Fork In The Road Blog

Events: Technology. Design. Strategy.

Options Multiply for HOW-TO Education on Virtual Events

When the current wave of virtual event platforms first emerged, technology developers became the primary educators for the industry. In addition to teaching their clients and prospects about the features and benefits of their own products, they were also responsible for helping customers to market the event, develop content, sell exhibit space, train speakers, and a host of other tasks. While they did so gladly, the explosion of interest in virtual solutions placed a heavy burden on them. Fortunately, the situation has changed. Now, there are multiple opportunities to learn about virtual event platforms and execution.

Virtual Event Institute and Virtual Edge Summit

As a former face-to-face event organizer himself—a career path that quickly changed after 9/11—Michael Doyle instantly saw the potential of virtual event platforms. His Virtual Edge Institute (VEI) was the first organization to advocate and educate the event community on digital solutions. The Institute produces the Virtual Edge Summit, an annual hybrid conference covering the full spectrum of topics on virtual event and learning platforms. A prominent feature of the conference is the streaming of content on a wide variety of platforms allowing virtual attendees to test drive products.

EastVirtual Event Workshop for Associations

The EastVirtual Event Workshop is designed specifically for trade association executives and department managers in event marketing, sales, digital marketing, community, meetings, Web, IT services, learning, and training. The program offers participants a hands-on curriculum covering virtual event business models, platforms, budgets, content, staff, exhibits, sponsorship sales, engagement, program planning, assessment, and ROI. “EastVirtual will give attendees the fundamentals of virtual trade shows and conferences. Participants will leave the workshop knowing the first steps for building a 30-day implementation strategy,” says Warwick Davies, principal of The Event Mechanic! and co-founder of EastVirtual. The one-day workshop will be held in Washington, DC on May 18, 2011.

Digital Events Strategist Certification

VEI recently announced its plans for a Digital Events Strategist certification program for individuals “to effectively plan, produce and measure the results of their digital engagement practices” and for organizations “to develop a management pool strategically equipped to engage audiences using digital technology.” Michael Doyle recognizes the challenge that the industry has in getting managers in sync with the virtual opportunities and technology. “There is a bottleneck in the industry right now. On one side, customers are trying to add virtual elements to their programs, but don’t have the skills or experience internally. On the other side, vendors have customers who want to deploy the solutions but they don’t have the ecosystem to support them. The certification will help to change that,” he says.

The Virtual Buzz Blog

There are excellent blogs on virtual platforms and the event industry. I love Dennis Shiao’s It’s All Virtual and Social 27’s Virtual Events Hub. But the latest entrant to the virtual event blogosphere comes from the ladies—Cece Salomon-Lee and Donna Sanford—two marketing/PR and journalism experts (respectively) with a passion for virtual platforms. Their Virtual Buzz Blog is a collection of expertly written how-to posts and perspectives plus curated content from other bloggers that should keep the virtual learners juiced up in between face-to-face events.

The Takeaway: From broad (Virtual Edge Summit) to focused (EastVirtual) to everything in between, there are ample opportunities for corporate, independent, and association planners, strategists, and project managers to learn the ropes. Fortunately no one has to choose just one.

When there are no More Hybrid Events

In the future, says Dannette Veale, global manager of the Cisco Live and Networkers Virtual event, there will be no more live vs. virtual discussions. The two experiences will overlap so completely, that what we now perceive as two separate environments glued together through some “hybrid” sleight of hand will merge into a single, seamless stream of content, entertainment, and engagement that can be accessed from either end of the physical to virtual spectrum.

Although Veale will speak more about content authentication and syndication when she gives her presentation on Hybrid Meetings and Digital Events during the Virtual Edge Summit, she has some definite ideas on how games, mobile, augmented reality, and video technology will enable the physical and virtual worlds to merge.

The convergence has already begun with games. “You will see tighter and tighter integration between online and offline audiences using games and online formats that both can engage in,” Veale says.  Think about a scavenger hunt extended to a virtual audience. “The same search for clues will exist but the game won’t be strictly location based,” she explains.

The creators of the “Heroes” television show created an augmented reality game called “Conspiracy for Good.” Using mobile phones, players venture out onto the streets of London looking for clues from live characters and QR codes planted in various locations. Veale believes that similar scenarios will become reality in the event space of the future. Exhibitors, sponsors, event hosts, and organizers can use the same tactics to engage live attendees and help them interact with virtual content.

Augmented reality could also be coming to a trade show booth near you, Veale explains.  Imagine walking into a booth, pointing your cell phone at a product’s QR code, and receiving layer upon layer of information about the company, sales outlets, contact information, product applications, white papers, videos, maps, and location-based information. Mobile devices will be the gateway for virtual attendees to engage with content from the live show and for live attendees to engage with content from the virtual space.

Augmented reality kiosks have surfaced in Japan and Germany. Veale describes how the kiosks work. “Bringing a car to an event can be costly. With an augmented reality kiosk, you can bring 30 to 40 cars to the show virtually. You have one kiosk where visitors pick up different flyers with QR codes indicating specific car models. They hold a flyer up to the scanner at the kiosk and get a 3D augmented reality rendering of the vehicle,” she says.

Other technologies will enable the real world and virtual world to meld together. Cisco’s TelePresence video conferencing technology “has helped remove the idea that conference speakers have to physically be there,” Veale says. And their new Videoscape platform is another example, she says, of how technology “will start to layer the video experience.”

In the future, there will be no more hybrid events—a term that implies the cobbling together of two separate realities into one hiccuppy, Frankensteiny, excuse to multi-task. The future of events as Dannette Veale envisions it is one where the learning is über compelling, the engagement is exhilarating, and anyone can participate.

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?

3D Virtual Events: Child’s Play or Über Innovation?

Between the Avatar in 3D movie craze and the 3D televisions rolled out during the Consumer Electronic Show, “3D” may be the acronym of the year for 2010. Since virtual events are a hot ticket in the event industry this year, it makes sense to take a closer look at 3D virtual events to see where they fall on the event continuum.

Let’s first get the virtual vs. face-to-face discussion out of the way. There is a widely held belief (especially in the live event industry) that in general, a face-to-face event is superior to a virtual event. However, there are legitimate reasons why online trade shows, conferences and hybrid events will continue to grow in popularity. Several major trade show organizers including the Graphic Arts Show Company and Hanley-Wood are launching complementary virtual events to drive traffic to their live events and the revenue streams from virtual events are still untapped (read…lots of potential).

Let’s suppose, however, that you’re beyond the “should I launch a virtual event” decision and you’re deciding among the various virtual solutions, options and vendors. 3D event platforms should be in the running. Most of the platforms currently in use for virtual events are two-dimensional. In other words, they look more like a web site than an “environment.” In a 3D space, users interact with each other as avatars with features and behaviors that emulate the real world.

Scientific research has long ago confirmed the enhanced learning and e-commerce potential of immersive 3D environments. This is good news for event producers hoping to use 3D virtual events to drive traffic to their live events. Simply put, researchers say, by creating an online world in which humans can operate and socialize in the same way as they do in “real life,” they are more likely to behave as they do in the physical world, i.e. learning and purchasing.

James Parker, President of Digitell, a multi-media company with a 3D virtual event platform called VirtualU, explains the advantages of 3D in an event context. “3D events are more engaging. The interaction is more stimulating for the attendee. You can demonstrate equipment [the avatar can actually work the levers of the machinery], have private conversations or group breakouts and there are endless opportunities for sponsorships and promotion. Plus, the cost of 3D events is generally lower than similar events using 2D environments.”

At first glance, a 3D environment may seem more complex than it really is and the rationale for choosing a 3D platform might not be immediately clear. Some brief training, a user-friendly interface and available tech support can diminish the learning curve. However, “It isn’t until you enter the event space as an avatar and engage other avatars in conversation or view presenters and product demonstrations that you begin to understand the potential of 3D for enhancing the online event experience and promoting engagement,” Parker says.

Although there are plenty of case studies from the corporate, academic and medical fields describing success using 3D environments, The Virtual Edge Summit 2010 is a live conference on everything virtual for the events industry including 3D immersive technology. Summit organizers also offer a resource book for live event producers to help them parse through the various considerations surrounding virtual events.

3D virtual events are not new, according to Digitell’s Parker. However, they have recently come back into focus by overcoming some previous negatives of bandwidth, low user adoption and poor timing (the industry was still reeling from the introduction of the Internet a decade ago). It’s important, he says, to revisit the 3D option again for a couple of reasons:

  • After this year, the honeymoon on “standard” virtual events may be over. As with live events, online attendees will be looking for new features, new benefits and more engagement when they return next year. Organizers unsure of whether their audiences are ready for 3D, may offer attendees either a 2D or 3D attendance option before migrating the audience entirely to the 3D world in subsequent years.
  • The digital generations (X, Y, millennial and naught) are already accustomed to online gaming platforms and other immersive experiences and will expect the same level of stimulation from online events.
  • 3D environments are the perfect “Petri Dish” for low cost experimentation—a plus in these tough economic times. For example, pushing the envelope on show features, customer service tactics and promotional programs that may be useful for live events, is much easier and lower in cost in a controlled three-dimensional world.

The Takeaway: The movie, consumer electronics and online gaming industries are driving the renewed interest in 3D visuals. Continued growth in social media and the integration of virtual events, live events, MUVE (Multi-User Virtual Environments) and rich media have set the stage for sustained interest in immersive experiences. If the value of 3D events to drive attendance at live events and/or become stand-alone sources of revenue is proven, and the only obstacle to wider adoption is ease-of-use (easily solved), they have the potential to re-emerge as the event industry’s next über innovation.

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