Trade Show 2.0 - The Cult of the Now

I alluded to this in my post a couple months back (http://dynamicnetworkservices.com/journal/TwitterConferenceGameChanger), but it’s worth repeating. The Trade Show game has changed. Big time.

The abstract and obscure has become tangible and sexy. It’s no longer about being slick and corporate, it’s about being viral and different. At the end of the day it’s just about being relevant and real. Sounds simple, right? There is also genuine value in being a little rough and edgy, so Dyn Inc. has dove in with both feet. Our company is continuously proving that individual relationships are what drive new business.

DNS for whatever reason tends to be the forgotten technology, but by visualizing it on DynViz we’ve been able to drive traffic to our booth and make other exhibitors ask themselves, “Why didn’t we think of that?” This echoing theme holds true for all of our efforts.

Now the technology exists to do live video casting from the booth so that people not attending the show can feel like they’re here. It’s the “Cult of the Now”, not the “We think this might resonate later.” Real time interest and interaction is the theme of the show for us and couldn’t be more evident than the views on http://dyncam.com and the new followers on Twitter http://twitter.com/dyninc. We’re even seeing others talking about us and how ridiculously open and honest we are.

Twitter has introduced a gateway for folks, either at the show or not, to follow our activity. To be frank, our goal has been to OWN the Interop hashtag. We’re not doing half bad.

Our YouTube and Flickr channels are non-stop action. Tune in.

DynTini created a buzz unlike any other. Over 100 of our closest Interop friends joined us for cocktails at the House of Blues. “Just order a DynTini!” Not bad for a company that not too many people had heard of before they arrived in Las Vegas.

Our schwag is not “normal”. We have DynKoozies, DynBottleOpeners and the previously mentioned DynTini vouchers. The drinking theme is simply a social theme put in place to ensure people realize how approachable and transparent we are. We work the booth like real people who love what they do and what the company is all about. We’ve all bought in and the kool-aid is flowing.

The Foundation Room (House of Blues member only club) access isn’t half bad either. There is something to be said for bringing potential partners and clients to a place they couldn’t get in otherwise. What we continue to learn is that it is all about access. Heck, we even scored free tickets for some new friends to see the Ben Folds show.

The Trade Show game is forever changed. We’re confident that in the future we’ll see even more companies being dynamic and everywhere like Dyn Inc. is in 2009. Tell us what you think.