Fork In The Road Blog

Events: Technology. Design. Strategy.

Monetizing Digital Events

Apparently it’s fairly easy to monetize a virtual event if you have the customer base, an understanding about what works and what doesn’t for your audience and a platform with ample monetization opportunities. A recent Thought Leaders Live Webcast from INXPO shed some light on the myriad ways to earn revenue from digital platforms. Attendees also received a copy of the company’s white paper (registration required, but it’s worth it) detailing the assets (banners ads, messaging, Webinars, directories, lounges, etc.) and bundling strategies that event hosts can deploy.

Ali Libb, online event manager, American Marketing Association and a Webcast presenter, explained that she takes her cues from live event sponsorship opportunities.  A veteran of 11 virtual events since February 2010, Libb outlined her success using tiered sponsorships—each level having a different mix of offerings from speaking opportunities to logos in email and branded landing pages. She offered three specific takeaways in her presentation:

  • Matching presentation topics with sponsors who would like to be associated with those specific subjects, while taking care not to allow overt selling, is a successful approach for attracting sponsors.
  • Content—Webinar presentations, videos, white papers—is easier to monetize than sales opportunities such as virtual trade show booths.
  • Making the content (and the sponsorship opportunities) available for at least 90 days after the virtual event is a good selling point for prospective sponsors and a benefit that physical events can’t offer.

Danielle Belmont, senior online events manager, BNP Media was the second presenter on the INXPO Webcast. Having produced 15 virtual events, she offered a long list of revenue earning tactics from her experience:

  • Virtual booths
  • Event sponsorship packages including a virtual booth, marketing collateral distribution, booth survey, promotional piece in attendee briefcase, attendee list and a podcast
  • Resource center sponsorship
  • Networking lounge sponsorship
  • Exhibit hall video sponsorship
  • Prize sponsorship

Matt Goodwin, senior account executive, INXPO, offered additional monetization schemes including entrance actions (slides on a screen or video playing as attendees take their virtual seats), interactive web space, sponsored polling in slides, product placements in the virtual environment and exit actions (directing attendees to a web site or booth at the conclusion of the presentation). Goodwin also left open the possibility of using game mechanics and mobile extensions as monetization platforms.

As with live events, the revenue potential is only limited by the sponsorship “real estate” and the event organizer’s imagination.  As virtual and physical events continue to merge into hybrid experiences, the potential for monetization becomes even greater with online and offline strategies combining virtual and physical event properties.

Have you implemented any monetization tactics at your virtual events that were particularly lucrative?

 

It Takes a (Virtual) Village to Build an Industry

A very interesting discussion in the “Virtual Events and Meeting Technology” group on LinkedIn was recently derailed. The initial question posed by the group administrator was, “Will Virtual Events Ever Really Take Off?” For those of us invested in this topic—vendors, event organizers, journalists and passionate observers—this question is the key to unlocking the resources and momentum necessary to move beyond mere discussion to widespread understanding. It is the kind of question that begs responses from any and all whether they have a horse in the race or a comfortable seat in the stands. Instead, some of the most important voices were admonished or excluded.

After several weeks of contributions to the discussion from mostly vendors, it was revealed that Michael Doyle, the founder of the Virtual Edge Institute (VEI)—a prominent voice in this fledgling industry—has been intentionally excluded from the group. The announcement took the focus off of what was a fantastic dialogue onto who should or should not be allowed into the discussion.

The group owner clearly stated his reasoning for excluding Mr. Doyle in a recent post: “Since VEI is financially supported by vendors, I consider content produced by them to be a form of advertising. There have been of couple of past members who were tied to VEI and only posted links back to VEI. Not in line with my goals for the group. So my question has always been this, if I approve Michael does this forum become just another exposure point for his agenda?”

The group owner’s position on admitting Michael Doyle or excluding persons affiliated with VEI is self-defeating. If, as he admits, live event producers have not yet embraced the virtual models, who is available to participate in the discussion if not vendors and thought leaders like Doyle? At least Doyle has street cred for having moved the needle on a class of technology that is helping to bring our old school industry into alignment with the rest of the business world.

I can well appreciate the group owner’s interest in protecting the integrity of the discussion. I will be the first to admit that the cacophony of advertising and digital stimulation eating my brain cells has my cognitive shield on red alert. Yet, with an industry in its infancy, there have to be exceptions made in the interests of the community at large. If, in exchange for valuable contributions, the community has to accept the bias, motivations, and sometimes “commercial” references (in the opinions of some) that come along with them, isn’t that a fair exchange?

There is an important place for moderation in a group. Ad hominem attacks and blatant commercialism without any added value to the discussion does not advance the cause and a third party presence to normalize the discussion is very helpful. But, if we have learned anything by choosing to have our discussions on public social media platforms such as LinkedIn, it’s that the community takes care of itself—they either voice their opinions loudly (recent developments in the political/public space prove that point unequivocally) or they move on to forums where the discussion is more fruitful and open.

There is a responsibility on the part of the group owner as well as the group participants to move the discussion forward. Using one’s affiliation or the behaviors of those seen as sympathizers to his or her cause as a reason for exclusion seems a little short sighted. That said. The onus is also on the participants of a group to check the commercialism at the door, lest they be “wailed upon” by the community or the moderator and to apply the same openness to their own groups, discussions and endeavors elsewhere as a sign of their genuine intention to contribute to the greater goal of the community. Should we be drawing lines in the sand before there is actually a beach?

 

 

 

 

 

Questions to Ask When Creating a Virtual Event Strategy

I recently contributed to the EastVirtual Event Workshop taking place on May 18, 2011 in Washington, DC. I worked with the organizers on a take home resource for attendees covering all aspects of virtual events from the perspective of trade associations. Here is an excerpt from the workbook.

Virtual events of any kind present both opportunities and challenges to an organization. Associations in the process of researching or integrating virtual events should first address a number of strategic questions:

Brand Considerations: Is a virtual event the appropriate vehicle for brand extension? Will virtual events enhance or dilute our brand? Are there other platforms that provide a better opportunity for brand extension than virtual events?

Security Issues: Do virtual events provide our association and our stakeholders (exhibitors, attendees, sponsors) with the appropriate level of privacy and security? Is there a possibility that unauthorized individuals would be able to access our confidential information via a virtual event? Do virtual events fit within the guidelines we have established for privacy and security in our organization?

Legal/Liability Issues: What are the legal obligations and liabilities of the association regarding virtual events? Have we approached our legal counsel for an opinion on integrating virtual events into the association’s event strategy?  What federal and state laws govern the use of virtual events?

Organizational Objectives: Do virtual events fit within the organization’s goals and objectives? How do virtual events address the organization’s areas of greatest need? How will virtual events enhance or detract from the organization’s mission? What are the short-term and long-term expectations of virtual events as they pertain to the organization’s goals?

Marketing Objectives: Do virtual events fit well with the organization’s marketing style, message, and current marketing strategies? How will virtual events enhance or detract from the association’s marketing objectives?

Educational Objectives: Do virtual events fit within the organization’s current learning/education strategy? Can virtual events offer members opportunities for certification and continuing education? How do virtual events affect members’ abilities to access content and education?

Budget Considerations: How will virtual events affect the association’s profitability? How will virtual events impact the organization’s budget? What kinds of budget allocations are available for virtual events? Will virtual event budgets be separate from live event budgets?

Resource Commitments: What will be the human resource commitments for virtual events? What departments will be responsible for managing the virtual event program? Would a virtual event program require additional employees or outside consultants?

Suitability for Audience/Members: Are virtual events suitable for our member demographic (tech savvy, time zones, bandwidth, access to computers)? What training or preparation would be required for our members to achieve the greatest benefit from virtual events? What types of virtual events would be the best fit for our organization?

SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats): What are the association’s strengths and weaknesses regarding the integration of a virtual event strategy? What opportunities do virtual events present to our association? What threats do virtual events present to our association?

Member Value Proposition: How do virtual events enhance or detract from our member value proposition? How do virtual offerings fit with other member benefits? Would virtual offerings exclude any members? Could virtual events attract new members?

Event Portfolio Integration:  Do virtual events fit into the organization’s current event strategy? Where is the best fit for virtual events in the “continuum” of current association events (preview, wrap-up, hybrid extension of live event)?

Social Media Integration: How do virtual events fit into the organization’s current social media or content marketing strategy?

Association Management Systems Integration: Can virtual events be integrated into the association’s current management (ASM) system including registration and membership databases?

Risk Tolerance: What are the risks involved with launching a virtual event? How does the risk associated with launching a virtual event correspond to the association’s overall risk tolerance?

The Takeaway: If you haven’t considered at least some of these questions in the course of developing plans for a virtual event, you may already be behind the curve. What have I missed?

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.

The Road Less Traveled: Event Industry Suppliers Move from Aggregation to Curation

This blog post is sponsored by AV Event Solutions offering audiovisual rental, audience response for polling, computer rentals for registration, LCD displays, and more to event planners throughout California.

Event industry suppliers—general service contractors, sales and marketing firms, and exhibit designers—are stepping out of their comfort zones to take advantage of the innovation that is sweeping over the industry. What might look like a desperate move by some companies to hitch their wagons to a star or an attempt to make up for the shortcomings of a flat industry is actually a smart business decision. A clear precedent for the trend comes from social media and the growing practice of content curation.

A hint that something was amiss came in the last half of 2009 when Maritz, a sales and marketing service company that relies on face-to-face events, introduced a suite of virtual offerings including their “Maritz LIVE initiative for delivering virtual events and experiences.” When Freeman, the 84-year-old general service contractor et. al. and kingpin of the trade show and live event industry, announced late in 2010 that it too would be offering virtual events as part of a new business unit, the door of opportunity flung wide open.

Virtual platforms aren’t the only star technologies being curated. MG Design recently rolled out plans to offer its exhibitor clients RFID (radio frequency identification), QR (quick response)/Mobile, Augmented Reality, and social media integration with their exhibit design and fabrication services. The company offered attendees a hands-on look at the four technologies during Exhibitor 2011 in Las Vegas:

  • Surveys and RFID tags matched visitors’ hot button issues with specific audio and video content
  • QR codes were peppered throughout the exhibit leading visitors to information about MG’s products and services.
  • An augmented reality demonstration helped attendees understand how to put interactive content in the hands of prospects without physically bringing more products and collateral to the booth.
  • Social media tools illustrated the potential for exhibit marketing programs to go viral.

MG Design’s Director of Marketing, Ben Olson, frames it this way, “We have clients that date back 10 to 20 years. They look to us to bring these solutions to them. We do a 360-degree deep dive. When we’re developing the exhibit concept, we work these technologies into the recommendations where it’s appropriate.”

The curation of services is different from the aggregation of services. In the old days, suppliers offered related services (domestic trucking, pop-up displays, freight forwarding) to their captive audience of customers, but the transactions were consummated between the sub-contractors and the exhibitors directly. In the curation model, related and even seemingly “competitive” services are hand selected by industry suppliers who stay involved in the work stream—hence the suppliers’ value-added position with customers.

A May 2010 article on Mashable.com by Steve Rosenbaum highlights the importance of curation in content strategies. The same points Rosenbaum offers about content validate the service curation strategies in the event industry. Rosenbaum quotes author and NYU Professor Clay Shirky; “Curation comes up when people realize that it isn’t just about information seeking, it’s also about synchronizing a community.” Even industry suppliers are saying as much when they explain their partial shift away from their core competencies with statements about their desires to utilize a “holistic approach to provide multiple value to customers” or “lead [clients] to a more successful event experience.”

Rosenbaum brought up another point that is analogous to the emerging practice of event industry suppliers. “A lot of it is economic — doing more with less — and it has crossed every media industry,” explains Allen Weiner of Gartner Group. “If you think about the tools you want to give an editor to make him or her more complete, you want to give them curation tools.” It could be “something they add to their own content. As more old media companies attempt to do more with less, publishing tools that allow this efficiency without demeaning the product quality … [are] going to be very important.”

In the previous aggregation model, suppliers were not operating under any imperative to explain the outsourced service offerings to their customers. No one needed a sit down to understand the importance of shipping your exhibit to the show using a domestic carrier with no waiting time in the marshalling yard, an empty trailer at the ready during move-out, and a presence in the exhibitor service area. But with technology, there is a huge need to explain to clients the relevance, impact, and execution of the offerings. As Rosenbaum explains, “from a user perspective, well done curation is a huge value-add in a world where unfiltered signal overwhelms noise by an ever increasing factor.”

The Takeaway: For now, service curation may be a road less traveled. In the past it was uncomfortable, financially risky, and a point of criticism for established companies to make a sea change in offerings. Social media has helped us understand how it can be done, where it fits into business models, and how to minimize the risk. What we may be seeing is the beginning of an assimilation of event technology into the backbone of the industry—great news for suppliers, exhibitors, attendees, and the platform developers that see it as a new sales channel.

Be Notified of New Posts via Email