

Just my 2c on attending tech and startup events around London - orliesaurus
http://blog.mailjet.com/post/63722684419/sharing-my-tips-and-experiences-attending-tech-startup

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orliesaurus
Anyone else is a serial attender? Any further tips to share? please let me
know! I'm really keen on adding more tips and hints in the next couple of
weeks!

~~~
edent
Hand sanitizer. Seriously. I did Developer Evangelism in London (and SF,
Barcelona, Germany). Carry a little bottle of alcohol gel. After every 10
hands you shake, clean your hands (subtly!)

If you want to stay well, and prevent diseases passing between all attendees -
scrub those hands!

Developers are no more disgusting than any other human being - so this isn't
meant as an insult. But developers in London are an international bunch and
are quite often jumping from country to country bringing all sorts of exotic
germs with them.

I'd also recommend that you do something with the business cards you get. If
you've got Salesforce or similar stick them in there. If not, send a one time
email to the people you met reminding them of who you are and what you do.
Then _ask_ if they want to go on your developer mailing list.

Don't hand out blank USB sticks. Branded sticks are ok - but unless they're
expensive multi-gigabyte sticks, they're useless. Stick your SDK, documents,
presentation, demo videos etc on there. When someone asks how they can get
started, you hand them a branded stick and you've instantly saved them 30
minutes of digging around your website and downloading files.

Work out which events you need to attend. I once made the mistake of attending
a games conference where literally _no one_ cared about our product. A little
work in advance will save you that annoyance.

Finally, don't sacrifice your _own_ social life. Most of the events in London
happen in the evening and go on late into the night. One of the reasons I left
my evangelist job was because I was bored of not seeing my friends and family.
It's hard to go out and socialise without feeling like you should be working
the room.

Good luck!

Terence

~~~
lucaspiller
Something that I always wonder about: How do you get into Developer
Evangelism?

~~~
edent
That's an interesting question. I spoke at a lot of conferences, ran lots of
stands for companies at trade shows, then made the leap.

If you're comfortable approaching and talking to strangers, and can talk with
confidence about a technical product, that's pretty much all you need to get
started.

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linker3000
"Point number one: Planning, be tidy or be late."

I don't think that's an either-or!?

(Justin Bieber should not be your role model.)

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waterlion
This seems like banal common sense. If these points aren't obvious to you, no
amount of advice will help.

