPA had to go through a particular Navy office – not direct to CDWG. Instead of referring the matter to anyone else, Max handled the matter from the time Ms Crystal referred it to him until the Navy caller was totally satisfied. According to Market Connections annual IT buying study, customer service is a huge differentiator. Here is an example not only of service with a smile, but from the VP. Do you think that Navy buyer could become a loyal CDWG customer?

Not that I have an opinion.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY: FOSE NOTES

My FOSE started Monday at 3 PM when I moderated a panel (with Ann-Marie Clark of CDWG, Lisa Dezzutti of Market Connections and Alec Dann of PostNewsweek) on marketing for FOSE exhibitors. Even though it was the day before the event, and many were still setting up, we had almost 100 attenders for the 90 minute session.

Last year when we were walking around the exhibit hall, FOSE manager Lorenz Hassenstein explained to me what the traffic model would be for 2006. When the show opened Tuesday, I got to see his plan in action. Wider aisles, two main aisles going length and a couple more going the width, with specific Tech Pavilions included. The result was truly excellent traffic flow and a democratization of the traffic flow. Everywhere I went there was some traffic, where in years past, there were often empty or near empty aisles. The amount of traffic also seemed decent for the day and a half that I was there (Tuesday and the first half of Wednesday). I was told traffic was lighter Thursday, but not bad. The third day is always slower, which prompted one exhibitor to tell me that having a 2-day FOSE would not be a bad thing.

FOSE experimented with the opening and closing time, staying open until 5PM on the first two days and closing an hour early on the last day. Although traffic was slower when I left at 4:15 on day one, there was still enough to merit the later hour. So I am anxious to see the total attendee numbers.

There were only two resellers on the floor, CDWG and PC Mall. There was no battle of the bags: CDWG big red bags were everywhere. The keynotes were reportedly well-attended, too.

There was some talk about having to wait too long in line for badges, but all things considered, this is a better FOSE than those of recent years. Lorenz and his staff have done a great job and should be congratulated…

WITH the exception of one incident: Input hosted an exhibitor-only reception at the end of day one, but sent out a few invitations of their own. One of these went to Federal Computer Week. Jeff Calore and Mike Smoyer of FCW attended, assuming the invitation meant they were welcome. Apparently someone at PostNewsweek (FOSE owner) took umbrage (I do not get a chance to use umbrage often), and had them quietly escorted out by security. What is wrong with this picture?

First, they were invited and Input footed the bill for the reception. Second, while many might take umbrage at something like this (a rival at your party), it takes someone with very little class to act on it. Two people who saw incident (neither Smoyer nor Calore made a fuss) told me about this. One referred to it as one of the three or four funniest things they have seen in their 15 years in this market. Alan Balutis, president of Input, called Anne Armstrong to apologize on behalf of Input. This was not necessary, as Input did not cause the incident, but Alan Balutis is a class act – and others should emulate him.

Most of us recognize the rivalry between GCN and FCW, but none of us like to see or hear of things like this. This is simply petty.

With new players (Ms Thorne and Mr Ballantine at PostNewsweek, and new owners and a new executive editor at FCW) at both companies, perhaps we can enter into an era of cordial competition. 

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 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.comStop), Washington, DC.  www.digitalgovernment.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, 15^th 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

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As always, your comments, questions and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks
Mark Amtower

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