Posted on November 20, 2013 by Atal Malviya on Odimax.com
This blog is little late compared to many summaries of learnings and experiences from the 2013 Dublin Web Summit, but there is a reason for that which I will tell you in a while.
The key questions for any startup going to an event like Web Summit are what should we expect, and what do we want to achieve? With these questions in mind, itâs then a case of how to prepare and execute the right plan.
We were in the same boat as everyone else when we were selected as an ALPHA startup by the Web Summit team. We knew we were being given a huge opportunity to meet with investors, potential customers, to listen to awesome speakers, and, of course, to see what else is going on in the tech and enterprise world, on a scale none of us had experienced before.
Practically speaking, the challenge for us was to prioritise our activities, because we had only 2 days and we wanted to take best out of it. I do not want to go and sit in the audience to listen to the great speakers out there for 2 hours â not because they wonât add value â but because I can see them later, while sitting on the train home (when Liz hasnât set me lots of reading to doâŚ), as everything was being recorded and uploaded, much like the fantastic TED talks. What I would not be able to do while on the train is to a have face-to-face meetings with so many potential customers, advisors, and investors.
âPeople buy people, not products or servicesâ â we met with people face-to-face, built up a rapport with them, and have already converted one into a paid customer in just 2 weeks, and are in discussions with many others both as clients and partners. The same is the case with investors. I wanted to write this blog after the first conversion, hence the delay.
I have a little confession to make: To the team who were managing the speed pitching and networking event for startups and investors, Iâm sorry, I didnât leave the room after 20 mins. I was there for 3 hours. I met with almost all the investors in all the slots â I was exhausted by the end of the day but had some good meetings and am expecting some follow-up meetings in the coming weeks. Youâve got to grab the opportunities while you can, right?
Web Summit is a massive event and you cannot expect to cover and absorb it all in 2 days. The same is the case for any event of this size, so identifying the things that matter most to you in advance will help you in extracting best value from such a showcase. Saying âHiâ to a person face-to-face cannot be replaced by any technology, and when we get an opportunity like this we should relish it. The priority for any startup should be generating and converting sales leads, and forging valuable connections which will help to take you forward, through your next round of investment or your next business milestone.
 In case you missed us at the Web Summit and arenât sure what we do, here at Odimax we generate qualified sales leads from Social Media; our customers pay only for the leads delivered to them. If youâd like to hear more, donât hesitate to drop me an email: [email protected]