B2B Presence » Integration

More Recession-Resistant B2B Opps: Appointment Events

Bill Rutledge — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:57:50 +0000

A discussion about new models for B2B event would be incomplete without a look at appointment events. I’ve seen an up-trending in two appointment formats: 1. The pure play appointment event. At these events, sponsors pay for, and are guaranteed a certain number of one-on-one meetings with potential clients. 2. The speed-networking approach, where an attendee and sponsor are brought together at a pre-existing event by the organizers.
1. The pure play appointment event: Min’s B2B recently ran an interesting article on appointment events, featuring Questex’s Mclean Events. As with the executive roundtables, this format is well-suited for tough economic times. Once you develop sponsorship support, you begin the work of rounding up attendees. Exhibitors get what they pay for, everyone should be happy. I think that Richmond Events was the first to attempt this on a large scale, their unique twist being that events are held on cruise ships, increasing the attractiveness for attendees, and reducing the likelihood that attendees will “skip out” on their appointment commitments.
2. Speed-dating or speed-networking has been implemented at a number of events that I’ve produced. It usually involves vendor/attendee, attendee/attendee, and even vendor/vendor meetings of several minutes. In a less formal implementation that has been called “tech tours” or “booth tours” a group of attendees is led by a tour guide from booth to booth to see a presentations pre-selected exhibitors.
Here’s the problem: This format requires a commitment of time and resources by event producers, and the result is essentially just a marginal value-add for participants, and has not been successfully monetized by event producers. I would counter that unless you can list ten or more marginal value adds at your traditional trade show, you’re probably on the downslide.
Here’s the opportunity: Social networking, Twitter and other comm tools create the opportunity to try new types of appointment events, informal meetings, meetups, flashmobs—whatever. These events can create value for participants and a living for event producers. There needs to be a more intensive application of imagination and experimentation to discover successful new memes.

Second Life Necessary Stopover for B2B Event Managers

Bill Rutledge — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:49:48 +0000

I’m ready to state, without reservation, that Second Life has become a “must know” platform for business event managers. A simple description for neophytes: In Second Life you move a character around a three dimensional environment. The character represents you. You can speak to and interact with other people, who are represented by their characters. It feels like a video game. It’s free to try, but you have to download it and install it on your computer.

Second Life first caught my attention when Visa committed to a sponsorship of over $75,000 to create their own environment and event on Second Life. This was at a time when I was trying to get Visa to take out a minimal sponsorship on a live event where we had a proven audience. I was surprised that they were willing to spend so much on an unproven format.

Here’s what I’ve learned: 1. If a large portion of your audience is spending time in Second Life, then they are likely to come to an event in Second Life. They are enthusiasts. 2. Second Life is not like other “virtual event” platforms. If an attendee is in Second Life, then they they are compelled to interact with their surroundings, and other characters. In other virtual events, they can just log in and tune out (which they often do). 3. Since it’s a virtual environment, you might assume that it’s cheap to produce. It’s not. To create the elaborate 3D environments in second life requires professional designers who spend hours of development time. 4. Like the Internet itself, most of the (non-business) environments in Second Life look amateur, flaky, menacing or worse. That’s a red herring.

As an introduction to Second Life for B2B markets, it’s worth taking a look at the projects that have been created by World2Worlds. Also, Second Life and other virtual platforms have now inspired real-life meeting, where real people meet face to face and discuss opportunities for creating virtual events, including the Virtual Edge Summit, and the Second Life Community Convention.

Here’s what I think about the trend toward Second Life-style events: The majority of people born after 1975 are comfortable with these environments after a lifetime spent on Nintendo, xBox, Playstation. This experience will translate into new modes of business interaction that are richer and more productive than those we currently know. New memes in conference organization will emerge, and one can imaging a hybrid live/virtual model with a lot of exciting possibilities. Business event managers can ignore or dismiss this trend at their own peril. This is an integration opportunity.

CNBC recently covered the phenomenon of business conferences in Second Life:

ZDE Marries Virtual to Live

Bill Rutledge — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 03:22:49 +0000

At B2B Presence we pontificate in a self-serving way on the benefits of face-to-face media, and take pains to point out the shortcomings of webcasting and other “virtual” events (would you be happy with a “virtual” vacation?). However, we’re not blind to the glorious digital sunrise and we’re frequently scanning the horizon for signs of the inevitable convergence of live and virtual media.

Now comes Ziff Davis Enterprise, a company that frequently “gets it” before many others. This recent press release on their new tool to bridge virtual and live events is extremely promising. They appear to be leveraging this in their custom event business, so I would expect this to start small. The proof will be in streaming—we’ll keep an eye on this.

The rise and fall of ZDE’s custom events business is a story that deserves its own mini-series. This group, under Martha Schwartz and then Kirk Laughlin grew to mammoth proportions. Someday someone will have to capture the entire story in a business school thesis. ZDE continues to innovate. I spoke with someone there recently who surprised me with a long discussion about a business built on the development of widgets. And in February they announced a “new suite of Alinean-powered interactive, web-based, self-service calculators and sales tools.” That deserves a second look.

Extra Credit: Anyone who can point to other examples of live + virtual event media will receive a free subscription to B2B Presence. Do the math: that’s a savings of over infinity. Leave comments.

Business Event Media is Social Media

Bill Rutledge — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:45:01 +0000

In spite of the efforts of many conference and trade show organizers, conferences and trade shows are the primary form of social media in B2B. We event organizers can proudly say that our products were the original expression of the imperative need for social media in the business marketing mix. Unfortunately, our experience traps us in a box. We have focused a lifetime of effort on space sales, sponsorship schemes, and attendance brochures. The Zen approach would be to start from zero—obliterate the memory of past projects and say, “I have the Internet and these tools, I need to bring these people together–where shall I begin?”

With a Zen-like detachment from B2B markets (because the focus is B2C), this report from Aberdeen Group on The ROI on Social Media Marketing will be of benefit to event producers. There are several essential points made here that merit strong consideration for anyone developing a forum for professional networking.

First there are several brief case studies in customer “brand advocacy” wherein marketers have converters their customers into word of mouth advertising machines. These case studies are “incredible” (in the negative sense of the word: without credibility) and I’d be interested in seeing more information on how this might work. Google offers no leads. However, event organizers should consider two dimensions of this phenomenon: How do I get my clients to become my brand advocates? And: how do I get my clients to use my events to leverage their own brand advocacy?

Secondly this report emphasizes the importance of measuring social media marketing results. Key benchmarks are suggested: simple ROI, brand awareness, customer engagement, share of voice (negative vs. positive WoM), likelihood to recommend, level of influence. Word of mouth in general, and social media in particular is a diffuse and highly personal activity. However, we can measure inputs and outputs, make comparisons and draw conclusions. This would be a great “crowd sourcing” project for a small group of event organizers.

Finally a thought for Pope Benedict who, on the Vatican YouTube channel, praised digital media, but warned that obsession with certain technologies “may isolate individuals from real social interaction while also disrupting the patterns of rest, silence, and reflection that are necessary for human development.”

I say, hey event media professionals, let’s do the Pope a solid: Let’s figure out how to turn isolating technologies into community-building tools.

Unassuming Unconferences

Bill Rutledge — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 21:38:38 +0000

Here’s a great example of user-driven content coming from inside the dynamic world of business media: Zucchini Dinners provides an intimate setting for media executives to sit directly with 10 key executives. They create their own content, and drive their own discussions. This is an invitation-only event–I just stumbled on this site, so I don’t think you’re even supposed to know about this.

Another great concept is Lunch 2.0 which started in Silicon Valley and has recently come to New York. Nerds gather for lunch, and nerd-seeking organizations play host–what could be more perfect?

What do these events have in common? Purposely weak central-organizing structure (disintermediation) and food (integration). Why does food count as integration? Because you have to eat, and these events leverage that unavoidable fact.

Integration with Legs

Bill Rutledge — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:50:53 +0000

Business media works best when it integrates itself into the client’s supply chain. Media companies tend to go to extremes in their approach to integration, either recycling tired “in-the-box” approaches, or latching on to the latest Internet meme. I’ve seen some examples of media integration that would get a big yawn at a strategy meeting, but have shown fantastic results.

Long ago (in the 90’s) Pulp & Paper magazine under the direction of John Pearson, developed a large business around pricing reports. They found that pretty much any information about industry pricing was like candy to their subscribers. From this base, the developed a successful executive conference portfolio. Ironically, at their conferences, they would have to have lawyers present to make sure that no pricing info was included in conference presentations, in order to satisfy anti-trust regulations.

More recently, I’ve spoken to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, who have built a strong portfolio off of what was initially an effort to develop standards for Internet advertising. In a similar vein, the Advertising Specialty Institute has developed a membership program that helps its clients locate supplier firms and to market services to end-buyers.

Integration is the antidote to disintermediation. Many media companies pin their integration hopes on complex “silver-bullet” networking schemes, but a simple approach, implemented over time, can develop strong legs.

Social Network/Mobile Convergence

Bill Rutledge — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 23:25:34 +0000

I use LinkedIn and Facebook a lot, and frequently find myself thinking “this is almost useful.” The main problem I have with the networking sites in the signal-to-noise ratio, especially on Facebook, where a long-forgotten high school friend can “send you a teddy bear” in an effort to reach out of the distant past and waste your time. I establish LinkedIn groups for every event that I market, like this group on for the Smart Cards in Government conference. This group is still far from a self-sustaining density (which I estimate to be 2000-3000 names) so in the meantime, I try to goose interest by posting news items and discussion topics. This article on some undefined deal between Nokia and Facebook reminds me that the utility of social networks and wireless devices are destined to merge and catalyze in a way that could be game-changer for event producers. Event producers should think about this in terms of integration: How can you facilitate a network function that is integral to the supply chain? This is something that’s worth thinking about in the shower.

300 Register, 300 Show Up

Bill Rutledge — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 17:21:02 +0000

It’s always nice to hear about event media that works. My wife does marketing for PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Like most major accounting firms they have an extremely tight relationship with their clients. When there are major issues of concern for their clients, they organize and execute informational webcasts. My wife recently managed a webcast on some esoteric issue in international tax law. She told me that they had over 300 registrants. I asked her what the attrition was. She asked me what I meant. “How many people actually logged in?” “300,” she said. They have 0% attrition.

I’ve done webcast events for B2B media companies where attrition was as high as 80%. PWC has 0% attrition because they’re so closely integrated with their clients. If you’re producing webcasts, it’s worth asking how you can achieve a similar level of integration with your target audience.