Meeting me at CES-Some do’s and dont’s

To my colleagues in the PR world, yes, I will be at CES. I have a very short time for meetings and interviews as I have other conference moderating commitments, so given the plethora of email pitches I’ve already received, I thought I might offer some helpful tips on what I’m looking for.

In other words, here’s a list of don’ts:

Your email pitches will go unanswered if you don’t tell me where your booth is located; which hall. I try to make appts in the same general vicinity so I’m not running back and forth all day.

Any email pitch over 1MB in size, you know who you are, will be deleted automatically without being read. Period.

If your CEO is in town and just wants to talk to the media, I don’t care. Frankly, I’d rather interview a well-informed company spokesperson than a CEO who wants to recant the history of the company for half an hour. No time for that.

If your company has new colors of the same product, I don’t care. And don’t send pictures, it’s Radio! And they take up to much room in my email.

No matter how fabulous the car/limo is, I will not leave the vicinity of the Convention Center to go to a hotel to see your product. It will take twice as long as you and I both think it will for me to get there and back. I could meet with 3 other companies during that time. Sorry. Get a booth.

‘Major announcement of a ground-breaking new product’ is subjective. Apple announcing the  iPad 2 might be considered a major item, especially since they don’t attend CES. A Palm OS tablet is major, sponsored products are not. Same thing for “cutting-edge technology.”

We’re at CES 2011, 90 percent of this should be cutting edge.

So please, a simple email with who you are, what you’re showing, and where you’re located will suffice.  So will Diet Coke and granola bars.

Thanks, see you in Vegas!