The BusyEvent Blog

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.

#eventprofs #cema #mpi @cemaonline
Taking the Next Big Step at the CEMA Tech Shootout

What is all the ‘outplaced’ talent going to do?

While some have opted to look for another corporate job, more than a few have taken their entrepreneurial spirit and hung out their own shingle.

Which is exactly what the principals of event technology company BusyEvent did, in 2006.

After choosing to leave the comfort and protection of their executive positions with a prime government contractor, David J. Schenberg and Brian Slawin are building a company that helps meeting professionals cut the costs of their events in half using Event Bookmarking.

Now, even through the challenges of today’s economy, BusyEvent is focusing its marketing dollars on the most fierce competitive environment possible; the Tech Shootout at The CEMA (Corporate Event Marketing Associations’) 2009 Summit.

Get the inside story on what it’s like to continue building a company and the path today’s ‘new entrepreneurs’ might take, if they get that far.

Follow @CEMAOnline and then be sure to message or DM @BusyEvent on Twitter or contact us directly: info-at-busyevent-dot-com or 888.788.4896 x112.

Is Technology Squelching Innovative Thinking? #eventprofs #mpi

Gordon Lyster from Events and Publishing, LTD in the UK asked a really good question on LinkedIn today:

At our recent ‘Conference and events Industry get-together’, we had a thought provoking presentation by the excellent Rohit Talwar who talked about new technologies and how they are changing the face of business events. I  . . . would be keen to hear about new developments. . . . If you have seen something new, that made a positive difference let’s hear about it.

And, here’s our reply:

Hi there Gordon.

Boy, have you jumped into the deep end with this one. What a GREAT question and I am sure you’re going to get a lot of really insightful answers.

Before jumping into the ‘tech pool’ and giving you some examples of the tools we use, the ‘why’ of these tools is more important than the ‘what’. I know that’s not your question, so I’ll forgo the lecture just keep in mind that “to a man with a hammer, the entire world looks like a nail”.

From the perspective of an attendee and exhibitor, along with an event manager, the greatest opportunity that we see is the onsite experience.

So, the goals of the onsite might easily be:

• Connect with people
• Learn about products / Sell my products
• Share in a discussion / learn about new ideas
• Do all of this less expensively!

The mistake we’re seeing most is that traditional thinking is being applied to accomplish these goals, only doing so with new tools:

1. It’s not enough to turn traditional lead management into an iPhone app. The measurable quality of lead management has to improve for the ROI to make sense.
2. It’s not enough to connect people before an event, walk them to the front door of the event and then ‘pat them on the back wishing them good luck’. The ease of connectedness, the measure of interest and the ability to know whom to take action with, are critical.
3. It’s not enough to provide information about how a speaker did, months after the event is over. It’s got to be real-time and actionable or else it doesn’t matter much.
4. It’s not enough to just ’speak’ green. If an event planner is going to run a green event, then it needs to be fiscally as well as environmentally responsible, to do so.
5. At every event, there’s a ‘secret conversation‘ going on that the people paying for the event need to be listening to. The best tools can help them access that.

There are a variety of other ‘new thinking’ goals that make sense to discuss, but I’m sure some of our colleagues will contribute them in the comments section.  For our part, this type of new thinking (Guy Kawasaki calls it “Curve Jumping”) is what led us to develop Event Bookmarking.

Combine a software platform for lead management, audience response, social networking and connections with a purpose-built hardware platform migrating to mobile devices and you’ll begin to understand the power of the BusyEvent and Event Bookmarking tools set.

More importantly, it’s the kind of ‘new thinking’ that is going to be needed not only in this economy, but in any economy, when an event manager is pressed with the goals of their event, for half the budget.

Tradeshows . . . Where Good Leads (no longer have to) Go To Die. Almost a year ago we wrote a series of articles on the challenges that tradeshow attendees face: Tradeshows, Where Good Leads go to Die (Part 1 & Part 2), our version of a Jerry Maguire document.  Taken as a whole, it outlines the problems in the tradeshow and events industry and describes a set of solutions.

So today, as part of the solution, we are launching BeLinker, a proprietary software and integrated hardware system designed to improve audience response, face-to-face social networking, lead management and data-based revenue creation for events.

What is BeLinker and the BusyEvent Event Bookmarking software platform?  Among other things it solves the “We don’t do trade shows because there’s no value in them” problem, for exhibitors.  Everyday, we talk with event managers, vendors sponsors, speakers and attendees discussing the good, the bad and the ugly about their events.  One of the core issues we discuss is the pressure for a return on investment in the expo or booth area.

In any economy, participation in an expo is dependent upon the amount of qualified leads a vendor received for their time, money and efforts. But simply agreeing to invest in a show is only half the battle because traditional lead management only produces a list of who was “scanned”; a list of a list, if you will.  It can’t produce a list of truly ‘qualified leads’.

The follow up on these lists can be daunting and is typically done by placing those new leads into the sales pipeline for eBlasting or even worse “dialing for dollars” phone calls made by the newest sales trainees or more expensively, top sales talent.

After a busy show, attendees get pounded with junk mail and emails and phone calls thanking them for stopping by and ‘pitching’ the product or service.  As a result, little list qualification occurs and they simply become part of the database going forward.  Solving that problem is what generated the lead management component of BeLinker (PDF Download).

And now the story that started it all… Years ago, we attended one of the tradeshows about tradeshows. We happened across one of the dozen or so ‘event management’ companies (translation – event registration software), ate the candy, took a brochure out of guilt, and thanked them for their time.  We learned a lot from that experience.  We were two people in a show full of several thousand attendees. We came, we saw, we talked and then we left . . . For us, that was that.

And that’s when the emails and the phone calls and the invitations started coming.  “We’re having a webinar!”, “We’re doing a luncheon in your town!”, “We’re offering new modules that we’ve stacked on top of the other ones… it’s all shiny and new and you MUST BE THERE to see it!!!”

Since we were relatively unimpressed with what we saw and were already well into the development of the BusyEvent Event Management Platform, we opted-out and took this one-time experience as a good dose of what not to do.  Our event management clients were telling us what they wanted, didn’t like, wished they could have and we had already been building tools like this for over a decade as one-off software. The time was right for us to build an event platform.

But the lunch invitations kept coming.  Even as we were launching Version 1 of BusyEvent and made no secret to who we were, nobody at the “we’ll invite you to a luncheon and show you our stuff” company had any tools or information to know if we were a qualified lead or not – so we’re still on the list today.

Last week, we received another email (the 4th in a period of 6 months) about another lunch and demo of their tools and that’s when we sat down and started doing some math.  What did this one unqualified lead cost them and how many unqualified thousands more are rattling around in their system?

If they had just been able to sift through the thousands of contacts they gathered at the event we attended to find the 50-100 good and qualifiable leads it would have been more useful to them.  What they do with the other 900 is up to them . . . so, here’s what we do:

1. First, everyone doesn’t get a color glossy brochure that will sooner-than-later find its way into a landfill.  Instead, had that original event had the BeLinkers (PDF Download) in use, every contact could be filtered and the qualified leads would get more attention.
2. Then, we track who downloaded our PDF brochure, clicked on the link to our site, blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc… and expressed ANY follow-on interest.
3. By self-identifying as ‘interested’ each of those more-qualified leads would get a call from us about the real actions that occurred (we met, we talked, you clicked a link, etc…) and as appropriate, those qualified-leads would continue through the sales funnel until a more expensive contact, such as a meeting, a lunch, or demo, etc…made sense.
4. The others would all get an invite to a webinar, links to downloads and perhaps a quick 3 question survey about what they’re interested in.  And they’d remain in the ‘more qualifications needed’ list.

Before Event Bookmarking, Sales and Marketing would have no way to measure a successful show other than the number of contacts they gathered – qualified or not, “just get me names”.  Those really aren’t leads, but rather, names on a list.  Then inside sales is incentivized to get people to come to the luncheon no matter what their level of interest.  This occurs over and over until nobody knows where the leads came from or what money is best spent on Marketing.  It’s the “brute force approach” and we believe that budgets will never be there for that, ever again.

What you’ll see by watching the 5-minute LIVE BeLinker Presentation is what we’ll address for every attendee; the actual measurement of ROI and the identification of which contacts are worth spending time and money on and converting into leads.

That’s why . . . rather than continuing to be part of the problem, we’re offering part of the solution.

What is BeLinker and the Event Bookmarking Software Platform?

Among other things, BeLinker solves the “We don’t do trade shows because there’s no value in them” problem, for exhibitors.

It’s a software and purpose-built hardware platform that combines Lead Management with Audience Response, Face-to-Face Social Networking and an online information source to extend a 3-5 day event into a 365 day year-round connection between attendees, vendors, speakers, sponsors and event managers.

So, feel free to download our ‘Green Friendly’ brochure and call us to discuss how to cut the cost of event management in half while getting quality event information as it happens.

As more and more people utilize BusyEvent Express, it’s always valuable to gain their experience and learn about our tools from someone else’s perspective.

One of the things we’re learning quickly is that crowd sourcing is a great way to “learn what sucks so you can know what’s good” (thanks Beavis).

This past week, Marc DeWalle from the NCStartUp Blog (Twitter) began using Express and his experience pointed to an issue we had with how Paypal was returning payment clearances.

Things were working the way they were supposed to, but sometimes the information presented was confusing ticket purchaser (you can read more by reading “That’s What Beta Means“).  So, with Marc’s help, we were able to get things fixed quickly and now we’ve got a better product because of it.

You can read more about what happened and also the national program that Marc is putting together to support startups at his blog: The North Carolina Startup Blog, part of the nationwide Springstage network of startups.

Thanks Marc!!!

An Example of How to Integrate Twitter, Into an Event

As an events management company, we are focused on making every BusyEvent as ROI-rich as possible.

The question our event producer and meeting planner clients always ask is “What can BusyEvent do to help me communicate more effectively with every participant in a meaningful and targeted way and in real time?”

Which is, in essence, the same question event participants (attendees, sponsors, vendors and speakers) have been asking, “How can I be part of the conversation, meet the people I need to meet and get from the event what I’m looking for?”

As part of our Event Bookmarking system, we are including a Twitter-capability that provides everyone with the ability to efficiently and quickly communicate with each other and doing so without changing their innate behaviors.

Imagine, if you will, the following scenario:

During online registration, registrants are asked for their Twitter name (not their password) and are given the option to “follow” the event’s Twitter account.  The opt-in capability gives registrants the control they need and the BusyEvent registration system handles all of the requests seamlessly through the Twitter API.

Pre-event, organizers heavily promote “Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/NAMEOFEVENT”.  They send out “here’s who just registered” messages, “here’s who’s been added to speak”, “special discounts for the first 100 people to Tweet us with [[message]]”, “only 5 rooms left at the event price of $xxx at the [[hotel]]”, “be sure to complete your PURLs”, etc…

Once onsite, the “follow us on Twitter” message is EVERYWHERE; on the check in kiosk screens, on the schedule section of every badge, on the event staff shirts and the ‘swag bags’, on the sponsor signage, etc….

By integrating Twitter, we create a private communiations channel that secures the conversation to the approved group.  In this private channel, people can blast messages to anyone ‘following and being followed’ in the approved group in an ongoing conversation.  And, this private channel isn’t restricted to people attending the event; it can also extend to the virtual participant.

For those that can’t attend, but want to keep up with the event and were approved to do so, we can integrate the Twitter stream with a live video stream to provide a ‘you are there’ experience (we saw this at DEMO using Facebook’s real-time chat feature).  In the future, virtual attendance could be a revenue stream, as well.

For those that are attending and want to participate in a casual way, we can integrate Twitter with the BusyEvent Digital Signage System, and sniff the Tweets in this private channel, projecting those messages and that conversation broadly for attendees to view.

By Tweeting things like “checkin on Level 3 is still open”, “open bar from 7-8pm sponsored by [[name of sponsor]]”, “keynote by [[speaker]] is starting in the Grand Ballroom”, event managers are able to effectively and quickly communicate with every participant in a way that improves the overall event, in real-time.

To comunicate with each participant, Twitter can be integrated with the BusyEvent Communications Profile System to micro-target certain sub-groups of people, or even individuals, for highly personalized messaging like “Come to Booth 123 for more information on our e-waste program” targeted at CIO’s,  or, “Mr. Jones, your boss is trying to find you!”

The opportunities are endless and the above examples are just a few ways that organizers can integrate  Twitter into the BusyEvent system pre and during the event.

Once the event concludes, and to extend the effectiveness of the event into a person’s “real life”, Tweets can be sent to remind participants to visit their PURLs (where attendees can go to download presentations, see who ‘bookmarked’ them, learn more about the people they met, etc…. ), lost-and-found information, targeted sponsors/speaker messaging based on the sessions the person attended (not that they were signed up for, but those they actually attended), etc…

If it gets to be too much, the participant simply ‘opts-out’ and obviously, over time, the messaging from the producer diminishes until they spin up their event for the next year.

The best part of all is that now the organizers can be included in the conversation and take actions immediately, rather than waiting for things to bubble over, causing them to be in reactionary mode.
Plus, the organizers also are able to more evenly deploy their resources and proactively communicate what’s going on.

In all, Twitter is becoming a permanent element of the way we run events and combined with the BusyEvent Communications Tools, is an invaluable and cost-effective channel to connect event attendees, get them involved in the event, improve their overall experience and create a real-time communications channel for organizers.

We’re Hiring a web designer to Zen Garden our event management application.

Our goal is to show off the flexibility of the visual design flexibility of the BusyEvent event management platform.

You won’t have many constraints, you can make it look like whatever you want, as long as it’s something we can show to clients. This should be a lot of fun, and a good chance to stretch your creative muscles.

We’ll give you 3 static HTML pages that duplicate dynamic pages the BusyEvent Meeting Manager Event Management system creates, along with the css files for them.  You will create a new style sheet and image folder that dramatically redesigns those pages.

If you’re interested, send a brief overview of your experience along with links to at least 3 or more live sites you designed and wrote the CSS for to hireme@pmgstl.com.

All of the layouts should be done in CSS, and a strong preference will be given to designers that use clean, standards-compliant code.

On the other hand, we believe in getting things done, so we’re not going to worry about perfect code if your awesome design work required a few ugly hacks to make it work.

Include your pricing and a rough timeline in your proposal.

Building the “THING” . . . It’s a lot of fun and we’re about ready to share it with the world . . . which is why we’re so excited.

Event management systems are generally built around solid, stable core code that has been tested over and over from every angle by all kinds of people. At least, that’s the way we’ve built BusyEvent.Today, our Chief Architect, Director of Systems Development and all around good guy ran into my office and declared “WE’RE BUILDING THE THING!”. And from what I hear, that’s a pretty rare thing since most systems like ours are built incrementally, not by gigantic leaps and bounds ahead in thinking and capabilities.

With our investors fully behind what we’re doing, they’re encouraging us to continue pursuing our vision of what event management systems can be and so, “WE’VE BEEN BUILDING THE THING!”

This THING-building started in early 2008 when we began concepting and bringing to life our vision of what a better event on-site experience should be; one that is rich with opportunities, interaction, networking and information.

Since then, we’ve devoted a significant amount of time and effort to planning, concepting, preparing for and starting to code ‘The THING’ . . . and now, we’re almost ready to roll out the public beta.

So, what is this “THING”? It’s a software module that plug-and-plays with BusyEvent’s Core Platform enabling immediate and pertinent interaction between people, information and products.

• See a product you’re interested in? Bookmark it and review on your PURL.
• Meet a really interesting attendee or see a really good speaker and want to follow up? Bookmark them and review on your PURL.
• How about a product or if you’re a vendor, a lead? Using the Event Bookmarking system you’ll be able to view the product, see the person, download product PDFs and link to web sites and learn as much as you care to about the product – all from one place, your PURL.
  • And for the vendor . . . see which are the most target rich people you’ve met by observing which links they’re clicking on your PURL. . . and then tailor your follow up conversation to match their interests. Paper Brochures? . . . blech!  Leave them at the office and save the trees for making air.

By the end of March, we’re going to make our “THING” available for private beta testing to about 100 people.  If you’re interested in helping us bring the THING to market, send an email to THING@BusyEvent.com .