B2B Presence » Technology

Keep an Eye on Periscope and Other Participant-Driven On-Site Videocasting Tools

Bill Rutledge — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 18:47:11 +0000

I enjoyed this front-line review on the application of Periscope employed as a real-time marketing tool at an established trade show event. Periscope enables live webcasting from your smart phone. This app, now owned by Twitter, launched in March and they’ve just announced that they’ve signed up over 10 million Periscope accounts. Nipping at the heels of Periscope is Meerkat, which created a lot of buzz at South by Southwest this year. B2B events producers would be advised to keep an eye on these tools that put the power of “presence” into the hands of your clients.

Digital Facility Certification Program: Pilot Program Brings Real-World Success

Bill Rutledge — Sun, 14 Jul 2013 02:14:13 +0000

For hybrid events to take off, common business models and standards are needed. The organization that is leading the charge for common standards the Virtual Edge Institute, fronted by events industry veteran Michael Doyle. Their Digital Event Center certification program, which provides meeting facilities with a uniform readiness review of their readiness review of their infrastructure, employees and partner ecosystem. It’s a good sign for this program that the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC) has achieved this certification, and has since executed a hybrid event. The event was Dx3, Canada’s largest

conference and trade show focused on digital marketing, digital advertising and digital retailing. Barry Smith, MTCC President & CEO said that the Digital Event Center program contributed to the success of this event: “What this pilot event taught us is that virtual events are very different than physical, and they require a different set of skills to be successful, including pre-planning, strong communications and an attention to the digital engagement.”

A Brief Rant. Virtual Events on Facebook and LinkedIn: Where Are the Apps?

Bill Rutledge — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 20:05:46 +0000

I call it the Internet Probability Principle: If I can think of something that should exist on the Internet, it usually does. I think of it…I Google it…and there it is. This was my experience with efax services, large-file transfer services, online OCR, and my wife. I looked, and there they were. So, why has no one created a decent virtual event application in Facebook and LinkedIn. Has Google seen this gaping void? Is it seeking to fill the void with Google+ Hangouts. My quick search around the web reveals only a couple of freshman developer attempts. I won’t even post links because what I’ve seen is embarrassing. There is nothing that even pretends to be enterprise-grade. This is based on a very quick look around the web, but that’s usually all it takes. Am I missing something? Come on, Internet!

Thanks for Putting All the Meeting Apps in One Place

Bill Rutledge — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 00:33:13 +0000

Someone did a smart thing and placed every app that could be of use to a meeting planner on a portal called, simply enough, MeetingApps.com. During my quick visit, I saw hundreds of apps listed, and some of the more popular apps are actually reviewed by meeting planners. Apps are organized in categories that are relevant to meeting professionals, like Air Travel, Meeting Management, Conferences, etc. You can also search for apps by platform, including Android, Blackberry, and iPhone. By joining their “App Alert,” you can be notified when new apps are posted. The site was created by Kirsten Strand, of Invenia Incentives in Vancouver, BC. The site is a very smart promotion for their services, as their offerings are subtlety integrated into the fabric of the site. Looking to develop your own app? Invenia can help. The commercial interruptions are minimal, and I didn’t mind, because the content is so great. Here’s the ultimate compliment: I’m wondering why I didn’t think of this.

Sonic Foundry Offers Strategic Planning Tools for Hybrid Events

Bill Rutledge — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 15:59:17 +0000

Sonic Foundry has long been a webcasting and teleconferencing thought leader, with an institutional understanding of the benefits of hybrid and blended events. For event planners it’s well worth your time to take a trip around their web site, which includes a number of uselful webcasts, whitepapers and case studies. A couple of great webcasts are available for free in their library: Try Strategic Planning for a Successful Hybrid Event which is presented by Victoria Fanning who is the Director of Hybrid and Online Meetings at EDUCAUSE. They’ve got a great slate of hybrid events–way ahead of the curve. If you’re interested in a user-driven webinar model (either as a participant or as a producer) try Hybrid Events: Choose Your Own Adventure. This is a deep dive, with 18 separate potential paths to follow. I see a lot of poorly produced webcasts out there–poorly lighted, bad sound, etc. To you people I recommend Lights, Camera, Action: Fool Proof Tips to Produce the Most Polished Webcasts on the Planet. This webcast includes Q&A with the respected Jan Ozer, contributing editor for Streaming Media and EventDV and blogger for AV Technology.

In Marketplace365, Performance-Based Marketing Meets Virtual Events

Bill Rutledge — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 22:02:30 +0000

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 Unisfair 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 have to take notice.
Virtual Edge carried an interesting overview of the platform, and an interview with Onstream Media’s CEO Randy Selman. Marketplace365 is a self-service environment for exhibitors, speakers and show producers, and the company claims that event producers can set up an entire event in a little as 9 days with no IT background and just basic computer skills. Selman touts the platform as a “true, 365 day a year marketplace where people can hold events, run expositions and drive traffic year round.”

Virtual events, as a one-off deal, necessarily lack the SEO leverage that comes from an enduring web presence. Marketplace365, as single platform that aggregates content, claims to have a leg up in the SEO game. That makes sense, but of course the proof will be in the search results.
At B2BPresence, our emphasis is on hybrid event models that enable real human interaction. We’ve produced and participated in “virtual events” and we’re still of the opinion that these are just informational web sites. However, these models will continue to thrive and will influence the development of live events. We look forward to further developments.

Twitter: A Series of Tubes

Bill Rutledge — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:09:57 +0000

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 recently, and last month saw the first instance of an event trying to ban a tweetup taking place in conjunction with their event. I won’t mention the event, but you can search it out on Twitter.
I was also pleased to the closer integration of LinkedIn and Twitter. LinkedIn doesn’t get enough popular attention, which is fine with me. I’m hoping to be able to use LinkedIn for free forever. At some point, I know they’re going to reach into my pocket.
I’ve also seen a greater awareness of TweetDeck, and recently learned that TweetDeck is linking to LinkedIn. This will make my life a lot easier. TweetDeck allows you to manage your messaging across multiple platforms. Anyone who’s ever had to copy and paste a 140-character message 30 times before going home at night will love TweetDeck.
Twitter is tubes: Someday in the future, you’ll be messaging effectively, without ever thinking about Twitter–just like you flush the toilet without thinking about the massive infrastructure that makes that simple act possible.
At some point, I’ll post the Top 10 Networking Trends for Events in 2009.

Professional Standards for Virtual Events

Bill Rutledge — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 01:47:07 +0000

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.

Keys to the Kingdom

Bill Rutledge — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:57:42 +0000

Last year I picked up a copy of PHP & MySQL Web Development, and began the painful process of slogging through 5-10 pages a day (it’s over 800 pages long). I’m not a software developer, and sometimes people ask why I subject myself to a phone book’s worth of techno-jargon. Why don’t I just hire a developer to do the work I need? In fact I do hire developers. But unless I understand the nuts and bolts of the technology, It’s like trying to write a novel knowing only half the letters and nothing of grammar.

Relational database management has to be the beating heart of any B2B media model. And TCP/IP has to be the circulatory system. Every form of content has to feed into the system, be processed in the system, sliced and diced and delivered over the web in every form imaginable. All media must be multi-threaded and relational, rather than linear and self-contained.

A friend of mine is launching a business media web site with all of the latest interactive gizmos. He’s agonizing over his choice of Content Management System. Turnkey systems are inflexible, and expensive. An open-source system like Drupal is flexible, customizable and, best of all, FREE. But the cost for entry is a basic understanding of the technology. My friend can’t consider Drupal because he can’t get a handle on what’s involved in configuring it to his needs.

Near the end of my PHP book they list web sites that offer a mountain of free downloadable open-source software code. I spent some time the other day looking through SourceForge. To the uninitiated it looks like babble. Those in the know will find all the components of the B2B media equivalent of the next YouTube or Facebook. And it’s all free.

(BTW, this blog is produced in WordPress, a simple open-source content management system. I’m not brave enough to open it up and futz with the source code but maybe someday.)