RDM
Design Engineering, Rapid Prototyping, and Product Development
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RDM's Recent Events

This is the page to learn all about the research, product development, and manufacturing updates from RDM Innovation, as well as the young history of RDM, which started in 2015.

Band.it Goes to New York City

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After successfully creating the Kickstarter campaign, competing in business plan competitions, and receiving our patent, the band.it team had a great understanding of our target market. We knew that 18,000 of our ideal customers would be in New York City for one weekend of the year attending the country’s largest professional photography trade show, so in 2017 we made sure to go. Today’s post will tell the story behind going to the PhotoPlus Expo and showcasing band.it for our first time.

When the 10’x10’ space was reserved next to Nikon USA, the team realized that an expert trade show display was needed to keep its professionalism. Band.it decided to work with local trade show expert, Larry Cuumba, who helped create an astounding experience for the professional photographers that walked into our space.

Not to mention, nearly a month of stock needed to be manufactured. At the time, the operation was set for small-scale manufacturing, so in order to create the 500 units, the team was operating in the facility until at least midnight for many weeks. Luckily, or unluckily, the stock band.its were completely sold out by the time the Javits Center closed off PhotoPlus for the weekend.

As a result of performing well at the trade show, band.it was able to sit down with B&H Photo-Video, one of the world’s largest distributors of cameras and accessories, and land a deal that put band.its on their store’s shelves. The months of product development, prototyping, and hard work from the entire team finally paid off and we were stoked!

Launching a product at our first trade show was definitely worth it and taught us many important lessons. Most of all, we learned that we could improve on next time- the overall cost of attending a trade show in New York while based in Florida adds up, especially shipping costs and Uber charges. Hindsight being 20/20, the team feels that going to several smaller trade shows initially would have been more economical, but the adventure of going to New York City with the team was more or less still a success. However, we made incredible connections, sold a good amount of products, and received great feedback on price point and color options that made this experience one we will not forget.

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