The BusyEvent Blog

• Heading home after 3 successful days in Dallas. Looking forward to afternoon meetings and then, it's LA for a week! #eventprofs #

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• Changing the Equation for Organizers and Attendees – http://j.mp/cqhdWk <-> #mpi #iaee #cemaonline #eventprofs #tradeshow #
• Good Read RT @emiliebarta: Many thanks to @D_Elms for . . . writing an article about me (why pro speaker?) http://bit.ly/9FbUjz #eventprofs #

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• The Startup Success podcast w/ CEO David Schenberg – @BeLinker new features, enhancements and 'client wins': http://j.mp/cE6eHa #eventprofs #
• Changing the Equation for Organizers and Attendees – http://j.mp/cqhdWk <-> #mpi #iaee #cemaonline #eventprofs #tradeshow #

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• I liked a YouTube video — Events Asia 2010 – Flying Lanterns – 1 http://youtu.be/UAfu99jcO9c?a #

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If you follow the #Eventprofs chat on Twitter for even a few days, you’ll quickly see that some of the smartest people in the world (not just the events world) are looking at how to use tools and new techniques to re-invent the events industry, in real time.

As a company that uses enabling technologies to execute solutions, take advantage of opportunities and solve problems, we’re big fans of industries and companies that have faced what the events industry is facing, figured out a way to ‘re-engineer’ themselves and grow to even greater heights.

Examples such as our client Domino’s Pizza and their “New Pizza” campaign, Amazon.com with their ‘never say quit’ attitude, Twitter with it’s significant outage issues early in its growth and others certainly have great lessons to learn from.

It’s also intriguing to watch an industry as it re-invents itself right in front of our eyes, much like what’s going on with the traditional media and newspaper industry, the venture capital markets, the auto and financial industry and so many others, today.

In his Writings About the Internet Blog, Clay Shirky provides some interesting insights from the newspaper industry that parallel the events industry of today in his post: “Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable”.

Below, excerpts from his article edited with an events focus (our edits in parenthesis).

“If the old model is broken, what will work in its place? . . . “To which the answer is:  Nothing.

Nothing will work.  There is no general model for (events) to replace the one the (economy, technology, social networking and the need for efficiencies) has broken.”

“With the old economics destroyed, old (events) practices perfected for an era of big budgets and marginal returns have to be replaced with those optimized for a new economic, social, cultural and technological era.   It makes increasingly less sense even to talk about an (events) industry, because the core problem (events) solve — the incredible difficulty, complexity, and expense of (meeting people and engaging with other people) — has stopped being a problem.”

“When someone demands to be told how we are going to (revitalize the events industry), they are really demanding to be told:

1. That we are not living through a revolution.
2. That old systems won’t break before new systems are in place.
3. That ancient social bargains aren’t in peril.
4. That core institutions will be spared and that
5. New methods of (meeting and engaging) will improve the previous practices rather than upend them.

In essence, they’re demanding to be lied to.

For the events industry to weather the current storm (which started at least a decade ago), learn the necessary lessons from it and to once again thrive, initiatives like “Keep America Meeting“, the flood of smart phones, or simple devices that don’t generate anything other than an electronic list, proximity without any Return on Action or worse yet, simply a map, are stop gap.  They certainly won’t be enough.

Why?

Because the events industry won’t ever look like it once did.

• Improved ROIs, will have to be there.
• A focus on ROA (Return on Action) rather than proximity or expression of interests, will have to be there.
• Real engagement, will have to be there.
• Events will have to transform from 3 day ‘occasions’ to year-long face-to-face and virtual sources of opportunity and
• the costs, like drayage, shipping, outrageously priced services, etc . . . that’s all going to have to change.

Those that are ready to answer that call are what the future of the events industry will be.  For those stuck in the ‘old way’, or for those driving so far ahead of the rest of the crowd that they can no longer be seen, the march of the dinosaur’s has already begun.  Rather than a clarion call or siren’s song, what we’re hearing in the wind is our clients telling us that we’re going to have to be better for them and for the future of us.

With our focus on what the future holds and our experience implementing solutions to event industry issues, yes, we’ve got ideas (for instance, the BeLinker).

In our next series of posts we’ll be sharing what we’ve seen work in both the near term as well as for the long term future.

Watch this space for the series titled: “Fixing the Problem”.

And, if you’re interested in learning how to maximize your event ROI, reduce costs by up to 50% and produce a better event?

Contact BusyEvent CEO David Schenberg
eMail: dschenberg -at- busyevent -dot- com
Direct Phone: 888.788.4896 x111

We’ve always admired people that follow their convictions – and sometimes their families – to far flung places in support of the bigger picture.  Especially when those people are smart, open-minded and excited to share their knowledge and contribute to the larger discussion.

Samuel J. Smith is one of those people and it’s why his is one of the blogs we look to for insights and inspiration.   And, the good news is he’s baaaaack from Switzerland, having recently moved to Minneapolis, so something as simple as a phone call doesn’t involve time-zone coordination.

Through his blog and participation in the twice weekly #eventprofs Twitter chat, Sam’s is one of the voices asking the pertinent questions, challenging event professionals to be better, think smarter and focus on value, ROI and universal usefulness.

Because he doesn’t get caught up in the “shiny object” syndrome (or as Warwick Davies puts it, “adopting what’s cool without creating a business case for it“), Sam’s Interactive Meeting Technology blog is a collection of some of the most insightful original thinking about the use of technology to create dialogue with delegates.

And that core capability of BeLinker is what Sam writes about in his latest blog post, Is Your Mingle Stick Poken Attendees in the BeLinker?

Without getting lost in how to use Twitter at your conference, or coming up with a list of conference ideas for business, Sam leverages his broad knowledge of the events industry, attendee trends and the way proprietary devices can be used at events to enhance simple, but meaningful, sponsorship revenue and business driving, goals.

It’s clear that event producers want tools that:

1. accomplish real business goals
2. are easy and fun to use and
3. have a bit of ‘cool factor’ too.

We’re also looking forward to the evolution of BusyEvent in an environment where people like Sam, Warwick and so many other event professionals are working on the real issues at the heart of the events industry.

This is not an article about the new amazing Twitter App for your 4G iPhone

• Two years ago it was all about Green Meetings.
• 2009 was the year of explosive growth in social networking to bolster PR, Marketing and anything else because budgets were being hacked.
• Spring 2010 has a blooming love affair with anything social AND mobile.

Combine the words Social Media and Mobile and money will fall from the sky and land on your startup company, supposedly.  Which brings me to the primary question…why ARE we so enamored by mobile applications?

I own an iPhone and appreciate the fun and function of it all.  But I think the excitement for software providers is expressed as a percentage of all phones in existence (smart phones are fast approaching a third of all handsets).

If I’m the maker of an app that sells for $1, then this is a tempting business model.  However, if I’m counting on 80% or more of a group to have a smart phone to support a live event application, we’re probably out of luck.

For the most part this is still a science experiment akin to the early Internet days when the idea of a website was more important than the site itself.  In the panic to launch a mobile application we cannot forget the natural thing we’re trying to help make better.

For example, exchanging a business card has turned into bumping two phones together except when one of those phones is a Blackberry.  If mobile applications are to become useful for business, they need to work on just about any phone…even the no-so-smart phones.

We have enjoyed the recent flood of new ideas and applications hitting the market.  We are inspired and preparing to launch some of our own elegant and powerful tools that meet the business goals of our clients.

The next few years will require a hybrid model of live event hardware and mobile applications to satisfy the audience preference as well as the unexpected coverage and power issues we are still seeing in many event facilities.

Maybe 2011 will be the year of Hybrid tools!  We look forward to that.

I’ve recently had the pleasure of speaking with Warwick Davies from the Event Mechanic.   It’s impressive to find someone with so much knowledge of the events industry who so willingly shares it without a quid pro quo attached.

Without getting hung up on the latest ‘shiny object‘, Warwick outlines how he makes use of technical (and non-technical) solutions to real-world event challenges.   And, the guy’s got GUTS . . . I’ll let him tell you some of his stories because I could never do them justice.  Suffice to say, he’s a great example of the kind of event professional we value working with because his focus is on selecting solutions that 1) Drive the business goal, 2) work and 3) are within the budget or even better, can save money or drive revenues.

Which is why I’ve recently added his Event Mechanic blog to my must read list.  It’s refreshing, it’s always topical and his ability to pull in events-industry-relevant content from a wide variety of non-event-industry resources, is impressive.  When you read his stuff you’ll see that his knowledge casts a wide net over the things that are right and also those things that need fixing, in the events industry.

Which is what was so intriguing about the blog post that he found on the New Media Hire blog, 9 Social Media Topics That Need To Die.

It’s not necessarily about how to use Twitter at your next event, or getting the most out of your Facebook relationships, it’s not even about how to drive traffic to your next event and yet, it’s about all of those things.

Enjoy!

Smartphone? Propriety handheld device? iPad? Something else?  . . . It’s a discussion that’s been gaining traction lately.

Kenneth Briodagh wrote a very interesting article in the March Poll of the EventMarketer blog asking this very question – with an answer that gets to the very heart of the question!

Be sure to click through to read the blog post and below, our comment in the thread

Hi there Kenneth:

Thanks for a very interesting article. You’ve tackled a topic that has a lot of people, especially event professionals, very intrigued and brought to light the exact issue that’s causing confusion – we call it the “shiny object” syndrome.

As the developer of onsite event management tools, we continue to see mobile app providers and proprietary hardware providers focused on the wrong thing.  It’s clear that each of the people you interviewed has their own version of a better mousetrap to sell and unfortunately because their view point is jaded, their replies are misdirected.

The discussion arguing mobile, or not, sounds much like the burgeoning days of the internet when everyone had to have a web site, because . . . they just had to have a web site!  No reason, no real use, they just had to have it because the “shiny object” syndrome was so strong. We view the rush to mobile apps in much the same way; all the talk gets a lot of attention, until event professionals start to examine their real event goals.

In our experience, none of the dozens of event producers we speak with on a regular basis is focused on mobile vs. proprietary handsets. Instead, what they want is the ability to:

1. Create meaningful social connections between people, products and information.
2. Drive universal participation and engagement throughout the event, in every session, at every booth and face-to-face.
3. Improve access to real-time, monetizable information and
4. Increase revenues while cutting the cost of managing their event.

So, to answer your first question (”Who’s going to Event Marketing Summit?”), BeLinker (http://www.tinyurl.com/BeLinker) is being used at the Chicago Event Marketing Summit (link to PDF) coming up May 3-5, 2010 for a very specific reason: while simple is important and fancy ‘map apps’ might get attention, the type of hardware you have shouldn’t dictate whether you can benefit from the event.  For an event producer, or a speaker or an exhibitor, it’s about getting attendees to participate in whatever way they choose without putting up road blocks so that they’re data can become part of the meaningful collection of information.

As you accurately state, “Know your audience” is the key. With a software platform based ‘features first’ focus on each event participant’s needs, the right choice will enable whatever hardware attendees choose to use. Because of that, BusyEvent’s event producer clients are making their events better, in real-time, and creating revenues from all the information flowing through their events.

#eventprofs #twitter

Recently, the Tarsus Group’s Stephen Nold asked that question in the  International Association of Exhibitions and Events™ (IAEE) LinkedIn group. There were many good responses ranging from tips-and-tricks to actual case studies of expectations and experiences.

Since BeLinker, our event networking platform, focuses on closing the “last foot gap” between people, products and information our thoughts were focused on execution.  And frankly, that’s what we see most events struggle with; executing their social media strategy.

For most, I’m going to guess, their social media strategy centers on getting people interested in their event enough to attend.  And while that’s a laudable goal we could be doing more.

We could be focusing on creating more value in both the virtual and face-to-face interaction.  Events, really, should be the start (or continuation) of a conversation that attendees have with each other, with exhibitors and with speakers.

Unfortunately, most producers are so busy working the nuts-and-bolts of their event that they aren’t spending enough time integrating the wide variety of social media tools into a consolidated platform.

In our opinion, the successful use of social media (which for this discussion is the ‘content’ element of social networking) focuses on the entire event; from marketing to registration to pre-event through the event through post-event and then around again to the next year.

BeLinker focuses on maximizing the face-to-face interaction that event attendees could have if they could figure out how to get together and then providing them the tools needed to carry that interaction into their real world.

The first thing events could do better is help you meet the right people; exhibitors meeting qualified buyers, attendees meeting the right speakers/other attendees and making sure all of that is done quickly and in real-time. While our focus tends to be on a technology solution to enhance the opportunity for this to occur we’ve helped other successful events do ‘round tables’ where people meet in rooms focused on their topic of the moment – in effect, crowd sourcing.

Second, we encourage our event clients to focus more on exhibitors and their needs and using social media to do so.  The recent LinkedIn thread started by Dana Freker Doody is emblematic of the issue.  In the more than 100 responses to the question Do you think the current tradeshow model is sustainable? most people focused on the cost side with little attention paid to the value side. Why?  Because for too long the industry hasn’t been delivering a tremendous amount of value as compared to the cost.

Sure, it’s a pond full of fish, butwhich fish?  And, how do I get at them?  Which attendees would raise their hand if they knew they’d be counted? If I’m attending an event I WANT to be approached by the right person with the right message at the right time.  Social media tools and channels can help those people self-identify more easily so they can receive the right customized message which equals the highest value proposition.

Third, event producers have a great opportunity to tap into the secret conversation at their own events and monetize that. It’s not about Twitter or Facebook status updates, it’s about understanding what is going on in real time and proactively engaging the attendees.  For example, a speaker has been hired to deliver 3 sessions and their first session receives terrible feedback.  Effective use of social media tools (like the BeLinker audience response system) would help the producer know what went wrong so they could provide that information to the speaker who could then ‘fix’ the issue before session 2.

It’s not about monitoring the social media conversation, it’s about being part of that conversation to proactively and as a partner provide the greatest amount of value possible to their event stakeholders.  Or, as Arron Coole said: “Stay social, be helpful, ask questions, listen and nurture and ensure your event reflects the issues raised by your audience.”

When done correctly, there’s a lot of revenue that can be generated for the event such that most social media tools and the effort required to nurture them, can become a profit center.

Finally, with all this talk of value and technology, let’s not forget that it’s humans we’re talking about and the bottom line for most people is that they like to have fun.  Maybe not Domino’s Pizza kind of fun; for instance, I like a great and mind-bending conversation every now and then. Successful social media needs to identify and foster that through learning games, competitive games, just plain fun games or an opportunity to just sit and talk.

In our opinion, a successful social media strategy builds a community that is ongoing and lasts beyond the end (and precedes the beginning) of an event and provides the community with tools, the content and the reason for staying involved.

Having fun, is a critical element of that.