How we nailed CES 2020

Last year I joined AI automotive startup UVeye and one of the first legacies I got was a big fat liability of a budget to attend CES 2020.

So first of all, if you were like me and never attended CES before - let me tell you it's MAYHEM! Probably the biggest conference you will ever attend and of the most expensive events for any company. Relevant to both B2C exhibitors and B2B companies looking to make connections, this could be the best or worst decision of your year.

Our startup does automatic vehicle inspection and it was extremely important for us to make a presence that is respectful in terms of brand but can also attract enough potential leads (whether in meetings in advance or on the go). We were also invited to exhibit in the Honda xcelerator booth and present our solutions as part of their chosen partners for 2020.

The bottom line was an extreme success (for now) - over 200 leads, 13 press meetings and interviews and a lot of spontaneous meetings at the event itself with some really influential people. We will obviously only be able to know if this event was a true success in a few good months when our sales cycle proves it. However I feel like our tight proposition and brand story was delivered well therefore expect some good results.

So here are a few things we did which worked out really well:

1. Our location in the hall we wanted and booth size was secured almost 11 months before the event.
2. We didn't go cheap on production and hired the top company in the market (Waxman-Shapira). If you go cheap you pay a lot later. Take someone that will take the hassle of working with local staff and freight forwarding (sending equipment) away from you.
3. Get your value proposition per use-case ready in advance - make sure to be able and explain very simply what exactly is your added value in $.
4. Have a dedicated team member to assist with meetings before and use the right cold calling tools to approach potential key decision makers in Linkedin while sending out at least 2 emails to your customer list. Everyone is going to be in CES, trust me.
5. Make sure your booth experience and brand story assist you in telling about your company and is self-explanatory.
6. Our PR partners at the US headed by Larry Weiss prepared 3 months in advance, whether in sending our press releases and by building a full-on schedule of over 13 journalists and press meetings. Timing is key here, if we wouldn't have had discussions 3-4 months before with them it wouldn't have worked out well.
7. Make sure all your videos and materials are updated and try to make your presence interactive without pushing it.
8. Get well prepared in advance with the right CRM systems and tools to track all leads (we had a dedicated business card scanner) so you can later on pin point every $ of budget that went on this conference (and others) to any prospect which turned into a deal.