Bringing a Little Balsamiq to Atlassian's #Summit2010

May 31, 2010 · Posted by Val in Company · Add a comment

I'm doing some creative visualization about the upcoming Atlassian Summit in San Francisco on June 6. We are sponsoring, and I'll be managing a booth all by myself for most of the time (I might get a surprise visit from @balsamiqMike if we can swing it).

Our team spent some time "brainSkyping" about our booth space recently, and picked what we wanted to show and give away.

Here's a mockup of the brochure we're planning on giving out this year. It's similar to last year's, but updated with new company stats and includes some of my favorite SF spots that are good for travelers and locals alike (click to enlarge).

Since this will be my first Summit, I had a lot of questions for veteran-attendee Peldi.

I had been to AtlasCamp (smaller, and mostly for developers) in Half Moon Bay last October. It went well. I was even named Governor of the great State of California there! 😉

Our Goodie Bag: use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.

I am putting together a little goodie bag for folks who drop by and let me record a video testimonial about their experience with our product and company.

I used some first generation Balsamiq stickers that honestly, didn't wear so well. They were scuffing so quickly, I didn't want to hand them out anymore, so I am using them to decorate lunch bags to hold a nice little bottle of balsamiC vinegar.

I am also throwing in my recipe for Balsamiq Bread Salad that I hope our company will make when we all meet in Italy in July - more on this later.

The whole package is, then: vinegar, new long-lasting bumper-sticker-quality laptop adornment, restaurant recommendations, and finally, a coupon for a discount on upcoming Balsamiq Mockups purchases.

The discount coupon was a bit of a personal triumph. You see, I just learned how to set up a discount correctly. I mistakenly set up a code that automatically applied to *all* new transactions a few weeks ago, and all of a sudden, all our purchases were coming in for $0. Licenses were getting sent as if payment had been made, but, haha, no payments were being processed. Every order was getting a $600 credit off the bottom line. That's a lot for a little company with a $79 product. That was an extra fun mess I got to mop up from a vacation beach house on the Mendocino Coast.

Note to team Balsamiq: the process describing how to create, apply and distribute a discount code is now posted on our Confluence wiki. 🙂

Finally, enough about bread salad and mops. My next post should be about the gender discussions started by Peldi's tweet about "Lady Speakers" but honestly, who knows what I'll write about. It might be about my new sandals!

Hope to meet some of my real and virtual pals at booth 12 at the Summit.

Be well, do well.