i3 - January/February 2020 - 96

Business
By Jake Sigal
A DV I C E FO R E N T R E P R E N E U RS

CES Tips: Calendar Strategies
to Make Meetings Happen

 H 

aving a great meeting
invite means your meeting actually happens.
This is obviously important at
CES, where everyone is in town
to do business face-to-face on
a rapid-fire schedule that's fast
and furious.

OTHER BEST
PRACTICES
Using your calendar to
manage meetings with
other parties trying to manage their own meetings at
CES isn't a perfect science.
Here are a few ideas to help
keep your schedule orderly
amid the chaos.

There's a formula I use in the calendar
invite that gives everyone the information
at a glance. But at busy shows, it's even
more critical. Here's a breakdown of why
each piece of info is important:

● Review your calendar at
the end of the day to make
sure people have accepted
your invitations.
● Have a fall back plan. Set
a spot to meet if an original
meeting doesn't happen.

● My name/name of my company:
By starting here, the other party knows
what's up when they see the invite or
when the first few characters pop up on
an Apple Watch.
● Their name/their company: Most people
can't remember everyone they meet at CES
especially when you have 25 meetings booked.
If you're traveling with a colleague, this also
lets them see who you're meeting with and
not need to ask if you can move things around
based on the meeting, saving time.
● Time zone: Booking meetings at CES in
the right time zone is still a HUGE issue.
Putting in the time zone as well as the time
really helps. However, when a meeting
moves, you need to update the title as well,
which adds a step.
● Location: This pins down the specific
meeting point and makes it easier for others
to quickly figure out where you are.
96

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020

Writing a description for a calendar
event, especially for a new lead, helps to
keep that meeting from getting bumped.
When it's hectic, it's too easy to push out
"intro meetings" that don't have a specific agenda.
I include my phone number in the
description and a blurb about the best
way to reach me, whether that's a call, a
voice message or a text. I also add the
other person's mobile number. This
makes it much easier to reach out on the
fly from the calendar notification if
plans change or to track someone down
in a booth. A quick text to say "OMW"
helps save precious minutes at CES.
I recommend adding a quick agenda.
For example: "Introduction meeting to
Tome Software (Detroit) to review
Bicycle-to-Vehicle safety standards." To
be honest, this also helps to make sure
your meeting won't get cancelled and
ensures a successful show.

● For dinner reservations,
include how many seats
you reserved. It's a rookie
move trying to figure out if
you have room for two
more people or forgetting
where you booked dinner.
● Check the CES map the
night before to find
booths. In the CES mobile
app there's an option to
add booths as a favorite so
they are easy to pull up
when lost.

2020

CES 2020 Download the
CES app at CES.tech/app

I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

BongkarnThanyakij/Getty Images

Descriptions Matter

● Put large multi-hour
blocks in your calendar to
show where you are at CES.
This is also useful to ensure
transit time when booking
meetings in a CES suite.
http://CES.tech/app http://CES.tech/app
i3 - January/February 2020

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