Fork In The Road Blog

Events: Technology. Design. Strategy.

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?

Keeping the Love Alive: Three Community Nurturing Tactics Offering an Intimate Connection

Blogs, Facebook fan pages, Twitter posts and YouTube videos are some of the most talked about ways to nurture an event community year round as long as you don’t break the cardinal rule of new media which is “share, don’t sell.” Producing compelling content that stimulates community conversation (usually over the heads of most college interns hired to work the social media levers at some associations and event organizations) is a requirement no matter what platforms you use. There are some other tactics, however, that trade show and conference organizers are using to keep the love alive year round.

This discussion can’t go much further without talking about virtual trade shows. I wrote recently about the National Association of Broadcaster’s virtual event DigitalVision 2010 designed to kick off major interest in NAB’s large face-to-face exhibition and conference scheduled for April 2010. In my earlier post I wrote “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.

The use of virtual trade shows and conferences as “filler” between physical events is somewhat of a new approach for face-to-face event organizers. Several had erected 24/7/365 portals (courtesy of the BDMetrics 365 platform and others) that never met expectations. This new virtual strategy could be 365 “Lite” in that the periodic virtual event content is fresh and occurring live.

Crosstech Media (does the name Chris Brogan ring a bell?) is netcasting (television-like programming over the web) for their events. For example, their ITEC conference portfolio which delivers education and networking on hardware, software, networking & mobility technology for businesses is using what it calls ITEC TV. The weekly show, hosted by Bill Sell, vice president and general manager of CrossTech Media and general manager of ITEC and ExtremeLabs analyst Tom Henderson is a discussion of news items and interviews of guests from across the technology spectrum. ITEC TV does a great job of giving viewers (the same audience for the ITEC conferences) a weekly fix of technology news and watching them live (the casts are archived as well) and feels like you’re watching, well, TV.

Rick Calvert’s BlogWorld and New Media Expo is using an online radio program called Blog World Expo Radio on the WS Radio platform to keep the love alive with his social media community (aka potential BlogWorld and New Media Expo attendees, speakers, exhibitors, media). The weekly live show (Fridays at Noon PST) is hosted by Jim Turner and the topics revolve around “speakers, exhibitors, sponsors and news makers in the social media space,” says Calvert. Not surprisingly, BlogWorld Expo Radio was broadcast live from the BlogWorld show floor (brilliant way to get attendees at the live event to become fans of the radio show afterward) and from the bloggers lounge of the famous SXSW Interactive Conference (nice crossover audience).

The Takeaway: Virtual events (trade shows, TV and radio) are more interesting when they’re live. Although the archives serve a very important purpose, there’s some kind of mental connection (the kind you want to have with your community) when you know someone is at the other end of the line dishing it out at the same time you are taking it in. Precisely because of that intimate connection, NAB’s virtual show, ITEC’s TV show and BlogTalk’s radio show are great tools for community nurturing and ultimately for driving attendance at their physical events. They are also opportunities to deliver content to community members that haven’t quite mastered the social networking platforms like Twitter and Facebook (I think there still are some) but can easily work a browser.


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.

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.

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