I’ve been meaning to write this post for some time, but I wanted to share with everyone our experience from NYC at the end of October. I spent a week in New York with Pamela Weiss our head of marketing/PR and Matt Stone our VP, Operations. The original impetus for the trip was the PhotoPlus Expo trade show and then we extended the trip a bit to accomplish other meetings as well.
It was an exciting and fast paced trip, but we returned with new ideas, new customers and new connections. We also had a ton of fun and enjoyed being in the city along the way. Just an all around successful week.
We decided to take a red-eye in order to not lose a day with the West to East coast. We had enjoyed a comfortable flight on the new VirginAmerica airline (I’d recommend giving them a try) and arrived in NYC’s JFK airport at 5:30 AM, grabbed our bags and headed off to our hotel. After dropping off our bags, we went to the Javits Center to set up our booth for the show. We completed set up by 8:30 AM and had about 3 hours to kill before we could access our hotel rooms.
Quick thinking, I decided we’d all go to my favorite breakfast spot from my NYC days, the Crooked Tree Creperie on St. Marks between 1st Avenue and Avenue A. We arrived to learn they were closed which became a theme of the trip – three attempts, three strikes.
So we grabbed breakfast and a diner close by and headed back to the hotel. Then we waited…and waited…and waited some more for our rooms to open up.
We were all pretty worn out, Matt and I decided to hang out in the lobby and Pamela decided to fight the drowsiness with caffeine. Which resulted in a highly caffeinated Pamela snapping photos of an exhausted Matt and I in the lobby. Here is some of her finer work:
Finally we checked in and settled in. A great businessman once told me success is all about shoe leather, meaning you just have to get out and work those leather soles for revenues. Matt and I agree, but only wanted to work the bottom leather if the top leather was looking great. So we hit Grand Central Station for a shine:
With newly shined shoes, during the first evening in NYC, I had the pleasure of attending the Inc. Magazine reception for their 30 under 30 list, due to our July feature in their Start Up issue. It was great to meet the Inc. team in person and I met so many great young entrepreneurs.
The next day we began the PhotoPlus Expo show. Our booth turned out great and we had an opportunity to speak with a meet many existing customers and reach so many potential customers. We always gain so much be being on the tradeshow floor speaking directly with our customers. Running an online business, it is so easy to be trapped behind the computer, but so important to be out greeting customers and talking about our business. The show lasted three days and was well attended.
Here is a great shot of our booth:
After our first day at the show, I wanted Matt and Pamela to experience Duke’s – a terrific BBQ restaurant on the east side. It was a staple of my diet for more than two years in NYC and I was thrilled to return. Matt didn’t hold back ordering their Sampler Platter, which basically was five kinds of meat on one plate. Sides were served on a second plate and everything is washed down with the house beer – Pabst Blue Ribbon (which is elegantly served in a bucket). This photo says it all:
After three days on our feet, we celebrated another successful ScanDigital tradeshow at my favorite restaurant – Blue Water Grill:
Pamela and I stayed in NYC for two more days after the show to meet with members of the press and tell the ScanDigital story. The highlight for me was the afternoon we spent at the Hearst Tower. The Tower was completed in 2005 after I had moved to Los Angeles, so I had never seen the building. I must say it is now in my top 5 buildings in the world. I was amazed and Pamela quickly was tired of hearing me rave about the buildings outstanding architecture. The building was designed by Sir Norman Foster, was the first Gold LEED certified skyscraper in NYC. I’ll let you read about it here if you’re interested, but one quick fact – using an exoskeloton design they saved the use of over 2,000 tons of steel…Amazing!
Overall it was a fun, exciting and successful NYC trip for the ScanDigital team!
Check out a 30 second slideshow here: