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Techworld is the U.K.’s premier Web
site for IT professionals. It is backed by IDG, the largest IT publishing
company.
www.techworld.com
Techworld is targeted to the technology community, specifically
to the networking professional. The site features articles on technology,
product reviews, how-to pieces and the latest news on networking
products. Chris Mellor, contributing editor to
Techworld, covers the support, project, marketing and sales issues
facing software consultancies, hardware manufacturers and software
suppliers. Since the early 90s he has written about office automation,
graphical user interfaces (GUIs), the Internet, PCs, portals, Unix/Linux,
communications, VOIP, storage and more. Outside of IT, he likes
to drive at speed-camera-alerting speeds and produces paper and
PDF-based guides on various topics.
Globalpress (GP): What areas of
technology are you most interested in right now?
Chris Mellor (CM): Storage technology is my prime
interest right now. That includes in more detail technologies such
as storage virtualization, disk drive recording, virtual tape concepts,
ILM [Information Lifecycle Management] distributed yet concentrated
SANs [Storage Area Networks], virtualized NAS [Network Attached
Storage], intelligent switches, grid storage, blade storage, advanced
storage recording technologies and Microsoft Storage Technologies
called iSCSI [Internet Small Computer System Interface].
GP: What trends or innovations do
you see as the most important or intriguing?
CM: I see a couple of trends, for example from
tape to disk recording, perpendicular recording and holographic
recording, multi-tiered disk arrays technology as well as supplier
consolidation, switch commoditization and serialization. Also interesting
in the storage space are heterogeneous storage virtualization and
blade format factors.
GP: What’s your biggest challenge
in covering U.S.-based companies?
CM: I find one of the biggest challenges to get
access to technology development staff and strategy people.
GP: How do you feel about meeting
U.S. company representatives at European trade shows?
CM: Good but not great. There is restricted time
and little opportunity for focus or in-depth discussion during those
trade shows.
GP: What advice would you give to
U.S. companies and PR people about setting up, handling, and following
up after trade shows?
CM: It is good practice to focus on the journalist’s
interest – is he or she a news or feature writer or interested
in background material – and to provide the information accordingly.
I value this practice of course, but it misses out on the spontaneous
and fertile reactions that we journalists can have when talking
face-to-face with knowledgeable company staff in a relaxed and in-depth
session. Facilitating in-depth discussions like this would be very
valuable to me as an IT technology writer.
GP: Do you prefer to work with U.S.-based
PR people, or those based in Europe/Asia? Why?
CM: I prefer to work with the US PR people generally
because they are closer to the best knowledge sources for the storage
technology I’m interested in. That’s because storage
suppliers generally do most of their key technical development work
and strategy considerations in the U.S.
GP: Without naming names, what is
the most creative or helpful thing that a U.S. company or its PR
representatives has done recently to make your job easier?
CM: Unquestionably it’s timely access to
knowledgeable U.S.-based technology and strategy development people.
I had a very effective meeting recently where the discussion topic
was known in advance so that both the company’s technology
representative and I were prepared.
GP: Without naming names, what is
the most UNhelpful thing that a U.S. company or its PR representatives
has done recently to make your job more hellish?
CM: Having a UK PR agency handling my query whose
staff didn’t understand the ‘storage landscape’.
My query for a response concerning a storage company went to the
grid computing part of the supplier instead of the storage part.
The result was a missed opportunity for an important comment.
GP: What are some specific tactics
that U.S. companies might consider to get your attention?
CM: Understanding the general themes of storage
topics I cover and suggest meetings with their key technology and
strategy development people where the themes relevant to them are
discussed. It’s vital that these discussions are wide-ranging
and that my counterparts understand that the use of embargo arrangements
to protect sensitive information release is highly valued by me.
GP: What is the one thing that you
wish U.S. technology companies would do that they aren’t doing
now?
CM: It really comes down to my previous answer.
I wish I could meet with the key technology and strategy development
people more often to openly discuss the themes truly relevant to
them.
I’d like to say that the single most valuable and fertile
meetings I have had with US storage suppliers was courtesy of one
of the Globalpress reverse press tour. The depth of knowledge transfer
was the best I have experienced. The companies’ openness and
willingness to respond to questions and discussion topics was unrivalled.
Many months after the event the people I met are still fresh in
my mind and my ‘mental map’ of these companies and their
products and positioning is still vivid. It was better than a trip
out to the US to see a single supplier because of the opportunity
to compare and contrast the different companies, which strengthened
the accuracy of my knowledge about each one.
GP: Thank you for your time!
Electronic Business China (EBC) is a monthly
business publication with more than 20,000 copies read by industry
executives and luminaries.
http://www.eb-mag.com.cn/
The Chinese language version of Electronic Business in the U.S.,
this magazine is the only electronics publication in China delivering
in-depth features and analysis on the electronics industry. It is
aimed exclusively at industry decision-makers, senior executives
and their management teams. EBC covers a wide range of topics from
semiconductors and systems application to supply chain management
and venture capital.
We asked Alma Wang, vice editor-in-chief
at EBC, which stories she is interested in and how she perceives
PR—from U.S and Chinese companies. Wang’s previous work
experience includes editor-in-chief at Hi-Tcch Entrepreneur Magazine
and chief reporter at Hong Kong’s Phoenix Weekly.
Globalpress (GP): What areas of
technology are you most interested in right now?
Alma Wang (AW): I’m most interested in consumer
electronics, with special focus on development of new chip design
and application.
GP: What trends or innovations do
you see as the most important or intriguing?
AW: I find the trend towards smart, multi-functional
personal application devices most fascinating. The digital lifestyle
becomes more and more important in our society, everyone wants to
be online, communicate and share moments anytime and anywhere.
GP: What’s your biggest challenge
in covering U.S.-based companies?
AW: When I cover Chinese companies I always know
who to ask for an objective opinion. But I find it hard to get a
third-party evaluation on U.S.-based companies. To lend more credibility
to a story I need additional information that has not been provided
by the company itself. PR people should know, that I can’t
write everything verbatim the company provided.
GP: What advice would you give to
U.S. companies and PR people about setting up, handling, and following
up after trade shows?
AW: As a company, before you decide to join a tradeshow
outside the U.S., first get a professional, outside opinion about
the show’s reputation and popularity (but don’t contact
the sales reps of the tradeshow). When you decide to join, you should
get in touch with your local sales office or local PR agency to
be most effective. Get the word out that you are attending the show,
contact potential local clients or industry media through them.
It’s so common that you see foreign companies just standing
around in their show booth with no customers to tend to. As for
the following up, I’d recommend 3 steps: First, email a valuable
newsletter to clients/media on a regular basis. Secondly, be sure
to provide your communications in simple Chinese. Lastly, if media
request more information or an interview, follow up thoroughly and
provide the information requested.
GP: Do you prefer to work with U.S.-based
PR people, or those based in Europe/Asia? Why?
AW: The location is not important for me as long
as the person in charge of media relations can provide me with the
information I need. Where they are based is not so important to
me, as long as the PR people give me what I want.
GP: Without naming names, what is
the most creative or helpful thing that a U.S. company or its PR
representatives has done recently to make your job easier?
AW: A chip design manufacturer recently invited
me to a product review. They actually rented a house and created
a real-life application environment to demonstrate the performance
of their chip in comparison to that of their competitors. It was
a direct, vivid and very impressive product demo.
GP: Without naming names, what is
the most UNhelpful thing that a U.S. company or its PR representatives
has done recently to make you job more hellish?
AW: Sending me an email every two days that DIDN’T
contain news. I don’t have time to read all of them. What
we need is real news, not product descriptions.
GP: What are some specific tactics
that U.S. companies might consider to get your attention?
AW: Give me ‘real’ news so that I can
write a story – for example on a new technology that they
believe will change the industry or a marketing idea that has or
will improve their market share.
GP: What is the one thing that you
wish U.S. technology companies would do that they aren’t doing
now?
AW: They should take the initiative to communicate
with us and find out how Chinese media works. Every country is different
and we may have different needs than U.S, media. Talking to us could
help them in using the right, more effective approach when entering
our market.
GP: Thank you for your time.
If you would like to check out Globalpress' home page,
please go to: www.globalpresspr.com
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