Many companies consider it a waste of money to send employees to conferences. They believe they will only hear sales pitches, and that they’ll never learn anything that would really help their business. But our events are different. We spend a great deal of time and effort recruiting end users that have deployed radio frequency identification systems and related technologies to solve business problems. And they share their experiences at our events—not just the successes, but also the bumps along the road.
|
|
The value for attendees is that they don’t get sold on a particular solution. They hear the experiences of different companies, and learn what each did right and wrong, so they can avoid the same mistakes and deploy a system that will work for their particular application, in their specific environment.
It’s sometimes hard for us to communicate just how helpful our events are. But we try, with testimonials such as these:
|
“This is the third RFID Journal LIVE! event Cadbury has attended, and our team has found each conference to be more informative and valuable than the preceding ones.” —David Sasdi, director of customer and supply chain integration, Cadbury North America |
|
“Congratulations on a fantastic conference. My colleague and I found it a valuable learning experience and a great opportunity to engage RFID vendors.” —Russ Havlak, IT branch lead, Lockheed Martin |
And we try using post-event survey data, such as:
• More than 80 percent of 2009 attendees found a solution to their business problem.
• More than 70 percent said they came away with additional ideas that could make or save their company money.
Still, some people, burned by their experiences at other events, think this must be marketing hype. So this year, RFID Journal will guarantee that end users attending for the first time will find RFID Journal LIVE! valuable. We debated offering end users who have never attended a 100-percent money-back guarantee, but that option was unviable since people could just say they didn’t find the event useful, even if they did.
What we can do is offer something of equal or greater value. If you are an end user attending LIVE! for the first time, and if you do not think the educational sessions are good and find the chance to meet 175 exhibitors valuable, I will offer you 5 hours of free consulting on your RFID project, now or in the future (I usually charge venture capitalists $500 per hour for consulting, so that’s a $2,500 value). I’ll help you choose the proper technologies, point you to the right systems integrator, evaluate the likelihood of success, and suggest the most cost-effective way to solve your business problem—even if that means using some technology other than RFID. Or I will brief your entire executive team on how to develop a smart RFID strategy, which I’ve been doing more of lately.
I stand by this guarantee, but I’m confident you’ll feel—as 97 percent to 99 percent of our attendees tell us—that you received value for your money, and that the event was well worth your time and effort. Even those who have come from Asia and as far away as New Zealand have told us that.
Here’s why: This is not a technology event. You won’t be bored by engineers talking about things that don’t mean anything to you or your business. You won’t be bombarded by sales pitches masquerading as presentations. Instead, you’ll hear from business folks, like yourself, who had a problem and employed radio frequency identification to solve it. They’ll describe their projects in detail—including the challenges—and discuss how RFID helped them cut costs, streamline business processes and enhance their competitiveness. And they’ll answer your questions.
This year’s event will feature more than 50 end-user case studies in these key vertical industries:
| • Aerospace | • Health Care |
| • Construction | • Manufacturing |
| • Consumer Packaged Goods | • Oil & Gas |
| • Defense | • Pharmaceuticals |
| • Food Production | • Retail |
| • Government | • Supply Chain/Logistics |
RFID Journal‘s goal is to educate potential end users about the benefits of RFID, and we take pride in delivering a sound educational program at our RFID Journal LIVE! events. We also attract high-quality exhibitors, many of whom will demonstrate their solutions, so you can see how they work. If you have a business problem that you think RFID can solve, come and learn. You won’t be disappointed—I guarantee it.
Mark Roberti is the founder and editor of RFID Journal. If you would like to comment on this article, click on the link below. To read more of Mark’s opinions, visit the RFID Journal Blog or click here.