Josiah and I recently headed to Texas for the Gulf Coast Conference. We spent two days walking the floor, meeting people and getting a closer look at the businesses exhibiting there. We also spent part of the trip getting Josiah’s truck moving again, which made its way into the video.
There was a good mix of scientific companies and industrial manufacturers, and we covered pretty much the whole floor. I came away with plenty of conversations I wanted to continue, along with a few thoughts about how these businesses tell their stories.
One of the highlights was seeing Chemplex’s ads in the show program. We’ve been working with them and created a couple of ads for the conference, where they were a Diamond Sponsor. It was cool to pick up the program and see that work in person, in the setting it was designed for.
Walking around the show also reinforced how complex these businesses are. Their products, their customers’ needs and the challenges they solve take some explaining. Many have built their businesses over years of relationships, networking and word of mouth. That experience gives them a lot to talk about, but communicating it online can be a challenge.
A theme in our conversations was the role of the company website. A site might show the products and explain what a business does, yet still leave a prospective customer with a lot of missing pieces:
- What makes this company a good fit?
- What do they understand about my problem?
- Why should I start a conversation with them?
Those are things that often become clear once someone speaks to the team. I think there’s an opportunity to bring more of that understanding into the website itself.
When a business can explain its offering clearly and tell its story in a way people understand, the website becomes more useful to the sales process. Someone can arrive at that first conversation with a better sense of the company and what it can help them do. For businesses with complex offerings, that’s especially important, and even harder to do.
That was my biggest takeaway from the conference: there’s a lot of potential here!
These companies have years of experience to share, and their websites can help potential customers understand that expertise before the first conversation.
Of course, the trip had its less business-focused moments too. There was travel, food, and the truck situation. Josiah got sucked into figuring out the problem, and we made sure to capture all his trials and tribulations on camera! To his deserved credit, he fixed the truck, and I have to say, I was quite impressed!
The video brings those moments together with a look around the show. It’s a little record of the trip, including the bits you wouldn’t put on a conference agenda.
I’m looking forward to continuing the conversations we started at the Gulf Coast Conference. It was a good group of people, an interesting mix of businesses and a useful chance to spend time understanding their challenges.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to speak with us, and to Josiah for adding truck repairs to the itinerary, not to mention being an awesome partner in crime on the trade show floor.
