Welcome Wednesday: Atlassian Team Survival Tips - The Expo Hall

[#1]

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

The first year I attended the Atlassian Summit Team, I built an agenda entirely of sessions and I didn't plan any time for simply exploring the Expo Hall and all of the vendors.

My mistake was that I went in with the mindset that I don't have any buying power so speaking to vendors is a mistake because I can't commit to anything.

In reality, the vendors aren't looking for a commitment on buying anything. They just want to learn about the business challenges you have and they want to offer solutions they may provide to solve those challenges.

Additionally, Atlassian has booths available for all of there products with experts ready to take your feedback to the product teams and if they can help solve your challenges/questions, they will.

Long story short, pick a few sessions you REALLY want to see live, and be sure to plan plenty of time chatting with people in the Expo hall.

If you happen to see me wandering around, please stop me and say hello!

If you have any other specific tips or questions about the Expo hall, comment below!

Have a great week everyone!

[Humashankar VJ]

Hi @Jimmy Seddon 

Thanks for sharing your experience!

[Tuncay Senturk]

Thanks @Jimmy Seddon

[Teodora V _Fun Inc_]

As one of the people staying only at the Expo Hall, yes guys, please plan time to meet us there 🙏

[Amanda McCauley]

Love meeting with vendors!  Thanks for the tips!

[Ulrich Kuhnhardt _IzymesCo_]

Would love to meet you @Jimmy Seddon !

Expo pro tip: Most vendors have some cool swag to give away, and they don't want to ship it back home after the expo!

My favourite last year: Socks from EasyAgile! I think they're back at Team24 this year and I can't wait to stop by their booth.

See you all soon!

[Fun Man Andy]

Starbucks... ☕️

[Sarah Bultez]

#WelcomeWednesday !

[Kasun Tharaka]

Thanks!

[Peter Van de Voorde]

Great tip @Jimmy Seddon !

It can be overwhelming to go and talk to vendors, especially if you're afraid they might just try to sell you their apps. But take the time to listen, have a friendly person-to-person chat, get some swag, and maybe learn something new you can use in the future.

Also: don't just go and run around grabbing swag and not paying any attention at all to vendors. As someone who has manned a booth a many events this behavior feels very ungrateful and predatory.
We're happy to give you swag as long as we get a minute of your time :D

[Andy Gladstone]

@Jimmy Seddon this really resonates with me. I find that I sometimes won't visit a vendor if I think that there is no way my company would buy their app/service/solution. But reframing it as discussion instead of discovery will give me greater confidence to approach some of those vendors I would have avoided in the past. 

Thanks!

[Michael McLennan]

Great tips!

[yj.seong]

Thank you!

[sarah abd eldaym]

Great tip, Hope one day I can attend it too.

[Andrew _Zim_ Zimmerman _Appfire_]

Wonderful tips and a great mindset going into the Expo Hall!

[Atangan_ Mark Anthony V]

Thanks for sharing!

[Jeffrey Dizon]

Thanks for the tips!

[Jack Hughes]

Sounds great!

[Summer Hogan]

Thanks for the advice @Jimmy Seddon! I look forward to meeting all the vendors, especially the ones I work with on the community! 

[Summer Hogan]

@Jimmy Seddon - quick question. Do you typically carry a backpack around the expo hall to carry all your swag in? 

[Jimmy Seddon]

@Summer Hogan YES!  But I have it for more than just swag.  I also have some of the survival supplies I talked about in a post at the beginning of the month (water bottle, chapstick, lozenges, etc.) 

[Klemen Urankar]

Thanks.

[Summer Hogan]

Great! Thanks @Jimmy Seddon!

[Stijn Veer_ van der]

Thanks for sharing!