CES Prep in 5 Steps

For the first time attendee

1. Find Speaker/Panel Sessions
   A) Go to the list of conference tracks
   (for CES 2020, it could be found by going to Conference — Conference Programs)
   B) Identify any that you are interested in
   (note that some cost additional entrance $$$)
   C) Click through interesting tracks to view sessions
   D) Click through interesting sessions and select to add them to your agenda
2. Plan Exhibitor Tour
   A) Go to the Exhibitor Directory
   (for CES 2020, it could be found under Show Floor — Exhibitor Directory)
   B)
   Search for companies of interest that you will want to check out and click through them to add them to your show planner. Note: Ask your team early for anyone they need you to meet with on their behalf
   Companies of interest may include those
   -in your field (peers & competitors)
   -that your company might want to partner with
   -that your company could be acquired by
   -that you may want to get some inspiration from as far as how they had their booth set up
   -that are in adjacent markets and have trends relevant to your company
   -that produce components or offer services that you need to procure
   C) Organize these by location (building), then by floor, then by number, so you aren’t spending half your time back-tracking.
   Note: Tech East (LVCC, Westgate, Renaissance) is about a 45 minute walk from Tech West (Sands, Venetian, Palazzo, Wynn, Encore) and maybe an hour to Tech South (Aria, Park MGM, Vdara)
3. Find Suite Companies
   A) On the CES website, go to the interactive map. This may take some digging
   (for CES 2020 it could be found by going to Show Floor — Official Show Locations — Interactive Map)
   B) Select each floor labeled as “Suites”, and zoom in to view the companies located in each
   C) Click through any companies of interest and see if “Company Contacts” are listed with emails or if there is a button to “Send Email” and contact them with your interest to meet
   Note: These people want you to go to them to meet. They have paid for the spot so they aren’t running all around Vegas- make it easy for them to say yes and include “let’s meet in your suite” in the email.
4. Reach Out
   A) Post on social media asking if anyone you know (and may have business with) is going and if they want to meet up
   B) Email folks you think might be going to see and schedule meetings
   C) Search (LinkedIn, Twitter, etc) #CES and #CESYYYY and the name of any summit or track you are attending to see who is posting about it and if they may be relevant to your work, reach out!

1. What Will You Bring?
   A) Plan what physical content you’ll bring — do you need to make new business cards? Do you want to bring brochures? One-page business summaries? Stickers? T-Shirts? And figure out what you need to do when to have them ready in time.
   B) Your stories. For different buckets of folks (suppliers, potential partners, etc), what are you showing up to ask and tell? For each group of folks, have a general script to start with, “Hi, I’m Jenn, and I’m so excited to talk with you because…”
   C) People. Can you make all these meetings on your own? What is your physical capacity like? What is your interpersonal interaction capacity like? What is your technical/business/operations knowledge for your business? Who else do you need?
   D) If you are good with those things, what will you need to bring as support for being all that- References for knowledge areas? Workout clothes to stay strong? Book to read and recharge?