CTIA and ShowStoppers: From the Eyes of a Newcomer
My career in public relations is just beginning, and my managers at Mobility PR are giving me incredible opportunities to not only continually learn about our industry, but also grow as a public relations professional.
I just had the privilege of attending my first CTIA Wireless tradeshow in Las Vegas (that’s me with Jonny Brown of Kentrox). As a newbie to this trade show, I was blown away by the sheer volume of people and countless new products. While I was there supporting one of the six MoPR clients that attended the show, the team at MoPR made sure I got to walk the floor with them, and I learned a lot. Acronyms are now better understood, technologies were brought to life and I have a deeper understanding of how all the different elements of mobility work together in the large ecosystem on display at CTIA. From a professional PR perspective, one of the most important things I learned might actually be a MoPR trade secret, but I feel compelled to write about it anyway: ShowStoppers.
ShowStoppers is a press-only event where reporters, editors, bloggers and industry analysts mingle with 50 or so companies which exhibit their newest technologies and services. At CTIA, the Showstoppers exhibitors represent the future of business, consumer, lifestyle and digital technologies in the mobile space. Exhibiting companies include the most innovative new startups that have selected CTIA as their launch pad which showcase their wares right alongside major industry players.
Steve and Dave Leon (that’s right-they’re brothers!) put on an impressive event. But in truth-it felt more like a party. Hosted this year at the Wynn Hotel, ShowStoppers, with its endless supply of fancy finger-food and generous open bar, was the place to be in Vegas that Monday night.
Vendors working the show were in for a busy night dominated by efforts to grab the attention of the reporters and analysts making their way around the room and then talking-up the products and services they were there representing.
I was aware of ShowStoppers before going to CTIA. MoPR has used the event with great success in the past. When our client Talkster debuted its Free World Dialing service at Fall CTIA last year, they earned a tremendous amount of coverage. But now I know one of the MoPR secrets. Press events like ShowStoppers (there are also the Pepcom press events which I hope to attend) give companies a great opportunity to take advantage of the hundreds of registered press and analysts that come to a big trade show like CTIA. Instead of conducting 30 minute briefings held one at a time on the show floor, the news can be given to reporters in a more rapid fire environment, literally seeing dozens of reporters every hour of the three hour event.
That’s not to say that doing ShowStoppers is easy. There is a ton of prep work that we conducted on behalf of our client well in advance of the event. ShowStoppers sent us periodic updates of their attending press list so that we could give heads-up pitches to relevant media and hone our materials appropriately. Preparing for ShowStoppers was actually quite intense… but some activities must remain trade secrets!
Beyond the dozens of print media and bloggers that we chatted with at the event, our client Kentrox - who was there to launch its Optima Cell Site Solutions - was also interviewed by Dave Graveline for his
"Into Tomorrow with Dave Graveline" radio show and did an on camera interview with BNETV.
We also had the pleasure of being exhibitor neighbors with KWINGO. These folks are an online resource providing frequently needed workplace phrases in a second language. I think it’s safe to say that in our diverse world, especially the mobility space, we have all had moments where we definitely needed a Kwingo! Or as they say, Quick Lingo.
The event was practically perfect. If there was one moment of panic, it came after a consutruction worker bisected Sprint’s fiber optic cable cutting off Internet to the entire Wynn Hotel (among others) just hours before the event was to begin. I am told that a backhoe slicing fiber optic cable is a cliche, and I’m glad that my first CTIA experience included it. It could have been a complete disaster (so many of the companies exhibiting had demos that relied on Internet service), but the ShowStoppers team pulled off an incredible last (miracle?) fix. Minutes before the press walked through the door, our computers were up and running and the connectivity problem was completely resolved. Impressive to say the least. And just in time for me to makemy first UTTER!
Hats off to the ShowStoppers crew for a fantastic event. A huge thanks to all of the media for attending the event and speaking with the vendors. And many thanks to all the exhibitors- I’m really enjoying all my clicky pens, stress balls, and new notepads! The entire team at Mobility PR looks forward to the next ShowStoppers event - coming soon to a trade show near you!
