Forgot to tell you about one of the funnest things that happened at DEMOfall in San Diego. There was a definite buzz caused by the appearance of a certain face on the floor of the demo pavilion. Read CNet’s take here.
It was a brilliant PR trick. Who couldn’t believe that Bono, known to be a real tech guy (and even a VC in his own right), might not show up at an event like this? And the guy looked exactly like him. He actually fooled a couple of CNet reporters. I had to tell them when we sat back down in the ballroom for the next session that I knew better: a firm I knew, Mindtouch, had hired an amazing Bono lookalike to hang out in its booth. What a stroke! VP Aaron Fulkerson, whom I know because he’s based in St. Paul, had previously told me the guy would show up. I asked him how he’d found him — hired him through a talent agency? “Nah,” he said, “I found him on the web.” And he said the guy actually knew Bono and had the same (real) first name: Paul.
The best PR stunt I saw at Demo!
Tags: DEMOfall 2006, Mindtouch, Bono
I saw something similar at the CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment show in Los Angeles a few weeks ago and didn’t know what to make of it.
Some “suit” was walking around with some “rock star”-looking fellow. After watching the pair have to do all of the introductions themselves, I concluded that it must have been a stunt. Either that or the one dude was a real celebrity and none of us geeks recognized him — just like when the Mobile Dissent team did their performance and everyone near me was asking “which of those kids doing flips is Tony Hawk?”.