Well, let me apologize for being MIA for the past couple of weeks. I’ve been so consumed making sure I’m ready for the conference (and oh yeah, working through a go-live), that I just ran out of energy. Speaking of the conference, it was an experience. First off, let me just say that the logistics were amazing. With the exception of a last minute hotel bump (I guess 2.5 months isn’t enough advanced booking), everything went smoothly. The number I heard was somewhere between 18,000 and 19,000 people attended the huge SAP expo. The interesting thing is, except for lunch and some of the keynote presentations, it never felt like there were that many people there. If you haven’t been to the Orlando Conference Center, it is quite amazing. The size of it is incredible, the logistics were mind boggling.
At no time did I have to wait in long lines for lunch, coffee or snacks. There was always plenty room to sit down and do a little work (of course, I had my booth, so that wasn’t an issue for me :> ). Then of course seeing all the crazy booth designs were quite impressive (and expensive from my understanding). From a logistical perspective, it was great.
Now one of the things that surprised me was the traffic. Obviously, you pay a chunk of cash to get yourself a booth at this massive conference. In general, the amount of traffic flowing was a bit disappointing. Now of course, the areas front and center had no issue… plus they had booths 5 times the size of mine (probably a lot bigger in some instances). However, at the SAP Insider MFG conference, traffic never seemed to be a problem. I’m sure it’s due to the layout of where the sessions are held and the conference center itself.
Now the flip side is that when traffic came through, it was often high quality traffic. So overall, I think I hit my goal of quality leads. Now it’s up to me to work to make my product fit for these leads. I got some great feedback, and have a good direction of where I need to take my stuff in order to improve my chances of closing some sales. I was very happy to hear that most people liked what I had, and weren’t really looking for a lot more than what I was providing… that doesn’t mean I won’t be providing a lot more… but getting feedback like that really made me feel good.
Like everyone there, I think it was a good conference, and I got exactly what I was hoping for out it… so far at least. Now the hard work begins…
Thanks for reading,