We’ve been talk long at IAMAI (Internet and Mobile Association India) about setting up a consumer facing expo with the twin aim of
1. giving our members a platform for interacting with consumers live, which is a critical component of marketing, severely lacking in India;
2. Increasing consumer awareness of the benefits of the Internet, thus helping accelerate the growth of the Internet in India.
India is possible the only major Internet nation without a live platform for product launches. In the US, it is possible to be part of a live Internet-event practically every single day, with cities like San Francisco seeing an event a week. In the US infact it is rare to see startups and new product launches building awareness through billboards and advertising, as they prefer live events which generate far more buzz.
Thanks to the efforts of IAMAI president Subho Ray, this is now a reality. 12 – 15 Dec sees Digital India 2007 at Pragati Maidan Delhi. This is a big tent event expecting a qualified 100,000 crowd of students in the day (via school tours) and business card visitors/students in the evening.
It is expected that all Internet movers and shakers will be present and many will have large displays. For startups 10×10 booths are available at a nominal Rs. 100,000. Those interested please contact Mehul Gupta: Mehul @ IAMAI dot In.
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@Deepak, nice.
However I differ on the SNs getting more mileage at college events, cause booths are a side item at college fests, the main focus being stage activities. Here there is no distractive focus. Plus all the media will be at Digital India.
In the past I’ve done the rounds of tented events, all of them named IT.COM in Bangalore. We paid about 25K for an 8×8 (I think) booth in 1999 and then about a 100K for a double sizer in 2000.
IT.COM had 100,000 visitors or something but unfortunately there was very little value for us. But let me put certain of my learnings here.
1) You will spend much more than the booth rental. Expect to spend two to five times the 100,000 on things like decoration (you will need some pictures/logos/flex to adorn the booth), printing of brochures, time spent on follow ups and dead ends etc.
2) Do a trial run of everything and keep redundant equipment handy. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong and so will its uncle. You’ll get like one power outlet. Ensure you keep spare power strips, stabilizers/UPSes if you need them, spare hard disks, operating system disks and the like.
3) There are “brochure collectors” in the “general hour” visits. For them print black and white brochures. Do not keep stuff like chocolates or candy, especially in glass containers which are likely to be pulled down. Don’t have ANY wires on the outside, because they will get pulled, tripped on, whatever.
The conference organisers will try to increase footfalls, which is their goal. Your goal is to get quality leads, not necessarily the same thing. Therefore keep things like freebies, candy etc. away, and things like lower cost brochures handy. We learnt this the hard way after one day of some 5,000 students goaded, in line, to visit all the tents in IT.COM, and realising that 1,000 colour brochures at Rs. 10 a pop vanished in like half an hour, for absolutely no ROI. The next day we had a one pager printed in b/w at Rs. 1 a page. A company that was doling out t-shirts had no merchandise left at the end of the day.
4) Set up a complete back-end management system. You will get hajaar business cards. You need to get back to everyone who called. Have a system that ensures you get back to them within one week, and plan it before hand. Believe me, this is the only use of the conference and if you screw it up, all the money is down the drain.
5) Don’t invest in a fancy look – the simpler, the better. The fancy look is goign to be done by the hi-fi outfits and I’ve seen very little correlation with actually footfalls (or sales).
6) Negotiate for whatever you can like tables, chairs and be there early to ensure you get this stuff in your stall.
7) Your aim, when you are in the stall is not just to pull people in, but also to push them out. When friends etc. visit take them OUT of the stall and talk to them. Don’t crowd the entrance/exit, try to keep that a motion zone. if you have a visitor’s diary ensure that you can clip a business card and write a note instead of asking the visitor to write.
Innovative stuff: hiring college students wearing your t-shirts to walk everywhere in the conference, and in teh entrance area of the conference and near the ticket stalls during the business hours, instead of paying for billboards. Everyone doles out brochures but no-one gives people a bag for keeping them. A plastic bag with your company name painted may cost you less than Rs. 5 a bag. Put a dustbin in front of your stall, because everyone collects junk and will want to get rid of it.
You can get a lot out of a conference, but my feeling is that the money is better spent on industry events rather than generic events like these. We had better ROI at a textile exhibition in coimbatore than with IT.com, given that our stuff was for manufacturing companies. College focussed SN portals will probably have more returns from a college event than this one.
Did you just say 100,000 bucks and call it nominal!? Lol! I don’t think the guys at Techcrunch 40 or even Demo pay that much. Inf act here is something to ponder about from possibly one of the best “live” events of them all, Techcrunch 40.
“We expect the DemoPit to be full of energy and buzz (space is FREE with the purchase of a conference pass, and availability is based on a first-come first-served basis exclusively to companies who submitted their products for consideration”
So there. So if you guys are really interested in giving startups a platform – well then have a selection process – choose those you think have the most merit and give them a platform! Dont charge them freaking 100,000 bucks! thats insane!
1,00,000 INR -Nominal Fee !!
I would like to echo the sentiments of a self funded entrepreneur.1,00,000 is not nominal.If your target customer is already established cos like webchutney,komli,redbus ,webaroo,onyomo,asklaila-which are funded or incubated then it is ok.Or do you want to give place to new buds!!
50,000 I think would be Ok. (That too can be shared by two startups in one stall)
I forgot to mention that there will be large media coverage of the event; and special platform will be provided for those companies looking to make product/major feature announcements. It is expected that many significant launch announcements will be made at this event.