Re: Trade Shows and Tech Writers

[Grant Hogarth <grant -at- ONYXGFX -dot- COM>]

The observation about not sending technical manuals to a trade show
because the competition may make off with them is a  reasonable fear.
However, you have to consider your market.  The smaller the market,
the more obvious any stealing will be.

At trade shows, we usually have a number of manual sets, and expect
to lose some of them. <wry grin>
However, there is nothing in there that is "proprietary", and to be
honest, we assume that our competitors will have a copy of our lastest
product within a month (or less) of when we release it.  We borrow or
see theirs in that period after all... <g>

The exception would be manuals for a product that is still in
development -- those do not go out of house.

As far as Elna Tymes' comment that:
> ... many salespeople are so eager to do whatever it takes to
> land a prospect as a bona fide customer that they don't filter out
> the competitors, and sometimes the manuals disappear and wind
> up in the wrong hands.

the best answer I've seen is to either provide incomplete manuals, or
put them on a stand, with a cable restraint.

Grant

=====================================
Grant Hogarth, Information Developer, Onyx Graphics Corp. Midvale, UT
grant -at- onyxgfx -dot- com   WWW:http://www.onyxgfx.com  FTP:ftp://ftp.onyxgfx.com
#include <std_disclaim>

                  TECHWR-L List Information
To send a message about technical communication to 2500+ list readers,
E-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot-  Send administrative commands
         ALL other questions or problems concerning the list
       should go to the listowner, Eric Ray, at ejray -at- ionet -dot- net -dot-