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Design007-Dec2018

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DECEMBER 2018 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 13 thing important. Thus, technical sessions that are valuable and free bring people out. Shaughnessy: This year, speakers included Dr. Bruce Archambeault, Susy Webb, Rick Hartley, and Gary Ferrari. That's a pretty good group of instructors. Cosentino: We're blessed to have so many people willing to volunteer their time. We still have very competitive prices for the booths. Lance Olive: As Randy said, if we don't, then how does everybody have an even playing field? We want the small guy to have the same advantage as the big guy. Shaughnessy: Since this began, Lance, I know you had some data on how things have grown over the years. Olive: That's right. I came from the software industry initially. I was a software engineer and a manager at Cisco. Then, I began working on my MBA. I wanted to run a small business. I was having lunch with my friend Randy, who was killing himself trying to keep his company productive and keep up with his deadlines. He said, "Why don't you quit Cisco and come run Better Boards' business side?" That way, Randy could focus on what he does really well, which is PCB design. In 2012, Randy moved the show to the McK- immon Center here at North Carolina (NC) State for the first time. I saw the planning and execution of the show that year, and having recently come off of my MBA studies, I real- ized there was a big opportunity here, and a lot of what needed to be tapped wasn't being tapped yet. I said, "We should do things a little differently in 2013." We structured the plan- ning of the show like a project. I managed it like a project, set up tasks, assigned tasks to people, and we were able to get things done a lot earlier, which reduced the costs. Planning ahead removes expediting. Also, it gave us a little more time to reach out. In 2014, the person who was doing the outreach and mailers wanted to resign and turn it over, so I took that over. I took all of the various spreadsheets and emails and created one consolidated list for marketing. I began to manage that list and market to it actively. I cultivated that list, and over time grew it from a few hundred to 2,000 quality email addresses. I also removed 1,500 email addresses that were lower quality. I could go around say- ing that I have almost 4,000 email addresses, but really, I have 2,000 quality email addresses. The reason that's important is that when I send my marketing emails out to people, I tap quality people who want to be informed, so it's not spam. Every year, I cultivate, renew, and refresh that list. I've also structured these emails so that they can be forwarded to co- workers or anyone who is interested. One of the best ways to find these second- and third- tier participants and attendees is to have their coworkers reach out to them. In 2012, we had 330 registrations. This year we've tripled that. We're pushing 970 in 2018. In terms of exhibitor growths, we've gone from about 36 in 2012 to 78 tabletops this year. I equate this growth to the two pedals on a bicy- cle. You need attendees so that the exhibitors feel like they get their money's worth. Then, you need the exhibitors there, so the attendees find the value in coming. I told Randy and Tony, who did the outreach for the exhibitors, "Go ahead and tell them that we're going to set a new record for attendees this year. If they're on the fence, they'll come." It worked! Vendors wanted to exhibit. Then, I followed that with the press release that tells all of the vendors we set new records for attend- One of the best ways to find these second- and third-tier participants and attendees is to have their coworkers reach out to them.

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