We started this blog in January 2009 as a way to provide updates about InXpo as well as provide our thoughts about the virtual events industry, best practices and tips. Our goal is to provide knowledge that helps you to better plan, produce and deliver virtual experiences.

From tips to acquiring new audiences and incorporating social media to demonstrating the growth of our industry, here are the top posts of 2009:

1. Steal these 12 Ideas for Your Virtual Event Acquisition Needs
2. Event Marketer Webinar on Twitter – Key Takeaways
3. Top Ten Virtual Event and Worlds People to Follow on Twitter
4. Virtual Augments Face-to-Face – Reply to Forbes and HSMAI Surveys
5. The Future of Virtual Events
6. Industry Stats – Virtual Events Increasing
7. MarketingProfs Virtual Conference a Success
8. CEIR/GPJ Digital + Exhibiting Marketing Insights 2009
9. Twitter Basics for Events
10. A Glimpse into the Potential Power of Twitter for Event Marketing

Please drop us a note on Twitter, leave a comment or contact us above with any questions you have or topics you would like us to address here.

With that, we wish everyone a great holiday and even better new year!

Earlier today, we deployed Release 8.3 of the InXpo Virtual Event Platform.  I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you about select features now available on our platform, going into a bit of detail on how/why we’ve implemented the features and how you can take advantage of them.  As I look at the capabilities we’ve released, I’d characterize the 8.3 Release as one of Flexibility, Convenience and Function.

Expanded Toolbar Options

Most virtual event platforms have a “toolbar” that’s fixed – every event on that platform has the toolbar in the same location and of the same width.  In some ways, a consistent UI (across events) is a good thing – on the other hand, we’ve worked with many clients who required more flexible toolbar options.  The most common request is for toolbar options (selections) that extend beyond the available width.  In the past, the InXpo toolbar was fixed:

Based on direct client input, we’ve now rolled out an assortment of new “event frames” that provide you with more flexibility in organizing your event’s toolbar – here’s one example of a new frame (and toolbar) that’s now available:

This particular design has the following benefits:

1. Support for more toolbar elements, since the toolbar is split between the customary top placement and a new element in the footer
2. Support for a fixed banner ad to facilitate branding and/or a call-to-action – the banner ad can rotate and is targetable based on attendee type
3. Increased depth to the marquee message – now rendered in paragraph form, rather than a single line of horizontal text

Release 8.3 included two additional toolbar/frame designs – with more expected in subsequent releases.  We believe this feature yields a lot of flexibility into our clients’ events, shows and business communities.

Client-based Tool for Automating Language Translations

Language / localization support occurs at two levels:

1. Core platform layer – core elements of the platform, including user input menus, navigational elements, private and group chat interfaces, platform search, etc.
2. Show-specific layer – all elements (and associated content) that are unique to the specific show, event or business community.  Examples include the abstract of a Webcast, the toolbar labels (e.g. “Auditorium” vs. “Conference Hall”) and the content within an exhibitor’s virtual booth.

InXpo already supports localization within the core platform – in fact, we support English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Dutch, Italian, Simplified Chinese and Japanese (with more to come).  Core platform support is very important; in my experience, however, there is more content to translate at the show-specific layer than the core platform layer.

Translations for content in the show-specific layer are typically assumed and handled by the client.  To assist in this effort, we’ve built an automated import/export tool for client use.  The tool works like this:

1. Automated export (into CSV / Excel format) of all show-specific UI elements that require translation
2. Clients can then hand this spreadsheet off to their translation providers (whether they be an internal team or a third party provider) – the content to be translated are populated as rows in the spreadsheet – clients then populate columns for each language to be translated
3. The completed spreadsheet is then imported into the InXpo Platform

Once the import completes, the show-specific UI elements have instantly become localized.  Our experience with clients told us that a significant amount of time is spent inventorying all the show-specific elements that require translation – hence, we built this tool to automate the process, creating convenience for our clients. If it’s true that “time is money”, then figure that the ROI on this tool will be quite favorable!

Enhanced Briefcase

Previously, our Briefcase supported a few operations (e.g. add to briefcase and download-all from briefcase) and were similar to offerings from other providers.  We’ve expanded the function of our Briefcase to include more sophisticated options:

1. “View filtering” on the briefcase documents (e.g. view only documents that I haven’t already downloaded – or, view documents added to my briefcase on or after <DATE>)
2. Ability to select individual documents to download – in the past, the only download option was the “download all”

It’s our belief that as we add useful functions to the Briefcase, we’ll encourage further use of it – while also encouraging more viewing/saving of documents and links within our events.

Now that we’ve launched Release 8.3, we’re already hard at work on Release 8.4 – we’ll be back here in early 2010 to bring you insights into the exciting features we have planned!

I have 20/10 vision for 2010 – and hybrid events are in full view for as far as the eye can see.  In 2009, the economy forced several events to migrate from face-to-face to “virtual only”.  The virtual option significantly lowers costs for the event host, while being cost and time efficient for exhibitors and attendees.  At the same time, however, event constituents (organizer, exhibitor, attendee) tell us that an online experience cannot properly replicate the handshake, the in-person meet-and-greet and the post-event cocktails.

Physical events will regain momentum as the economy recovers – for us, this means that “virtual replaces physical” (2009) becomes “physical adds a virtual component” (2010) [aka the hybrid event].  In 2009, innovative event planners blazed a new trail for the industry via hybrid events.  Among the InXpo client base, we had the privilege of working with (and learning from) SAP, Cisco and  United Way of Greater Cincinnati- InXpo powered the virtual component of their hybrid events.

Let’s discuss several factors to consider when planning a hybrid event.

Audience Augmentation

When offering a virtual complement to your physical event, it’s natural to worry about cannibalization of the face-to-face venue.  And while some amount of attendees will opt for your virtual option in lieu of the physical event, the hybrid events of 2009 resulted in significant audience augmentation - whereby the combined audience (virtual + physical) far exceeded the attendance that could have been generated from a physical-only or virtual-only event.

The virtual option allows event planners to capture audience members whom they otherwise would have missed.  Reasons an audience member cannot attend the physical event:

1. Travel budget has been cut
2. One person [per year] from the team goes to the event – this year, it’s not my turn
3. Need to stay in town for my [son's / daughter's] graduation
4. I’m in Asia Pac and the event is in the U.S.
5. The hotel is booked and the rate at other hotels exceed the limit set by my travel policy

All of these “attendance barriers” are addressed by a virtual component – audience members have the opportunity to experience the event from the convenience of their desk, from wherever they happen to be.  By offering the virtual component, you provide a convenient option for those who are already inclined to attend (i.e. interested in you event content) – and, you generate awareness to a global audience, drawing interest from potential attendees to your subsequent physical events.  As a result, you not only augment the event experience this year, but you generate interest (and attendance leads) for next year.

Physical <-> Virtual Integration Points

Audience augmentation (i.e. extending the overall size of the event attendee base) is clearly a benefit – but, event planners should not stop there.  By creating innovative physical<->virtual integration points, you also create audience experience augmentation - for the on-site attendee, imagine visiting a kiosk, where you can interact with a virtual attendee from across the globe.  By integrating the virtual audience, you significantly extend the pool of “networkers” far beyond the walls of the convention center.  For the virtual attendee, leverage webcams, streaming video (of presentations) and social networking tools to bridge the physical experience online – give the virtual audience a feel and taste for the face-to-face experience.

Some potential integration points:

1. Video Wall – allow physical attendees to record a brief video greeting (from a kiosk) – the greetings are then displayed on a video wall within the virtual environment.
2. Create opportunities for text and webcam chat between physical and virtual attendees (e.g. session speakers, exhibitors, physical attendees <-> virtual audience).
3. During live sessions, have the speaker(s) acknowledge and involve the virtual audience – display the virtual audience’s view on-site, including a real-time view of questions submitted from that audience.  Have the speaker answer questions from both the on-site audience and the virtual audience.  In addition, have on-site staff assigned to interact with virtual attendees.
4. Strategically place displays/monitors throughout the physical event that display activity within the virtual event and in social networks (e.g. Twitter, Facebook).

Strategically Segment Features and Options

As you create multiple options for experiencing your event, keep your priorities in mind.  Do you prefer physical attendance over virtual – or, are you comfortable with equal (or more) attendance at virtual compared to physical?  If you’re offering guest (free) virtual access, along with a premium (paid) option, do you want to encourage more guest attendees to upgrade to a paid package?

Once you have you priorities set, be strategic in creating your features and options, so that you’re incenting users into the appropriate upgrade paths.  If physical attendance is your priority, don’t make the virtual option “too good” – create tangible value in physical attendance (e.g. exclusive content [or opportunities to meet your executives in person], meaningful event “schwag”, good food, post-event entertainment that is fun and generates buzz, etc.).

For a paid virtual option, the free option should provide a taste (whet their appetite), but be sure to place your premium content (the crown jewels) behind a pay wall, incenting guest members to upgrade to gain access.  Beyond content, consider certain platform features – whereby access is available to paid members, but restricted from guest users.

Year 2010, Here We Come

At InXpo, we are very much looking forward to the coming year – we expect to see significant innovation in virtual and hybrid events and are excited to work with clients, partners and the industry on blazing new ground.

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Why 2010 is the Year of the Hybrid by @InXpo: http://bit.ly/2010Hybrid_Event #virtual #marketing #eventprofs

One year ago (nearly to this day), Cisco Systems announced the cancellation of their annual “Global Sales Meeting” – in a statement, Cisco CEO John Chambers was quoted:

In almost all instances for business critical activities, we will be utilizing Web 2.0 collaboration technologies, such as TelePresence and WebEx, to reduce travel and event costs, while still maintaining essential customer, employee, and partner communication activities.

In the 12 months following that announcement, history was made – Cisco embarked on a 100% virtual “Global Sales Experience” (GSX), the largest and most complex virtual event the industry has seen.  There are a number of excellent blog postings and articles that provide an overview of Cisco GSX:

1. At 19,000, Cisco Sets the New Bar for Business Critical Virtual Meetings and Events (Virtual Edge)
2. Cisco Global Sales Meeting Uses Gaming for Engagement (blogs.cisco.com)
3. Cisco Links Work and Play in Huge Virtual Sales Event (MeetingsNet)
4. Cisco connects sales virtually (BtoB Online)

As Manager, Global Sales Experience at Cisco, Angie Smith managed the diverse team that delivered this historic event – the team was comprised of numerous groups within Cisco, as well as a partnership of vendor companies, including George P. Johnson, jUXT Interactive and InXpo.

Best Practices – Virtual Sales Meeting

Use the same approach to meeting planning whether the event is virtual, physical or hybrid.  Two basic elements to define up front:

1. The objectives of the sales meeting
2. The precise metrics that will be used to measure against the defined objectives

According to Smith, “Be sure you are very clear on your objectives and you are able to map out how you are measured on success”.  Another key consideration is determining what works well in a virtual gathering, compared to a face-to-face gathering.  For Smith, the virtual experience was highly effective in delivering education (e.g. sessions, presentations, downloadable content from exhibitor booths) and collaboration (e.g. virtual attendees interacting and engaging in team play).

However, she finds recognition to be more effective in a physical setting – it’s one thing to hear your name announced as a top performer sitting in front of your computer, but it’s an entirely different experience to receive an award on stage with thousands of your peers in the (physical) audience.

With regard to project planning for large scale virtual sales meetings,  Smith provides these tips:

1. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that virtual is “easier” than physical – it’s not
2. Start the planning meetings as early as possible – compressed schedules increase execution risk and can result in “burn-out” of your extended team
3. Assemble the team up front – “have your technology vendors, content developers and creative arms talking from day 1″, said Smith

Considerations for a Hybrid Sales Meeting

So what’s next?  While the 100% virtual model was a monumental success, Smith is considering a hybrid model for the 2010 global sales meeting. According to Smith, “I don’t think virtual will go away, ever.  I believe for Cisco if we are going to still focus on the same objectives around ‘Communicate, Motivate and Recognize’, we are considering a hybrid style of event that allows the best of both worlds. In-person gatherings for small groups to feed the need for personal 1:1 networking and then a virtual opportunity to cover more content and reach more people.”

Planning for a hybrid sales meeting introduces a wrinkle into the planning process – now, when meeting planners define their objectives and success metrics, it’s critical to map those objectives/metrics to the “right” venue (physical, virtual or both).  For each objective, you’ll want to define:

1. In what venue you’ll achieve the objective (physical, virtual or both)
2. How is the objective achieved in that venue
3. How are the metrics measured and evaluated in that venue

According to Smith, “communication and information sharing are about the same in person or virtually. A sales organization needs motivation and recognition to be successful, this is typically done better in person as it is subjective and based on human interaction.”  For 2010, Smith is considering a 3-week hybrid event that alternates between virtual and physical.

The alternating of virtual/physical/virtual creates a continuous flow of activity across venues – “bringing together teams that may have worked virtually for one week, then meet live and in person for a day the next week and then bringing them together again online will truly teach them the power of collaboration and community building without even trying”, said Smith.

In closing, Smith urges sales meeting planners to keep the “fun factor” in mind.  As long as you’re delivering on your stated business objectives, then go the extra mile to ensure that attendees (and the meeting planners!) have fun – “be sure to have some fun in person and online, as it really expands everyone’s perception of how we can Work, Live, Play and Learn together…. Differently.”

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Hybrid Model (virtual event) Comes to Global Sales Meeting: Cisco Example via @InXpo #virtual #eventprofs http://bit.ly/7dslLG

Our development team continues to be working hard on lots of new features for the InXpo virtual events platform.  Last Friday we just put into production the 8.2 release of the platform.  As always don’t hesitate to send us your feedback or leave us a comment.

There are three major areas that I want to highlight:

Enhanced Person-to-Person Messaging

We added a couple of features that will make it easier for attendees to communicate, connect and chat between themselves:

1)      Enhanced Notification: We have added an expanded communication notification bar that appears at the top of the event screen when an attendee has an inbound chat request, email, vcard, buddy log-in or other communication.  Instead of just a flashing indicator, this bar instantly drops down and shows more detailed information about the requestor/sender (such as Name, photo, title, chat, subject, etc) .  This feature will ensure that attendees do not miss any communications and that they have all the information necessary to prioritize communications.

 2)      Improved Responses: For attendees we have also added the option to add a short (250 character) message when declining a chat request – thereby giving attendees a more elegant way to interact even when declining requests.

Improved Search

We have a deep pipeline of features in queue designed to help virtual events attendees find the content they are looking for.

In the 8.2 Release we launched one of these improvements by adding blog search in the advanced search options.  This feature now gives attendees the ability to search specifically for blogs posted within the event. 

We have a lot more search and content discovery features coming; so stay tuned.

Live Motion Templates

This one is straight from the wow-factor department. 

We have added “Live Motion” templates inside XpoBuilder, our self-service, drag & drop tool that allows our event organizers, producers, exhibitors to build their virtual events.

What’s “Live Motion”?  Remember those background designs you see at our virtual events? Sure, they are functional, 3D, immersive & effective; but all those templates are static pictures. In this new release we’ve added ten new templates that now feature moving people, water, trees, windmills, and more.

In a world where it’s hard to get and keep an audience’s attention, this sort of movement magic can help keep attendees that much more focused on what’s happening in the virtual event.

The ten new Live Motion templates include:

1. Business Park Campus
2. Eco Valley Campus
3. Eco Valley Lobby
4. Grand Central Campus
5. Grand Central Lobby
6. Marina City
7. Millennium Plaza
8. Millennium Plaza Campus
9. Modern City
10. Modern Lobby

 Hold on to your hats, we have a lot templates coming.  Tell us or leave a comment if there is a Live Motion template style that you’d like to see.

Social Media Landscape by Ivan Walsh via flickr

In the early days (e.g. 2003 through 2007), social media was Missouri — in a “show me state”.  As Director of Marketing or CMO, your biggest challenge was not how to leverage social media – but rather, how to justify it to the CFO and CEO.  Return On Investment (ROI) metrics had not yet been established, so you had to “make it up” on the go – and then convince stakeholders that the metrics were valid.  In fact, you probably had to first educate stakeholders on what social media was and how it could benefit your company.

Here we are in 2009 and the world has shifted.  Social media and social networking sites are as much a household name as the “Big 3″ television networks were back in the 1960’s.  Today’s networks include YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.  The C-suite has read numerous accounts of social media driving real business value (ROI) – and they’re seeing the competition active in social networks.  So now the tables have turned – the CEO is now in pursuit of the CMO to ask questions like, “what is our social media strategy” and “why aren’t we doing more of it”?

Social media is an ever-changing landscape – and that’s a good thing, as it reflects the fluid and dynamic nature of the associated technologies and communities.  As a marketer, though, it means that you need to stay on your toes to best judge how to adapt to the changing landscape.  How quickly do things change?  Well, let’s consider the developments of the past few months:

Twitter Lists

To quote the Twitter blog, “The idea is to allow people to curate lists of Twitter accounts. For example, you could create a list of the funniest Twitter accounts of all time, athletes, local businesses, friends, or any compilation that makes sense.”  For me, the launch of Lists will create a fundamental shift in the use of Twitter.  First, it creates more value for users – in the early days of Twitter, the challenge for the new user was finding the right people to follow.  Now, you simply need to find the right list(s) and away you go – no more need to seek out individual Twitter users to follow.

This changes the dynamic of “following”, as Lists become the new “destination” – I may follow a list religiously, but not follow individual users who are members of that list.  So we’ll probably start to track “lists with the most followers” rather than “users with the most followers”.  As a marketer, your goals remain the same: provide interesting and valuable content to your Twitter followers.  By doing so, you may be added to other users’ Twitter Lists (a good thing) – and, you may want to create a List or two yourself, since future users may follow your list instead of your individual account.

Social Search

Google and bing recently shared some details behind their social search initiatives.  The basic concept here is that search engines will now index social networking activity (e.g. Twitter tweets, Facebook postings, etc.) and make that content available in search results.  This immediately elevates the value and impact of your social networking initiatives – to date, the content you post within a social network largely remains inside the “walls” of that network.  Now, that content becomes accessible across the entire web.

Expect more traffic to you (your Twitter account, corporate web site, etc.) and higher page rankings – if you do things right.  If you’re effectively tweeting today, keep up the good work and expect wonders from social search.  Now consider a second aspect of social search – inclusion of friend and peer content within search results.  If I search for a restaurant and Bob (a Facebook friend) recently posted some restaurant reviews on Facebook, then I may see Bob’s comments in the social search results.  Since I always trust a friend’s recommendation (for restaurants, movies, etc.) over anything else, social search will further empower the user, taking some influence away from marketers and publishers.

Consider a b-to-b purchasing decision – with social search, I may be more interested in what my former colleagues purchased compared to the latest product comparison guide on a web site.  For publishers and marketers, this shift requires you to become even more active in social networks, so that your message and brand retains (and maintains) “relevance” in social search.

Inter-Connectedness

It’s great to see that social networks are not being formed as isolated islands – on the contrary, it seems like every network is connected to every other.  Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) like Facebook Connect, OpenSocial and OAuth help forge these connections.  I was struck by this inter-connectedness the other day when I went to comment on a blog posting – I used Disqus to post my comment and associated the comment with my Twitter ID.  I allowed the use of my Twitter profile via OAuth – and my image was automatically pulled from my Twitter profile.

The benefit here is similar to social search, as a “multiplier of goodness” to your social networking initiatives.  Social search multiplies your ROI by creating a much wider audience to your social content – and inter-connectedness has a similar benefit, since it, too widens the distribution of your content.  For end users of social networks, of course, there also tremendous benefits – namely convenience and security (in the example with Disqus, I never once transmitted my Twitter password).

How does this relate to virtual events?  Consider inter-connectedness when registering users for an event – rather than prompting potential attendees with a blank registration page (that they need to fill out from scratch), consider inter-connecting with their membership in social networks, where they’ve already provided profile information.  A convenience provided to users will result in more users.

Mobile

In the days of Web 1.0, “presence indication” was all about my status on AOL or Yahoo Instant Messenger (e.g. online, away from my desk, etc.).  Today, “status” is still important (e.g. am I available?), but “presence” is not about whether I’m online or not – it’s now about the GPS coordinates of my location!  Services like Google Latitude and Foursquare provide social services that include physical location awareness of your friends (i.e. where they are right now – or, where they’ve recently visited).  Imagine the possibilities of a physical/virtual hybrid event – one can leverage these location-aware social networks to bridge attendees of the physical event with those participating virtually.  A virtual event attendee may visit a booth and see a presence indicator of a user visiting the physical booth – they can connect with one another and chat – and perhaps the physical booth visitor streams a live video (from her smartphone) to show to the virtual attendee.

Additionally, be aware that mobile-only social networks are forming (e.g. MocoSpace), which eliminates the corresponding web site – users interact solely on their mobile phones.  This makes sense, as more and more computing is spreading outward, away from the PC/laptop and over to smartphones.  A significant portion of social network usage these days comes from mobile devices (e.g. iPhone, BlackBerry, Android phones, etc.).  As a marketer, you’ll want to stay on top of mobile technology and start planning for how you extend your marketing messages to it.

Conclusion

The world of social media is both dynamic and exciting – there will be lots in store for the balance of 2009 and into 2010.  You’ll need to stay current and continually adjust your strategies and tactics.  Check back here periodically for updates from us on the changing landscape.  Good luck and have fun!

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Changing Social Media Landscape: How to incorporate into your #marketing and events by @InXpo: http://bit.ly/35Qg1W #eventprofs

This is a guest post by Kenny Lauer,  Executive Director, Digital Experience at George P. Johnson, where he leads GPJ’s worldwide Digital practice.

When asked this question, I have to say there are two elements to how virtual events have changed: 1) Mindset and 2) Technology.

The first thing to note is that the mindset around virtual events has changed. There is now much greater corporate acceptance and appreciation around delivering an entire event or a partial event virtually.

Virtual Events are not new. Since the dawn of the internet, people have been coming together online to consume and interact. Back in the 90s I lead group chats where hundreds of people logged on to a chat interface and interacted with a celebrity. Not only was there one-to-many communication (from celebrity to everyone logged in) but also many-to-many conversations since everyone could see everyone else’s comments. In fact, I would venture to say Tim Berners-Lee and Jarkko Oikarinen were the pioneers of virtual events and virtual event technology. Berners-Lee for inventing the internet and the “WiZ” Oikarinen for creating IRC (Internet Relay Chat) in 1988. IRC was really the first real-time Internet synchronous conferencing technology. It was mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums.

The limiting factor was really Technology—both evolutions into making it readily accessible and easy to use, as well as broadband adoption so the install base for using that technology was significant.  Consider the analogy of the first person to have a fax machine who couldn’t do anything until someone else had one to receive the fax. Same is true for common adoption of technology. Even in today’s times, Twitter has become successful because it has reached a threshold of users. If it only had 6 people, Twitter wouldn’t be a growing household name.

Just a few short years ago, no one gave any attention to these Virtual Trade Show Platforms. In fact some had to create their own shows just to demonstrate the ability.  As of late last year, things changed and the spotlight was shining brightly on these providers. Why? The Perfect Storm.

The anchor force is the economy: budgets are slashed and business travel put on hold. There are also other forces that play a role. Technology that enables virtual events is here and easy to use. Broadband adoption and maturity levels are there. Business today interacts with a distributed audience all over the globe. As Peter Friedman says, the world is flat.  And, of course, the need for companies to be environmentally friendly is still important. You’re reducing the carbon output by not only the fabrication of products, but also the transportation - the cars to get to the airport, the airplanes, and everything that needs to happen within a physical event.

So, those four things taken together (see photo), with the economy being the strongest, is why we’re seeing this pendulum swing from physical events to virtual events.

"You're Hired!" by sssteve.o via Flickr

I’ve been with InXpo for 7 months now and am glad to announce that we’re expanding our sales and marketing organization! We are looking for an online marketing manager, product marketing manager/director, global account executive and major account executive.  

What type of people are we looking for?

• You’re not afraid to roll up your sleeves and jump in to get the work done
• You have initiative. You take a project and run with it with minimal supervision but know when to check in to make sure you’re on the right path
• You live, breathe and eat technology and are familiar with SaaS. Bonus points if you play in the cloud
• You understand the nuances of social media not only for promoting your personal brand, but also in using it as a strategic business tool for marketing and sales purposes
• You’re located in the San Francisco/Bay Area or New York – sorry folks, no relocation
• You want to join a venture-backed, fast-paced company

If this sounds like you, then check out the detailed job descriptions on our website.  If you have any questions, leave a comment and we’ll respond as quickly as possible.
 

This post was co-written with Dennis Shiao.

Merv Adrian recently wrote a blog posting about Kalido’s virtual event (note: this was powered by InXpo) and I noticed a comment about how can one effectively attend a Virtual Conference. Well, here are seven tips to maximize your next virtual conference:

Determine your objectives before attending: It’s a simple step, but one that few virtual event attendees do – write out on a piece of paper what you want to get out of attending.  Use this list to then guide your actions and activities within the event.

Complete your profile: Take a few minutes to add some information to your profile, such as your role, who you’re seeking to meet and what your objectives. This information will help others know whether or not to connect with you. So instead of spending the first few minutes figuring this out, you’ve established everything upfront. Also mention how people can connect with you via your social networks, such as Twitter or LinkedIn.

Add the event to your email/calendaring system (e.g. Outlook): After all, you can’t get the most out of your next event if you forget to attend.  Use the virtual event platform’s reminder system,  if available.  And, place reminders in your calendar for those sessions that you don’t want to miss

Use two monitors: Ideally, I would recommend using two monitors: one to do your day-to-day work such as email and writing and the second to monitor or participate in the virtual conference. If you don’t have two monitors, then consider having a separate browser opened up to the event. This way you can tab back and forth as needed.

Engage in the Group Chats: Besides the content, the best parts of a virtual conference are the group chat and one-on-one chats within the virtual environment. While the presentations can be viewed on archive after the live event ends, the conversations are not replicable. I recommend spending at least 1-2 hours chatting with others in the various group chats.

Speak with Exhibitors: Unlike a physical event which would mainly be staffed with sales staff, vendors can staff a virtual conference with more subject-matter experts. Take the opportunity to speak with these experts especially if you’re researching or even in the final stages of selecting a solution.

Prioritize the Presentations and Exhibitors: The great thing about a virtual conference is that the content and exhibitor information will be available typically 90 days after the live events. Instead of feeling compelled to watch all the presentations or visit every booth, prioritize those that you want to watch or visit. The rest can then be accessed during the archive period.

Are there any other tips you would recommend?

by Bill M via Flickr

In working with numerous virtual tradeshow exhibitors, I’ve witnessed some common mistakes – I believe that these mistakes can impact an exhbitor’s Return On Investment (ROI) for the virtual event.  The good news is that we’re here to help.  So if your prior virtual tradeshow resulted in low attendee engagement – or, a low number of actionable leads, read further for tips and tactics to use at your next event.

5 Common Mistakes – Virtual Tradeshow Exhibitors

1. Assume that visitors will naturally engage (proactively) with your booth staffers – first, understand that the dynamics of a virtual trade show are different than a physical trade show.  In a physical event, you can (at minimum) make eye contact with a visitor to your booth.  From here, you can gauge the visitor’s interest in speaking further and determine whether you want to strike up a conversation.  You don’t get the same sort of signal in a virtual event.  However, leaving your booth is but a single mouse click away – so if you do nothing, there’s a chance that your visitor will depart and never return.  What I like to do is welcome visitors by way of your booth’s Group Chat – letting them know that you’re there to answer any questions they may have.  Alternatively, send them a vCard (virtual business card) with your contact info – inviting them to contact you at any time (within the event or via email/phone).  Don’t assume that visitors will engage with you – instead, utilize proactive means for reaching out to them.
2. Fail to have product experts staff your booth – in a b-to-b event, your booth may receive visits from qualified buyers – folks with purchasing authority and budget who are finalizing their short list of solutions vendors.  They’re likely to have some detailed product questions to help them narrow their list.  If your booth is staffed with sales and marketing staff who are unable to answer product-level questions, then you’re missing out on a great opportunity.  If instead, you had product experts staffing your booth (e.g. product manager, sales engineer, technical engineering manager, etc.) – they can engage with these prospects and provide them with all the information they need.  Leverage your product experts, as they’ll move prospects down the sales funnel along the way to a purchasing decision.
3. Fail to visit the event’s Lounge – not satisfied with the number of visits to your booth?  Go find the attendees in areas where they tend to congregate, such as the Networking Lounge.  Send your marketers into the lounge to observe the chatter.  Then, send your product experts in to help attendees and address/answer their questions.  Notice that I mentioned “help” and not “sell” – you don’t want to pitch your product in the Lounge (that’s another mistake by exhibitors) – instead, you want to demonstrate thought leadership in a way that attracts attention to your company (and then on to your booth!).
4. Fail to host a presentation/webinar – if the event host allows exhibitors the option of spending extra for a webinar, it’s well worth the investment.  As the exhbitor, you then become part of the event’s agenda and gain the attention of a captive audience for 30-60 minutes.  Have a well-known industry name (whether from your own company or from an analyst firm) as a speaker in your webinar – and invite viewers to your virtual tradeshow booth afterwards if they have additional questions.  In one virtual tradeshow I attended, an exhibitor’s expert speaker delivered a great webinar, then spent the remainder of the day engaging with attendees in his own booth, along with the Lounge.  That exhibitor achieved the highest count of booth visits during the event.
5. Fail to follow up promptly and appropriately with attendees – if you sourced some “hot” prospects at the virtual event, follow up with them right away (e.g. the next business day).  Your follow-up should be meaningful - if the prospect asked for product or pricing information, send her an email with all of the requested details.  Do NOT hand hot prospects over to tele-sales or send them vanilla emails about the virtual event – rather, provide compelling touchpoints that are tailored to that prospect’s interactions with you.  If the prospect engaged with a product expert, Cc that expert on the email!

We can’t un-do the past, but we certainly can learn from it.  Let us know which of these tactics work for you at your next virtual tradeshow!

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5 Mistakes of #Virtual Tradeshow Exhibitors by @dshiao via @InXpo blog: http://bit.ly/4RGBq #eventprofs