Like any founder of a start-up which is making great progress, it always comes as a jolt to discover how small you really are. This moment came for me as I placed an Ikea table of ours next to a Mercedes exhibition stand at the European Tour in Dubai last week.

2014 has been kind to Chargifi thus far. At the start of January we were invited to provide wireless charging for three high-profile occasions in Dubai. Having a presence at events such as the European Tour, the ATP Tennis Tour and the British Embassy Trade Missions is great for visibility, user feedback and networking.

At this first event we installed 88 Chargifi spots all over the golf course, including the Club House, Players’ Lounge, Food Village, Media Centre and 20 sponsor chalets — enabling golf fans, players and caddies to wirelessly charge their phones throughout the Tournament.

This feeling of inferiority continued as I hoisted our 7ft Chargifi flag next to Stella Artois’ 12ft flag. Every brand represented at the event was bigger than us. Bigger flags, glossier business cards, better swag, more competitions, more staff, nicer polo shirts — they had done this before. Needless to say I left the course at the end of the set-up day feeling somewhat embarrassed by how insignificant Chargifi looked compared to these global brands.

As the week went on we found ourselves piggy-backing on these brands: getting to know people of influence in the sponsors’ chalets and using their networks to help us get meetings and ultimately win us clients. We decided to commit one member of our team to full time schmoozing across all 20 sponsor chalets. Chargifi became something sponsors could own and show off in their stands and chalets. It was no longer Chargifi offering wireless charging — rather, by the end of the week it was Chargifi advocates in Omega and Mercedes polo shirts demonstrating our services to their clients…!

Here are a 7 things that helped us, and a few things we learnt from the week:

Clarity — I was taken aback by just how clear we had to be about our product and services. I take it for granted that people will know how to use Chargifi and will understand what I mean when I say ‘wireless charging’. This week taught me that you have to spell out everything for some users. It’s not good enough to say ‘Wireless Charging’: mid-week we had to change our table stands to say ‘Wireless Phone Charging’. We bought extra flags so we weren’t lost in a sea of other brands. All their flags were white — we went for green to stand out and didn’t need to buy as many. Being clear and blatantly obvious about what we do ultimately shortened the adoption time for people interacting with Chargifi.

Imaginative Swag — Give away meaningful gifts that work for you and which relate to the type of person attending the event you’re exhibiting at. It seems like you have to give away stuff at events these days. As a start-up we couldn’t afford to give away T-shirts or hats so we bought a load of golf tees. We gave away 100s of bags of Chargifi golf tees with the hashtag #GoTheDistance on the front. Giving away these 32p bags of golf tees opened up so many conversations. We spent the first three mornings going around the Media Centre handing out press releases to journalists. Unsurprisingly, conversations went better when we opened with ‘Can I give you some free golf tees…?’ However, we made the mistake of not having our contact details on these bags. Giving people a touching point or call to action if they liked the product would have helped.

Make Small Bets with Big Pay-offs — A good friend of mine at Barclays was entertaining clients at the Monaco Grand Prix a few years ago. He had a sense that it might rain on Race Day and asked his assistant to buy several hundred Barclays umbrellas. Come Race Day it was pouring with rain and the grandstands were awash with Barclays blue. Free advertising! We looked at the weather and saw it was going to be a hot week. We got a large umbrella and positioned our largest table under it. We also positioned ourselves by the bar, which helped with footfall! As a result, more people interacted with Chargifi.

Be Part of the Action — We put our polo shirts on, brushed up on our golf trivia and got right into the spirit of the tournament. We checked out hashtags and targeted independent journalists looking for a story. One of the most valuable things we did was buying a decent camera and tweeting shots of the action on the Tournament hashtag, as well as mentioning the golf venue and Tournament organisers.
We branded photos with our logo and hashtag and said things like ‘Can’t believe this place is packed so early in the morning’ and ‘This really is a stunning golf course.’ If I were organising this event this is exactly what I would want to hear from people attending. These tweets afforded us Retweets from the organisers’ official accounts giving us a much larger reach. Don’t underestimate how much people interact with each other online at events like this.

Make Friends with Benefits — Becoming friends with the people who exercised influence at the event helped us get into places that other brands couldn’t. Being personable, polite and easy to work with helped us go a long way. Ultimately these relationships allowed us to exhibit Chargifi inside other companies’ chalets. We were promoting our brand in chalets, which other brands had paid for, simply because we were nice, Chargifi was helpful to people and gave kudos to the brands themselves for having our tables in there.

Cost — A lot of stuff went missing. Although we left Chargifi accessories in ‘borrow me’ bowls people still lifted them. This was expensive and frustrating for our users who sometimes didn’t have the right attachment to wirelessly charge their phones. This reflected poorly on us and burnt a hole in our pocket. I spoke with a number of other companies and it seemed like we should expect to see this in future. Need to budget for this next time.

Don’t Hang Around — Having lots of your team hanging around your stand is off-putting. We tried to organise our people, even our furniture, at angles that were open and inviting for people to come and investigate. Don’t create barriers.

Ultimately, we were invited to do this event because we were offering a service that was useful for those attending and because our services reflected well on the event itself. We have since been invited to provide Chargifi wireless charging at more events in the region. Being at events as a service offers great visibility and customer interaction without the cost of being an event sponsor. It also stamps another endorsement on Chargifi and our team which helps greatly with customer acquisition.

You can see photos from the event here

Dan
Founder @chargifi

“The 2014 Omega Dubai Desert Classic was the region’s first wireless charging golf tournament. Chargifi delighted and empowered golf fans, players and course staff throughout the week adding to a most memorable tournament. With Chargifi technology placed around the venue it meant that people didn’t need to carry around batteries or chargers to get through the day. It provided us, and our sponsors, a unique value-add for our guests and visitors. I highly recommend the Chargifi team and their amazing technology.”
Chris Turlik — Manager, GOLF CITIZEN & Tournament Operations Dubai Desert Classic