Monthly : January, 2012

We woke up this morning to realize how much (and how subtly) one’s voice gets taxed when talking at a trade convention all day long.  I seriously thought “I can’t go on the show floor today because I sound like Bobby Brady right now!”  Some warm Starbucks and conversations did the trick on getting me at least close to normal. We had run short on printed materials, so I had to send some to FedEx/Kinkos to have printed and waiting for us on the way over to the Moscone West building.

We didn’t know what kind of crowd to expect, so we approached it all like we always do – take whatever comes and make the best of it, trying to have un of course!

One thing we had maybe hoped for (but didn’t know the probability of actually happening) was to get our app reviewed by media.  Today, we actually got recorder on video! Twice, even! Hope that makes it out to the world, but I don’t think I’ve ever watched myself in that type of situation…I don’t know if I will like it!

Highlight of the day for me was not only meeting Steve Beyer from MacReviewCast, but seing how excited he was about FavorIt.  Steve had recently taken the reigns of the highly-respected podcast and I look forward to seeing him grow.

Day Two closed out and proved to be even more exciting than yesterday – on video? Are you kidding me?! Talking to podcasters that I listen to on a daily basis?! Seriously! Psyched to see what tomorrow brings.

We were bright-eyed and bushy tailed rolling into the Moscone West Hall at 9:00 am. We, of course, talked with all of our neighbors to find out what they were showing, set up our station and waited for the doors to open. Not knowing what the crowd would be like – in size or in makeup, it took both Doug and I a little while to develop our schtick. Something as simple as knowing that the badge colors could help tip you off to whether someone was media or an attendee were lost on us at first, but that was okay because we were two guys that had an app and were happy to talk to anyone about it!

Doug took point (as we were located on the corner of the line of kiosks) where all of the traffic flow was and did one heck of a job to pull people in as they walked by.  The morning crowd was a bit older than we had expected, but as we learned, quickly and often, you can’t judge a book by its cover.  Although our intial reaction was that this crowd wouldn’t be tied in with facebook, we realized that didn’t matter because when it comes to getting the word out, absolutely anyone could create a word of mouth wildfire.  In the end, we were having so much fun being there and getting positive reactions and feedback that the occassional detractor was easy to brush off.

In the middle of all of this, I got to meet Tonya Engst of TidBITS and Take Control eBooks.  I just looked over and Doug was explaining FavorIt. I had to step in because this was one of those people I had heard on various podcasts and was excited to meet as a fan.  To make things even better, she thought we had a great product!

Jake with Tonya Engst of TiBITS!

The rest of the day flew by – constantly checking in with our new friends from Foursaken Media, Zigzagames, Sort Shots, Comixology, SF Weekly, and Appvideos. We wrapped things up and didn’t realize how exhausting standing in one spot could be. Excited for Day Two (and bed)