In April, Matt Colquhoun, Sara Harb, and I attended the ASIS NYC Security Conference and Expo in New York City. For Matt and Sara, it was their first trade show with PPM. For me, it was my first trade show ever! It was quite the experience, all in all.
Setup the first day was fairly easy and I met Matt and Sara at our hotel—Hotel 414—a wonderful little boutique hotel at the edge of the theatre district in NYC. I was surprised, and for those who know me, pretty excited, at the hotel management’s announcement that there would be a FREE happy hour each night from 5:30-7:00pm. After checking in to my room, I met up with Matt and Sara in the hotel’s garden, where we shared a beverage or two, and cheese and crackers. We then hit Times Square for a look around, and finally settled at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company for dinner and a window view of Times Square. With dinner concluded, we headed back to the hotel to rest up for the big days ahead.
Wednesday morning dawned bright and clear and we made our way by taxi to the Jacob Javits Centre. The booth was as we left it, and as we had hoped, the set up was quick! The show opened quietly, evidenced only by the number of people on the floor—no start horn or anything. Traffic at the booth began almost immediately, as current clients and interested prospects came by to say hello and inquire about what PPM could do for them. We received a lot of great questions, some challenging, some very easily answered and accomplished with PPM’s product suite.
I was very impressed with the current clients who stopped by to say hi. As I mentioned, this was my first trade show and I was very pleased with the feedback we received. Sometimes it was nothing more than a passing “hi guys, happy customer!” as they walked by, other instances led to a little more engagement on both sides. Either way, it was very gratifying to hear how many of our current clients are thrilled with the product.
Matt and Sara were dynamos, not letting anyone by the booth who seemed interested or had questions, and I pitched in where I could with demos and some of the deeper Perspective questions. There were also great discussions with clients around our recent acquisition(s) and new CEO. The overall show size was smaller than I expected, but it was still pretty impressive and generated a good amount of traffic.
At day’s end, we regrouped at our hotel and then headed to the NYC Subway, with our destination being One World Trade. Sara had managed to arrange a tour for us, and we were taken to the 85th floor of this amazing new building. The public observatory isn’t open yet, so we felt a little more privileged in being able to take in the view.
Getting inside was a little daunting, as the area is patrolled by not only NYPD, but also Army regulars in full gear with weapons displayed openly, so it lends a strange feeling to what is normally a very common occurrence, walking into a building. Having been at, and on the roof of, the World Trade Center as a teen, it was very easy to notice just how much things have changed. We concluded our tour of the area with dinner at a local restaurant and then a visit to the memorial site.
Day 2 at the conference was more of the same – happy clients, interesting questions, and demos. The conference seemed busier on the second day due to the availability of speakers and the “Person of the Year” luncheon for the ASIS NYC Chapter.
I’m still very surprised when we ask a potential prospect “what do you currently have in place for incident management?” and the reply is “nothing” or “Excel”. I’d say the majority of the interest in PPM over the course of the show was just that—incident management—but we also had some interesting inquiries along the lines of integrations, back-end reporting, and workflow. I don’t think there was an individual who stopped to ask a question or listen to a demo that didn’t leave the booth with a very positive impression of PPM. My favorite comment for the show – “I want to get back on the light side of the Force” – made by a former Perspective user currently in a role without Perspective, but trying to convince management to make the change.
In all, it was a very worthwhile show. Not only did we have great discussions with clients and prospects, we all had a fantastic first tradeshow and New York experience.
Brad Rooke, CPP
Application Specialist
PPM
Are you interested in meeting PPM staff in person to talk about Perspective? We have many events and trade shows scheduled over the course of 2015. To see where you can find PPM near you, take a look at all of our Upcoming Events!
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