Lots of Power at Solar Power 2007
This year's Solar Power 2007 conference was booming, with a huge crowd navigating two relatively small conference floor areas. The booths were small and tightly packed, which also meant that novices looking to see the latest innovations in solar power didn't have to walk far to be amazed.
The Solar Power event is very interesting, because you see products targeted at distributors and OEMs, which are clearly not built for general consumer consumption. But you also see the latest in solar panel design with aesthetics clearly in mind for the discerning home or business owner. It is like Embedded Systems Conference meets E3 in the tech world.
Of all of the alternative-energy markets, solar is probably the farthest along in terms of companies with viable, tested commercial products and a ready-made market to consume them. What many of the companies don't realize is that they need to "prime the pump" to build awareness for their technology and combat the FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) that is hurting the market. A Gristmill guest poster thinks the media is a problem, but the right kind media can help battle the FUD. It may only be a matter of time before we look back at this period and marvel at how many naysayers and steeply funded interests created a doubt in the minds of the general public and legislators, delaying a sorely needed change in energy technology and usage.
Overall, I am sure it turned out to be a great event for many of the vendors with an enormous amount of foot traffic and buzz. In my scientific yet informal poll of eight vendors, 100% responded that the show had been good for lead generation, despite an overall feeling that it would be a vendor-hug fest like RSA is in security. I can't speak for how many people here are "qualified" prospects from a solar product and technology perspective (myself included), but this industry needed a flagship event to generate broad awareness of how far the technology has come.
The only negative on the first day of the event is that they were clearly not ready for a crowd of this size. It reminds me of when I went to one of the first inter-league games in Montreal when the Red Sox were playing the Expos. It was the second largest crowd after opening day, and they didn't have enough concession stands open. Even worse, those concession stands that were open ran out of beer, hot dogs, popcorn and virtually everything else they offered.
At SP 2007, the parking situation was horrible for those that rented cars or were local, with most having to park in a far-flung garage. Worse, they didn't have signs or conference personnel telling folks how to get to the conference center where the event was being held. Finally, they only had a single badge pick-up kiosk open for those that pre-registered for the expo only and only two for those that were full conference. My colleague and I were unfortunate enough to be expo only, leading to an hour and ten minute wait in line.
Next year the event moves to San Diego, where I am sure the conference planners will have learned their lessons. If not, I will have learned mine which is to take cabs to the event and get there early. They claim they will have three-times the space. IDG will also be having the GreenXchange Xpo a couple of weeks earlier in LA, which could cannibalize some of the traffic from Solar, but we'll see.
I did not see a lot of media at the event, but sample publication handouts were rampant and CNET had a front-page section devoted to SP 2007 on News.com. My guess is that we are one year away from this becoming a major media event where PR will be a mainstay for most of the vendors, versus the small number that have devoted any budget to PR and marketing.
In any event, I look forward to Solar Power 2008, GreenXchange Xpo and other events that seem to be popping up. Solar was a great event in spite of the logistics and there are a lot of cool companies targeting consumers and businesses.
Posted by Jason Morris on October 10, 2007 at 2:00 PM
Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)
