“Cloud Computing” — a term that we, the norm began hearing only these past few years. As ‘cool’ as it sounds, are we familiar with what it signifies? “It means my website is being hosted online right? And there’s no hardware on the other end.”
That is half true. The fact is solid hardware does indeed still run on the other end — hosting our websites from a physical location, with physical servers on physical racks. What’s so unique about it then?
Think about it this way: why do we keep most of our money in the bank rather than in our house? Apart from economic benefits and interest earned, we keep it in the bank because it is also more secured. We know the people who are handling our wealth are qualified to do so, and we are free from worrying if the building is secured enough, is the vault guarded 24/7 etc.
Cloud resembles a bank, enabling us to run our website while professionals take care of the hardware. As end users, we are spared from continuous server maintenance such as ventilation and air conditioning, not to mention the risks of hazards or servers crashing, which occurs inevitably over time.
AWS, abbreviation for Amazon Web Services, is the leading provider of Iaas (Infrastructure as a Service) in the cloud industry, which means they are the professionals when it comes to hosting your website, scaling your application, maintaining the servers etc. AWS hosts an annual event in Malaysia — known as AWS Summit. Aside from increasing brand awareness, AWS pours tons of cloud computing knowledge towards their audience. This year’s featured keynote speaker is none other than Mr. Adrian Cockcroft, Vice President Cloud Architecture Strategy from AWS.
Malaysians and our Uniqueness
Nevertheless, 80% Malaysians, if not more — are terrible people when it comes to a free event.
Kit: Did you know that John’s birthday party starts tomorrow afternoon?
Ah Koon: No. I mean, we barely know John.
Kit: Yeah, but he’s providing FREE LUNCH.
This exact scenario occurred in AWS Summit 2017 — people came for the free food and freebies that AWS offered.
Fortunately enough, AWS had a neat little system installed. In order for participants to receive free goodies, participants are required to visit ALL the exhibiting booths, get their card stamped, contact details scanned, and finally return to the conference hall to collect their long awaited goodies.
G-AsiaPacific in Action
The sponsors, mounting their respective exhibiting booths, were able to compile the visiting participants’ contact details. Big companies such as Intel, DXC Technology and Trend Micro were among the diamond sponsors; they had the front seats to the participants. G-AsiaPacific was one of the silver sponsors amongst other several companies of gold and platinum sponsors. Diamond and Platinum sponsors had their booths on the same floor as the conference hall, while Gold and Silver sponsors had theirs one floor below.
“We need a unique attraction. Something that would pull the audience to our booth. Maybe, a free mini-game that would engage the hungry participants”, Sam (our Senior Marketing Strategist) thought. Flashback, G-AsiaPacific’s wheel of fortune drew major attention back in AWS Summit 2016.
Image of our booth’s wheel of fortune during AWSSummit 2016. This year, Sam told us we should come up with something fresh— a mystery box.
And so, when participants approached our booth and requested for a quick stamp on their card, we would engage them with our mystery box — participants are then required to insert their arm into our box without looking.
Interested participants mustered their courage, subconsciously held their breath, anxiously inserted in their arm, grabbed the closest object and hastily pulled it out. This became a natural cycle for the queuing participants and they were happy with the prizes exchanged.
Want to know what’s in the box? Keep reading!
The Pareto Principle
Our sales team engaged with participants who approached our booth. Unfortunately, like any other free events, people come and go. Individuals who were genuinely interested were the ones who approached us during non-peak hours. These individuals sought for cloud solutions for their websites and applications, aside from managed services
An Italian philosopher, Vilfredo Pareto once stated that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Many businesses, gain 80% of their profit through only 20% of their customer base. Many industry influencers, obtain 80% supporters while the other 20% are haters. And for many free events, 80% participants attended with the intention of receiving freebies while only 20% of them are genuine participants who came to attain the value provided.
The Pareto Principle applies mostly on economic and business growth. However so, I truly believe the 80-20 rule can be applied in many, many more situations. In this case, out of all the participants who approached our booth, approximately 20% of them are legitimately interested in the services we provide.
Did I mention that we won SMB Partner of the Year Award in 2016?
Aside the fact that all silver-exhibiting booths were not given any chairs, AWS Summit 2017 was well-organized. Participants had a good time while the event sponsors gained a significant amount of exposure. Oh, and before I forget, our mystery box held multiple items which varied from stress balls to A5 memo bottles to artificial insects.
Missed the thrill? Drop us an email at marketing@g-asiapac.com and we’ll inform you before our next big event!
