如何在创业会议上脱颖而出

    上周大部分时间，我都在纽约市94号码头参加TechCrunch Disrupt大会。笔者上次来到这里是在几个月之前，当时是出席一场现代艺术展，主角是时髦的画家和雕塑家，如今，看到的却是一群群天才编码员，这简直就是“时光穿越”般的经典纽约时刻。

    据笔者猜测，与会的公司多达60家，因此，笔者很难做到面面俱到，而这些公司要想吸引投资者驻足也并不容易。

    有些公司成功吸引了投资者，而有的公司却不如人意。在大会上，如何获得投资者的青睐？笔者总结出了成功公司的3条策略，以及2条禁忌：

成功策略：举行比赛

    免费的东西人人爱。此外，比赛这种形式总能吸引人们的眼球。笔者经过一个展台时，一位创业者问道：“打扰了，能问一下您的手机里存了多少联系人吗？”

    听起来是个很安全的问题。“我不知道。很多吧。”

    他的回答是：“如果您愿意查看一下，我会将您存入我们的数据库，联系人最多的人将赢得一台iPad平板电脑。”

    接下来的几分钟，我们数了数我手机里的联系人（发现一共有4,470个），这个过程中，他没有提到一丁点与其业务相关的话题。但接下来，我们的对话却很自然地转移到他的创业项目上，原来，联系人管理空间正是他的项目。

    我认为，这是一种非常聪明的策略。希望我能赢得奖品。

成功策略：展台始终保持3 - 4名工作人员

    展台中一定要有一名可以自由走动的工作人员，负责招呼路过的参观者。如果只安排1到2名工作人员，他们可能没空招呼新访客，结果新来的访客要么尴尬地在一旁等待，要么干脆离开。如果安排3 - 4名工作人员，就能保证始终有一个人接待访问展台的客流，并确保所有访客都得到热情的接待。

成功策略：在最大的LCD屏幕上，循环播放公司演示视频

    在进入有大量展台的会场后，笔者首先做的就是四处走走，看看有没有感兴趣的东西。笔者属于纯粹的图像认知类型，目的就是大体了解一下会场的情况，然后优先安排自己的时间。公司的营销材料必须在5 - 10秒钟内吸引我的注意力，所以，他们需要清楚演示自己的创业项目。

    I spent much of last week at Pier 94 in NYC, attending TechCrunch Disrupt NY. The last time I was at Pier 94 was for a modern art show, so it was a bit strange seeing a bunch of developers hanging out where hipster painters and sculptors stood only a few months before. Truly a unique NY moment of quasi-deja vu.

    With (I'm guessing) ~60 companies on display, it was hard for me to cover all the ground I wanted and, conversely, hard for the companies to flag down the right investors.

    Some companies were great at attracting the right type of attention. Some were not. I wrote down 3 things the best ones did, and 2 things I wouldn't recommend repeating:

DO: Run a contest.

    Everyone loves free stuff. Moreover, contests are a great way to draw someone in. I walked by a booth, and a founder asked, "Excuse me, but how many contacts do you have in your phone?"

    Innocent enough question. "I don't know. A lot."

    His reply: "Well, if you look it up, I'll put it in our database, and the person with the most contacts wins an iPad."

    We spent the next few minutes figuring out how many contacts I have in my phone (4,470 it turns out), not talking about his business. After we were done, however, the conversation flowed very naturally into what he was working on, which turned out to be in the contact management space.

    I thought this was a clever ruse. Hopefully I'll win something as a result.

DO: Have 3-4 people at the booth at all times.

    You should always have one person free at your booth to greet passers by. This is hard to do if you only have 1-2 people because they both will get occupied, leaving new visitors the choice of awkwardly standing by waiting to talk to you, or simply walking away. Having 3-4 people will almost always result in your having a free body to manage the flow of new visitors to your booth and make sure all are welcome.

DO: Get the biggest LCD screen you can find and run your demo on a loop.

    The first thing I do when I enter a conference with a lot of demo tables is walk the floor looking for something that catches my eye. I am in pure pattern recognition mode, and my goal is to get a lay of the land, in order to prioritize my time. Your marketing materials have about 5-10 seconds to catch my attention on this loop, so they need to clearly demonstrate what you do.