The BusyEvent Blog

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!