Bitdefender at RSA 2016

Recently, I helped Bitdefender drive traffic to their trade show exhibit at the 25th Anniversary of the RSA Conference, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, from February 29 - March 3rd.

This was the first time that Bitdefender, headquartered in Romania, exhibited at RSA and they knew it was a huge show and an opportunity to connect with new customers and make a name for themselves. In fact, it’s one of the largetst IT security shows in the world and they had to knock it out of the park.

Three Weeks
About 3 weeks prior to the show it was confirmed that we were on. At that point, trade show clients receive a questionnaire to help me define their goals. They returned the questionnaire about a week later and it was time to get to work.

My first task is to use their answers to learn about what they do and cull useful information. Key phrases, bullet points that may address challenges they can solve, even single key words are helpful to push me in a direction.

In this case, words and phrases like “predict behavior,” “plan & configure” and “mitigate risk” kept popping off the page. Bitdefender also has a great catch phrase: “Unfollow The Traditional.” Yeah, I can do something with that.

Next, with that information in mind I looked at my active repertoire and began to make connections that were relevant.

This is the most creative part of the process and by keeping an open mind I often come away with something unexpected, fun, and useful for each client.

Two Weeks
Two weeks is about typical lead time for this kind of work. And while keeping an open mind is important for creativity, it’s also important to be pragmatic. Experience has shown that if something isn’t working, put it on the back burner and don’t waste time on it. The key is to keep things simple and serve my client’s needs.

At large trade shows like RSA, attendees are often pressed for time. They are running from keynote speeches, to meetings with specific vendors, to breakout sessions. Some people may only be there for the day and want to see as much as they can without wasting time. But my job is to give them a reason to stop and listen to what my client has to say.

Showtime
I arrived at Bitdefender's booth early on day one to load-in my table, step, and sound system, meet with the team, and prep for the opening networking event.

Bitdefender exhibit booth at RSA 2016, San Francisco

Portable Sound System including wireless microphone and receiver

And then it was showtime!

Over the next four days I stopped attendees in their tracks, entertained and educated them on Bitdefender’s GravityZone product, and drove qualified leads on to their sales team.