Fork In The Road Blog

Events: Technology. Design. Strategy.

Say it Loud and Proud: Top Tips for Hybrid Event Speakers

Hybrid events—conferences and corporate events that include both live and virtual audiences—have prompted speakers accustomed to presenting in front of a live audience to adopt some new practices to bring the virtual audience into the conversation. Speakers aren’t the only ones interested in appealing to a virtual audience. Savvy hybrid event organizers are looking for speakers with the skill sets to wow both types of attendees.

Bringing the virtual audience into the conversation

Robert Swanwick, founder of SpeakerInteractive.com, believes there is no “best” way to bring a virtual audience into the conversation. “Each audience, speaker, and the content of each speech is different,” he says. That said, he offers some good practices:

–Treat the virtual and live audiences equally.

–During the Q&A, address a good portion of the questions from the virtual audience.

–Display the avatars of the online audience on a slide visible to the live participants.

–Invite both the virtual and live audience to continue the conversation in another online location after the presentation.

–Participate in social networking with the virtual audience before hand to understand some of the issues.

–Keep the virtual audience engaged with activities such as voting, chatting, and reading additional information.

Midori Connolly, Chief AV Girl at Pulse Staging and Events, has some additional tips for hybrid event speakers. “Avoid walking too fast or too much. The camera sometimes translates that movement into a jerky or choppy image onscreen,” she says. “When referring to handouts, make sure the virtual audience has them also and if you have any hands on activities, encourage the remote audience to participate,” she adds.

Putting Twitter feeds into the mix

A Twitter feed presents yet another challenge for hybrid event speakers. Hybrid presenters have to multitask even more to bring Tweeters into the conversation seamlessly. Emilie Barta, Virtual Event Host/Emcee a.k.a. “Social Me-Jay,” explains how speakers can facilitate this interaction:

–Have a Twitter moderator constantly responding to the Twitter feed and alerting the speaker when a question, comment, or experience worthy of sharing is tweeted.

–Speakers should occasionally refer to the Twitter stream, repeat the hash tag, and thank tweeters for their contributions.

–Presenters should encourage tweeters to converse among themselves.

–If speakers are unable to address all of the tweets during the presentation, they should do so privately after the session.

What hybrid event organizers need to know

When choosing a speaker for a hybrid event, organizers should take a number of factors into consideration according to Emilie Barta:

–Speakers must be dynamic and interesting because the camera tends to “flatten them out.” Those that appear dull or monotonous will be unable to keep an easily distracted virtual audience engaged.

–Speakers must have excellent microphone technique to appear engaged and inclusive of the virtual audience.

–Speakers must be 100% comfortable in a hybrid setting because the camera will amplify their discomfort.

The Takeaway: The blending of live and virtual audiences is a challenge for speakers and event organizers. If you’re a speaker, supercharging your presentation won’t hurt and may help prevent the virtual participants from checking their email or Facebook accounts too often during your session. If you’re a hybrid event organizer, make sure you work with speakers that are experienced in front of a camera, able to multitask, and willing to keep the remote audience in the loop. When you think about it, why have a hybrid event if the virtual audience feels like second-class citizens?

What’s on the Menu and in the Pot: 2010 Technology Plans for Three Leading Event Organizations

Leading event organizations are utilizing technology in a variety of ways to keep up with the demands of the “new normal.” Whether it’s online or offline, new media or traditional media, SPE, Hanley Wood and Graph Expo are cooking up some tasty tech tidbits for 2010.

Enhancing the Exhibitor Experience

The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) is focusing on the exhibitor experience in 2010. “We are looking for better exhibitor visibility and better matchmaking tools,” says Andrea Bahr, special projects manager at the association. SPE plans to add A2Z, Inc.’s matchmaking application to their existing suite of tools. “As an A2Z enterprise client we can easily add an additional module without having to change the user interface,” Bahr explains.

Part of Bahr’s responsibilities at SPE include researching new technologies for use at the association’s events. She admits to being impressed by the digital signage and content strategies offered by Prism Technologies. Their touch screen kiosks that Bahr describes as looking like “a really large iPhone,” work with A2Z applications and the Map Your Show App, for example. Prism can also develop a content strategy that includes exhibitor and sponsor advertising. The SPE Board is due to make a decision on the Prism purchase sometime soon.

Boosting Lead Generation

Hanley Wood will approach lead generation from two fronts this coming year. Shawn Pierce, executive vice president, is planning a major data infrastructure update. The Master Data Management upgrade will pull in data from all over Hanley Wood’s organization including the trade shows and publications. “We are trying to become a source of leads for our customers and to do that we need to have all of the leads in one place, Pierce says.

As the infrastructure upgrade is completed, Hanley Wood will launch nine virtual events, all but one of which will run before the corresponding live event in each vertical. The World of Concrete show will be the exception, as its virtual counterpart will run alongside the face-to-face show. In addition, they will boost the subscriber base for newsletters in each market segment using the newly enlarged database and feed specific show information dynamically into specially designed sections on each newsletter.

Making the Virtual Connection

In October of 2009, Chris Price, vice president of the Graphic Arts Show Company (GASC), Inc. attended a ConnexLive event. “ConnexLive uses a hosted-buyer model to facilitate targeted 30-minute face-to-face meetings in private settings between pre-screened guests and hosts,” according the web site. Price had an opportunity to learn more about matchmaking, hosted buyer events, white label social networking platforms and RFID (radio frequency identification). “We wanted to know what we don’t know,” he says. During the event, he was able to hear presentations from four virtual event companies and participated in a focus group organized by Freeman.

The focus group introduced Price to a partnership between Freeman and Maritz, the meetings, travel and incentive company. MaritzLive is their suite of virtual event solutions (offered through partnerships with other companies such as InXpo and VELOCITY Broadcasting). GASC will produce its first virtual trade show using MaritzLive’s strategic support and the InXpo platform sometime in August 2010., approximately two months before the live Graph Expo 2010 show.

The virtual show has two principal goals according to Price; to inform virtual attendees about the face-to-face show and help exhibitors introduce new products. Each of the eleven market segments that make up the Graph Expo community will provide content in the theatre at the virtual event. The hope is that the high level content will drive virtual attendees to the physical event. “The virtual event opens the door for us to share information with people. Our strategy is to use it as a marketing tool,” says Price.

In 2010 Graph Expo will also launch a social media platform designed exclusively for the eleven vertical market segments it represents. The platform will enlist the support of at least one media outlet and one trade association from each vertical. “We are creating a platform that allows each of the segments to interact with each other and have appointed thought leaders to start the conversations,” says Price.

Price sees the obvious advantages of the new platform. “It helps us as much as it helps the participants. We will be able to see all of the conversations in one place and we can learn things that will help us mold and shape the show,” he says.

The Takeaway: Although the approaches are different, some common themes are emerging among exhibition and conference organizers:

  • Renewed focus on the customer. Organizers realize that a passive approach toward attracting and servicing exhibitors and attendees is particularly ineffective in these recessionary times. Matchmaking, enhanced lead generation as well as hosted buyer programs and small focused one-on-one buyer/seller meetings are coming on strong in 2010.
  • Cultivation of the community. Organizers are stepping up efforts to understand who the community is, where they interact and how to enhance the conversation in an effort to drive attendance and participation in their live events.
  • Virtual events as lead generators. Virtual trade shows and conferences are being used as lead generators. We may not know until the end of the year whether that use yielded measurable results on a significant scale. Stay tuned.

Social Media, Team Building, Executives and Strategies for Business Facilitators

Anne Thornley-Brown of Toronto-based Executive Oasis International and LinkedIn group “Event Planning & Management – the 1st Group for Event Planners” fame, shared with me how she integrated social media into a team building event during an executive retreat in Egypt for the Saudi Arabian office of a global pharmaceutical company. Her experience is a primer for all business and meeting facilitators.

Her program called Visexecutaries: Seizing Opportunities in our Shifting Corporate Landscape, “looks at how organizations can fine tune their corporate, sales and marketing strategies and tactics in the face of emerging trends,” says Thornley-Brown. Although the client did not request that the program include social media elements, “it’s impossible to discuss marketing and sales without integrating the huge impact of social media,” she says, and initially took the initiative to add social media elements to the program.

The pharmaceutical company client was in the process of merging with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Saudi Arabia. Thornley-Brown saw her social media exercises as a way to bring the two teams of sales executives together in preparation for the merger. She has executed team building programs in Egypt, Malaysia and the U.S.

Before the meeting, all participants were invited to join LinkedIn and register for the team building program. The event organizer posted detailed information about the program and registration materials on LinkedIn. One of the two companies subsequently requested that Thornley-Brown prepare an additional exercise specifically addressing the use of social media. The exercise that she developed included the following:

Thornley-Brown sent invitations for all participants to join LinkedIn, add her to their network and begin adding their own contacts. She set up a LinkedIn group, invited participants to join and used the group to disseminate news articles and information on how to prepare for the team building program.

Building on the LinkedIn success, Thornley-Brown asked participants to register on Twitter, follow her and each other. She used Twitter for “quick bursts of information, reminders and to let participants know that there was new information in the LinkedIn group,” she explains. As part of the Visexecutaries program, she divided them up into teams, asked them to choose a team name, colors and a dress code for their project and then encouraged them to use LinkedIn and Twitter to communicate ahead of time.

During the retreat she held a one hour information session on LinkedIn and Twitter, showing participants some additional features and an example of the work that one of the attendees had done building his LinkedIn network and customizing it for their industry.

Since the meeting, the LinkedIn group has continued to grow. They share videos, articles and discussion relating to the retreat. Thornley-Brown has invited meeting alumni to the group and encouraged them to network. She has also started a blog to focus on some of the topics from the team building exercise and uses LinkedIn email to notify group members when a new blog post is available.

The Takeaway:

In introducing a new form of communication and collaboration such as social networking platforms to the team building scenario, Anne Thornley-Brown facilitated the learning by joining the LinkedIn group and Twitter herself and monitoring the “uptake” of retreat participants. Rather than sending attendees an email or a pdf on how to use LinkedIn and Twitter, she helped them onboard and learn how to use the tools first hand. Her experience demonstrated how team building facilitators can interact with a group, before, during and after the meeting. Thornley-Brown also considered the meeting objectives in her social media strategy. A merger between two previous competitors was the perfect setting for the collaborative and non-confrontational platforms of LinkedIn and Twitter. Her post-retreat blog is a brilliant way to keep the conversation going from the meeting and build a larger audience for her team building practice.

The NAB Show’s Virtual Trade Show Odyssey

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show is the annual embodiment of all that is content-related including the creation, management, commerce, distribution, delivery and consumption of audio, video and film. It’s only natural that they would entertain the idea of offering a virtual trade show and conference at some point.

On January 20, the show organizers will launch a one-day virtual event called DigitalVision 2010. Obviously, they need to demonstrate that they are proponents of digital content and its related delivery systems in order to fulfill the face-to-face show’s mission to service the “broader-casting®” industry. Still, they are approaching the virtual launch with a healthy dose of skepticism.

DigitalVision 2010 will offer up to twenty virtual exhibitors (Including the NAB Show that will use the platform to promote its large face-to-face exhibition and conference scheduled for April 10-15 in Las Vegas) an opportunity to connect with at least 4,000 visitors (projected). Admission is free of charge.

NAB’s virtual show will utilize a platform from ON24. In addition to the virtual booths, the event will feature live Q&A, keynote presentations, online chat, downloadable materials, moderated chat and a virtual lounge for idea exchange and social networking.

Brad Williams, vice president member benefits and development for NAB, has been researching the virtual option for at least three years to address the need to create a year round experience for show participants. “We do a great job with the physical event, why not utilize technology to touch our audience year round? Exhibitors want to touch prospects year round and attendees want information year round,” he says.

NAB Show organizers worked out a relatively low risk (no net expense) way to test the concept, earn some revenue and experiment with new (for them) technology. They are partnering with NewBay Media to provide conference content and moderate the chats and lounges.  The two will share revenue (they are already in the black) on the virtual event.

NAB chose to kick off DigitalVision in January because it’s the time that exhibitors normally kick off their sales seasons and face-to-face attendees start thinking about the April exhibition. They are hoping that the virtual show will help drive attendance to the physical show.

Williams and his colleagues will analyze specific metrics to determine the virtual show’s performance. The ON24 platform provides reporting on event activity such as the amount of time a visitor spends at the show, number of log-ins per person, materials downloaded, booths visited, sessions viewed and chat session activity.

Organizers will also look at virtual attendees to see whether they attended past NAB Shows and match virtual attendance against physical attendance at the April show to identify who attended both. During registration, they will ask virtual attendees, “Do you plan to attend the NAB Show? Yes/No/Maybe,” Williams says.  Virtual attendees will receive coded (complimentary) exhibits-only passes as well as some coded discount codes ($100 off) for conference registrations for the April Show. When the coded passes and discounts are used to register for the face-to-face show, the information will be recorded.

Despite the fact that virtual shows offer a “nice business model with serious revenue potential,” says Williams, the NAB Show organizers have their reservations. Cannibalism is a concern. The organizers don’t want to see exhibitor budgets shifting from the physical show to the virtual show or for attendees that are accustomed to attending the face-to-face mega show to suddenly decide that the virtual event is good enough.

When considering potential revenue opportunities via a virtual platform, the Association itself (as opposed to the NAB Show) is less involved in the deliberations. Although the NAB Show is, in terms of income, “the tail that wags the dog,” Williams says, only 20% of the association members attend the annual trade show because the association represents free, over-the-air radio and television broadcasters and broadcast networks. “The show is about content, which includes our membership base, but we want to create business opportunities for entire show community of digital content professionals, he adds.

Despite its trepidation, the NAB show wants to extend its brand and create a “mix of technologies driving year round engagement” for its customers. They are hoping that the virtual show will be an extension, NOT a replacement, for the face-to-face show. “We would rather be seen as an organization that is trying to do some new and creative things for its customers. If it doesn’t work, we’ll try something else,” Williams says.

The Takeaway:  The NAB Show really has no choice but to experiment with virtual events. Digital content is what they do. Fortunately, they are approaching the issue prudently. They reduced their risk and investment by partnering with another company. If the virtual show is a success, everyone wins. Either way, it’s important for them to determine what works and what doesn’t for their specific audience.

Apart from whether the virtual show will or won’t cannibalize the physical show, the NAB Show and others have to utilize different mediums for growing their shows now and in the future. Traditional marketing, including email has its limitations. Virtual outreach is one way to touch the customers you already know and tap into the growing number of “digerati” who don’t know you.

Benchmarking Event-Driven Non-Profit Social Media Campaigns

As the lead blogger for the Donate Life Utah campaign that ended on October 24, 2009 (National Make a Difference Day), I had the opportunity to participate in, as well as observe, how social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and WordPress (blog) can be utilized to build an event-driven community.

Donate Life Utah was a campaign across Utah college campuses to generate the most organ donor registrations prior to the October 24 deadline. On the final day, campaign organizers held a 9K Race and .9K Walk to raise awareness and attempt a Guinness Book world record for the most organ donors to register in one day. The schools were each given $1,000 by the Quest for the Gift of Life Foundation to fund recruitment efforts. The winning school received $9,000 in scholarship money.

Our campaign kicked off on September 9. Our first blog was posted September 11. We posted daily (using a team of 4 individuals) and every post was tweeted via Twitter. A master tweeter tweeted several times daily. We also created a Facebook fan page.

In a campaign that lasted six weeks and started from 0 (0 blog readers, 0 Twitter followers, 0 Facebook fans), the final stats were as follows:

  • Twitter account reached almost 200 followers
  • Facebook page reached almost 600 fans
  • The blog had more than 50 posts, almost 1,000 unique visits, with over 350 of those in the final week alone.

The campaign steadily built momentum, reaching a crescendo during the final week. The deadline date, race and Guinness Book world record attempt helped to drive social media buy-in as volunteers and potential donors “tuned in” to social media platforms to get event details, check their school standings and obtain donor registration information.

The Takeaway: As event-based social media campaigns emerge, benchmarking among organizations and campaigns will be critical to gauging average vs. exceptional results. While all results are relative to the organization’s goals and incentives, the numbers of followers, fans and subscribers generated are less relevant than the rates of conversion (from Twitter followers to organ donors, Facebook fans to attendees, etc.). Live events and social media campaigns work well in combination. The sense of urgency created by a live event drives participation in social media platforms and is a critical component for community building.

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