Fork In The Road Blog

Events: Technology. Design. Strategy.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: How #Untech10 Was Launched and What it Means to a Changing Industry

Almost two weeks after Social Fish Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer with a host of technology providers launched what they dubbed #Untech10 in defiance of the major snowstorm that forced the cancellation of ASAE’s 2010 Technology Conference and Expo, the potential long-term impact of their efforts has become clear.

There are a couple of great posts on other blogs about how things came together. Essentially, according to Grant, the unconference was launched with a Twitter hashtag, some nimble volunteers (willing to go without much sleep) and $6,000 (all donated by sponsors) and ASAE’s unofficial blessing.

The original ASAE conference was scheduled to open on Wednesday, February 10. The day before, there were rumors about a possible cancellation as “Snowpocalypse” was preparing to engulf Washington, DC. Rather than waiting, Grant, Dreyer and Aaron Biddar of The Port, hatched a Plan B and asked the Twitterati to stand by.

By mid-afternoon on the Tuesday the 9th, ASAE formally announced the cancellation and plans for the unconference were put fully into motion with help from exhibitors already on site when the cancellation hit. The list included:

The Port’s Biddar handled hotel negotiations, sponsorship and installed cameras and broadcasting equipment at the Renaissance Hotel.

Omnipress set up the #Untech10 web site to serve at the online home for the event and organize the schedule, speakers, participants and content. The site was up and running by 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday.

Eventbrite offered registration for the live participants.

Peach New Media provided the live streaming of content alongside a Twitter feed.

NFI Studios sponsored the happy hour and reimbursed travel expenses for association executives.

Avectra offered their Webex account as a back-up system for the presentations and provided food, signage and miscellaneous support on site.

Speakers who had been on the schedule for the original conference were given the opportunity to present their sessions on Thursday before a hybrid (live and virtual) audience or Friday before a virtual only audience. Grant’s crew took special pains to be inclusive of all presenter volunteers while providing a broad range of topics. Some presenters with similar topics were grouped together in panels. The traditional town hall meeting scheduled for Wednesday evening at the original conference was replicated at #Untech10 using a fishbowl concept recently introduced by social media and event industry authority Samuel J. Smith.

While the logistics were unfolding, Tweeters who followed the #Untech10 hashtag were given an unprecedented glimpse of the behind the scenes action as @maddiegrant, @Lindydreyer and others tweeted a play by play. #Untech10 opened at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, February 11 to 75 live attendees and 425 virtual participants.

In the end Grant was amazed with the results. “All of the vendors, some of whom were competitors, came together. It was almost like they were showing off by doing instead of just selling. The stuff that always goes wrong didn’t. Even the food never ran out,” she says.

Grant and Dreyer’s success with #Untech10 has much larger implications for the meetings industry. #Untech10 is the real-life story of what happened when the patients took over the asylum, especially patients who never entertained the notion of failure.

Associations must change. So many associations (and event organizations) take conservative approaches, focus on details that turn out to be less important and find the risk of failure too great to try anything new or spontaneous for fear of ruffling some board members’ feathers. ASAE made a bold move when they allowed (although unable to endorse or assist) the members to run with #Untech10 without seeing it as competition but as a way to meet the needs of their community.

Generation X works differently. Grant, Dreyer and others saw the cancellation of the conference as an incredible opportunity to serve their community, shape the future of hybrid meetings and showcase the technology that will one day be the norm rather than the exception. In true Generation X style, the door opened and rather than wait for group consensus, feasibility studies or permission, they ran through it with little more than their smartphones and chutzpah.

Exhibitors will sell differently in the future. The vendor companies that stepped up for #Untech10 with people, platforms and money are the other heroes of the story. In true social media style, they allowed themselves to be exposed, to risk failure, to be transparent and to sell by example.

Now that we’ve learned to live without, we may do without. In the future, it may not be necessary to have large gatherings of people in order to serve and build the community. We all love face-to-face but the success of #Untech10 revealed that meeting stakeholders are just as responsive to virtual meetings as live ones given the right conditions. The focus on “butts in seats” or “heads in beds” is quickly turning to butts and heads.

Spontaneity is the new black. Maddie Grant and I discussed the fact that #Untech10 was sort of like the conference version of a “rave” or the mobile catering trucks that drive around Los Angeles tweeting their locations and daily specials to followers who line up for the goods. Meetings in the future will have more spontaneity brought to them by the audience who will participate more and in greater numbers than before because it adds dimension and excitement to the event FOR THEM.

Meeting, conference and exhibition planners’ skill sets will change. Had Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer not known how to utilize Twitter and about the technology platforms for networking, broadcasting and capturing content, they could not have done what they did so quickly. This is a lesson to all planners to learn what’s going on in the new world of event technology and for hell’s sake, get on Twitter.

Being nimble pays dividends. The #Untech10 experience was a thrill ride for Maddie Grant. “I would totally do it again. I think doing things fast, collaboratively and openly takes away the stress of doing things perfectly. We just had to get it done. The reason we could do it with so many players was that we only had 24 hours to get it done. In the future organizations will need to be nimble enough to pull these types of things off,” she says.

There is no such thing as control. If anything, #Untech10 demonstrated that control over the content, the message and the brand is elusive. If the meeting organization does not provide compelling content, establish the message (by listening and acting) and reinforce the brand (by example setting not advertising), the attendees will do it for them.

Live and virtual audiences are part of an event continuum. There was incredible electricity in the room of live bodies gathered at the Renaissance Hotel according to Grant. Likewise, the virtual attendees were lively, active and a major component of the meeting. When done correctly (i.e. allowing the audience to be as much a part of the meeting as the presenters), the live experience and the virtual experience can function in complementary ways.

The Takeaway: The revolution will not be televised. It will be streamed live and on demand to a computer or smartphone near you.

Could Hosted Buyer Programs Work for Virtual Trade Shows?

A virtual trade show with a hosted buyer program might be the perfect combination for the senior level executive that hasn’t been seen at the face-to-face event in years (with or without a recession, corporate travel ban or AIG Effect). However, without the face-to-face contact and experiential elements that enhance sales conversions at live events, event organizers, exhibitors and platform providers will have to work overtime to create a unique and memorable experience tailored to the VIP attendee. Here is a breakdown of what such a program might look like.

Pre-qualification

Hosted buyer programs begin with the pre-qualification process. It’s likely that a senior executive is less likely to “apply” to be hosted at a virtual event. Instead, organizers will need to work with their internal sales teams or partner with trade publications to identify high quality prospects before inviting them to participate. It’s also worth a look in Twitter, LinkedIn, online forums, the blogosphere or other social media platforms to look for qualifying information on specific individuals. Plus, if they’re on Twitter and LinkedIn, they may be more receptive to a virtual event invitation.

Invitation

Once the buyers are identified, they should be formally invited. A (snail) mailed invitation could be interesting, followed up by a telephone call and an email reminder. Non-traditional invitations and reminders are especially important for those prospects new to the virtual event world (there are still some out there). Of course the benefits for attending should be emphasized at this stage such as high level, customized, exclusive content, peer-to-peer networking, incentives for attending, customized agenda, reminders, senior level exhibitor interaction and tremendous time savings.

Content

In addition to the trade show component, the ideal virtual event should contain a live-streamed keynote presentation from an exclusive speaker, followed by a live Q & A session where attendees can address specific questions to the presenter. The presentation would be limited to the hosted (VIP) attendees. Keeping the number of attendees low will guarantee that their questions are addressed.

Event organizers would contact the hosted buyers in advance to solicit ideas and information for the type of content that they would like to receive at the virtual event. Information in the form of research, white papers, financial analyses, keynote “cliff notes,” benchmarking data, etc. can be prepared in advance to meet their specific needs. Such content should be exclusive to hosted buyers, although summaries and abbreviated versions of the VIP content could be made available to non-hosted buyers.

Buyer Incentives

Standard features of hosted buyer programs for live events include airfare, hotel accommodations, meals and entertainment paid for by event sponsors. Incentives for attendance at a virtual event could include cash honorariums (paid via PayPal), transferable free registration at the annual face-to-face trade show, subscriptions to executive-level online information services or copies of exclusive research reports.

VIP Exclusives

Successful hosted buyer programs do a good job of providing premium content and experiences to a select group of attendees. Virtual trade shows are no different. Some exclusive features could include:

  • VIP chat rooms or virtual round tables that could only be accessed by hosted buyers to provide attendees with an opportunity for peer-to-peer networking and prevent virtual suitcasing (non-paying exhibitors poaching VIP attendees).
  • Personalized agenda to direct hosted buyers to exhibitor appointments and keynotes. Attendees can be automatically pinged on screen or via email when one meeting is about to end and another is scheduled to begin.
  • One-on-one virtual appointments with senior-level exhibitors. Discussion and offerings would be geared specifically toward the needs and interests of senior level buyers.
  • Ease of use. Attendees should not have to remember passwords to gain access to VIP areas. The virtual platform should recognize their names, restrict access to hosted buyers only and display the attendee’s name, company and title to enhance peer-to-peer networking.
  • On call tech support. Hosted buyers should be able to press a single button to access live chat tech support and customer service.
  • Other VIP attendees. Paying recognizable thought leaders, other high-profile executives, authors and recognizable industry buzz generators to engage in conversations with hosted buyers could be an attractive feature of the virtual event.

Attendee Requirements

Hosted buyers at live events are required to attend certain meetings and social events. Tracking the attendance can be cumbersome for event organizers. In a virtual environment, however, attendance tracking is easier as long as there are mechanisms in place to make sure that the virtual attendee is actually the person he/she purports to be. In addition to exhibitor meetings, hosted buyers could be required to enter chat rooms, attend keynotes and download white papers. Having a variety of tasks to perform would make it more difficult for busy executives to leave the computer on “auto-pilot” for extended periods of time. A post event survey/test sent to the hosted buyer’s email, could also help to verify completion of the various virtual tasks.

The Takeaway: There is no replacement for a face-to-face exhibition, however, a virtual trade show can be a valuable tool for engaging key buyers that would not normally attend the physical show. A hosted buyer scenario, like that employed in live events, could provide the appropriate level of incentives to key buyers, not the least of which is being able to attend in the comfort of their home or office. Add cash, research, exclusive content (not available to anyone or anywhere else) and an easy to navigate platform and, “on paper,” the idea has merit. Due diligence is required on the part of the organizer to identify key buyers. Exhibitors would be required to tailor offerings to a VIP audience and platform providers would need to make adjustments for recognizing, segregating and servicing high value attendees from the rest of the non-hosted audience.

I would love to hear from live event organizers, exhibitors, VIP attendees and virtual event platform providers. Could this work?

But Wait, There’s More on “If You Tweet It, Will They Come?”

I had the pleasure of exchanging emails and/or speaking with three headliners for the upcoming Expo! Expo!, IAEE’s Annual Meeting and Trade Show. The event is being held this year in Atlanta. The resulting article was titled, “If You Tweet It, Will They Come?” and appears in E2: Exhibitions and Events’ November/December 2009 issue.

There was more revealed in the interviews (some via email) than I wrote about in the article. The article focuses on social media marketing because their presentation is called The Art of Social Media Marketing. However, Chris Brogan, Guy Kawasaki and Rick Calvert had some interesting thoughts on the place of social media in the events industry, revenue models, using social media in event execution, the renewed focus on customers and beaming oneself through the universe.

Brogan (as an event organizer himself) offers some perspectives on social media’s place in the event industry. “BEFORE even showing up, social media is finding me many more attendees, and giving our exhibitors a chance to build relationships before the event. This requires the exhibitors to act civil and treat the attendees like new relationships instead of sales leads, but should everyone play nicely, the opportunities are great,” he writes.

Kawasaki makes the “why not?” argument. “Social media isn’t a savior, but it’s sure a great marketing and engagement tool. Associations can use sites like Twitter and Facebook to promote events, engage people during events, and then make the event last longer after it’s done. These services are fast, free, and ubiquitous. Not using them is foolish, he comments.

Revenue models is a dodgy subject for the three celebs. Calvert believes the revenue model for face-to-face conferences is broken (especially in view of the emergence of virtual events) and “the pricing structure has to change completely.” Brogan thinks pay-per-view online content could work. “…Even if you had a $599 show, you might get another $99 per seat out of people who want access to the live stream,” he says. Kawasaki on the other hand says, “New media isn’t going to create new revenue streams for your members in the next few years. What it can do is increase the effectiveness of marketing of existing events. I would be surprised if people would pay to view conference content [online]. I know I wouldn’t.”

Brogan believes in the value of social media platforms for facilitating the execution of face-to-face events. “I’m a big fan of how social networks and blogs and all these tools allow us to make scheduling easier, find speakers easier, communicate with audiences with less friction, and to correct on the fly, should there be a problem encountered along the way. Social tools let us execute our Inbound Marketing Summit events with a lot of fast moving parts and far fewer emails. I mean, who really wants more emails?” he writes.

Brogan also advocates a renewed focus on the customers (attendees, exhibitors and sponsors) as an important way to harness the power of social media. “Focusing on tighter matches to niches matters. Deeply integrating the exhibitors to the content and to the experience of the attendees is important. Sponsors don’t want to pay and hope any more. They want to know that they will experience a tighter opportunity to build relationships. But with these requests come also the opportunity to fulfill those requests using social media tools as the glue,” he comments.

Rick Calvert doesn’t call “them” customers anymore. The collection of attendees, exhibitors, sponsors, media, thought leaders, speakers and bloggers, et. al that support his BlogWorld and New Media Expo are his “community” and he addresses their needs as such.

In the end, is this entire discussion all for naught? Kawasaki may think so. “In the short term, the primary use of innovation is to better market events including after-event engagement with video archives and the like. In the medium term, events can save money by hiring speakers to do virtual appearances—though probably not the plenary session speakers. In the long term, everybody will be beaming their bodies around the universe ala Star Trek, and we’ll be back to pressing flesh though without the need for airlines and hotels,” he says. He’s kidding right?

The Takeaway: Everyone, even the experts, is still trying to figure out the social media/live event connection even if they’ve had success on some fronts. If you can see these guys in person in Atlanta, I think it is a meeting not to be missed. The Twitter back channel will be priceless.

A Meeting Planner’s Place in the Virtual World

What does a meeting, exhibition or conference planner have to do to get ahead these days? Whether you’re still employed, looking for a job or as so many career coaches say, “building your skill set,” you can’t ignore the phenomenon of virtual (online) events.

As a meeting planner myself, I can understand how some conventional planners would view online events (webinars, virtual trade shows, TelePresence experiences, MUVE environments, etc.) as competition. After all, who needs to know how to set a room theatre style or how many bran muffins to order for breakfast, when your attendees are spread throughout the country?

Planners are misguided, however, if they feel they can avoid the virtual movement or relegate all of the tasks to a technology provider. There is ample need for qualified planners on a strategic and logistical level when planning a virtual or hybrid event.

Meeting planners bring a unique perspective to online events including an understanding of the objectives and the experience that comes from planning live meetings and trade shows.  They are the conduit between senior management or the client and the virtual technology provider.

There is a niche that can be uniquely filled by meeting planners because virtual events are designed to emulate the face-to-face experience and not the reverse.

The execution of a virtual event requires much of the same acumen that a professional meeting planner or exhibition manager possesses including:

  • Content management (speaker selection, presentation topics, content capture)
  • Event registration
  • Pre-event audience promotion
  • Post-event attendee evaluations
  • Return on investment or objectives analysis
  • Selection and supervision of sub-contractors
  • Exhibit/sponsorship sales (trade shows)
  • Translation services (international meetings)

Planners of the future will need to know about the features, benefits, technology and execution of online events in addition to the elements of conventional meetings in order to keep pace with the profession. Some specific areas of knowledge will include:

  • Virtual meeting platforms (differences, features, functionality, suitability)
  • Blended meetings
  • Social networking integration (Twitter for Q & A, for example)
  • RFP preparation for virtual platforms
  • Internet/satellite connectivity requirements
  • Streaming/live content vs. archived content
  • Perceptions of virtual meetings
  • Production/staging of virtual events
  • Costs and potential revenue streams
  • Mobile device integration
  • Attendee guides

Where then does a meeting planner go to learn the ins and out of virtual meetings? MarketingProfs offers some great advice on virtual conference planning. Although the content is only available to premium members for a fee, they have a two-day free trial membership that is worth signing up for.  

Another resource is Julius Solaris’s EventManager blog. He has a couple of good posts there including “Job Title: Webcasting Manager,” which touches on the role of event managers in executing virtual events.  

Technology providers themselves are valuable resources. Vconferenceonline has recognized the value of educating meeting planners about online conferences. They will present a free webinar developed specifically for meeting planners on Thursday, October 29 from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. EST.

Katherine Elliott of Vconferenceonline shared the content of the webinar, titled Virtual Event University, with me. Here’s the run down of topics that the speakers will cover (straight from her email):

1.    Meeting Planners and Virtual Events – an excellent combination

  • Why virtual events need a planner

2.    Why is a virtual event safe?  What’s in it for you? (financially and otherwise)

  • You be the expert/”savior”/cutting edge
  • Develop an “experience” for your client and their audience
  • Small learning curve – don’t have to learn new technology
  • Economical
  • Less risk and more control
  • All but the handshake–increased attendance, flexibility

3.    Obtaining and planning content

  • Content is still king
  • Securing speakers, high profile or otherwise
  • Contracting, considerations

4.    Marketing your event

  • Alone or with a physical event
  • How to present yourself and the event
  • Involve speakers and sponsors early

5.    Using the new media (digital media)

  • Where’s your place?
  • What about social media?

6.    Misc/best practices

  • How to work with other events
  • What kinds of events can you offer?
  • Can you charge?
  • Exhibitors/sponsors
  • Involving the CEO in marketing and/or keynotes

Virtual Event University is free of charge.  It will also be archived after the presentation on October 29th for a short time, for planners that want to view it in stages or refer back to it later on. I expect that Vconferenceonline’s main objective will be showcasing their technology in addition to providing great content, but I think it’s a fair trade.

The Takeaway: The economic turnaround may not be fully realized for at least another year. Many planners are struggling already with the loss of business from regular clients and the major cutbacks in the corporate and association arenas. At the same time, virtual events of all types are ramping up. Technology providers are moving into the space quickly. It is incumbent upon meeting planners–those with CMPs, CMMs, CEMs and those without–to learn all they can about virtual events and stake their own claim in the virtual world.

 

How the Social Media Revolution Is Shortening Our Lives (In A Good Way)

I’ve been seeing a pattern for a while and some recent tidbits that I’ve stumbled across confirm my suspicions. Social media has changed the way we WANT to consume product/company/event information–from long diatribes about a company’s product to short and sweet bursts of flavorful info that spark an idea.

Twitter is the prime example. Natch! But there’s more and more coming from the face-to-face meeting world that points in the same direction. Here’s what I’m talking about…

Look at the TED Conference. Some of the most brilliant minds in the universe gather to deliver ideas that they are passionate about to an audience that has paid $2,000 to $6,000 to attend in person (less if you want to attend virtually). Speakers are allowed only 18 minutes each to present an idea that they believe will change the world.

Then you have Pecha Kucha Nights. Local groups all over the world that get together to listen to local artists, professionals and “ordinary” citizens give a PowerPoint presentation for 6 minutes and 40 seconds (20 slides x 20 seconds each) on topics they are passionate about. In Christchurch, New Zealand folks talked about guerilla gardening, the brain of a kiwi and “Hamster Squaredance” (not sure I want to go there).

Last year I attended the Global Events Partners Global Summit, a private event held by the company for it’s sales executives and clients. One day they presented a Destination Showcase involving 20-some of their partners/offices. Speakers from destinations that GEP represents walked onto a stage for 3 minutes each while a PowerPoint flashed a couple of slides behind them. There were no pauses between the speakers or the slides and as one presenter walked off, the next person in line walked on in this continuous flow of talk, jokes and even songs.

As I was checking out the run down for our monthly Salt Lake Social Media Club meeting, I noticed that it will be a joint meeting with group called Ignite Salt Lake. It sounds like a Pecha Kucha meets TED opportunity for local folks with ideas of all kinds to talk about their passions.

I realized how valuable the contribution of people’s seemingly disparate ideas are to my own thought processes at a session titled “An Industry in Transition” during the MPI World Education Conference a few weeks ago. Presenters Fiona Pelham of Organise This and Elizabeth Henderson of MPI presented a framework for problem-solving around the subject of creating a more sustainable meetings and exhibitions industry.

Toward the end of the session, Pelham posed the question to the group of 30 or so attendees, “What kinds of skills can you exchange with someone else to accelerate the learning process?” Audience members quickly threw out a number of skills including writing in British English, riding a motorcycle, becoming a locavore (slow cooking), canning (for consumption of food during the meeting) graphic design, participating in the CMP (Certified Meeting Professional) program, calculating a renewable energy mix, and wine making. I walked away thinking about how to cram all of these “skills” into the mind box I created for myself called “how do these ideas help to make meetings more sustainable?” I also wanted to figure out how to re-connect with Fiona and Elizabeth.

So not only do we like to talk in short, truncated sentences on Twitter or the Facebook wall, we like to consume information in the same way. We don’t really like to be sold to (hence the popularity of the DVR and Tivo) but we love new ideas and would likely buy from someone that has a good un-related (to their product or service) idea just because we find him or her interesting.

Here’s the takeaway:  Social media is teaching us the value of short, rich and succulent ideas. In the context of conference content, besides being brief, the content has to be thought-provoking and perhaps only somewhat related to the industry or the product of the presenters.  Most definitely, overt product pitches are so 2006. But since, as TED espouses, all knowledge is related, there is some value in exploring ways to present great ideas about a wide variety of subjects and leave it to the audience to connect the dots about how it can apply to them, their companies, their jobs and their lives.

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