[Guest Post] eEvent on Launch Conference

The following article was written by Edy Sulistyo(picture on the right)founder of eEvent ( Edy S is one of eEvent co-founders, the other co-founders are Andi Sieand Lawrence), who will share eEvent’s experience in participating Launch, startups conference founded by Jason Calacanis. eEvent got the opportunity to introduce their service in front of Adeo Ressi (Founder Institute), Mark Pesce (The New Inventor), Jose Caballer (desainer MySpace redesign), Marshall Kirkpatrick (ReadWriteWeb), Naval Ravikant (AngelList), Brian Alvey and all of the participants.

I’ve been following updates on Sillicon Valley, startup and all events related to startup launch. I am often astonished and inspired every time I hear news about a startup getting the opportunity to pitch and present on prestigious events such as TechCrunch Disrupt (formerly TechCrunch 50). Because even though that startup might not win TechCrunch Disrupt Award, just by being there and present is enough to take them to a higher level, in branding or traction. Because the fact remains that there are hundreds of other startups have to be denied for a presentation due to so many other remarkable startups are chosen.

The first time I heard of Launch Conference, startup launch event coordinated by TechCrunch Disrupt’s co-founder, Jason Calacanis, I immediately got this crazy idea to participate this prestigious event for my startup, eEvent.

Unfortunately the timing was inadequate because only startups with beta version and yet to be launched can participate, while mine was launched several weeks before the conference. The only way for eEvent to be able to participate is to pay quite amount of money to rent a booth outside of the conference. Unfortunately this only entitled us for a table, not to present our work on the stage for everybody to see.

eEvent finally got the opportunity to participate Launch Conference after eEvent voted as number one in Quora thread where Jason said he was giving free ticket to the most voted startup. Thanks to #StartupLokal’s community (startuplokal@yahoogroups.com) for their tremendous supports, so that not only eEvent got the most votes but also got far more votes than the runner up position. Moreover, when we were there, eEvent was voted by grand jury among 100 other startups in launch pad to present ourselves on the stage in front of the audience.

Within three minutes, we had to explain in front of tens of judges and grand jury of all eEvent’s value preposition and explained why we thought we can conquer global competition.

One of the grand jury happened to really like our concept, and before our presentation time gave us quick mentorship on how to conduct effective presentation in three minutes. He emphasized that during such short moment, we had to use ‘dig deeper’ way with audience. How? By starting the presentation with short questions followed by product’s summary in one short sentence. This is to direct the audience way of thinking and to make them listen to our presentation.

This method was extremely effective. We managed to make the audience get a grip of what our product is about in less than one minute and still have extra time to give demonstration and update on eEvent’s latest status.

It felt like a dream comes true, having eEvent chosen over startups as outstanding as Hashable and be able to present in front of tens of great names in Silicon Valley like Robert Scobble, Chris Sacca, Kevin Rose, Jason Calacanis, Dave McClure and many more. Other than getting big names signing up on eEvent, positive inputs, traffic spike, and media coverage by New York Times and Venture Beat, the most important thing for me was the community.

Solid community in Silicon Valley becomes the main factor of its success and able to make Silicon Valley a paradise for startups and other technology company. This really makes me proud because the way I see it, this is what’s happening now in Indonesia. Thanks to #StartupLokal’s initiators and communities for creating supportive community, respectful community. A by-to-for-and-from-us community. Without having #StartupLokal around, eEvent would never be voted as #1 startup in Quora and will never get the opportunity to present ourselves in front of everybody.

For those who still haven’t use or any clue on eEvent, Edy explained as follow on eEvent.com’s service:

The first time I came up with idea to create event management platform, I learned that the biggest problem an event organizer ever face is not how to plan an even using the most sophisticated tool, but on how to make the event is flooded with guests.

By using eEvent, other than sophisticated features to manage an event such as invitation, checkin,online money transfer, eEvent used the combination of social rewardsystem, social media and geo location to make guests feel comfortable and happy upon registering to an event. Other than that, this social reward system motivates guests to take their friends to the event.

Additional informations on eEvent during Launch can be read in eEvent’s blog. You can see NewYorkTimes’s coverage here, and VentureBeat here. Presentation from startups and eEvent’s presentation (minutes 28:11) can be found here. You can contact Edy Sulistyo at his Twitter account here. Other co-founders of eEvent can be contacted through Twitter: Andi Sie @andisie and Lawrence @LawrenceGS. Pictures from eEvent.

Translated by Nita Sellya