It has been interesting to see the “virtual event” platforms forge closer and stronger ties with the gatekeepers of content, including media firms, consultants, and (in some cases) vendors. On24, Webex, and Unifair have all pushed further in this direction. Now, Onstream Media has launched new virtual event platform (Marketplace365) that is pushing the partnership paradigm further, allowing a producer to start virtual events for free and pay only as they generate revenue.
At B2BPresence we believe that the Google AdSense “pay-for-performance” approach will eventually clone and adapt itself to every marketing ecosystem. Marketplace365 has opened the door for performance-based marketing in virtual events, and competitors will Read more…
Bill Rutledge Uncategorized
This upcoming year, any time I have a basic easily outsourced task, I’m going to look to Craigslist first. What used to be a good second option resource for business services is now a brimming cornucopia of high-quality, low-cost resources. Case in point: I needed a photographer for a basic promotional job this week. A short post on Craigslist brought 30 (THIRTY!) responses within two hours, including some photographers with exceptional portfolios. Some of this may be a function of the economy. As with anything that seems to good to be true, there are caveats: You have to be explicit and unwavering in pricing. Anyone offering services should have at least a basic web site that doesn’t look “hinkey.” Talk to the provider by phone before committing to anything. For tasks that are more than a day in length, engage the provider for a brief period at first–if it works out you can usually extend the engagement.
Bill Rutledge Uncategorized
I’ve worked in a lot of different business media environments. Almost every organization that I’ve encountered is loathe to be associated with the “low class” function of lead generation. Traditionally, business media organizations, especially editors, want to be thought of as expert commentators on high-level issues of their day, and the iconic apex of their art form was the long form feature article–a linear, generalized, impersonal information experience that will eventually go the way of the radio play. The dirty mechanics of generating customers and sales always took place outside of the tent.
I’ve always been fascinated with the dirty mechanics, including lead gen, indexing functions (like directories or buyers guides), and community building (all building blocks for successful Read more…
Bill Rutledge Disintermediation Reed Business Information
As poor Senator Ted Stevens once told us, “the Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It’s not a big truck. It’s a series of tubes.” And then the laughter started.
I’m going to defend the Senator’s metaphor: The Internet is developing an underlying infrastructure (plumbing) that will support an impressive sprawl of new information communities. Chief among these is Twitter. Upon launch, Twitter in and of itself was easy to understand and caught on quickly but quickly earned the disdain of all of my busy colleagues, who saw it only as another place to try and avoid Kutcheresque gossipolemic. But with its open structure and immediacy, Twitter is emerging as an important piece of plumbing for enterprise messaging. I’ve seen more and more Tweetup references in conference coverage Read more…
Bill Rutledge Technology LinkedIn, TweetDeck, Tweetup, Twitter
Conference and trade show organizers tend to be conservative in terms of content issues. I rarely see any major events breaking from the traditional model of pre-set agenda, presentations, 5 minutes q&a, maybe with an occasional “birds of a feather” session, or hospitality event. But I’ve tried to keep tabs on the Open Space Technology movement, commonly referred to as “unconference.” A couple of great sites are available to give you an overview on this meeting structure: Open Space World includes a great collection overview information and links about the Open Space community. Unconference.net is more Read more…
Bill Rutledge New Models, content Add new tag, Open Space World, unconference
I’m working on an awards program for a specific sector of the security market and it’s going very well. I’ve done awards programs before, but never one this extensive or ambitious–they’re presenting over 30 different awards. The client knows the market well, saw and opening and leapt in, in spite of the recession. They’ve created a great buzz and hundreds of companies have submitted paid nominations. When I talk to people outside of the industry, I always get a funny look about awards programs–people assume that these are cynical productions. The thing is, the people who receive these awards really appreciate them. I’ve seen men cry at these things. Many people work very hard with very little recognition. Getting a group of colleagues together to salute good work isn’t such a bad thing.
Bill Rutledge content
I was interested to see that VirtualEdge announced the creation of a new Virtual Edge Institute education program, dedicated to “advancing the development and adoption of virtual event and meeting technology and best practices for collaboration and marketing.” Michael Doyle at VirtualEdge has a lot of great experience in this area. A great certification program could be created, which would allow us to add an acronym on a business card–maybe CVMP (Certified Virtual Meeting Professional)? It would be nice to see, eventually, established standards and best practices for a wide range of virtual and hybrid events. It would be nice just to see everyone using the same vocabulary.
Bill Rutledge New Models, Technology, Uncategorized Virtual Edge
This great post from Brian Solis gives a good breakdown of Forrester’s five year forecast on interactive advertising spending. While the bulk of this revenue comes from search, the highest compound annual growth rate is in social media, at 34% and increasing to over $3 billion by 2014. As we’ve argued frequently in these posts, event media is (or must become) social media. Thus we take a bit of warmth in this cold winter of our recession.
In terms of scale and innovation, B2C marketers are way out on the cutting edge of creating a social media marketing experience, and this Mashable post about the same Forrester Read more…
Bill Rutledge New Models, marketing Add new tag, Brian Solis, Forrester, Mashable
I’m endless fascinated by opportunities to integrate free social media tools into events. Junta42 features an excellent slide presentation on the 10 Best Kept Secrets of Social Media by Scott Abel, which was part of his presentation at Web Content 2009. Without any audio, some pages are a little opaque, but a quick scan should give you a handful of new ideas (blow it up to full screen size to read the small copy): Read more…
Bill Rutledge marketing Junta42, Scott Abel, Web Content Conferences
This is a story about two trade shows, and the slippery subject of industry alignment. I spent Wednesday this week at Medical Design & Manufacturing East, a Canon Communications production at the Javits Center. At least I think I did. The trade show floor is a Balkanized map of several events including East Pack, Atlantic Design & Manufacturing, Automation Technology Expo, and Green Manufacturing Expo. As you move about the floor, you pass from show to show, sometimes without knowing it. The exhibitors I spoke with were not concerned about, and some were not even aware of, the patchwork configuration of this event. In this case the event is big enough to mitigate any confusion. Automation technology professionals might wander into the Medical Design event, Read more…
Bill Rutledge Alignment Atlantic Design & Manufacturing, Automation Technology Expo, Canon Communications, East Pack, Green Manufacturing Expo, Medical Design & Manufacturing
