The Amtower B2G Market Report

The Amtower B2G Market Report
Volume 3, #38, October 4, 2004

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In this issue…
1) Amtower Off-Center Observations
2) The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly: End of FY
3) Events Worth Attending

AMTOWER OFF-CENTER OBSERVATIONS

Item: The city selection survey for Government Marketing Best Practices 2005 tour is back up at www.FederalDirect.net. If you would like the 3 hour “marketing tactics that work” session to come to your town, vote!

Item: Take a look at www.GovernmentExpress.com and let me know what you think.

Item: I hosted a dinner for some friends in the government market on 9/30, the evening of end-of-FY. The next morning I had breakfast with one of my favorite reporters (a friend who, like me, loves diners). The end of FY brings to mind many “could-a, would-a, should-a” and “wow” thoughts, which we discussed in some depth. I will try to bring these together with some coherence in my next two Off-White papers, both out this month. The first will be “Events – 2004” with the no longer anticipated FOSE comments. The second will be an Amtower-style recap of FY 2004.

Item: As of 10/1/04, according to the GSA Schedule Sales Query system (which is probably current through June, 2004, so there are a couple months yet to report), Schedule 70 (IT Schedule) has sales of $12.2 billion, with 4,754 vendors. Once again Dell is leading the way with $1.06 billion, slightly less than its normal 10%. This will lead me to write another Off White or special Amtower B2G Report for VAR Wars 2004, which will be ready in mid-November.

Item: This has nothing to do with the government market, but might be amusing. In the 9/13 enewsletter Direct Newsline, Richard (Loose Cannon) Levey wrote a short piece on Donald Trump’s show, “Ya Picks Yer Moguls and Ya Pays Yer Money”. He was curious about who would watch this “reality” show. Not being one to pass up an opportunity to be a wise guy and get press at the same time, here’s what I wrote back:

2nd edition (revised) of D Trump's "The Art of the Deal"
Ch 1 - be born rich
Ch 2 - distract people with bad hair
Ch 3- further distract people by being a world-class bore
Ch 4 - further distract people by using TV to belie the fact that you are
almost broke
Ch 5 - write books about how good you are.

Item: Miriam Browning wrote an OpEd piece for the 9/27 Government Computer News, discussing how to maximize the value of your time at conferences. The only thing missing was how to select the events worth attending. Readers forward me all manner of seminar and conference invitations, most of which are from blue-sky, GiveMeYourGovMoney.com, adjectival jerks. Not that I have an opinion on the subject, but I have been doing seminars in this market since January of 1991, and have produced over 50 seminars, conferences and summits since 1991. I have also been on the Boards of Advisors for FOSE (1992-94) and eGov (1997-2002). As a result, I have a clue as to what works, what has been done before, what adds value, and what is out to make a quick buck. One such upcoming event touts “Are you tired of the same old format of getting information... then asking...Now What? Well, we have the answer..."The new breed of conferences". This turns out to be an “appointment with agencies” style event, which the Federal Business Council has been doing for years. If you tell me you are new and/or better, you better be prepared to substantiate that claim. In this case, the emperor has no clothes. Next event, please.

Not that I have an opinion.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY: END OF FY

The end of FY2004 has occurred with no apparent major casualties. The new FY is here, once again greeted by a Continuing Resolution. During the above-referenced dinner, someone noted that is it amazing how much the Hill can get done in that last week. I pointed out that it was more amazing at how little they did the other 51 weeks.

Time for one last ad: Kyocera ran a full-page ad (Government Computer News, 9/27/04, back page) with a headline that read “Gov Friendly”. It wasn’t a bad ad, but the only response device was a small type phone number. Even though it was bold face type, the number was so small it could be overlooked. If the point is sales, make it easy for them to find your telephone number.

EVENTS WORTH ATTENDING

October 5, 7:45 AM-10:30 AM, Army Navy Club, 901 17th St Washington DC: Homeland Security Update. DC Tech Council www.dctechcouncil.org. Speakers include FEMA CIO, and excellent panel chaired by John Sanders.

October 7, 11:30 AM- 130 PM, AFFIRM monthly luncheon: "Electronic Voting in a Post-Chad Era".
GWU Marvin Center, 3rd Floor Ballroom, 800 21st St., NW Pre-payment is required to guarantee a reservation. To make a reservation, go to http://www.affirm.org,

October 12-13 Cafritz Conference Center, GW University, Washington, DC (Foggy Bottom Metro Stop) Citizen Services: How to Develop and Integrated Approach to Service Citizens Better
www.digitalgovernment.com

October 21, Input’s FedFocus 2005, Reagan Center, Washington DC,
http://www.fedfocus.input.com

October 26-28: Federal Information Assurance Conference (FIAC) 2004, University of Maryland University College Inn and Conference Center, Adelphi, MD. Keynote is Karen Evans, Administrator of the Office of Electronic Government and Information Technology (IT) www.fbcinc.com/fiac

November 11, THIRD ANNUAL B2G CATALOG SUMMIT, Doubletree O’Hare (Chicago).
www.FederalDirect.net. Our speakers include web diva Amy Africa on the latest web innovations, Richard Mackey on GSA, Mark Del Franco of Catalog Age leading a town hall style session with three catalog veterans, and Bill Singleton of Singleton Marketing on profitably mining your data. I will be doing the keynote and the wrap-up session, which will provide catalog “best B2G practices”. For those who use direct mail, especially catalogs, as a primary marketing tool, the third annual B2G Catalog Summit is a “must attend”. It is a one-day event filled with ideas you can take back to the office for immediate use. The event is in a hotel less than 10 minutes from O’Hare, and there will be limited seating (maximum of 75 attenders), so sign up now at www.FederalDirect.net/b2gsummit.html.

2 NSA events coming up in early December, on site at NSA. www.fbcinc.com

INTELCON National Intelligence Conference and Exposition, February 8-10, 2005 Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Alexandria, VA. www.fbcinc.com

**

As always, your comments, questions and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks
Mark Amtower

The Amtower B2G Market Report is published by Amtower & Company, and is written for companies
targeting the government marketplace. The opinions expressed are those of Mark Amtower unless otherwise noted. Contact us at Amtower & Company, PO Box 314, Highland, MD 20777-0314 (301-924-0058). This material is copyrighted and may not be duplicated, reprinted or otherwise replicated without written permission of the publisher. Email subscriptions are free by request: sign up at www.FederalDirect.net


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