Pamela Poole

I went to LeWeb ’08 in Paris in December and spent most of my time talking to people about their startup projects, approaching clusters of (mostly) young (mostly) guys (tough job, but somebody’s gotta do it) who tended to be huddled in groups of three and four.

I rudely interrupted their conversations by waving my badge around and asking if they had anything that might make web workers’ lives “easier or more beautiful,” specifying that I was looking for “tools, not toys.” That eliminated a lot of them…

But there were plenty whose cards, stickers and trinkets I put in my swag bag so that I could share the love over on Web Worker Daily once the party was over.

I picked up a lot more than info on hot new startups and business cards at LeWeb and, based on what I saw and heard, I want to offer a couple tips for startups attending conferences.

1. Seek out the bloggers. And not just the biggest ones, who are sometimes simply overwhelmed, surrounded by supplicants or entourages, or too busy trying to be in somebody else’s entourage, or who might have egos so large that they can’t see past them to give your demo the respect it deserves… (I call it like I see it.)

There were so many startup teams standing around shooting the breeze with each other. Fun, maybe, but not necessarily productive. You believe in what you’re doing, you’ve worked hard, you want us to talk about it, so come find us. Don’t be shy. Split up and work the room. Some bloggers might not be as willing to come looking for you as others. Keep in mind that we want things to write about, so if you see a blogger or a press badge, walk right up and ask if we’d like to hear about your thing. If we don’ think it’s right for our readers, chances are we can introduce you to someone who would be interested and give you all kinds of other info, tips, or leads. I did a lot of that.

2. Don’t underestimate the women at tech conferences. Most of them are not decorative. (Again, I call it like I see it.) When I wasn’t hunting for stories alone, I was floating around part of the time with a well-known geekette journalist who regularly writes tech-related articles for some very prestigious French publications, and part of the time with a French online marketing goddess. Both are extremely well connected, yet completely approachable. Like me, they’re delighted to listen, advise and direct you to someone whom you might want to know if they can. So if the dog-eat-dog crowd intimidates or excludes you, try the cats…