Tech Gets Personal

One of the most exciting developments in tech PR is the increasing "personalization" of technology. Not long ago, tech PR folks worked with companies where there were several "degrees of separation" between us and the tech products we represented. As you'll see from the articles in this e-newsletter, and in particular from the client snapshots we've included, there's a much closer connection between consumers and a variety of technologies.

Topaz is also very involved in social media - an area that is contributing in a significant way to the personalization of technology. Today, through blogs, newsgroups, podcasts and other online resources, consumers can learn about and comment on products. You'll see this reflected in the work of Living Expositions Inc., producer of the Electronic Living Expo (ELX), an event that is making social media a key element of its interaction with attendees.

In this issue, we'll touch on these topics and other personal technology developments that are changing the lives of consumers, businesses, journalists and PR professionals.

Thanks,
Tony & Paula

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ELX: Showcasing Consumer Technology

Topaz is working with a growing number of companies whose products and services represent the personalization of technology. One of the best examples of these companies is Living Expositions, Inc. – producer of ELX, Electronic Living Expo consumer events.

Debuting February 15, 2008 in Boston, ELX will offer a learning and entertainment experience dedicated to helping consumers integrate and enjoy the latest electronic innovations in their everyday lives. The event will showcase, demonstrate and allow attendees to use cutting-edge products and technologies for home entertainment, gaming, personal and home audio systems, personal computing, mobile communications, digital creation and more offered by leading manufacturers, retailers and services. The expected 30,000 attendees will also have access to product introductions and demonstrations from hundreds of exhibitors, interactive activities, live and online entertainment, how-to workshops and expert presentations.

Premier sponsor Verizon Communications was recently joined by the Boston Globe and CBS RADIO, who have signed on as the primary media sponsors.

Topaz is working with ELX to raise visibility with prospective exhibitors and attendees for this breakthrough consumer electronics event.

ELX: For Consumers, By Consumers

Further marrying consumers with technology, ELX will be the first event of its kind to be driven and designed by consumer input through social media networking. Consumers will be invited to contribute to the design and programs of ELX through shared dialogue on social networks, blogs and other interactive opportunities. Consumers also will be able to participate in a range of online and interactive programs, including gaming, promotions and contests.

“ELX taps into today’s extraordinary consumer electronics phenomenon. Never before have we seen so much interest in these products, or so rapid a pace of product and technology innovation. Our events provide a much-needed public showcase of the consumer electronics industry,” said Garvin. “More than an exposition, more than a traditional event, ELX will be an ‘experience,’ a true ‘living extension’ of today’s connected consumer electronics consumer community.”

The Boston event — being held at the Bayside Expo Center — is the first in a series of expositions around the country. Additional events for 2008 - 2009 are being planned in Seattle, Chicago, Miami and San Jose.

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The Widening World of Consumer Tech

In addition to ELX, Topaz is working with other companies whose technology touches the lives of consumers. Here’s a quick look at some of our clients who represent the fast changing and expanding space of personalized technology:

Adesso System’s “Tubes” (www.TubesNow.com) is a revolutionary Internet desktop application that blends the web & desktop, empowers ordinary people to share anything with anyone—publicly or privately—and  creates entire websites and updates content right to your desktop - all just by drag and drop. 

BitDefender (http://www.bitdefender.com), a global provider of security solutions, has quickly become a powerhouse among IT security vendors. It’s recently unveiled its newest suite of security software for consumers and SMBs: BitDefender Security 2008.

MapQuest (http://www.mapquest.com), working to integrate its technology into the applications we use, is making it easier to for consumers to get accurate locations information from anywhere they are.

Mass Technology Leadership Council (MTLC) (http://www.masstlc.org/). Topaz works with MTLC to help spotlight technologies and  companies including many that provide personal technology products and services.

Novarra (http://www.novarra.com/) is changing the way consumers go online remotely, providing technology that enables mobile users to access the Web as they would from their own PC.

Prospectiv (www.Prospectiv.com) ,a provider of online customer acquisition to leading brands, helps marketers build an in-house list of consumers interested in their products and services by engaging consumers through multiple online channels, including email, search, interactive polls and consumer web sites like Eversave.com and Healthier.com

Prospero (http://www.prospero.com) helps organizations engage consumers by enabling them to develop and manage branded, integrated communities and social networks comprised of message boards, blogs, ratings, chats and more.

Vanu Inc. (www.vanu.com) is the developer of the Anywave Base Station, the first U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) certified software radio. Vanu is helping make it easier for carriers to deliver mobile services to consumers including GSM, CDMA, iDEN and beyond.

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Tech Journalism – Telling the Story Gets Personal

By Alan Alper

-- Alan Alper has been a tech journalist for more than 25 years. Here he looks at how and why journalism has changed along with the tech market. Alan is currently editorial director of Cognizant Technology Solutions, a global IT services company headquartered in Teaneck, N.J. He can be reached at alan.alper@gmail.com.  --

Imagine working as an excavator in the days of antiquity (think Egyptian pyramid, Greek Parthenon or Roman Coliseum) with little more than a pick, shovel and basic blueprint to illuminate the way.  The work would, no doubt, be back-breaking, but incredibly breath-taking as your 24 x 7 x 365 effort culminated first in a foundation and then a structure pointing skyward – decades later. Amid aching arms and legs, you would likely reconsider your career path – unless you were an indentured servant committed to finishing the job before it finished you.

That’s not too dissimilar from how high-tech trade journalists dug up stories in the industry’s pre-PC days. I began my publishing industry career in the fall of 1980 writing for one of the granddaddy’s of the industry, Electronic News, which by the time I entered the newsroom had already chronicled the rise of the mainframe and minicomputer and was poised to uncover how new fangled computing and communications technology would forever change the business world.

Back then, the quality of reporting was inordinately influenced by the precision of your olfactory senses -- and the willingness of your contacts to swap industry rumors and speculation inside their companies and across the industry landscape. Of course upstart companies were more willing to engage in this game of information give and take. They saw it as a way to gain credibility and exposure. Many of the large corporate players (particularly one known by its three-letter acronym) wouldn’t even permit trade reporters to interview their executives. Instead, reporters were required to submit their laundry list of questions to corporate PR (over the phone – not fax) and await a response, which rarely if ever provided enough insight to fill a thimble.

Today, of course, access to information about high-tech companies is ubiquitous and the tools omnipresent. Twenty-first century journalists don’t wait for company or product information to arrive on their desks. They don’t have to set up phone interviews with distant product managers to gain tasty morsels that inform their coverage. They go on the prowl with their multifunctional mobile devices that deliver personal insights gained from Internet trolling, phoning and RSS feeds. They’re not restricted to 9-5 work days to cultivate contacts and build insights. They learn on the go without temporal and geographic constraints. They visit blogs to get the real skinny from consumers on how the latest MP3 players, video phones, digital cameras, computers and Wi-Max adapters work – or don’t – and tap online product comparison tools to see how these products stack up against each other.

While we were forced to cold call our contacts without much foresight, today’s high-tech journalists are both forearmed and forewarned. Personal productivity tools are helping them to gather meaningful nuggets in advance of ever speaking directly to the companies they cover.  They often have the story behind the story even before the vendor has pieced together the pieces. This will only accelerate over time. Tomorrow’s high-tech journalists may even have access to tools that enable them to tap RSS feeds to search, index and categorize both structured and unstructured data in real-time to help discern industry trends before making a single phone call or committing digital pen to paper. That’s something we news hounds of the last century would have killed for!

But let’s get one thing straight: information will flow fast and in many cases remain free in the future, but no IT tool, no matter how potent or personal, will ever replace sound judgment.  Journalism of all types will remain only as good as the quality and integrity of the people who create it.  Therefore, journalists scanning anonymous blog entries and esoteric wikis for insights to inform their articles, cannot stray from the one constant that has kept writers honest since the beginning of editorial time: They must always consider the source of any and all information they dig up along way before relaying it to readers. In other words, even in the knowledge economy, there is no substitute for hard work – fact checking! 

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Team Topaz Gets Personal about Consumer Tech

 Many of the Topaz staff have also witnessed and participated in the personalization of technology – with some of their experiences going back to the early days of consumer tech. Here’s a recap of a few of their favorite consumer tech stories:

 “My best experience in consumer tech PR is with Topaz client, Podcast Ready – as our work with them forever changed in my media habits. I barely followed podcasts before hearing about an opportunity Topaz had with Podcast Ready.

 While promoting their service, that makes the downloading and management of podcasts easier, I became hooked on Podcast Ready’s online directory and bought an MP3 player to listen to podcasts. In fact, having this access to podcasts convinced me that we could launch one at Topaz Partners too.” 

- Adam Zand

 “One of the most exciting PR projects I've worked on is the launch of Compaq (which had been a longtime leader in the business PC market) into the home computer arena.  

We developed a set of background materials that focused on the various ways PCs could be used in the home, and we targeted a new set of media for Compaq, reaching out to lifestyle and regional publications as well as TV and radio broadcast. We supported all of this with an event in NYC, where we reproduced a number of home PC settings -- the home office, a kid's bedroom, a student's desk, the kitchen workspace, etc. 

It turned out to be one of Compaq's most successful launches ever, but this move from business users to consumers had even larger meaning – it was an early reflection of the trend toward the personalization of technology that continues today.” 

- Tony Sapienza

“Topping my list of favorite consumer tech PR experiences is working on the official introduction and launch of MedioOne Express, TimeWarner Road Runner -- the first high-speed residential Internet service (via broadband) available in the United States. 

I developed and directed the launch media strategy which consisted of  joint live press conferences via the MediaOne network  in Boston (and in Arlington, MA, at the actual home that was the first to be hooked up in the country -- with the family conducting interviews with national media live from their home) and NYC. I also executed a host of other activities to highlight the speed, technology and consumer benefits around always on, high-speed Internet (up until then, the vast majority of consumers had dial-up).”

- Greg Venne

“My most memorable consumer tech moment is standing in the back of the room at Interop, Las Vegas in the late ‘90’s, as I watched the CEO of US WEST announce ‘DSL in a box’ for $49.95 a month. 

This, then, ‘new fangled’ idea from your telephone company meant you had to set up your own Internet modem connection in your home without assistance – but the benefits were sweet. No more slow, dial-up sounds and long load times on the Web. It may sound like ancient history now, but ten years ago it was ‘way cool.’” 

- Cheryl Walsh

"The internet boom was at it's high point when I started my PR career and all of the talk then was about making websites more user friendly and easy to navigate. Today, I'm working with clients who are using advanced behavioral, optimization and personalization technologies that automatically serve targeted content to individual consumers as they click through web pages. It's amazing to see how these technologies along with on-demand services and digital recording devices have transformed the consumer experience from the early days of "surfing the web" to now getting the information you want when you want it." 

- Tom Francoeur

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