The Conference-Commando Field Manual

Stage III: Working the Floor

Plenty of people who attend extravaganzas like Comdex skip the trade-show floor entirely, or else they quickly pass through it on the first day. But there's value to be mined beneath the glossy brochures and the glitzy booths -- if you know how to find it.

David Bohnett, founder and chairman of GeoCities, a Web community, avoids large booths almost entirely. He focuses on the outside edges of the hall. "That's where the GeoCities or the Yahoo! of the future is," he says. "The guys who can only afford a 10-by-10 booth are infinitely more interesting than the companies that buy the megabooths." And smaller companies tend to staff their booths with their CEO or their founders, rather than with low-level staffers.

Conference commandos cut to the chase when dealing with booth personnel. Rather than enduring a canned pitch, they state their intentions. "Say what you're looking for, what problem you're trying to solve," says Allen Konopacki, president of the Incomm Center for Trade Show Research and Sales Training in Chicago. "One good technique is to write down a few things that you're looking for on the back of your business card. The booth staffer will typically take it around, trying to find the right person to talk to you. Somehow that card becomes an official order: People take it seriously."

Commandos also know how to gather competitive intelligence from booths on the show floor. "That's the best way to see all of your competitors in one place," says Felix Lin, CEO of AvantGo Inc., a company that develops software for the PalmPilot and other handheld devices. "You can listen to how they talk to their customers. You can sit in on their demo. How are they positioning themselves? I also pay attention to who's staffing their booth, and I assess their strengths and weaknesses."

Allen Konopacki, who attended more than 100 conferences and trade shows in 1998, suggests an even subtler method for gathering intelligence. "When you're at a competitor's booth, or at the booth of a vendor you're considering, compliment the people in the booth effusively," he says. "Tell them what a great product they have, what a great exhibit theirs is. You'll find that they'll often contradict you: 'Well, actually, this product isn't moving well, and we're thinking of taking it off the market.' You'll get the straight scoop, as opposed to what you'd get if you came in with a negative approach."

Stage IV: Take a Break

"There is a fiction in the mind of the conference attendee that a conference is great because of great presenters," insists Richard Saul Wurman, the creator and organizer of the much-acclaimed TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) conference series. "Conferences are great because of the people you sit next to, because of the people you meet in the hall."

Conference commandos embrace that principle. Their real work comes during the breaks. "You have to know how -- or learn how -- to be a schmoozer," says Jack Powers, conference chairman at Mecklermedia, which produces the Internet World conference and exhibition series. "Hang out at the coffee machine, make small talk, tell jokes. I find people who asked good questions during the sessions, or I scope out badges and look for people from companies that I admire. You have to be able to start a rap based on anything -- the weather, the session, the food, the hotel -- and go from there."

If you're at a conference with people from your company, don't let yourself associate only with them. "Moving around in a pack just doesn't work," says Susan Goodman. "It inhibits mingling. If you're there with a group, don't huddle with your colleagues. Fan out at breaks, at lunch, at the cocktail hour. It's okay to check in a few times a day, but don't let your coworkers insulate you from the chance to meet new people."

Breaks offer an especially good chance for guerrilla marketing. Aliza Sherman doles out Cybergrrl T-shirts and buttons to fellow conferees. "Then we've got our message circulating all over the place," she says. "I make just as much of an impact as someone with a $100,000 booth." Dan Bricklin goes a few steps further. "I give impromptu product demos in the hallway," he says, adding that he carries along both his laptop and a small LCD projector with a screen. "These demos start out with just one or two people, but they can build to include an audience of about 10 or 20," says Bricklin, whose trademark conference garb consists of a flannel shirt and blue jeans. "You have to be willing to stand out, but it works."

Commandos tend to participate in the outside activities offered by conference organizers: golf tournaments, city tours, hikes. But they also organize social events on their own. "The last thing you want to do at a conference is to watch TV in your room and order room service," says Lee Silverman, manager of business development at GTE Internetworking's learning-systems group. "So, throughout the day, I try to put together a group of people for a dinner. I mention it to everyone I meet: 'Hey, a bunch of us are going to gather in the lobby at eight and go out on the town.' " Others assemble jogging groups or start impromptu games of doubles tennis.