The BusyEvent Blog

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

No Longer A Secret – BusyEvent Announces Release of BeLinker On Mobile

St. Louis, MO – August 13, 2010

BusyEvent, the leader in live event solutions, has successfully launched the 3rd generation of its event communications system, BeLinker On Mobile.

“Right now technology developers are bringing out all kinds of ideas, hoping the market will accept them.  Those tools are typically good at doing one thing well, or require a download, or only work on a single phone system (like the iPhone) and that’s where BeLinker On Mobile is different” said BusyEvent CEO David Schenberg.

By providing tools that impact the business purposes for an event, BeLinker seamlessly integrates Audience Response, Lead Tracking, Document and Session Management and Social Networking from a single integrated system.

Developed for face-to-face and virtual events, BeLinker On Mobile enables a new level of connectivity, and engagement while generating increased profitability from new and existing revenue streams and provides every event participant using ANY internet connected device, real-time access to their personalized event information portal.

With nothing to download or install, event participants can collect and store their connections with people, products and information and access their Virtual Totebag using:

• ANY smart phone (iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, etc.),
• ANY internet connected device (iPad, laptops, desktops and Netbooks) as well as
• The original BeLinker Wireless Keypad introduced in 2008.

Decades of event experience have gone into the creation of BeLinker On Mobile.  By first looking at what event producers, corporate event professionals and attendees have been asking for, BusyEvent is providing a complete package of tools that no other single system offers today, which includes:

1. communication with their attendees in real-time
2. event adjustments on the fly
3. tapping into the secret conversations (social networking) at an event
4. voting, polling and audience response included
5. providing a lead management system that generates leads instead of just a list
6. ‘greening’ of the event with access to event materials, speaker presentations and exhibitor brochures in a “Virtual Totebag” system and
7. extending the event beyond the 3 days and 4 walls into the virtual and hybrid event space.

Most recently used by more than 5,000 attendees of the Domino’s Pizza 50th Anniversary Rally, BeLinker enhanced audience response, face-to-face social networking, lead management, document and session management. The Domino’s event team effectively managed thousands of event details in real time through the secure BusyEvent dashboard system.   Client Chris Brandon was quoted saying, “I was floored by how everything went all week – and considering record event attendance and a new property we’ve never worked at before, it really is a testament to the job you guys did.”



Information about the core BeLinker System and BeLinker On Keypad is available at: http://j.mp/BeLinkerOnKeypad

Information about the expanded BeLinker On Mobile Platform on:
- ANY smart phones (no applications to install or downloads required) and
- ANY internet connected device via cellular, wifi and hardwire is available at: http://j.mp/BeLinkerMobile

Haven’t had enough?  There’s even more . . . learn how to monetize your meetings and access the BeLinker System: Visit www.BusyEvent.com

——————————————————————–

The Old Way is Broken.

We’ll Pay You to Fix It!

Tens of thousands of event attendees already use BeLinker, the most powerful, hand held, mobile and social media platform for events, worldwide!

Now, help your event attendees connect to people, products and information and create more profits for your event – at the press of a button!

Get your share of the $55,000 BusyEvent Stimulus Package and finally get what every event producer really wants, 1 – money in your pocket and 2 – the inside scoop on your event!

Calculate your event’s ROI and
get your share of BusyEvent’s $55,000 Giveaway

Well, he’s done it again.

Richard Feldman, has stirred the pot once again in the LinkedIn Virtual Events and Meeting Technology group by asking the question:  Will running an online event in conjunction with a physical event cannibalize my face-to-face attendance or enhance it?

It’s a great question and a topic that’s been blunting the full-fledged embrace of virtual tools by the events industry.  As we ad smart phone capability to the BeLinker software platform, the discussion of revenue possibilities, profitability and ‘eyeballs’ has been a frequent one with our clients.

Here are our thoughts!

The good news is, there’s already a model for creating virtual access to live events.

• It’s highly successful,
• Massively profitable
• Growing exponentially every year and
• It is a model for the events industry!

Back in the 60s, professional sports leagues were having this very same debate; would televising games in the local city cannibalize attendance?  Some early experimentation led to 72-hour blackouts until it became clear that the answer was NO, it won’t cost ‘onsite’ eyeballs.  Instead, what was found is that adding ‘virtual’ channels and enabling hybrid participation expanded the audience, creating more revenue and turned time-based content into infinitely accessible, monetizable content.

Much like any sporting event, some people will want to go to the live event, some will want to watch it on TV (their computer) and still others will want to pick-and-choose their highlights later.  For each of those audiences, there is a channel (the venue, the web cast + Twitter and then videos-on-demand).

Each of those audiences can be served and each of them bring revenue and marketing opportunities which is good for the attendees (”I was there but didn’t quite hear the presentation”), good for the event producer (creating additional revenue by providing access to content) and especially good for the exhibitors and sponsors (marketing and exposure well past the end of an event plus the ability to generate once and utilize content well into the future).

The hard reality is, if the event producer doesn’t provide a virtual channel, the event attendees are going to create one anyway.  Wouldn’t it be better to promote and take advantage of its possibilities rather than continue to bury your head in the sand, ignoring what’s really going on around your event?

Given our experiences utilizing the mobile BeLinker platform, that question has been asked and answered dozens of times.  In the case of each of our clients, that answer is a unanimous “YES” to hybrid events.

Want to learn more about your event ROA? Take the BusyEvent $55,000 ROI Challenge and we’ll show you how to help your exhibitors leverage your attendee’s actions and take advantage of an event’s hybrid possibilities!

More importantly . . . can you tell when they are because, they probably don’t mean to.

When asked, most attendees will tell you what they hope to accomplish, what they plan to do and how they intend to maximize their event experience. . . in reality, they don’t have a clue.

Ask any exhibitor what they really want to know and they’ll tell you “give me data on what my prospect is actually doing – show me the action”!   An event attendees actions, then, become the true measure of their desires because nothing else matters – not even what they say.

Measuring and reporting on action, calculating Return on Action (ROA) and providing exhibitors with tools to impact their ROA at an event, is the most important aspect that event planners can leverage.  Unfortunately, with a focus on ROI and ROO people get confused by what they’re measuring and what creates value.  It’s time to face some hard facts:

• According to Brian J. Carroll upwards of 90% of event exhibitors don’t have a lead management and qualifications process and simply show up to an event/tradeshow and hope for the best.
• Zadsol Solutions found that 43% of tradeshow attendees received relevant information AFTER a buying decision had been made.
• And the hardest fact of all . . . according to CEIR, 80% of tradeshow leads are never followed up on.

Said another way, “there’s no ‘there’, there”.  Here’s a typical scenario:

1. An exhibitor goes to an event and comes back with 1,000 contacts (RFID hits, bar code scanned list tape, fish bowl business cards, etc..).
2. The old way would say that’s a good thing.
3. However, based on the hard facts, it’s probably a very bad thing. . . . frankly the worst thing that could happen to a sales force because nearly all of those leads are under qualified, acquired by the wrong incentives and are proximity based (rather than action based).

So, what are proximity based leads?

Someone enters an exhibitor’s booth and their badge gets scanned.  Or, someone drops their business card in a fish bowl because the exhibitor offers a prize, there’s a scribbled note (”follow up with Bob”) on the back of each business card and probably the worst offender, the RFID system told the exhibitor that a particular person with a particular title dwelled in their booth longer than the average – is proximity really activity?   Tragically, each of these contacts came to the exhibitor’s booth, soaked up the event specialist’s time, took a brochure and probably ate a few Jolly Ranchers – before moving on with the exhibitor’s time and money and candy!

At its core, the old events model is permanently broken due to a variety of influences and the keepers of the status quo are trying to keep it that way.  Whenever you hear someone talk about ‘proximity’ information, which typically sounds pretty cool (”You’ll know exactly where all the people walked on the tradeshow floor”), make sure to ask the business question “how does that help my exhibitor accomplish their goals“?

The silence will be deafening.

– – -  In the first article in the BusyEvent “Fixing the Problem” series (If the Events Model is Broken, What Will Work In Its Place), we focused on where we’ve been. Next in our series of posts on “Fixing the Problem” we’ll address exactly what ROA is and most importantly, what it isn’t!  – – –

Want to learn more about your event ROA?

Take the BusyEvent $55,000 ROI Challenge and we’ll show you how to help your exhibitors leverage your attendee’s actions!

We’ve seen it before.

When the internet first started, every company had to have a web site – until someone finally asked the question “why”?

In marketing, they’re known as early adopters and thank heavens for them . . . because they’ll shake the bugs out of the system and either give it enough breath to live past its early days of growth (Twitter) or kill it and move on to something else (Friendfind).

In the events industry, we’re living in a similar ‘early adopter’ phase when it comes to shiny objects – specifically, mobile and the plethora of applications providers searching for a way to wedge their solutions into the event planners world.

On the opposite side of that gold rush is the status quo (What Part of Status Quo Don’t We Understand?) whose old guard are fighting tooth and nail to maintain their position and keep things the way they’ve always been.

And, just like in real life, the best solution is usually somewhere in the middle – not acting hastily while also managing innovation-stifling analysis paralysis.

Which brings us to Richard Feldman’s recent question on LinkedIn:  TOPIC: Using onsite technology to bridge the gap between physical and virtual events.  I have done some research into vendors in the on-site networking technology space and have found two . . . I have invited both of them to comment on their technology, both hardware and software.

In response to that invitation, BusyEvent CEO, David Schenberg outlined the difference between an event planners goals and those of an event technology provider – and in doing so, overviews the operational and financial reasons to provide your attendees and exhibitors with an onsite technology that allows them to:

• do what they want to do,
• where they want to do it,
• with the tools they choose to use.

————-

Richard – Thanks for the opportunity to comment.

There are a few conversations going on surrounding this topic right now. The hottest one is in direct response to the flurry of mobile tools that have discovered how to play in the event space. In general, mobile assumes the following things are present to be successful:

1. Everyone has a smart phone and is ready to use it at an event.
2. The venue holding the event is cellular accessible.
3. The attendees are tech savvy enough to want to use their smart phone.
4. Attendees want to spend their time “heads down” in their phone building social networking tidbits to contribute to the collective.

If you look at high-profile events like SXSW where some of these “one trick pony” mobile tools were available, they were only used by a small % of the audience.

Which is why a solution looking for a problem, doesn’t work in the events space.  For live event technology to be a success it really should be:

1. Available to and usable by to at least 80% of the audience.
2. On the attendees choice of their device (smart phone, PC) or one offered by the event (ex: BeLinker keyfob).
3. Usable by the attendees without them needing to do anything to get and create value – other than registering for the event – to enable basic participation.
4. Easy to use without creating a “partial attention span” audience.

There are some excellent technologies available in a few vertical markets but integrating 3 or more of those is an event planner’s nightmare.  There are also some well integrated solutions in the $35-$75 per attendee price range, but that may not be feasible for an event of 3,000+ people.

So, there needs to be a happy medium of easy to use, a solid list of expected features and a reasonable price that allows an event planner to provide a good solution and create additional profitability.  Oh, and the data should be usable before, during and most importantly AFTER the event, feeding back into the client’s business processes.

As events look at how to cut their costs and fundamentally re-engineer the flow of revenue from 3rd party vendors BACK into their own pockets, fluffy features that don’t get used and don’t have a business purpose aren’t going to save an event any money and will eventually be dropped because of their shiny object nature.

By partnering with a company that has decades of event experience, rather than a technology provider looking for a problem to solve, an event planner will find a specific solution for their event, and the event industry’s need.

– - -  In the first article in the BusyEvent “Fixing the Problem” series (If the Events Model is Broken, What Will Work In Its Place), we focused on where we’ve been.  Next, in the first of a series of posts, we turn our attention to measurement and the false expectations that a focus on Return on Investment and Return on Objective create.  – - –

Want to learn more about your event ROA?

Take the BusyEvent $55,000 ROI Challenge and we’ll show you how to help your exhibitors leverage your attendee’s actions!

An interview with BusyEvent CEO & Co-Founder – David J. Schenberg

When did you start the company?:  August, 2006

What do you sell?:  A traditional expo, tradeshow, conference, congress or meeting comes with a high-level of inefficiency, uncertainty and expense.   Our BeLinker product enables the delivery of value to each participant.

Through a combination of Professional event services Software as a service an On-site event hardware . . . we deliver tangible and measurable ROI.

Imagine going to an event and being able to:

• Efficiently collect all of the people, products and ideas that you were interested in and then,
• Rather than trying to carry home a tower of business cards and loads of brochures you could
• Login to your Virtual Totebag, reach out, connect, share and learn more about the things you were interested in.

That’s BeLinker and it’s now available on mobile devices.

Describe the typical person who buys what you sell?:  Event and meeting planners, marketing professionals, associations, event production companies, corporate event planners and event owners.

How many people like that exist in your market?:  The event industry, in just the US, is made up of more than 3,500 unique events per year that have attendance of +/- 2,000 attendees, per event.  There are thousands of event professionals that would consider our technology in helping run those events, if they just knew about it.  In some cases as many as 3 different parties might consider our tools for the same show because we cross several vertical markets.
Why should people buy from you as opposed to your competitors?:  Buyers have a choice:  They can procure from 4-6 different suppliers and manage the communications between those teams and databases or they can choose BusyEvent and have one platform to manage it all.  BeLinker, which is our premier product, has been actively sold and purchased since May, 2009.

To date, we have supported more than a dozen events in the US, Europe and Asia.

If I had a magic wand and could grant you one wish what would it be?: 60 sales professionals to call on every event 30 days after it ends to get them talking about how we can help them make their next event cost less and deliver more measurable benefits for everyone involved.
If that wish were granted tonight while you are asleep, what are three things people would notice have changed when they come to work tomorrow?:

1. The owners would be more relaxed and pleasant
2. Doughnuts
3. Starbucks instead of Folgers

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

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!

10 Ways to Better, Cheaper, Faster and Greener Events in 2010 #eventprofs

For the events industry, 2010 will be a year of resolutions. It seems the harder times become, the more we resolve to do something about it. And like many New Year’s past, we already know what to do.  We just get complacent and forget. This year we don’t have that luxury.  The old way of operating an event, expo, congress or trade show will be left behind in the 00’s.  Skip the fad diets that promise to deliver quick results and quirky technologies that promise success. Here are our 10 best ways to make your events better, cheaper, faster and greener in 2010 and beyond:

1. Use technology, but only as a tool. There are several technologies that can help create better event communication and connectivity, but you must have a solid foundation of information.  It is this information that allows your attendees to come back and connect with people, products and ideas they found useful.  People vote with their eyes and mouse clicks and the sooner you can capture this information, the sooner your sponsors and vendors will pay you for the opportunity to connect with the right attendees using the right messages.
2. Knowledge is power. Events are all about information. How many came, who liked the speaker, is this room big enough?  What if you could get your data in real time to improve an event in progress?  For example, if a speaker is presenting three times and after the first time you get useful feedback, wouldn’t it be nice to make some adjustments before the other two presentations?  Your attendees decided to come to your event this year, reward them with the best event experience you can create.
3. A list is just a list. Since when did a list of names constitute qualified leads or interested people? Scrutinize any area of your event that does not return some level of qualification information.  Start by looking at how attendees connect with one another and see if there’s a way you can help facilitate those connections. Look at social networking tools. It’s the best place to see benefit from this emerging trend.
4. Eliminate paper and become smarter. The only brochure that tells you it’s being read is the one on-line. Going green is more than saving trees, budgets, and reducing carbon footprints.  Electronic materials are a critical component of the qualification process for expo vendors, speakers and sponsors.  Look for ways to make it easier to engage with your event without the bag of paper. On-line information tells us who, what and when which leads to why and how.
5. Events are no longer controlled by the event producer. Every attendee and exhibitor has a public voice (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) that can turn a small incident into a catastrophe or a nice event into the best conference ever. By being engaged and nurturing the communications going on in the background, you can encourage event participants to help sell and promote “their” event by owning a part of the conversation and creating a more meaningful experience.

6. Content is King. Virtual and web-based events are competing more than ever with live events. Work with the subject matter experts to deliver high-quality content and a unique event experience. Get the speakers involved early and make them part of the online conversation. Invite them to participate in the event social network and set up a method for them to meet-and-greet attendees. And most importantly, make sure you’ve spoken with and coordinated your speaker’s needs to eliminate the last-minute fire drill.
7. KISS (Keep it simple). People gravitate toward simple and easy things that are worth the effort. For example, many people have a LinkedIn or Facebook profile that they keep up to date. Tools that make use of existing information make it easier for people to participate. High levels of participation in social networking lead to better and successful events.
8. CFOs are your new marketing partner. If you can’t prove it, it won’t get funded. You should be able to communicate the types of return on investment created for each stakeholder group. Then align yourself with the venues, vendors, participants, exhibitors and attendees who are looking for the types of ROI you can provide. Solid partnerships based on shared expectations is a recipe for great success.
9. Monitoring other people’s costs. You’ve worked hard to cut costs and be frugal around your event, but what about the vendors? If 300 vendors in an expo are going to spend $300 to rent a piece of equipment that generates a list (and you know how we feel about lists) ask yourself what would $90,000 spent differently do to help the vendors and the event.  By eliminating paper brochures you run a greener meeting, but you also trim an average of $5,000 out of each vendor’s costs for design, printing, shipping, drayage and storage the average materials sent to a show. Multiplied by 300 vendors that’s $1,500,000 in savings in your event alone.
10. And now a word from the sponsors. Sponsors are the ones who make up the difference in dollars between the event you can afford and the one attendees want. Those sponsors want many of the same things as the other groups.  As you make better habits for gathering real time event information, the opportunity to turn that information into sponsor revenue is the next frontier.  Simply placing logos on signage isn’t going to get the sponsors to keep stepping up. They want more of a partnership with the event and a relationship with the attendees.  The more you know about your event, the better equipped you will be to offer sponsors the custom programs they desire.

What the Wiggles Can Teach Us #eventprofs #tradeshow #assnchat

Luckily, perhaps, my family escaped the “Wiggles” phenomenon.  But after reading what Max Kalehoff from MediaPost writes about his recent experience, it’s clear these entertainers “get it”, when it comes to how to successfully utilize social media – and the excitement of their fans – to help market their brand.

One of the unfortunate turnoffs of big entertainment acts is the accompanying rules that forbid audience recording or broadcasting. Such policies cast a negative tone even months before the event. Consider the ubiquitous “NO CAMERAS/VIDEO/RECORDER” warnings that boldly talk down to fans on Ticketmaster-issued tickets.

Which is why I was delighted by my family’s recent experience with The Wiggles, the hugely successful rock band for preschoolers, from Australia.

Our two-year-old son Julian is a passionate Wiggles fan, and has every single Wiggles concert and musical episode saved in our Netflix streaming queue. So when the band announced its arrival in the New York area, there was no way we weren’t going. I wasn’t losing sleep over The Wiggles, but Julian was.

My expectations were low, and driven lower by having to listen to them during the entire car ride to the show. We paid more than a few good dollars to hear a bunch of middle-aged men in neon, skintight shirts perform rock-n-roll versions of nursery rhymes — alongside Captain Feathersword, Dorothy the Dinosaur, Henry the Octopus, and Wags the Dog.

But once they came on stage, with thousands of preschoolers screaming with anticipation and joy, my feelings toward them changed. After introducing themselves — “Hello everyone, we’re Jeff, Murray, Anthony and Sam” — the first thing The Wiggles did was establish their policy on recording and broadcasting.

Unlike most other big commercial acts, they asked all the children and parents to please take as many photos and videos as they could — and to share them on the Internet, on places like YouTube. The more the kids and parents shared, the more others around the world be able to join in on the experience. After that policy establishment, cameras and camera-enabled mobile phones started going off everywhere.

That policy is smart. For one, it says that The Wiggles genuinely want to please their fans — to let them do what they want to do. Second, that policy encourages fans to further immerse themselves in the experience and become more loyal. Third, encouraging concert attendees to capture and share their experience with the world automatically turns their million of fans into an even more powerful, mega marketing machine. The more people who join in on the experience, the more enjoyable the whole act becomes.

The immediate result for us? My son walked out and soon purchased more Wiggles albums, and insisted I commit to taking the family to see them again in concert. This is all a self-fulfilling prophecy. Despite mesmerizing songs and performances, this policy helps explain why The Wiggles made an estimated $45 million dollars in 2007.

Without a doubt, The Wiggles can teach most dull marketers a thing or two on how to be successful: be authentic, let go and engage your fans. And don’t insult those fans with policies that forbid them from sharing the experience.

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.