The Complete Guide to Surviving Henry Stewart DAM New York 2024

With Henry Stewart DAM New York 2024 just around the corner, we’ve put together a complete guide to ensure you make the most of it!

From October 23 – 24, 2024, Digital Asset Management (DAM) novices and veterans will gather at the New York Hilton Midtown Hotel to explore the art and practice of managing digital media.

This year’s event features more than 60 experienced and expert speakers across 40+ sessions.

From navigating the modern marketing ecosystem, to metadata, and artificial intelligence to mastering data management, this year’s event is going to explore the evolution of DAM to a major enterprise strategic application.

But with so many topics and speakers, how can you make the most of the show?

First things first, Henry Stewart is offering pre-event tutorials covering DAM metadata, taxonomy, and leadership. You can register for them here!

To help you manage the tradeshow process from start to finish, we’ve assembled this complete guide to surviving Henry Stewart DAM NY. Check it out for ideas to implement before, during, and after DAM New York 2024.

Before the DAM New York Show

1. Understand Your Company’s Needs

If you’re heading to DAM NY to explore potential DAM solutions, make sure you have an outline of your company’s use case and requirements. Some factors to understand are:

• How much storage you need,
• Which types of files you have,
• What key features you need,
• Which departments will use the platform,
• Possible integrations into other IT or MarTech solutions,
• The business outcomes you’re hoping to achieve, and
• An implementation timeline.

Working with your company to get a clear understanding of your digital asset management needs is crucial to having meaningful conversations with vendors at DAM NY and navigating the DAM landscape.

2. Set Your Goals

Before attending (or even registering for) a tradeshow, it’s important to understand what your goals are. Take the time to write out what you want to achieve from DAM NY 2024—and be specific! Try to avoid generic phrases like “learn more about digital asset management”. Here are some examples of possible goals:

• Create a shortlist of 3 DAM vendors to further explore after the show
• Connect with consultants that understand my industry and use case
• Learn best practices around artificial intelligence in my DAM system

Tradeshows are always more overwhelming than originally anticipated, but it’s important to stay on track. Creating goals adds clarity to what presentations you should attend and which vendors you should visit in the exhibit hall.

3. Come Up with a Game Plan

With recognized industry experts and thought leaders, like Laura Curk, Director of Product Marketing at MediaValet, Jennifer White, the Senior Manager of Digital Assets at the Philadelphia Eagles and David Lipsey, there are plenty of amazing sessions at Henry Stewart DAM New York, but sadly, you can’t attend all of them.

Prioritize your sessions from must-sees to nice-to-sees. From there you can set a schedule for yourself to make sure you don’t miss anything. Be sure to also leave yourself enough time to hit the exhibit hall—you can learn just as much from networking with consultants and vendors, especially if you have a specific use-case or highly technical questions.

4. Research Ahead of Time

The exhibit hall isn’t where you should be first learning about the vendors – it’s where you should be asking the tough questions, getting to know the people behind the product, and understanding which vendors are the best fit for your team. Review vendors that will be at DAM New York 2024 (like MediaValet) and research them ahead of time. Knowing the general scope of their offerings will help you get the most from your conversations at the booths.

You can see how some of the big DAM platforms compare against each other in our free DAM comparison guide here!

5. Book Meetings In Advance

Is there a vendor or a speaker that you want to learn from? Shoot them a message and see if they’re available for a one-on-one! A quick coffee meeting is a casual way to learn more about their history, ask questions about their expertise, and get their opinion on important topics. Many of them will be flattered to be asked and more than happy to meet up.

6. Leverage Social Media

If you have a specific topic you want to discuss or an industry you want to connect with, make sure to follow Henry Stewart on X and on LinkedIn to find people or companies with answers. Most Henry Stewart DAM attendees will be following the hashtag, making it a great way to interact with other attendees before the show.

During the DAM New York Show

7. Double Check the Schedule

The first thing to do after getting your registration badge is to double-check the schedule. Last-minute changes are rare—but they do happen! Review your schedule and make changes to your game plan, as needed.

8. Spend Your Time Efficiently

You have your schedule—stick to it! Only attend the presentations you’re interested in and that will help you meet your goals, as outlined before the show. It’s easy to pass time at a trade show but before you know it, you’ll run yourself ragged before you’ve ticked off your to-dos for the day.

Also, make sure you also leave some time open for impromptu meetings that come up with the attendees you meet.

9. Learn from Others’ Expertise

Networking can be one of the most valuable things to do at a tradeshow, yet people get shy or busy and end up coming back home with no new contacts, besides vendors that want their business.

At DAM New York, there are plenty of opportunities to meet new people during breakfast and lunch, in the exhibit room, or between sessions. Take the time to find people who have similar use cases to your own and learn from their experiences.

10. Get to Know the Vendors

DAM New York is the perfect time to get a feel for the different vendors and their personalities. Check out each vendor as you’re wandering the exhibit and analyze how “keen” they are on the floor. Are they actively engaging the people at the show or just waiting for someone to approach them? It will allow you to get to know each vendor and their ability to build lasting relationships.

11. Set Post-Show Meetings

At tradeshows, especially ones like DAM New York, it’s common to arrange a follow-up meeting. If you meet someone that you’d like to reconnect with, don’t wait to book a follow-up call when you get back. Take out your calendar (we all have our phones nowadays) and book one at the show! You can always move it around when you get back, but having a set day and time on the record makes it much easier to touch base.

Make sure you give a realistic timeline for when you’ll be ready to jump on a call. The first week back after a tradeshow is always a little hectic, so give yourself at least a week to play catch up.

12. Don’t Just Collect Brochures

When you’re walking the exhibit hall, sometimes it can be tempting to grab every brochure you can, then review each vendor later. But brochures are meant to be supplementary to the conversations you have with each exhibitor. The information found on a company’s brochures can usually be found online, so if you solely focus on brochure collecting, you won’t take advantage of the additional knowledge you can gain by having personalized, one-to-one conversations at each booth. Save the brochures for after you’ve had a chance to talk to them.

13. Request to Have Info Emailed to You

You’re at a tradeshow for digital asset management! That means, hypothetically, everything should be available to you in a digital format. Save yourself the trouble of carrying around brochures (and other collateral) and request to have them emailed to you instead. Many vendors will just send them via their DAM system, which will also give you a chance to see the solution in action. Make sure you’re organizing the brochures as you go, so you can easily find them after the show.

14. Take Notes as You Go

While sometimes it can be inconvenient to take a journal around with you, taking notes is a must! At DAM New York, you’ll be attending 5+ sessions each day, meeting new people, and visiting different booths, so you’ll probably overestimate how much you can actually remember. By jotting down a few key points from each presentation or interaction, you’ll be able to head home with clear, concise points of action that you can bring to your team.

After the DAM New York Show

15. Summarize and Share Your Learnings

The ROI on attending Henry Stewart DAM New York can increase exponentially if you share what you learned across your team (or company). One of the first things to do when you get back is to summarize your learnings into a concise and easy-to-read format (PowerPoint, Word document, email – whatever you choose), so it can be shared with relevant teams and individuals. This can include points from sessions you attended, vendors you met – anything you think is worth noting!

If you’re buying a DAM, it’s even more important to share your findings with potential decision-makers, as it’ll allow you to discuss the findings and set clear next steps for the evaluation process.

Interested in a more in-depth guide to finding and buying the right DAM for your organization? Check out our free eBook here!

16. Request Your Favorite Presentation Decks

If there were any presentations you found particularly useful or interesting, don’t be afraid to reach out and ask the organizers from DAM New York or the speaker for the presentation slides! It’ll refresh your own memory of details from the presentation, and you’ll be able to share the slides with others on your team.

17. Read Henry Stewart DAM New York Summary Posts

Tradeshow summaries can be useful for getting the “spark notes” on sessions you didn’t attend and refreshing your memory on sessions you did. They’re the perfect way to realize the key trends in digital asset management for 2025 and see some of the highlights you may have overlooked.

Let’s Meet at Henry Stewart DAM NY!

We hope this guide helps you have a successful two days at DAM NY, and we hope to meet you there! Make sure to stop by one of our sessions:

Video Mastery in DAM: Unlocking the Potential of Your Digital Assets with MediaValet Director of Product Marketing, Laura Curk, and

Honoring Jackie Robinson: How a small team’s strategic approach implemented a DAM System worthy of the legacy it honours with MediaValet’s Director of Customer Success and Support, Lina Smith.