Greetings from DEMO 2010. Or as Robert Scoble Would Call It — The Launch Killer

It’s my fifth year attending the DEMO conference. I’ve seen it change locations, change executive directors, change some format, and most of all I’ve seen a lot of great companies launch here. I obviously am a big believer in this show. So today I was scratching my head a little when I saw this post from one of my all time favorite bloggers, Robert Scoble.

He says that launch events, like DEMO, have killed the great tech start up launch. He makes a compelling argument of what gets good coverage by key influences (such as himself, and TechCrunch). Sit down one-on-one with influencers, tell a good story, give them some customers to talk to, and Ta-Da! You get better coverage than any advertising can buy. I agree. We’ve always said to our clients “focus on the why and who” and take the time to tell that story to the right person. I have seen first hand what happens for a company when a key influencer in their space writes about them, and it’s arguably more powerful than than any big ad buy they could sink their marketing budget into. Scoble is right.

But I’m still a fan of the launch event, for two reasons. Scoble, I’d love to know if you agree or disagree with these.

1) Companies don’t come to events like DEMO just for the press coverage. At least they shouldn’t. Shows like DEMO are a great place to meet customers, potential partners, and investors. I’ve seen companies get funded as a result of DEMO, nail a game-changing licensing partnership from CES, and secure enough customers at the Digital Signage Show to more than double their total revenue in just one month. Garnering press coverage is some nice icing on the cake, but shouldn’t be the only driver of attending a show. If that is the only reason your company is thinking about launching at a show, I’d recommend rethinking that strategy.

2) Not every company has access to the top influencers in their space. Robert, getting your attention is hard. Getting TechCrunch’s attention is hard. And it’s tricky even reaching out to TechCrunch since you never know if they’re going to break an embargo. I’ve had the pleasure of connecting you and TechCrunch with a handful of clients over the years. And there is no doubt the resulting coverage was a nice boost of attention for the clients. And the coverage was good, thoughtful writing to boot, it wasn’t a simple recap of the press release. But getting to that point took a lot of work and a lot of time, and didn’t occur even close to when the company launched. Arguably, you, TechCrunch, and blogs of that influnce get hundreds of pitches a day. Without getting into what makes a good pitch, let’s be honest here Robert, you guys simply won’t see every pitch. And  you can’t meet with every compelling company that does get through, because of variables like travel, location of the company (read: not in Silicon Valley), timing, etc.

So what’s a company to do? Put all of their launch eggs in the basket of one or two key industry bloggers? I hear what you’re saying Robert. I agree with it, and I think it’s an important strategy that every start up should have in their go-to-market plan. But it can’t be the whole launch enchilada. And when having a few days of dedicated face-to-face time with potential users and investors is an option as part of the launch, it’s one that’s well worth consideration.

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