Roopinder Tara writes about the inside news of trade shows, etc at his CAD Insider blog. Related to that is this item from Robert X. Cringely of Infoworld:
How suite it ain't: NetSuite planned to host an SAP-bashing cocktail reception across the street from the German software giant's SAPPHIRE show in Orlando, Fla., until SAP found out about it and pulled the plug. The on-demand CRM vendor claims SAP forced the hotel to cancel NetSuite's reservation and then called all the other hotels in town to do the same. SAP spokesdude Steve Bauer called NetSuite's guerilla marketing ploy a "desperate attempt to be disruptive."
These sorts of events are not uncommon in the CAD world. In the dying days of the AEC Systems show, when the then-new owners jacked booth prices w-a-a-y up, CAD companies found it much, much cheaper to host a "booth" in a hotel suite across the road. How much cheaper? The smallest booth would cost several thousand dollars for three days. In contrast, the hotel suit might be a couple hundred a night, but you'd have to pay $100 a night for the hotel anyhow -- net cost, maybe 1/8 that of the booth. The competitive marketplace in action.
Even more low budget is the "meeting near the press room," when a third-party developer can afford neither the booth nor the suite.
OTOH, kicking competitors out of a CAD vendor's user event is acceptable. The event, after all, is a private affair. To fight back, competitors show up using aliases on their badges and a nudge-nudge-wink-wink smile on their faces.
Competitors targeting customers near a user event is tacky (such as Autodesk's attempt during SolidWorks World earlier this year), but shutting them out of town -- as did SAP apparently -- is downright unconstitutional (at least it would be here in Canada, where we have the right to "freedom of movement.") If the story is true, then it means that SAP is in fear of its competitors.
Showing fear is not a good thing.
Why is targeting users near a user event tacky? Sounds like the free market forces at work. We should let them work.
David
Posted by: David Martin | May 24, 2006 at 06:37 AM