Shannon Clark Archive

As I sit listening to Kevin’s opening talk at Supernova, a talk about why he started Supernova and why the name – about the creative destruction, the end and the beginning. Then next we’re listening, as I type this, to Clay Shirky talking about his book Here Comes Everybody but also about his thoughts after having finished the book.

In particular he talked about the need for social density to create the environment for collective action, in particular he talked multiple times about what it takes to make it possible to have a Barn Raising.

I hope another blogger is capturing all the nuances of the talk but as I listen, what I am struck by is that there is a category of conferences which alongside of some ancillary social tools (mailing lists, IRC channels, WOW guilds, and more) which help to create a fairly dense social core which imbues quite a few conferences.

This is not an entirely dense social network the members of this rather loose circle of people live all over the world, work for in many cases competing firms, don’t always agree with each other. But at the same time there is definitely a strong network of people clustered together in large part by these conferences and events.

In addition to Supernova, conferences that are I think part of this distributed network include PopTech, PUSH, Picnic, elements of SXSW, TED (and BIL), Personal Democracy Forum, MeshForum, and I’m sure literally dozens if not 100’s of other conferences and events around the world. Yes, there is a degree to which this is partially who are speakers at these conferences (and many others) which indeed are perhaps overlapping too much. But there is another, larger group of people who attend, organize, cover, and volunteer to help make happy these conferences – and many other events – who via that participation and to a degree follow up after and around the conferences create a fairly dense social network.

As we checked into Supernova today, sat down, plugged in our laptops and got ready for the conference, I found myself saying hi to many people, some whom I had last seen at Supernova 2007, and many others who I interact with on a rather regular basis in not small part driven the connections formed at these live conferences and events.

So how do you “join” this network. Especially if you are not going to be attending, speaking, covering or running these conferences?

1. Follow up with people both individually and via the shared, group tools now available from many conferences. In the past many conferences have set up mailing lists for participants and attendees, today in addition to mailing lists there are shared conference tags, wikis, and many other online communities.
2. Post and share your experiences. If you have a blog, write up at least one post during (or at least after) the conference (to the degree it is on the record – Supernova being not just on the record but live streaming and covered in many different ways possible). If you don’t have a blog, post some photos to Flickr, write a twitter tweet or two, or leave some comments on related posts. If you are creating content don’t neglect to add the conference tag (for Supernova 2008 it is supernova2008) so automated tools can be used to discover your content.
3. Share your meals while at the conference. Find a group of fellow attendees and go out for dinner on the evenings no formal event is planned. If the conference caters a meal engage a group of people over lunch. After the conference grab a meal before people leave for their flights, or schedule a time to meet up for breakfast on the next day. In short break bread with as many of your fellow attendees.
4. Pay attention to and as much as possible participate with the people who are part of the conference community at other events after the conference. Supernova has mixers and pre-conference events on a regular basis. If the conference has a community tool take advantage of it to share that you will be at another, related event and suggest to people to get together in an adhoc manner. I’ve seen a trend to have “tweetups” around conferences and events to note just one example.

In short to get the most out of the network at a conference think about how you can give back to that network and take full advantage of the community tools.

Shannon Clark is a founding partner at Nearness Function, a new ad network for the publishers of dynamic content which will launch in a few months.

Although I am an entrepreneur, for the past two weeks I have also been active press as I covered parts of Ad:Tech San Francisco and Web 2.0 Expo also here in San Francisco. Having done this for the past two weeks as well as a few earlier conferences, I have learned a few lessons and would encourage all entrepreneurs to spend some time working as a member of the press.

Lesson 1 – Know how your company is being marketed especially by your PR firm and people in general

I was shocked by many of the ways in which I was contacted by PR people before Ad:Tech. Below is a real email I received, as you can see I don’t have to edit this to avoid naming the company, you will see why.

Subject: Please consider our press release

  Best regards,   Gaby

And that is literally it. The message had a .docx attachment, the press release in theory I guess, I don’t generally open word doc attachments from strangers. Oh and did I mention that Gaby sent this message to all the press at the same time, as one large to: list, so I now have the email addresses of many of the other press who were covering Ad:Tech San Francisco this year.

Where do I even begin with how horrible this is.

1. The company name is nowhere to be found, not in the subject line, not in the message body. As a press person receiving dozens of press releases and requests for interviews and meetings in advance of the conference, I have nothing to remember this message by other than how horrible it is (and since I did not open the attachment I still don’t know what company Gaby was representing).
2. I was not greeted personally. Even if you are using a mail merge instead of writing individually, by greeting me personally I am a likely to be a bit more receptive to at least reading your email, if not any related links (good) or attachments (best being PDF files, worst being ppt or doc files)
3. There is nothing about who the company is or what they are announcing. Give me a one paragraph hook that covers both what your company is and what you are announcing at the show (you are announcing something at the show right….) That allows me to quickly see if it is something that is relevant to the audience I am writing for (in my case CenterNetworks readers who are likely not interested in another SEO firm but may be interested in a company with an interesting Web 2.0 application or a new business model for the web etc.
4. Not using bcc shows a seriously amateur and unprofessional use of email. Yes, I am nitpicking here and I’m sure almost everyone has made this mistake before. But when sending to a group of strangers to you, whose relationships with each other you do not know, this is a particularly egregious error to make. I can forgive a friend sending emails to a bunch of friends (even one promoting her business) but I cannot forgive a PR professional (I assume) doing this.
5. Sending an attachment saved as a .docx file. If you don’t know, a .docx file is the newest file format from Microsoft, many people will not be able to open and read a file in that format since most haven’t upgraded their installation of Office to the absolute latest version. Gmail, for example which has viewers for older versions of word documents, does not have one for .docx files. I doubt (I hope) that I am not alone in refusing to download and open office file attachments from strangers.

Lesson 2 – Train everyone at your company and your PR agents on what you do and how to explain it quickly.

Quick does not mean five minutes of talking at me (no exaggeration, one CEO talked without pausing for five minutes as a response to the simple  question "what do you do?").

Quick means literally a few sentences, think escalator pitch not even elevator pitch.

Then, after you have explained briefly what your company does, be prepared to move onto what you are announcing at the show and be trained to listen to what people are saying and asking about and to respond accordingly. My badge, for example, clearly showed that I was press, yet not every booth person at either show noted that, some people just launched into their pitches without asking what I covered (better yet you should be prepared and know many of the media outlets covering a given event).

But by everyone I do mean everyone. Whether or not you have a booth, if you have a presence at a show everyone there should be able to talk with people about what your company does. Have a consistent and clear explanation.

Lesson 3 – Offer hooks to people to interest them.

Before the show brief everyone from your comapany on what you hope to accomplish both tactically – i.e. number and types of leads – and more long term. Be sure to think through what you will do next to hook a given person you meet. Besides potential customers, don’t neglect the press, potential hires, investors, partners and others who could play a key role in your company’s success.

I am not a fan of being in "stealth" mode, however I grant that at times it is helpful for some types of companies.

If you haven’t yet announced (i.e. are in "stealth") have something you can talk about at a minimum your reason for being at the show and broadly speaking what you are doing. I am sure that more than one person I met who is working at a "still in stealth startup" is working on something that would be of interest to CenterNetworks and our readers. However by not having something to tell me as a journalist those companies lost the opportunity to have me connect them directly to Allen.

And if I were not at a show as press but was just there for my own company, when you don’t have anything you can talk about few people you meet have any way to help you, any hook to latch onto and spark the connections and relationships that make or break a company. Most of what I do at networking events and after is not immediately or directly related to my business, I often make introductions or refer people to resources that could help them. Not because I expect them to then pay me back immediately but because in doing so I help them and in turn, someone else will help me (something that has proven true so many times in the past I keep doing it). But whenever I meet someone who is working at a "stealth startup" I almost never have anything to offer them.  .

Lesson 4 – Be prepared for happy surprises.

When I am not writing for CenterNetworks, I am in the process of launching an ad network. So I’m always looking for publishers and advertisers. I attended Ad:Tech assuming I would likely meet mostly potential advertisers there and I attended Web 2.0 Expo thinking that I would mostly meet potential publishers. However at both events I met a large and significant number of the opposite – at Ad:Tech I had many conversations with potential publishers, at Web 2.0 Expo in turn I met many potential advertisers. And at both events I also met many members of the press, bloggers, possible employees, lots of partners and many other key and important contacts.

But I met these people in no small part because I was prepared for the happy surprises of meeting them. But as I watched the trade shows at both events as well as the interactions around the conferences at parties, meals and the like I observed many who did not in many cases take advantage of opportunities that were handed to them.

A few final lessons in brief.

I have learned many lessons from the past two weeks as a member of the working press. I encourage all entrepreneurs to spend some time as press at a major conference in their industry, perhaps even before you start your next venture. See how companies market to the press, watch how booth staff and attendees react. See how the press talk to each other (and learn not just from the conversations in the press room but also from the tools such as twitter used for real time feedback).

Observe what types of press releases and flyers get picked up, let alone read (short answer most just get recycled at the end of the conference and are rarely actually read, certainly no flyers in folders from Staples without the company name even visible).

Shannon Clark is a founding partner at Nearness Function, a new ad network for the publishers of dynamic content. He is the organizer of MeshForum – an annual conference on the study of networks and the one day MeshWalk series of walking conferences. He has been blogging for many years at Searching for the Moon where he covers technology, economics, food, and the life of an entrepreneur.

This year the Web 2.0 Expo (our coverage) in San Francisco has been a bit akin to SXSW, but in San Francisco. Last night there were over a dozen announced parties for all attendees, plus a number of more "exclusive" parties. Monday and Tuesday night were similar, tonight promises to be a bit less busy than Wednesday evening but also has a number of Web 2.0 related events and parties. As I stopped by the many parties last night I observed a number of flaws in how many (but not all) of the parties were organized.

So in this post a quick guide to holding a great and business successful party. This is not a guide to having the most fun at a party you hold, rather it is some advice about how to hold an event which furthers your business goals (and probably does not risk negative press on Valleywag).

1. Know your business goal(s) around the party. Why are you throwing a party? A seemingly simple question but one I suspect many don’t ask themselves. Is the party mostly for your team (and perhaps your investors, clients and partners?) If that is the case then it probably shouldn’t be a public party and I would strongly consider not holding it during a conference or event unless that is the only opportunity for the whole team (and/or for your partners, clients and investors to be in town). If, however, your goals are publicity, recruiting, business development/sales then you may indeed be well served by a more publicly announced party. Likely you will still restrict attendance in some manner (conference badge holders, free but required RSVP, flyer/ticket from your booth) which allows you to manage the crowds (to a degree) and keep your party focused.
2. Pick a venue that is appropriate at both the low and high ends of your estimated attendance. Last night many of the parties were in venues which were too small, resulting in events which were packed and generally of limited utility for anyone attending. In contrast  the parties in larger, more appropriately sized venues seemed full even when starting, but accommodated the crowds as they arrived. The ideal venues have multiple bars (if you are serving), easy access to food, and spaces to expand into as the crowd grows (nightclubs with back rooms/VIP sections often are great here.
3. No matter your purpose in throwing the party your employees and brand should be omnipresent. Everyone who attends "your" event (even if co-sponsored with partners) should leave having had an encounter with your brand many times over the evening. Ideally they should have had great conversations with your team, seen your branding around the event, perhaps left with something to remember your brand and the party. Last night at nearly half of the eight parties I stopped by or attended the sponsor’s brand and employees were not present. At many if employees were there I had no way of telling (this is a great time to break out the company schwag or a least train employees on greeting people (and/or to use & enforce the use of nametags)
4. Alcohol is always popular but great parties also have great food. This is almost universally true, even late night parties are enhanced by arranging for food (one party last night arranged for a Taco Truck to be outside). Great food is not terribly hard to arrange for, but does take some local contacts, the right venue, and some thought.
5. Balance the light and noise to your goals for the event. Some parties are about the dancing and mingling, so a great DJ, nightclub lighting and loud music are fine. But many business and trade show related parties are about more than just blowing off steam and celebrating, if you want to recruit, to make business contacts and develop sales or partner leads, then people have to be able to talk with each other, to see each other, to pull others into a conversation and make introductions. This can be as simple as working with the DJ to focus the evening, quieter music early only breaking out the dance grooves and beats as the evening grows later.
6. Offer great, non-alcoholic drink options. Yes people drink and love to drink for free. But many people (myself included) don’t drink all that much or don’t drink heavily when working (and attending business networking events at conferences is or should be for any entrepreneur working). If you offer great options (not just soda or juice for mixed drinks) even people who would often drink likely will slow down. And many people also appreciate the underlying message of moderation – that as a business your event is focused on business, not just on drinking. Often as well you can have creative drinks with alcoholic or non-alcoholic options. I personally love a mojito without the alcohol (fresh mint, lime juice, sugar what’s not to like).

How to have great food on a startup budget.

As an event organizer whether for an evening event or a multiday conference I always focus on having the best possible food for my attendees, very often food is the largest cost at an event I organize, but that said I almost always still manage to feed people very well on less than many events spend to provide not very good food.

1. Great food starts with your choice of venue. Many venues are already serving food (restaurants, bars, hotels) and this typically means you are restricted to food which they provide. So evaluate the venues accordingly, if you wouldn’t eat there regularly it is rarely the case the food they prepare for a party will be very good. One minor exception you can sometimes use – some venues will allow you to bring outside food which they don’t serve. For example a bar that only serves appetizers might allow you to bring in a cake and other dessert items.
2. Ask a venue to stretch a bit. Not completely outside of their comfort zone but see if they can do dishes that are more reflective of the ability of their kitchen than you might typically find at any event (i.e. not just "fried dough" or "meat on a stick").
3. Always have great options for vegetarians and both sweet and savory items. Whether a pre-dinner afternoon mixer, an evening networking event, or a late night party mixing up sweets and savory items is always good. Offering great vegetarian options is both accommodating of many people with a range of dietary restrictions – not just vegetarians but anyone who keeps Kosher or Hallal, many people on diets, or many people with food allergies and a way to stretch your budget.
4. On the issue of allergies have detailed descriptions on signage and well trained servers. Many people have serious food allergies most critical of which is nuts. A side effect of asking a venue to have good signage is often selecting better food and venues. I would avoid any venue that is serving items which were reheated or prepackaged. Well trained servers if you have passed appetizers will be able to answer any questions about the dishes they are serving and will set of professional tone for your event.
5. Costco, while tempting, is easily spotted. If you are holding an event at your own offices or which you are catering yourself (i.e. at a venue which allows you to bring in the food) it is often tempting and seemingly easiest and cheapest to make a massive run to Costco, buy a bunch of bulk packs of veggies, brownies, fruit and assorted other items and call it a party. Far better, I think, is to work with a great, local restaurant or caterer. For not much more in many cases you can get amazing, locally prepared from fresh ingredients food which will impress your guests. If entertaining in a city you are not overly familiar with look for nearby local restaurants, especially ones that take their food seriously without being too expensive. Here in San Francisco many of the smaller restaurants in the Ferry Building which is a local food market emphasizing quality and local, organic items, offer catering. These are places that focus mostly on a lunchtime crowd and can offer great options for a lunch or afternoon event. I’ve ordered boxes of fresh fruits from a local CSA as the afternoon snacks at a conference I ran. Everyone loved the seasonal fruits and local nuts. Healthy, tasty and not, in fact, all that expensive (<$250 for enough food for 150+ people)
6. Think about the format as you select dishes with the caterer. Even if that caterer is in fact yourself, think about the logistics of eating the foods you serve. Ideally most items should take only one hand (though if you must have "meat on a stick" try to make it creative and tastier than the rubber chicken/dried beef all too often seen). Also try to avoid dishes that risk serious mess or frustration while eating – a common failing here is "something on very crunchy bread" which are often served but rarely enjoyed. Another common failure are dishes that require a lot of coordination – salads while tempting often require a plate, utensils and a solid surface on which to eat from. For a standing cocktail party this is often awkward.
7. A bit basic, but think about cleanup. Have strategically placed garbage and recycling bins which are emptied over the course of the evening as needed. Or if mostly a served event, have clearly placed spots for people to leave empty plates and glasses. A few minutes of pre-planning here can avoid the messy clutter all to common at parties. Clutter and mess, in turn, rarely create a forum conducive to business.

These are just a starting point. But a bit of planning and attention can transform your event from a costly waste of money into an event that cements relationships and sparks serious business opportunities.

Shannon Clark is a founding partner at Nearness Function, a new ad network for the publishers of dynamic content which will launch in a few months.

Can you spot what is missing from this photo?

click for larger

I’ll give you a hint, last week I covered Ad:Tech San Francisco.

The photo is of a selection of stickers which Web 2.0 Expo is handing out to all attendees as you register, the intention is to personalize your badges with the phrases and sentences that describe what you are looking for, who you hope to meet, topics you are interested in discussing while you are here in San Francisco at the Expo.

But conspicuous in its absence is advertising or more broadly revenue. Not the abstract and theoretical "business model" but actual revenues. The assumption appears to be that companies and individuals attending the Web 2.0 Expo are seeking funding, looking to hire (or be hired) and are interested in the technical aspects of the new web but are not interested in the business aspects of the new web. As one friend of mine noted when I pointed out this discrepancy (he is the CEO and founder of successful and venture backed software startup) that far too many people conflate funding with revenues, though the two are very different.

This is not to knock Web 2.0 Expo, the expo and especially related events throughout San Francisco promise a week of intensive networking opportunities. In addition to the many great firms exhibiting at the Expo, hundreds of entrepreneurs are in San Francisco from all over the world for the Expo and related events. In town this week are "missions" from Finland, the UK, and elsewhere. Not to mention the countless entrepreneurs who have flown here on their own for the week (or longer).

But having just spent the past week at Ad:tech which suffered from a degree of lack of technical expertise, of technical innovation. I think that Web 2.0 Expo shows a different lack, a lack of business emphasis and focus.

Of course, like everything in life, I see this through my own personal biases. Full disclosure: I am the founder of an advertising network. Thus, of course, I’m rather focused on the need to think deeply about the business aspects of Web 2.0 applications, and the appropriate ways in which advertising and commercial messages can participate. But even were I not making a business focused on this need, I do wonder if the attendees and companies participating in the Web 2.0 Expo are missing out an opportunity to network not just about the technical aspects of the latest innovations around Open ID, but also about ways to innovate in business models that can serve the needs of all parties – individual users, startups, and in many cases the advertisers (and related agencies and networks).

This week as I attend Web 2.0 Expo I will be talking with many people about not just the technical innovations they are seeing (and in many cases creating) but also the business approaches they are taking. I hope to also capture in later posts some of the atmosphere here in San Francisco this week. It is a chaotic, overly scheduled week we are facing, every night there are SXSW levels of parties – last night there were at least six major events, tonight another 6+ and Wednesday night there are well over a dozen different parties and evening events. And even on Thursday and Friday there are still a few additional evening events. During the day besides the conference (with some great panels and speakers), there will be the Web 2.0 Open (a barcamp like space free to all exhibit hall attendees where anyone can propose a talk), a blogger lounge, and the very full exhibit hall.

Perhaps not the best week for a company not here at the show to make any product announcements, though there are indeed many scheduled for this week.

As an entrepreneur my advice to anyone attending the show would be to take it slow. To indeed take a walk through the exhibit hall and see the booths, see how potential partners and competitors present themselves. But then to find a good spot at one of the many table filled seating areas, announce your location via twitter, then settle in for a few hours of lobbyconning (sitting still and letting people come to you to stop, meet, and reconnect). Check out the Web 2.0 Open and perhaps schedule a session on a topic of interest. And get to the parties but don’t stress out too much about any that you miss – follow along on Twitter and see where people are going.

But, and this is important, remember that you and you alone are the judge of what makes a conference for you – if, like me, you are interested in conversations about Ads and Revenues, ignore the missing stickers and seek out those conversations. Take a few people out to dinner (and skip a few overly crowded parties) and have some in depth conversations.

In my next post – some advice for attendees to make the most of their time in San Francisco.

Shannon Clark is a founding partner at Nearness Function, a new ad network for the publishers of dynamic content which will launch in a few months.