Note from Stephen Northcutt, Director of Training and Certification

This web page is written to both prospective vendors and attendees for the major SANS conferences that have exhibition shows. SANS conferences are not modeled after other conferences, so there are some differences that you should be aware of up front.

Did you know that most vendors consider SANS the most important show they attend in a year? On average, the leads from a SANS exhibitions are five times more effective than other shows. Take a look at the photographs below and you will quickly see the reason for this.

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Did you notice the one on one, the interactivity between the vendor and the SANS attendee?

Many exhibition shows judge their effectiveness by the degree of foot traffic. I remember being an engineer at Dahlgren, I used to attend shows in Washington D.C. every year like FOSE, the Federal Office Systems Exhibition. To be honest, even though my job at that time was to evaluate new products for the U.S. Navy, I think my primary goal was actually to see how many T-shirts and other trinkets I could acquire, not to learn about the vendor's products. But what I remember the most about these shows was the incredible crowd in the aisles, it felt like a cattle herd. I, like most computer people, I get uncomfortable when I have no personal space. And after a whole day working the floor I usually had more T-shirts and trinkets than solid product leads.

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I am not saying that the vendor show doesn't get crowded, it does. But we try to arrange things to ensure that attendees have a chance to enjoy a positive kind of interactivity with sales people. Want to learn more about what to expect from a SANS vendor expo?

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One of the complaints we sometimes hear from our vendors is that the show hours are too long. There is always a balance to be struck and we are always open to compromise and suggestions, but SANS exists for the twin purposes of research and education and the exhibit is a great time for the attendees to learn about your products.

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Since we value education, one suggestion we make if you are getting a large booth is that you consider running a small classroom right on the show floor. If you are a SANS silver sponsor or above and would like for me to review your talk for a show floor classroom and make suggestions to help you reach the attendees, I am happy to do so. You may contact me at stephen@sans.org.

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