Vendor Testimonials

Todd Lewis
Great opportunity to build or grow your relationships with the technology journalists and other vendors. We expect a significant return on our investment in 2007 and beyond stemming from Kickstart 07.

Ian Poulton
to the competition - don't go, you would hate it ;-) To partners - go it's a must.

Sarah Gibbons
As long as you are prepared to network you'll find it valuable.

Rochelle White
Excellent opportunity to gain media attention on your organisation and to have an opportunity to explain your relevance in the market

Katrina Walker
It's a great event and a valuable 3 days especially for niche players in the B2B market.

Jody Lennon
The speed dating seems to work very well. My client thought this was the best part of the event. They wouldn't be interested in attending again unless it has the same/similar concept. They would like more time for interviews.

Stephen Rodi
KickStart is a great opportunity to meet Australia's most influential technology media in the one place at the one time. If you are after introducing a spokesperson than this is the place to do it.

Marc Lehmann
just do it. getting to meet an know some journalists was invaluable.

Mathew Myers
As a first timer its difficult to know what to be presenting even though there is plenty of information prior to the conference. If you're a smaller vendor, suggest going as a non-speaking delegate for the first one and then assess the opportunity for being a speaking delegate at the next events.

Sasha Simms
KickStart provides an unrivaled opportunity to meet with and get to know technology journalists in a relaxed atmosphere - a perfect way to build strong and long lasting relationships.

Gina Burman
Kickstart is a great opportunity to communicate your vision and roadmap to multiple journalists from influencial publications. What would normally take months of effort happens in a matter of days at Kickstart.

Corrie McLeod
We would definately recommend this event to other clients

H.R. Shiever
Speak about your insights, trends and predictions about your industry, not about your company. We can all read your marketing positions and blurbs on your website. Focus on news. If you don't have any news, best not to be a speaking delegate.

Ingmar Apinis
It's great opportunity to meet and build relationships with the media.

Andrew McKee
Come along - it is worth the investment

Cathy Jamieson
KickStart is a wonderful networking opportunity and an excellent way to meet many of the most influential IT and comms journalists in Australia all at the one event. A very worthwhile investment!

Wendy Hill
It's worth attending if you reach out to freelance writers and consumer writers.

Penny Savage
Extrememly vaulable, it saves having to do several events to acheive what you can in one

Mark Berends
Don't go. :) Then we can spend more time with the Journalists.

Jo Balfour
Good for smaller organisations, would like to see people from the Fin, IDG attending. Would prefer it not to be on the weekend.

Susan Moore
In a world of email and mobiles, KickStart is an excellent opportunity to make and renew media and industry relationships face-to-face and spend some quality time getting to know and work with them.

Jessica Maxwell
an invaluable opportunity to get some face-time with the industry's top journalists in a relaxed setting

Anna Flynn
It's a great time to meet journalists for relatioship building purposes in a relaxed environment.

Journo Testimonials

Pamela Connellan
As a journalist and an editor, we are often asked to launches and events and we often don't have the time to attend. Kickstart gives us an opportunity to get away from the pressures and distractions of the office, and network with vendors and fellow journalists in a relaxed, friendly environment. I think it's a great use of everyone's time.

Merri Mack
There is no other forum available to journalists in my humble opinion that gives us the opportunity to get an update on what vendors are focusing on for the year in a quick snapshot. It is also really beneficial to meet the many public relations people I speak to on a daily basis in person. All-in-all, KickStart is an esential part of my year. Long live Phil and his team.

Adam Turner
provides the best opportunity during the year to catch up with a wide variety of people in a short space of time

Charles Brewer
Kickstart forums are the perfect union of business's, PRs and journalists intergrating to get a better understanding of the cutting-edge issues effecting each of these industry sectors.

Alex Zandstra
It would be good to have major vendors represented as they are of primary interest to journalists trying to get a picture of where things are likely to head in the next 12 months.

Ben Mansill
Once again, Kickstart is the perfect way to charge into a new year with renewed relationships, an expanded depth of knowledge and great story ideas.

Gary Taig
The KickStart events are the most valuable I've attended. This is where vendors have incredible opportunities to promote their products and services. The vendors should view this as an opportunity to speak to the entire population. Vendors couldn't afford the advertising required to gain this exposure by other means. For them, a KickStart event could be one of the most productive sessions they ever attended. I have introduced vendors products to thousands of people who would otherwise have taken many years to learn about the availability, let alone the details.

Ian Yates
Cost of attending KickStart Forum 2008 -- $xxxx Cost of sponsoring a KickStart Forum 2008 dinner -- $xxxx Cost of turning the entire IT journo community in your favour -- PRICELESS!

Lia Timson
How else are you going to reach all the elusive technology journos at once and as cost-effectively? Invest in your relationship with them.

David Heath
Vendors - if you want the media to properly understand your offering, take the opportunity to see us "in the flesh!"

Ian Grayson
Kickstart is all about fostering relationships and improving your knowledge. In three days you can cram in what would normally take months to achieve - a very worthwhile event!

Ed Dawson
"What an extraordinary setting to meet with the luminary contemporaries from the journalism and industry side of Information Technology... crafting an atmosphere insulated from mundane daily distractions... an absolute boon."

Jeska Innes
Kickstart will give you unheard of access to the most elusive of tech journos. This is a stellar opportunity to network and gain press coverage within a fun and social 3 days.

Kate Palmer
Kickstart is invaluable for meeting and getting to know vendors and their products. It's often the basis for a year's worth of feature planning in The Channel magazine.

Sarah Falson
I'm much more inclined to write about your company once I've partied with you!

Branko Miletic
all journo's captive under the one roof!

Graeme Philipson
In a time-poor world, Kickstart is an ideal opportunity for journalists to get together with vendors they would not otherwise meet.

George Skarbek
These forums make it much easier for me to obtain material for my columns. Having a vendor's contact also helps in case of needing clarification.

Cynthia Karena
Gives them visibility and access to a huge pool of Australia's technical journalists. More so than an email sent to someone who already has 100 to read. An opportunity to find out the types of stories various journos are interested in.

Tim Dean
Very valuable event. It's essential for us to have a heads up of what the next 12-24 months have in store, and this is the ideal - in fact, *only* - place to do so. If you're not represented at Kickstart, then you're off the radar.

Angus Kidman
I have to turn down 90% of the meeting requests I get because my schedule is already full. As such, KickStart represents the ideal opportunity for me to meet with companies and learn more about them in a relaxed environment -- and I invariably end up writing stories based on what I hear at the event.

Anthony Caruana
Mark from HP ProCurve summed it up when he said to me that the chance to meet with and talk to over 50 tech media people in one go was just too good and not to be missed.

Stephen Withers
KickStart and Influence are two of the best ways of getting the attention of IT journalists. The fact that we are there means we're open to hearing about your company and your perspective on current industry issues.

Divina Paredes
It is an excellent opportunity to keep updated on ICT trends; meet ICT executives face to face, instead of communicating via email or phone; and to network with ICT leaders and media colleagues. The sessions provided me with story leads for the next six months, at least.

Simon Sharwood
I am constantly offered interesting but slightly tangential interviews that I would like to do but cannot fit into a busy schedule because I am working on something with a hard deadline. KickStart is my way of getting those interviews done in one compact burst of time. I make the effort to go because in the weeks and months after the event the information and the new people I meet nearly always trickle out into actual stories. That process starts almost immediately: I returned from KickStart on Tuesday and on Thursday used comments made at the conference for a story in the Australian Financial Review!

Adam Gosling
I know a company takes its media seriously when it attends KickStart. Attending is a significant investment for both vendor and journalist. Sometimes it is the only way we would ever sit at the same table though. But after a few days at KickStart you can actually get a meaningful relationship going.

Dan Warne
It's a once-a-year opportunity (or twice a year if you count MediaConnect Influence) where all the vendors and journos can get together in one place and get a good sense of what's in the year ahead. My most valued networking event of the year.

David Hague
A video you can send them to show all of the aspects they are missing out on.

Nick Ross
It's the best networking event that vendors, journalists and PR can attend. Everyone should go. If you're struggling to interact with journalists, you can bet that most of them will be glued to their seats at Kickstart. In the world of Oceanic journalism, it's simply not the done thing to miss Kickstart.

Tim Mendham
I plan to come back ... if invited.

Brett Winterford
The Kickstart event is a valuable lead generation and networking tool for journalists - so by default its an incredible opportunity for IT vendors and marketers to spread their message.

Frank McLeod
How can you expose your product/company to (pick a number) members of the IT media in (pick a time) imnutes? Present at Kickstart 2008 Where can you guarantee a captive audience of IT media listening to your pith? Kickstart 2008 Where can you network and form ongoing mutually productive relationships with the cream of Australian IT media? Kickstart 2008 Well, you never said to be modest.

Tim Marshall
KickStart was a great way to meet a lot of people with valuable things to contribute to the work I do every day. The relaxed format makes networking and conversation enjoyable and easy.

Craig Simms
Unrivalled access to a captive audience of a *lot* of journos who you may not ordinarily be able to pin down.

Alex Kidman
As a freelance journalist writing across multiple consumer titles, I find the Kickstart and Influence events invaluable in their ability to allow for direct contact with multiple vendors and the wider IT community.

Jason Hill
KickStart is a great opportunity for vendors to get quality time with a large audience of Australia's leading IT writers.

Gail Lipscombe
KickStart is an invaluable resource for journalists as it facilitates the sharing of knowledge and the provides networking opportunities not available elsewhere. It's also a great productivity tool, because you have unprecedented access to so many of the people that you need to deal with as a journalist -- PR and vendors -- all in one place and in a casual and pleasant environment that's conducive to establishing great relationships. It's the most valuable three days I spend all year.

Nick Mailath
two words: captive audience where else can you find 70 odd journos in a relaxed environment willing to listen to and discuss issues relevant to your industry/business.