I just spent 3 days at the DMA show (ignoring all my tips from below) so my thoughts are somewhat muddled this week. Here is what I can muster:
Isn’t it amazing how different your sensory reactions are to Las Vegas when you leave compared to when you arrive? Walking the ½ mile through the Casino on your way to check-in is pure, little kid anticipation. You’re looking up at a carnival of lights and other wondrous temptations and you can’t wait to eat big, shop big, deal big, drink big, talk big, gamble big- whatever you’re into. 48 hours later you’re ready to torch your clothes from all the cigarette smoke. The blinking lights and steady electrical jingle of all those ogres pumping money they don’t have into one armed bandits has you running for your taxi. If you could nuke the whole place from your plane you would.
The DMA is a shell of the show it used to be. At least that is what all the old timers who steadily streamed through the booth told me. Apparently back when “direct” meant postal files (which it still does to half of the companies there) the DMA exhibition floor was like Carnaval. Every booth was overflowing with buyers and all the bars and restaurants for miles were crowded with fat cats making big data money deals. Booth babes for every prospect. Parties into the wee hours.
What I saw were row after row of companies peddling what my dad would call “buckets of rubber dog crap.” Every type of gadget or magnet or toy that you could slap your company logo on and send to millions of unwilling recipients whose personal information was peddled by the other half of the show. (Of course, I don’t feel that Jigsaw is included in this description because we sell BtoB information- we’re linking businesspeople with other businesspeople that they just don’t happen to know how bad they want to transact with them yet!!!)
All in all, though, it was a great show for Jigsaw. We got triple the leads (as verified on- the -spot by two Jigsaw AE’s and myself) that we expected. I was able to meet with several partners and future partners, as was our VP of Field Ops, who attempted to set the conference record for quantity of back-to-back speed meetings. And we all got to hear those words that I never EVER tire of hearing: “Hey, I know you guys- I love Jigsaw- I use it every day…”
