Fork In The Road Blog

Events: Technology. Design. Strategy.

Be in the Room Streamlines Hybrid Event Search and Remote Access

Hybrid events (live events with a virtual audience) are becoming more popular. Tools to live stream content, platforms to handle Q & A, and remote attendees comfortable with Twitter are commonplace. However, bringing all of the virtual channels together into one “room” is still a little clunky. Plus, finding virtual events that weren’t previously on your radar is nearly impossible. A start-up out of Sydney, Australia is working to streamline the search and simplify the access to virtual events.

Be in the Room developers describe the online platform as a directory for digital events. In fact, it does offer event organizers in the social, digital, tech, leadership, entrepreneur, marketing, public relations, design, Web, journalism, and psychology sectors an opportunity to add their events to the list. The directory is searchable by hashtag, name, city, country, or topic. A separate search function allows visitors to search for speakers on the above topics—a great tool for event producers looking to hire speakers in the niche fields that Be in the Room covers.

Be in the Room also serves as a “dashboard” for virtual attendees. The platform pulls the Twitter stream, live feed, and Foursquare check-ins into one window. The “Noticeboard” updates visitors on programming updates, schedule changes, and news alerts. “The Presentations” window lists links to speaker presentations on SlideShare. A “Ticket Sales” tab takes prospective attendees to the EventBrite Ticket Widget for advance ticket sales. Recent updates allow the event organizer to add event details, a logo, and the event schedule.

Feedback from event organizers has been positive, says Lucy McFadden, the brains behind Be in the Room. “There will always be people and topics compelling you to be there. You won’t always be able to. The virtual experience is changing things and opening up a lot more opportunity for event organizers and remote attendees,” she says. “Early adopters are attracted to being able to learn more,” McFadden adds. Some Web aficionados would rather “watch” the Internet than television (I’m one of them) and now they can.

The Takeaway: As the lines between face-to-face and virtual events blur, Be in the Room and others could be the missing links between the online and offline worlds.

Buyer’s Guide to Mobile Apps Released

The MeetingTechOnline Buyer’s Guide to Mobile Apps for professional event organizers and corporate meeting planners has just been released and will be available (in print) at the MTO Summit in November. I wanted to give you a preview of the guide which I had the pleasure of writing and pass along some of the insight I received in the process. This and other guides to follow are designed to give buyers all of the information they need to make an informed purchase. Plus, it lists all the providers that helped me with the guide and others that are leading the field of mobile app development.

The Table of Contents of the 35-page Buyer’s Guide includes:

  • Introduction
  • Why mobile?
  • Developing a mobile app strategy
  • Mobile possibilities—what can you do with a mobile solution?
  • Native apps or mobile Web sites—pros and cons
  • Pricing models
  • Revenue opportunities
  • Time frame
  • Best practices
  • Choosing a provider
  • What to include in a Request For Proposal (RFP)
  • Case Studies
  • About the author
  • Acknowledgements
  • Provider Directory
The guide is a neutral, non-commercial (except for the advertising) overview of third party mobile apps for events. When I was putting together the publication, I learned a couple of things:

  1. Most event organizers do NOT approach vendor selection from an informed perspective and very few actually put together an RFP when entering into the selection process. One reason is that there is so much information to sift through. Another reason is that there are so many apps to choose from (and many more on the way). What do you put in an RFP if you don’t know what you don’t know?
  2. The two camps (native apps vs. Web sites) are equally vibrant and can argue either way for their solution. Some providers offer both options and that is definitely an alternative that buyers should consider (depending on their audience and the connectivity of the venue).
  3. Selecting an app is only half the battle.  Adoption is the other half. Event organizers have to do a better job of promoting the app and training users. Although one of the goals of developers is ease-of-use, organizers can play a substantial role in reducing the learning curve that still exists.

The Takeaway: Read the guide. Get in the game.

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?

Using Social Media Channels to Market U.S. Shows in China

I’m always curious about how social media channels function in other countries. Recently, I noticed a discussion on LinkedIn about social media in the People’s Republic of China. I posted a question about whether social media channels could be used to recruit attendees to U.S. trade shows. I received a very informative response from Shawn He Yuxun, founder and chairman at MeetChinaBiz.org. He has given me permission to post it here.

“In my opinion, it would be extremely difficult if not entirely impossible to do that.

The social media scene in China at the moment still resembles what things were like when Facebook and MySpace were just created years ago, i.e., mostly a place for the young and those with a lot of free time on their hands to hang out and find dates.

BTW, you can more or less get a sense simply from the names of the top sites listed in Rebecca’s post above: “QQ alumni” is an outgrowth/extension of the original QQ (China’s answer to ICQ), a SMS or text messaging service. (N.B. Q usually stands for ‘cute’ in China. Another example is the beatle-like car model QQ produced by a leading Chinese automaker named Chery. Google “QQ car” with the images option and you will see…)

“Renren” means “everybody”; “Sina Space” is leading Chinese portal site Sina’s answer to “MySpace”; “51” is a word play on one of China’s most vacationed holidays — the May 1st holiday — which until 2 years ago had been dubbed the “Golden Week” because for years it had been a week-long national holiday.

Indigenous Chinese professional SN sites on a par with LinkedIn haven’t been created (or at least haven’t attained the popularity of the ones listed) yet. Perhaps for the lack of an alternative, many Western-minded young professionals and executives in China have in fact started using Linkedln by default. (That is why I decided to add my Chinese name – you may only be able to see three ?’s if your OS was not set up to display Chinese characters — to my title so it is searchable for Chinese speakers / LinkedIn users.)

So in a nutshell, at least in the near-term I believe one’s money would be better spent by focusing on more conventional online and offline approaches in order to generate traffic from China to a trade show in the US. These would include existing industry-specific online or offline platforms and channels (i.e., portals, associations, publications, etc.)

Depending on the size of the marketing budget and the strategic positioning, one could also opt to be more proactive as well, such as setting up operations and/or forming partnership or alliances with players on the ground in China.

Hope this affords you at least a ‘big picture’ of the situation and answers some of your initial questions.”

The Takeaway:  Who wants to be the first U.S. show organizer to create a group on LinkedIn (in the Chinese language) exclusively for Chinese buyers and potential exhibitors?

How are you using social media channels to market trade shows to individuals outside the U.S.?

Day 3 of Trust Agents: Social Media Strategy NOT Tools

In the third of several video clips from the Q&A during the Women Tech Council meeting, Trust Agents Chris Brogan and Julien Smith discuss the use of strategy over tools and some other ideas for you to think about. Although Chris and Julien began responding to a question about the kinds of tools the younger generation is using (since the fastest growing age group on Facebook is 65+), they finished with comments on platforms, communities and social media strategy.

In the video clip, Julien recounts attending a party where the young guests played Chatroulette. His experience with specific tools reveals that, “the tools don’t really matter. The younger generation will use whatever is the most efficient, frictionless method they can to keep doing the same things they’ve always done just with wider audiences…The strategies and the principals are more important than the tools because the answer today might be irrelevant tomorrow,” he says.

Chris talks about how teens still text each other. “They don’t want more friends and they only want their friends to see what they are saying,” he says. As with Julien, Chris believes, “if you’re in marketing, think hard about spending money on a specific platform. You should be enamored with the community and not the platform.”

Trade show organizers, like many business owners, are struggling with developing social media strategies. Focusing on the objectives and not the tools is a challenge for many. However, exhibitions occupy a unique position in marketing genre. Their success is attributable to attributes that are most effective when deployed in a face-to-face setting. The objective of a social media strategy for exhibitions should be to use social media to enhance, highlight and capitalize on those unique characteristics before, during, and after the show. Consider these points:

Memorability: It was proven years ago by research from CEIR that face-to-face experiences are inherently more memorable than virtual ones. Extend the memorability of the exhibition by using social media channels and tools to chronicle a participant’s live experience and allow it to live online for them.

Tactile/sensory: Social media may not be able to duplicate the tactile and sensory experiences available at a live event but it can, through video or graphic representations, demonstrate and emulate these attributes in a way that reminds participants of the live experience.

Entertainment: Using social media channels to plan large-scale social activities such as flash mobs, Foursquare contests, and other interactive social games can activate engagement on the trade show floor.

Intimacy: Supporting the small and large “meetups” that the user community organizes independently by using the show’s social media channels to get the word out will help to foster the valuable one-on-one interactions that are unique to exhibitions and other face-to-face opportunities.

Inspiration: Provide support to capture, highlight and broadcast speaker content through social media channels before, during, and after the event.

Destinations: Part of the enjoyment in attending live events is experiencing the destination. Encourage local restaurants and area attractions to interact with participants over designated social media channels to provide information and services such as reservations, ticketing, prices, hours, menus, specials, and directions.

All under one roof: Use social media channels to highlight and facilitate the “smorgasbord” of time savings, product choices, new contacts, and information available in a single place.

The Takeaway: Online and offline channels can work together in much the same way as traditional marketing media. Although the tools will change, the strategy remains the same—to push the live experience to become the optimum marketing channel that it can be.

How is your social media strategy driving the live experience?

Be Notified of New Posts via Email