Tech Conferences: A Boon & A Bane for Startups
Technology conventions and events are the prime locations for startups, investors and like minded groups to meet. These events if planned correctly have a great deal to offer their attendees; everything from talks with experts in various fields to viewing startups pitching their ideas on a stage in front of 100s, insightful workshops and of course free swag.
A large tech conference is obviously going to harbour a number of activities that are all interesting. How does one prioritise his or her objectives of each activity? These schedules are given weeks in advance and have exciting events running parallel to other events.
It is completely dependent on what your overall objective is for attending the event, while startups may be going there for traction, investors are looking to chase revolutionary business opportunities, speakers are looking to educate the attendees on current business practices and media channels waiting to keep the rest of the world in the know.
The Boon
While all these parties and events are attributes of the entire conference, it is humanly impossible for an individual to attend each event. However, Startups can parallel process and try to reap the benefits. A startup can divide up the entire itinerary of the conference amongst its members to have a greater tradeoff. If executed correctly, attendees will take one look at your stall and gauge whether to approach your stall or not, so make it count!
Use promotional material to decorate your the stall, present your idea and stand out amongst the monotony.
In a team of 3 for example, person A could be manning and setting up the stall, while person B goes around visiting other stalls and handing out promotional material and the person C networks with interesting personas. Ideally, grabbing as much exposure from the surrounding environment with respect to expended resources.

One of the many take aways that has been incorporated is the importance of differentiation, being unique amongst the monotony of startups that are visible. The number of individuals we’ve been able to reel in just because the content we had on our posters or stickers intrigued them was outstanding.
It can be a bold statement like:
Claire.ai is the epitome of productivity amongst individuals and teams.
or
The opposite:
Claire.ai works towards positively influencing productivity amongst individuals and teams.
While brochures and other material may seem trivial, the content is critical, craft it with care.
The Bane
Promotional material like brochures, stickers or posters are merely points to commence engagement, do not rely on aesthetically pleasing materials to do the leg work. It goes without saying, know your product inside out and prepare yourself to regurgitate the pitch flawlessly, highlighting key points you think appeal directly to the audience.
The composure of a startup team needs to be robust, if person A cannot man the stalls or if person C is unable to connect with different people, the team needs to be equally talented on each front to facilitate the needs as and when they arise.
Flexibility is key.
We find that having multiple members doing the same activity is an opportunity cost. Yes, you may have strength in numbers, but you’re also losing precious time to be a part of a more lucrative activity. That’s why we’d urge startups not to make the same mistake of staring at the passing parties.
There were moments when we were communicating with different parties that we completely neglected our posters, brochures and videos, we were not reliant on any asset but our ability to interact.
Final take away
Do not stick to your schedule, if you’ve planned to complete ‘x’ amount of work during the conference, work to completing ‘5x’. Aim to have the greatest take away by attending as many relevant workshops, meetings or talks.
These conferences are opportunities to open up business avenues and build fruitful networks, sticking to a schedule reduces the overall scope to complete more. Startups are put onto these platforms to perform and rigidity is a setback that no team should face, so work with your team to have a more holistic output.

