We have finished up our participation in GreenBeat 2009 conference on the Smart Grid.  Vantage Communications was a strategic partner for the event, which provided me with a unique view of a major green conference that I would like to share.

1. “VentureBeat is doing its first green conference. Would Vantage be interested in participating?” Andie Rhyins, Publisher of VentureBeat

Actually, I answered yes, before Andie finished the question.  I knew if VentureBeat was putting together a show, this was a rare opportunity to be part of an important event from the beginning.  As the first GreenBeat event, we had a clean sheet of paper and the opportunity to provide a defining voice for marketing and PR that would help attract attendees, sponsors and speakers. It also was a bit scary knowing that our white board scribble and initial PowerPoints needed to be made into a conference with topics, speakers, attendees and press in very short order.

2. “Fw: Al Gore has agreed to come to GreenBeat” Matt Marshall

This was the header of a late Friday e-mail at the end of August. In less than 10 words, the bar had been raised for everybody. It also meant that we had to rethink our media outreach for the show. You may be asking why a conference run by a highly influential blog needs to do outreach to other media?  Part of the attraction of a conference for high-level speakers is the ability to reach a large number of highly influential people. Approximately 500 people attended GreenBeat in person. However, the number of people that read about the show can be in the hundreds of thousands. While VentureBeat does provide in depth coverage of the show to its readership, it is important to maximize awareness by being seen and heard on multiple channels. Media coverage for GreenBeat inlcuded the New York Times, CNET and Earth2Tech which has an aggregate audience in the millions. Immediately following the show, Techmeme  had VentureBeat ranked #5 of the sources most frequently posted to Techmeme.  This  was a higher ranking than even the New York Times.

3. “My name is Jim Rogers and I’m one of the speakers” Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy

What as particularly impressive about GreenBeat is that despite the large number of high profile speakers and attendees, there was virtually no attitude or hubris. The CEO of Duke Energy attended without entourage, and the above quote is how he introduced himself. He made himself available to anyone who wanted to talk with him. Vinod Khosla was in the lobby for much of the morning available to talk to anyone. In his talk, John Doerr gave his e-mail and invited start ups to send him business plans. I attend many conferences and I never have seen a friendlier conference than GreenBeat. This is a real testament to Matt and the GreenBeat team. I look forward to seeing you at GreenBeat 2010.

Well, we made it! We’re in Phoenix for Greenbuild 2009, and we’ve already seen some exciting new companies and products on the show floor. Plus we shot some great videos for our clients, CALMAC and IES. Here is a video of our first day at the show:

We’ve got two days packed full of meetings and additional video shoots with Serious Materials and YKK AP, and somewhere in there we will head over to see Al Gore deliver the Keynote and Opening Celebration tomorrow night with Sheryl Crow. (And just in case you aren’t here in AZ, you can check out live streams on Greenbuild’s website.)

We are looking forward to meeting green building professionals sharing their visions for the future of the industry, as well as the editors and bloggers who write about it along the way. Melissa Hincha-Ownby of Mother Nature Network has already blogged about the event. Lloyd Alter of Treehugger is here, too. Along with 24,000 registered attendees, according to the records when the show floor opened at 5:30 this evening.

Check back here daily for a round-up of news and views from the show. Next week, we will do a show wrap up. And we’ll be Tweeting live from #Greenbuild09 the rest of the week – follow @catrionaharris, @mariegoltara and @toryk for your green building fix this week.

While women have made some great strides in the tech world, there’s still a ways to go, as evidenced by Allyson Kapin’s Huffington Post article, “Giving Tech a Bad Name.” Some of the most amazingly gifted people in technology are women. Yet, women are underrepresented, making up only a small percentage of panelists at tech conferences and as go-to people for quotes.

Recently, Vantage Commubications CEO, Ilene Adler took part in a podcast interview with Suzanne Bowen of DIDXchange to explore this very topic about women and the tech industry. The two discussed how each got into working within the tech field and how it affected their lives. The conversation touched on how both women and men should support and encourage each other in order to surpass stereotypes. Also, how women should collaborate and encourage one another so more women can feel comfortable with entering such a dominantly male industry. The bottom line: to change the perception, people—women and men—need to take action and promote women in tech rather than wait for everyone else to change.

Nine months and two Facebook redesigns ago, Jennifer Kutz wrote a post about the Wisdom of the Crowd Goes to a Trade Show. She discussed the trend of trade shows opening the show agenda selection process to their audience.  She mentioned one proposed panel in particular: Privacy and Personalization – Oxymoron or the Perfect Match?, for the SXSW Interactive show in Austin, and invited people to vote for that panel.

As SXSWi just completed, I thought it would be fun to fill you in on how things turned out. Our efforts to get the word out about the panel was successful. Privacy and Personalization – Oxymoron or the Perfect Match? received enough support that it was selected. The Guardian featured the panel in an article: @SWSXi: The impossible balance between privacy and personalisation?, and called the topic: “one of SXSWi’s core conversations.” The picture on the top left of this post is from the panel courtesy of the Guardian.

The experience also gave us an insight into the power of blogs and social media to create conversation about key issues.  We used Facebook and Twitter to point people to Vantage Points to get the word out. Rather than asking or pitching people to vote for our client, all we did was to discuss the topic and offer people a link to vote. This was a departure from the traditional PR model. But we believed facilitating conversation was more appropriate for topic and the SXSWi show audience.

The wisdom of the crowd approach has extended to voting for awards. This year, CTIA is allowing people to vote for its Emerging Technology Awards and Best of Show.  One of  our clients, Ditech Networks is nominated for its cool mStage platform which allows people to use their voice to access web applications in the middle of a mobile phone call.  You can read more about it in Technology Review. If you would like to vote for mStage for Best of Show, follow this link and choose mStage (third from left on the third line) as one of your favorites.  Feel free to check out and vote some of the other great nominated products too. It is good to part of the crowd that leads.

The best part of a global show like Mobile World Congress is that you get tuned in to how the rest of the world lives. When it comes to mobile phones, most Americans expect to carry one phone and sometimes will carry a Blackberry for e-mail and regular handset for phone calls. After watching one person after another pulling out a never ending variety of handsets over the course of the day, I started polling people as to how many handsets they were carrying.

The typical person from EMEA or Asia was carrying a minimum of three phones. One person pulled out four, jokingly said (I think) that he had one for each wife. The typical explanation was a Blackberry for e-mail, an iPhone for applications, and then a Nokia or three depending on countries (and marital status). This could explain the relative health of the mobile phone space.

As for iPhones, universally, they were jail broken (manually “adjusted” to allow it to used on any mobile carrier’s network). People looked at my AT&T iPhone with a mixture of pity and disgust usually reserved for naive children. Invariably, they would show me a great application, then shake their head and say that I can’t get it because my phone was “on network.”

Social networking on mobile phones seemed to be in the early adopter phase. While I saw plenty of tweets and Facebook updates, I did not see many people using their phones to deliver them.

As the next major wireless show, CTIA, starts in less than a month, we will report back if there is a major difference in phone habits from the U.S. based attendees in Las Vegas.

This year, I used the power of social networks to expand my Mobile World Congress experience. In past years, I took a tunnel vision type approach to the show with my experience the sum of previously scheduled meetings and press briefings at the show.  With social networks, you get the sense of being part of a larger experience.

Following other Mobile World Congress attendees on Twitter gives the effect of flipping across multiple channels where you tune in and out of different people’s show experience. Before the show everyone is preparing for and traveling to the show. The effect is like the opening number of a Broadway show, where everyone sets up their roles in the show – like Putting it Together from Sunday in the Park with George. It is hard not to get caught up in the anticipation and the sense that you are part of something bigger.

Each day before I arrived at the show, I checked in on Facebook and Twitter to see what my Tweeps were up to at the show. It ranged from reporters who were providing real-time reports from a seemingly endless run of handset and OS press conferences to hung over people that missed their first meetings of the day. If it was happening people were tweeting it and it created a fascinating kaleidoscope.

Readers of Vantage Points know that I was part of arranging the first Mobile World Congress Tweet Up (an in-person meeting of people on Twitter and other social networks). The Tweet Up was an opportunity to share opinions about the show and the future of mobile. It also generated over 300 hits to Vantage Points. Between the Tweet Up and posts on Facebook and Twitter, I now am part of the global mobile community, although I never had met most of the people before the show.

As we move from Mobile World Congress to CTIA, I intend to build on expanding this social approach to trade shows. Look for a Tweet Up in Las Vegas, and more interaction with the global mobile social community.

At last week’s IT Expo in Miami, John Frederiksen, General Manager of Microsoft’s Response Point gave the keynote address.  Response Point is Microsoft’s small business phone system software also known as an IP PBX for small to medium-sized businesses.

Using one of the most over-used phrases since “is that your final answer?” Frederiksen noted that “in this economy” companies are particularly interested in saving time and money while increasing productivity and growing one’s business.  With these goals in mind, these businesses need to resolve issues such as prioritizing the myriad messages received in order to avoid communications overload and make sense of inputs.

To meet these challenges, they are turning to unified communications, which bring its own challenges related to device and network suitability, price/value and availability. There are many unified communications solutions available including a great one from our client, Objectworld. While any of the above could be fodder for a blog, I’d like to focus on communication that goes beyond features and functions.

In the telecom industry, we also hear the phrase, “SMBs are in whatever business they’re in—manufacturing, professional services, finance, etc.—and not in the business of running phone systems or communications.” They may not have an IT department and dedicated staff that can do moves, adds, changes and so forth.

True, but isn’t communications part of  every business? No company lives in a vacuum, but must communicate among employees and with customers and suppliers. What is the message your company is conveying? Are staff easily accessible to customers? How difficult is it to reach people on the phone? Do people answer their phones or do the majority of calls land in voice mail necessitating time lost to return phone calls? Is the problem the phone system, the employees or the corporate culture?

At the conference, I spoke on customer service and the importance of treating customers as though they are king and not an intrusion. If customers cannot reach your company, they’ll go elsewhere-plain and simple. If your company is not making a good impression, customers will go elsewhere. Communication extends beyond mobile phones, emails, IP PBX and unified services. It extends beyond press releases and contributed articles. Bottom line—never think that your company is not in the business of communication whether it’s the phone system, outbound marketing or call centers.

As a follow up to my post last week, it seems that national news is not the only thing people are Tweeting these days. I thought you might also be interested in some of the upcoming tradeshows that are embracing social media.

Even tradeshows in traditional brick and mortar industries like construction are jumping on the social media bandwagon.   On Friday, BUILDER Online let everyone know that they will be Tweeting throughout the 2009 International Builders’ Show (IBS):

“BUILDER Online will be there, posting daily from the press room to keep you informed about the latest products, news, and business strategies even if the travel budget doesn’t permit you attending in person this year.”

And they linked through to the social media seminar at IBS. Looks like an interesting seminar, incorporating social media into an industry tradeshow.

A few other publications at this week’s show that will be Tweeting live:

ebuild

EcoHome Magazine

Are you attending? Please keep us updated on Twitter. If so, be sure to tag your live Tweets – #ibs09 {http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23ibs09}.

See you at the show either live or on Twitter!

As I prepare my talk for the Evolving Business Models and IPTV for ITEXPO East 2009 on February 2 in Miami Beach, I’m thinking that  the crux of my message is the importance of customer service and offering a more than satisfactory customer experience. At the same time, the provider must leverage its core strengths while moving into contiguous areas and properly market these services.

IPTV enables service providers to transition from traditional landline offerings to becoming entertainment providers with product bundles that meet customers’ needs and allow customizable selections. These operators are moving beyond “you can have any color car you want as long as it’s black,” to serving the iPod generation of customers who want to be their own programmers. To succeed, providers must have service tiers that are attractive to a range of subscribers from the more technically advanced to the least sophisticated users. Customers care about services and elements such as convenience, choice and control—not technology—and providers need to focus attention on the former items.

In order to retain customers, communication is key. While customers may leave due to price and product quality, the number-one reason why customers desert their providers is due to dissatisfaction with customer service. Telcos are becoming more creative with customer service and are turning to social media sites for assistance. Though none has gone as far as Comcast, which has a customer service representative regularly monitoring Twitter.

I hope you’ll join me at the show and at the panel on Monday at 3:00 p.m. Scott Heinlein of Juniper Networks will also be there discussing how service providers’ current business models need to change. As a past attendee and speaker, I know that the show brings a good crowd of interested, educated providers and vendors and great conversations and discussions. It will be interesting to hear what people are thinking in these “interesting times.” I’ll let you know when I return.

This week, over 120 companies will be launching products at one of two trade shows focused on start ups: Demo 08 and TechCrunch 50. Having worked with companies launching at previous Demo shows, I know that preparation for these shows takes an incredible investment of time, resources and money on the part of the start up. Unfortunately, when two similar shows occur at the same time, the one predictable result is that spotlight is removed from the start ups, and the volume of news makes it much harder for any particular start up to attract attention.

As previously noted, more people read about a trade show, then attend. This means that garnering press coverage is one of the most important aspects of trade show exhibiting. This is especially true when the trade show is sponsored by a major media organization – in this case TechCrunch and IDG News.

With the first two days of each conference completed, what can we say about the press coverage. Much of the mainstream media coverage has been about the organizers, the competition, and comments about commenting about the competition. The two shows also have generated a firehose of information.

Quite frankly, with 120 companies in 2 days, the overall impression becomes a blur of start ups with mobile, social networking, video, microblogging, advertising platforms. To make matters worse, there also is a CTIA Wireless show in San Francisco this week with hundreds of companies vying for press attention.

For companies that are not exhibiting at these shows, avoiding issuing news during high traffic trade show weeks becomes an imperative. The collateral damage from these simultaneous shows is not limited to exhbitors.