1SRC Editorial: Win-Win Situation

I have posted this week's 1SRC Editorial, "A Win-Win Situation."

This week Palm hits the road for another round of Foleo Sneak Peek events. I see this as a win-win situation for Palm and their customers.

Road Trip

Over the last few years the notion of the technology “trade show” has changed. Regional events like MacWorld: Boston and TechXNY (formerly PC Expo in New York City) have all but disappeared and have been replaced by mega-shows like MacWorld (in California), the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and the gaming oriented E3 show. Where does this leave customers who can’t hop a plane and fly out west to these big annual shows? Enter the “road show.”

I’ve been to my fair share of technology trade shows and user conferences in my current IT job; however the travel dollars have dried up in recent years. To get the word out on new products, Palm has tried a novel idea: regional mini events designed to bring customers together to learn about the latest Palm products and give them the chance to try them out in person. Palm started their Treo Road Shows in 2005 and continued them during 2006. At these events Palm would give a presentation or two, and then would invite one of their event partners to come up and demo their product. After the presentations about a dozen or so solution partners had tables setup to demonstrate their products and to answer customer questions. (I met up with a couple of the DataViz marketing folks at the last show I attended. We all agreed that a 90 minute train ride was a bit much for free donuts. But I digress.)

I feel that it is important for there to be an open dialog between the vendor and their customers. It is important to understand the focus of these customer events. Road shows and sneak peeks area designed to give customers access to new products and to learn how they can benefit you and your business.

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