I go to a lot of conferences, more than I want to admit. Part of my job is to cruise the vendor rows and talk to folks to learn about what new offerings that they have. It’s rare that I ever see a booth that grabs my attention, forces me to take a picture and then share it with many others.
Last week at Online Market World in SF, I stumbled upon Doba appears to be an inventory middle-man that connects ebay sellers with companies with merchandise allowing for a marketplace where the sellers don’t have to have physical inventory, I guess in a way this is a digital wholesaler.
Have you been to O’Reilly’s Web 2.0 expos? There are hundreds and hundreds of vendors crowded in Moscone West, it’s an absolute jungle and I hide my badge so folks don’t see I’m from an analyst firm and get stopped every few feet. When the marketplace gets this crowded and everyone who walks by is a prospect, companies will need to stand out in order to get noticed.
Click on the image to read comments, the Chris Knudson of Doba ended up responding to me, a clever group.
Help me caption the above photo, leave a comment below, have fun with it.
Update: see this gallery of other creative outdoor advertisements.
21 Responses to “Web Conferences: Does Your Booth Standout?”
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About
Jeremiah Owyang
Silicon Valley
The views expressed on this website/weblog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer, Forrester Research.
Affiliations and Rankings
John’s job leaves him feeling a little boxed in
Posted by jeremiah_owyang on October 10th, 2008 at 1:29 am
Doba’s earthquake preparedness seminar in SF = ultimate fail.
Posted by jeremiah_owyang on October 10th, 2008 at 1:31 am
Completely genius! Sometimes it’s hard to muster the courage to stand out, almost like we unconsciously just want to play it safe for fear we’ll be noticed for all the wrong reasons or something.
Posted by Brett Tilford on October 10th, 2008 at 10:50 am
A great alternative to the traditional ‘booth babe’!
Posted by Marcy on October 10th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Caption: “The one day Tim didn’t have his hearing aid and mistakenly heard his CEO say “Think under the box”
Posted by jeremiah_owyang on October 10th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Caption: Doba goes a little overboard with their recycling program
Posted by jeremiah_owyang on October 10th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Their trade show crates lost in transit, Doba quickly improvises and hires a guy named Chad off of craigslist to lay motionless under a pile of boxes for 8 hours.
Posted by Cory on October 10th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Jeremiah:
Thanks for the post!
In retrospect, I wonder if the banner should have said “Inventory Kills”
Posted by Chris Knudsen on October 10th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Caption: Doba thinks inside the box.
Posted by Cathleen Rittereiser on October 10th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
I’m so sleepy! No one will notice if I just catch a nap over here… *snore*
Posted by Helene on October 10th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
“Yeah, last show, they flattened a sort of gnarly-looking gal with ruby slippers. Saved us a bundle on airfare to get home.”
Posted by Steph Weiss on October 10th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Caption: What do stocks and boxes have in common?
Posted by Michelle on October 10th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
“No fair! He doesn’t have to suffer through the financial crisis with the rest of us!”
“Nah, we work for Doba. We do things different, we’ll be fine”
Posted by Kye Grace on October 10th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Looks like we’re gonna need a bigger box.
Posted by Larissa Gaston on October 10th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
“When I accepted this job I thought I was being crated off to Dubai!”
Posted by Charles Miller on October 10th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
“anyone got a box cutter?”
Posted by jeremiah_owyang on October 10th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
“When they told Todd he’d get the corner office, he didn’t realize they’d just be cardboard corners”
Posted by jeremiah_owyang on October 10th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
“Tired of being tossed around, the boxes strike back: Attack of the Killer Boxes.”
Posted by Roberto Palomo Cea on October 12th, 2008 at 10:51 am
“Is inventory weighing your Company down?”
Posted by Ted Murphy on October 14th, 2008 at 3:55 am
“As you can see from this statistical analysis - our safety program is the best in it’s field”
Posted by Victoria Gardner on October 20th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
That’s funny. Actually, we were an Exhibitor a couple of months ago at SES San Jose, and our booth didn’t even get delivered. So my colleague and I put on our “innovation” hats, and went out and bought some signs:
“DHL didn’t deliver, but IZEA will!”
It got much attention and praise. In fact, one blog named us the #1 booth at the conference. Oddly, the majority of folks thought that was our normal “schtick.”
Posted by Ashley K. Edwards on October 23rd, 2008 at 1:31 pm