NECC show in Washington D.C.
Saturday:
Landed with Jeff and took the taxi to the hotel. Chris, who arrived earlier, and Jason arrived around midnight.
Sunday:
A quick breakfast and we walked to the convention center which was roughly 11 blocks. We waited for the electronics rental company (NMR) to bring us the large screen TV w/stand, and the two monitors. They were over 2 hours late so overall the booth setup took some time. This time was filled with putting demo disc in the new tri-fold handouts (great job there Chris), and making planned for demonstrations.
Upon returning everything to the hotel we commenced with a self walking tour and went to the White House , the Washington Monument the Air and Space Museum which was VERY cool. We spend around 3 hours touring the exhibits and I think I speak for everyone involved that it was worth every minute. It is amazing to stand that close to history.
We went to a drug store, just as they were closing at 7pm, and purchased a few little things we needed (water, electric extension cord, stuff) and continued to the hotel. After dropping all the supplies off we found a place around the corner and had a dinner as we discussed past projects and future committments.
Monday:
Up early and a quick breakfast in the hotel. We rode the provided bus to the center and quickly setup our laptops. Both Jeff and I brought full sized laptops and mini "netbooks ". It was the netbooks that ran the personal demo areas and many people were surprised to discover how little computer power was required to use MMF. Just prior to the doors opening many vendors had group "team building" meetings, demonstration rehearsals, group hugs, and other nonsense. I think we all understood what we planned to do and mentally settled in for the long day ahead.
The show was busy from the start. Unlike other shows where the people sort of filtered in, and the pace built, we were busy within 10 minutes. The pace was constant and even though lunch we had a stream of people. To our joy there seemed to always be someone in the booth with seeming 75% of the time two people/groups were receiving a demonstration at the same time. I do not know how many people saw MMF that day but I know I gave around 40. I never closed MMF and would start a new application every time. At the end my netbook was on application 43 with Jason using a few and me on the other machine a bit. We were very low on tri-folds and were both tired and excited by the end of the day.
When the show ended we packed up quickly, prepared more tri-folds and rode the bus back to the hotel. We walked around the corner (opposite direction) and had a nice Italian dinner. We discussed the pros and cons of the days events and agreed on little changes for the next day. As this is our 4th year at these shows we all agreed that our method of presentation is well done.
Tuesday:
Up early and a quick breakfast in the hotel. We rode the provided bus to the center and quickly setup our laptops. This day was much like the first. We made up more tri-folds before the doors opened and we were busy, I think even more thank the first day. Many people knew us and shared with us stories of how they use MMF, or at least they are still considering the product.
At 1:40 Jeff and DT went to the sales office and selected next years booth trying to get the best traffic flow possible. Traffic flow is key!
The floor was busy right to the end of the day and I do believe we gave 2 demos after the show was closed. wink
Wednesday:
Up early and a quick breakfast in the hotel. We rode the provided bus to the center and quickly setup our laptops (yes this was the same everyday).
Unlike other shows this last day was busy. There were slightly less people but still many visitors and much interest. This was a constant right up till lunch and only after that did the show begin to slow down. Jason had to leave at 1pm to ensure he did not miss his flight and we continued until the very end. Two interesting demos (for my part) on this last day. Very earlier I demonstrated MMF to a couple of interns with Discovery Channel. While they were obviously not teachers and could not be purchasing the product I gave my best and they seemed to like the software. It was later when their boss, upon hear their rave reviews, came back to our booth. The second was towards the end of the day when a woman walked by, heard the phrase “Video game creation in the classroom” and stopped walking entirely. She turned and said “you have my full attention.” She is the Education Technology Director for the National School Boards Association. Both were very excited by the product.
The day ended and we had all of OUR stuff packed in 20 minutes. We then waited 2 hours for NMR to pick up the TV and monitors. It was somewhat fun to watch the union labor do as little work as possible. We watched a couple “workers” walk around with some wheeled platforms over their shoulders but did not see them work… Due to the time at this point the provided buses had stopped and we walked back to the hotel.
Thursday:
Everyone met down stairs at 6am and we set off for the airportand we had breakfast in the airport security area.
Jeff and I again flew on the same flight and managed to get some work on the netbooks. Upon landing we quickly agreed on short term projects and parted.
DT's notes:
The netbooks worked perfectly.
Great booth design: easy to get people in and out, the demo theater worked well as usual, and with three machines we did an amazing about of demos. I do believe we easily doubled our 10x10 performance if not more. We will continue to use this layout at the national show.
Everyone did a great job at the show as always. We kept the energy until the very end while other exhibitors stopped at the end. Many booths seemed to have turned their backs to the visitors at the very end to have meetings or other discussions while we continued to pitch our wares. Great job everyone!
It was awesome to have Jason there. We could say the books were written by “that git” and he does speak well to visitors. While he professes to have learned a lot we also learned from him. Nothing useful but we did learn. wink
Jeff's Notes:
Discovery Education came back -- the interns DT spoke with told their boss. The boss is very excited about MMF. They run some animation classes and don't have anything easy to use to produce some sort of interactive content. He said "I will call you next week"
Electronic Rentals -- Next time we will ask the guys who delivery it -- Hey do we need to wait for you to give us a paper when you pick it up.
This would stop 2+ hours of boredom waiting for them.
ChrisC has made contact with a virtual school system in Latin America.
KC Distance Learing -- Strangely a company from Portland Oregon.
They wanted a way to make games for the students .. So I mentioned other distance learning schools use MMF as a class.
Giant Campus/K12:
Giant Campus loves us and they are the curriculum providers for K12. They will be emailing me a link to look at their curriculum to see if we have any advice. I am sure we don't have advice but we will finally see what they are teaching. They LOVE MMF.
Clickteam moved up the pick list due to our 10x20
Our minimum booth space at the summer show will be this size.
I will still only being doing a 10x10 at the smaller shows.
Upcoming Shows:
T & L Denver in October
This will just be DT and I
TCEA San Antonio Feb 2010
DT, ChrisC and I
NECC Denver June 2010
DT, ChrisC and I along with Jason or Francois
