In technical B2B markets, oftentimes through manufacturer and industry conferences, there are associated technical paper contests that recognize outstanding applications in a variety of categories. Participating in these technical contests are great opportunities with potential to bring strong awareness to your company and solution, including onsite and web promotion, opportunities to present your work, and visibility with technical trade editors, who are always looking for new and interesting applications to share with their readers.

In addition to all these benefits, another is the very low-cost. Many paper contests are free to participate in. Your only costs really are your and/or your staff’s time to work with your customer to write and edit drafts, and any costs associated with related images. These may be screen shots that cost nothing other than time for touch-up; in some cases, it may require a professional photographer to capture photos of the system or application area, which does raise your costs. However, this is a good investment because you can re-use these application shots throughout the rest of your marketing, including on the web, in sales presentations, at events, and with the press.

In addition to paper contests, there are also many opportunities to present technical presentations at industry trade shows and company user conferences. Examples include company events such as SolidWorks World or industry-wide conferences such as Embedded Systems Conference, with events held around the world throughout the year. One that was just held just last week in Austin, Texas, the Graphical System Design Achievement Awards at NIWeek, included categories such as Mechatronics, Robotics and Control; Embedded Design; and Communications and Wireless.

A big congratulations goes out to TREW customer Cal-Bay Systems of San Rafael, California, for taking first place in the Production Automated Test Equipment (ATE) category. Their paper, Building a Reconfigurable Motor Life Test System for Medical Device Test Powered by FPGA, details their work for a leading medical device manufacturer to test  “the heart of an insulin pump product – the motor.”

Next time you introduce a new product or secure a customer win, leverage that hard work by turning that success into an educational (non-salesy) presentation, with sufficient technical facts, technology trends, and helpful hints. And be sure to plan ahead – often the call for papers closes months in advance of the event.

Need help creating a paper contest entry?  Call on TREW Marketing to project manage, edit, and promote your outstanding technical application.