Strive Notes

Please read the message below from Chris Shipley. (edit: Shipley is DEMO’s executive producer)

“As you may have seen, late last evening a Silicon Valley blogger posted an electronic copy of the DEMO 09 program guide, which he apparently received from one of his readers.  Following his post and reasoning that the embargo had been broken,  several other blog media, including Venture Beat, posted lists of the demonstrating companies.

I have since learned that our public relations agency (edit: Porter Novelli)  mistakenly attached a PDF version of the program to a reminder email sent to the 60+ confirmed press attendees who will be coming to the event.   That error sparked some initial coverage of the products set to launch next week. 

I appreciate the irony in this unfortunate event: We ask you, as a demonstrating company, to hold the news of your product until the opening of the event and it is the DEMO organization that becomes the source of major leak.

I have spent much of the day talking with the press, and am relieved to find that there has been no negative backlash from this news leak.  We are still expecting a very strong media turnout for the event, and we have every reason to believe that coverage of DEMO 09 and, more importantly, of your product will be very strong.  Indeed, many of the journalists I’ve spoken with have told me how impressed they are with the strength of this event’s demonstrators, particularly given the current economic environment.

We will continue to work closely with the media over the weekend, and of course through the conference next week. Our team is asking media to hold their coverage and many have agreed to do so.  We hope that you will do the same with your outreach to the press in order to maximize the impact of not only your product launch, but of your fellow DEMO 09 “classmates” as well.

I am extremely excited by the lineup of product announcements and I assure you that I will do all that I can to make your product launch a tremendous success.”

Filed under: public relations