Phone.com participated on Thursday in the second annual NY Tech Day at Pier 92. This was an extremely well attended event and more impressive were the 400+ start-ups who exhibited. It seemed as though every start-up of note in NYC was there, small and large, showcasing some of the newest and innovative technologies from around the area.

It’s always difficult to stand out at trade shows with so many other companies vying for peoples attention. But Phone.com rocked with some great promotions, t-shirts, and mustachioed coffee mugs ensuring our little both was always crowded.

I find these events invaluable when it comes to learning what peoples first impression is about your product. They’re a treasure trove of information! For a company like Phone.com who’s entire presence is online, it’s easy to lose sight and sometimes forget how the real world perceives your product. Especially one like phone service where there are so many different “types” of phone companies out there. I would argue that conversations at a trade show can have the same impact as a focus group on your marketing message, and usually at a far lower cost.

Marketing messages should evolve not always due to changes within a company, but external changes within your market. It becomes evident especially during trade shows that people instantly want to compare your product with others they may be more familiar with (after all it’s a phone service). And although we all hate to compare ourselves to others in our space, it is often the easiest and fastest route towards helping individuals understand your product. Sometimes it is our so called competitors that are the ones spending the lions share of money to educate users about our technology. This is why being perfectly clear on how we differentiate yourselves is of utmost importance.

Something I found surprising on Thursday were the number of people who wanted to compare Phone.com to Skype. Sure, maybe we both allow calling over the internet, but that’s about the only similarity we share. I also like to keep an eye on the word “VoIP”, because for a long time large phone companies were giving VoIP a negative connotation saying its “unreliable”. This might be why many VoIP providers started calling their services “cloud based”, but perhaps it’s really the same thing…. meaning we all use the Internet to connect to our services. Is that VoIP? It was clear from the people I spoke to at NY Tech Day that the term VoIP is widely understood and rarely a negative term….. so VoIP for the win… but personally I still prefer “Communications in the Cloud”…. it sounds cooler but it is also more appropriate. VoIP is a technology not a service type. Also, Phone.com does not require you to have broadband and “Internet” nor a computer unless you want to.

Explaining what Phone.com does, our service, our features, in relation to the rest of the phone service universe isn’t the easiest. We are truly a unique company with a feature set unmatched by most competitors and with a unique pricing model. I would encourage anyone reading this to contact Phone.com if you have any questions about our service, what it does, how it works, and how it compares to services you’re already familiar with.

South by Southwest, or better known as SXSW, the monster of all technology conferences just wrapped up last week and yours truly, Phone.com had the privilege of participating in our own off-the-beaten-path event during the Interactive component of South-by. But before I get into that, lets set the scene for those who aren’t familiar with SXSW and all its ridiculousness.

This was my second year at one of the nations largest conferences which is split into 3 parts; Interactive- the technology portion, Film, and Music. And as you would imagine each of these draws a distinctly unique crowd- there’s the suit and business-casual clad investors, roaming amongst the stereotypical hooded developers and hipster designers, all mingling with thousands of film enthusiasts and the less kempt world of musical artists with their dreds, streetwear, eurostyle, creative facial hair wearing, leather sporting, hat flipping, rocker, rapping, DJ’ing musicians, and exactly what you would anticipate when cramming 2,500 bands into a single city for a week. As for myself, I’m probably somewhere in the middle, and far less fashionable.

It is, as you would imagine, an amazing opportunity for people watching & networking. But it’s this mix of cultures that makes SXSW so unique. The crowd is awesomely diverse, almost entirely out for a good time, and not at all the typical stuffy group you would sometimes associate with a technology conference. Then again, this is the era of the Nerd where “cool” and “technology” go hand in hand. And all of this is done at a scale and pace that puts even the busiest of NYC to shame.

SXSW is as much for badge holders (those people who spend big money for a pass) as it is for the freeloaders who flock to Austin to enjoy the plethora of free events occurring outside the walls of the Austin Convention Center. I don’t know how many badges are sold during SXSW but the number of people who assemble in Austin for both official and unofficial events number around a quarter million! That’s a lot of foot traffic for a relatively small downtown Austin.

And even though a large portion of SXSW is reminiscent of TSA security lines, or wandering too close to Times Square during New Years… this extreme hustle is made worth while by the phone book sized schedule of high caliber talks, panels, and events, much of which is spread out all over Austin. Gold Bond? Check!

What makes SXSW such an immersive experience (and also why it’s near impossible to escape for Austinites living downtown) is the spiderweb of events and sponsored locations which literally take over downtown Austin. Restaurants, bars, parking lots, garages, yoga studios, car dealerships, event spaces, cafes, hair salons…. practically any decently open space in downtown Austin becomes a converted, sponsored venue by any company looking to get a foothold in this anomaly of conferences. And that’s exactly what Phone.com did this year in conjunction with our venture capital firm ffVC. In our case, we took over a parking lot, a mechanics garage, a bar, and a venue… all in the name of putting on our own awesome mini-day of talks, company showcases, and concerts.

Phone.com participated in this company showcase alongside 20 other sister ffVC companies in the aptly named event ffMASSIVE. I was lucky enough to help ffVC plan this Saturday of events which included a jam packed schedule of activities running from 9am-2am. It was a long day. I’d list all the great companies who participated in the ffMASSIVE showcase but the picture in this blog does the job just fine. Check them out, they’re all very interesting and doing some amazing stuff.

Conference goers who managed to wander down 7th St. found a collection of budding startups all under a tent in a very lounge-like mini-trade show. Anyone who wanted to sit down with the founders of these companies could. In the Phone.com lounge we were lucky to have our CEO, Ari Rabban and CTO- the inventor of VoIP, Alon Cohen. As the day progressed, we talked, we networked, we participated in panels, we drank and we partied into the evening with a 4 act musical lineup that would make most concert venues jealous.

This was Phone.com’s first official foray into the world of SXSW, but hopefully not our last. Look out for us, larger and louder, at SXSW 2014!