I was recently at the Performance Racing Industry’s 22nd Annual Show in Orlando with Evans Cooling (client). At the show, all manners of technological advances were showcased as they related to the racing industry.

At the show, Evans showcased their waterless engine coolant. This is a unique engine coolant that overcomes the drawbacks of water-based coolant. Essentially, with Evans product, a vehicle can get better performance, better gas mileage, reduced maintenance, a lifetime coolant that never needs to be replaced providing a reduced the impact on the environment.

While Evans solutions have an application in high performance (race cars, motorcycles, ATVs, etc.) engines, it is also a viable option for virtually any internal combustion engine that has a radiator.

The benefit of Evans that was most interesting to the editors we talked to at the show – with all the talk on climate, the environment and being “green” – was the fact the Evans coolant is currently in testing to be declared non-toxic. With 88% of regular coolant ending up in landfills, this is a tremendous benefit.

Evans is available worldwide, but few folks know about them. Take a minute to visit their website and check out their coolant…www.evanscooling.com. I think you’ll find it interesting.

Technorati Tags: Events, Marketing, PR, technology, Topaz Partners

From February 21st through the 25th, at the Palm Springs Convention Center in Palm Springs, Calif., the Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition – APEC 2010 – will focus on the practical and applied aspects of the power electronics business. Not just a designer’s conference, APEC has something of interest for anyone involved in power electronics.

Not only is this an ideal venue for exhibitors to learn the latest information in the power electronics business, it is also a great opportunity for companies to leverage their tradeshow investment by building a package of communications activities to support being at the show.

Some ideas to leverage your investment at APEC 2010:

- Use your company blog to highlight your tradeshow message. This can help drive traffic to your booth, and the web.

- Leverage other social media channels, like Twitter or your company Facebook page, to expand your reach.

- Have your agency or internal PR team arrange editorial and analyst meetings at the show. This expands your reach after the show, extending the benefits from your investment.

- If budget permits, consider taking advantage of show offered sponsorships, especially pre-show mailings to bring people into the booth.

With only a few months left before the show, now is the time to take the steps to leverage your investment and maximize your ROI from APEC 2010.

Technorati Tags: Communications, Events, Marketing, PR, Tech

Rockstars of Social CRM

On Wednesday night, I attended “The Rockstars of Social CRM” at the Renaissance Waterfront Hotel in Boston. The event hosted by  Chris Brogan and Radian6 had great attendence and an engaging panel of:

• Chris Brogan, President, New Marketing Labs and author of ChrisBrogan.com
• Marcel Lebrun, CEO, Radian6
• Frank Eliason, Director of Digital Care, Comcast
• Paul Greenberg, Author of CRM at the Speed of Light, President of The 56 Group, LLC
• Brent Leary, Co-author of Barack 2.0 and Co-founder of CRM Essentials
• Michael Thomas, National President, CRM Association

The panel discussed how social media is changing CRM. Some important take aways from the event and panel discussion are:

• Engage your audience — know your target audience, let them express themselves
• Our job is to figure out how to turn customers into advocates and part of that is the company listening to the customers
• Another way to benefit from social media and social CRM is that the customers start helping each other out. It will saves the company money  (from @bostonmarketer)
• There were some illuminating examples provided by @comcastcares about how Comcast has used Twitter to save money in their rapid response to problems (i.e. Penguins game that wasn’t being broadcast because of a lighting strike.

Overall, this was a terrific event and my first “social media” event. It was a good chance to meet those who you usually read/tweet with. I saw @justinlevy @DougH @vanhoosear @Bobbiec and the host @chrisbrogan.  The best advice came from @comcastcares who told me to “be yourself… that’s all I ever did.”

I also was very impressed with Radian6 ’s technology. They had a very good setup and were able to display their product and features for all to see.

This event left a positive impression with me and I look forward to attending more events such as and learning more.

Technorati Tags: Boston, CRM, Events, Social Media, Twitter