Next Generation Event

Are Attendees and Individuals Redefining the "Virtual Event" As We Know It?

I've been preparing to moderate a panel on virtual technology for the Green Meeting Industry Council's annual conference at the end of this month, so I've been thinking a lot about virtual events. Watching a couple of conferences online over the last couple of weeks (MeetDifferent and Legal Tech NY) got me thinking about a very basic question: What is a virtual event?

At first glance, the answer is obvious. There are any number of virtual event providers we can look to. Companies like Unisfair and ON24 give us the platforms that house the events we've come to know as virtual events. They give us modern day chat rooms and online exhibit halls in an attempt to replicate the experience of a live conference or tradeshow.

But as more and more individuals begin building their own online communities through blogs, Twitter, and other tools, we're also seeing the creation of informal virtual events. Attendees are tweeting, blogging, and engaging each other and non-attendees in a new way. They're meeting fellow attendees before the conference, spreading the word and talking amongst themselves during the conference, and continuing to share information long after the conference ends. Things they only had time to Twitter during the conference become blog posts. Those blog posts are shared and commented on and act as catalysts for new posts.

This raises challenges for organizers (from what I've seen, people are far more willing to tweet or blog discontent than to voice it in the conference room), but it also opens up a lot of opportunities.

And don't think it's not coming your way. I work in an industry known for its late adopters, but we have an ever-growing group of exceptionally savvy lawyers leading the charge. The recent Legal Tech conference I mentioned above was all over Twitter and has inspired countless blog posts and videos. It's not the norm yet, but I did meet up with a fellow Twitterer at a recent in-house family law conference we did (he sent out a tweet that he was at the conference so I tweeted back that he should stop by my office if he had a moment). It's coming.

What do you think? Are these informal, events-focused online communities that are cropping up around live events becoming "virtual events" in their own right?

Didn't Make It to MeetDifferent this Year? You Don't Have to Miss All the Fun.

There are still ways to keep real-time pace with the discussions they'll be having this year.

1. Tune in to the opening general session today at 10:00 am EST (information on Meet Different's website).
2. Follow it on Twitter. Several attendees are talking about it and you can easily track their comments because they mark them #meetdifferent (take a look at the screen shot below). If you're on Twitter, consider following people like @mcallen and @jkhewett who are really pumping out the updates.

If I come across other ways I'm tracking the event as it proceeds, I'll be sure to update you.

It's More Than Online Reputation Management (and Why "Podunk" Blogs Matter)

Meetings and Conventions Magazine has a great article this month on online reputation management for event planners. Most of the experts interviewed agreed that you should both be monitoring and responding to online conversations (whether glowing or scathing) about your event or organization.

By doing so, you get the obvious benefit of having your response right there in the conversation--this can be especially helpful in the case of criticism. But even more importantly, you get the opportunity to elicit more constructive feedback from attendees and potential attendees that you can use to make the event better. Not to mention that you also get a unique opportunity to build closer relationships with the very people you hope will come next year.

I think the term "online reputation management" falls far too short of the actual benefits you can reap from responding to and learning from the feedback that is out there. The term implies to me an almost obsessive need to control the message and bring it back to the corporate brand you penned in an office of executives during an all-day branding meeting.

Guess what? You can't control that message anymore--at least not in the traditional sense. Maybe you did once, back when information was a one-way street. (Remember those days? When public opinion was limited to a few opinion letters that were chosen by the editorial boards of newspapers and magazines?). Maybe you even had control for the eight hours you spent in your branding meeting. Now it's out there and you've lost it, but you've gained something far more powerful.

At least that's my "Podunk" opinion.

And that leads me to the other notable portion of this article. "Podunk" isn't my word. It came from the director of communications for the American Society for Microbiology who says her staff monitors for mentions of the organization's events online, but notes:

[G]enerally, if there's misinformation on a blog, we tend to ignore it... The New York Times is one thing. Somebody's blog in Podunk is another.

People, and especially directors of communication, who view blogs with this type of disdain seem to have their heads in the sand.

For one thing, your event is probably not going to be mentioned in the New York Times. Your group may be cited in the Times frequently as the leading group with expertise on your topic (and the American Society for Microbiology, the leading society on germs, definitely gets some well-deserved coverage), but you're unlikely to get New York Times exposure for your upcoming conference.

And even if you did, you're not reaching your specialized, target audience. I read the Times, but I won't be going to a microbiology conference just because the Times mentions it.

Who can reach that specialized audience? Trade publications, certainly. And blogs. Your members are reading niche blogs in their areas of focus. If you're not building relationships with those bloggers (and monitoring and responding to what is being said about your event and your organization), you are squandering great opportunity to promote your event and make it better.

Are you LinkedIn to the Industry Questions of the Day?

As you probably know, one of the largest professional online networks out there is LinkedIn (you can reach my profile by clicking the LinkedIn button under my photo to the left). As a social networking tool, it is often criticized because it doesn't allow as much interaction as other sites, but you can't beat it for its professionalism, and the interaction it does offer, most prominently in its Q&A section, is actually pretty great if you use it right.

LinkedIn members can post questions and assign them to a particular topic. Other LinkedIn members answer. Easy enough.

This is relevant to event professionals everywhere because they have a full section devoted to events and broken down into "Conference Planning," "Conference Venues," and "Event Marketing and Promotions." Even if you never ask a question, you can learn a lot from the questions asked by others.

For example, take a look at this question on using social networking and viral marketing for events. Or this one on the future of live conferences and workshops.

Don't want to have to go to LinkedIn everyday to check for new questions? Me neither--that's why I subscribe to the feed using my RSS reader.

Sniffing Out the Wrong Kind of Social Media Consultants

Image by mahalie

In a recent post, I suggested hiring a social media expert for your next event or project. Over the last week (I've been on vacation), I've been thinking about some things you should look out for if you do, but as it turns out, Mashable had a great post yesterday talking about just that. Take a look.

I would add to the suggestions in the post that you should take a look at the social media presence for both the company and the individual working on your project. If you can't find them anywhere (un-Googleable social media consultants--really?), or if you don't like what they're doing, I suggest you talk with them about it. Be ready to leave if you don't like what you hear.

It's easy to throw some social media ideas out there to see what sticks, but it's easier still to damage your reputation in the process. Make sure you work with someone who is looking around the next corner before you even know it's there.

Still Don't Get the Difference Between Social Media and Traditional Marketing?

When I talk with people about using social media for marketing, I have compared traditional marketing to the loud and obnoxious guy at a party who just wants to talk about himself and all the great things he has accomplished (you may recall I have also used this analogy for companies that use Twitter but don't follow other Twitterers--this is consistent as those companies are trying to force traditional marketing methods on social media). 

Social media is more like Keith Ferrazzi might be at a party. He takes time to get to know people and learns what really makes them tick. He listens to their goals and dreams--and then offers to help them achieve them.

This video, which I saw via The Altimeter by Charlene Li this morning, uses another great analogy: the break-up. Take a look. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you might even understand social media and its benefits just a little bit better.

Managing Your Reputation Elsewhere on the Internet

After reading my last post, did you want more information on how to manage your online reputation? As luck would have it, personal branding guru Dan Schwabel did a guest post for Keith Ferrazzi on five free tools to track your online rep this morning.

Easy Ways to Track Your Event's Digital Brand on Twitter

Yesterday, I twittered the following (which is, by the way, continuing to be a true statement):

Within the hour, I received a notice that SixApart, the maker of Typepad, is now following me on Twitter. Somehow, I don't think this was a coincidence.

More and more companies (and people) are tracking their Twitter reputations. If issues are going to come up, you may as well be on the front line to address them. If people hate (or love) your event, don't you want to know the specifics as soon as their online contacts do?

And don't worry--tracking what's being said is the easy part.

I've always tracked keywords (variations of my name, this site, CLE, event marketing, etc.) using RSS feeds based on searches I've run on Twitter's search engine (formerly Summize). These are easy to do. Simply go the search page, enter your terms, and copy the "feed for the query" into your reader.

But if you don't have a reader, or if you prefer to review the results in a different format, you have another option. TweetGrid allows you to view up to nine queries on one screen. Simply select the number of queries you want, enter your queries, and save the url so you can come back to it anytime. Here's an example of a three-cell TweetGrid.

So--what are people saying about you?

Live Twittering During Your Presentation

Paul Gillan, blogging at Pistachio (a great resource for microsharing applications like Twitter), recently talked about the pros and cons of the instant feedback that Twitter can give presenters during their presentations. (I've talked about this before, here.)

He cites the main positive as the ability to quickly tailor your presentation to the sophistication and preferences of the audience, but cautions that the major drawback is the possibility of caving to the demands of only the most vocal in your audience.

I think we have to deal with this problem even with our old-fashioned, paper evaluations. There are people who fill out evaluations and people who don't (and people who simply go through the motions of checking "good" for all presentations). When reviewing evaluations, we always keep in mind that we're only getting one piece of the picture. Of course, we have a little more time to review those evaluations with a discerning eye when they're not popping up on a screen behind us as we speak.

What do you think? Have any of you attempted to run an event or give a presentation with Twitter humming along in the background? To use it effectively, are you actually using a "Twitter moderator" who reviews (and responds to) the real-time tweets? What issues have you run into?

5 Things to Consider Before Using Social Networking for Your Event

Events are about people. Social networking using social media is about people. Just think about what could happen when you effectively bring the two together.

ASAE did it. And you can, too, but there are some basic things to consider before getting started.

1. When using established networks, don't focus only on the big ones.

There are a lot of seminars out there teaching social networking, but I notice that a lot of them preach the benefits of Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, and other mega-networking sites and ignore the small, niche networks.

If the organization or industry you're planning for already has a strong presence on one of these sites, it could work great. If not, you'll want to seek out niche networks. Niche networks are all over the place. You probably even belong to one yourself (we have a great event management group), whether you know it or not. These sites are extremely valuable because they allow you to interact with and learn from your market.

A word of warning: don't use a network just to promote your event. Networks are quick to ignore people who are using them for marketing only. If you are interested only in the marketing power of the network, don't pose as a community member--instead, contact the site administrator to ask about sponsorship.

2. Effective social networking goes far beyond networking sites.

Social networking sites are just one piece of the puzzle. Effective social networking depends on a wide-ranging portfolio of online activity. Your blog, Twitter, Flickr, Seesmic, and more may play roles depending on the nature of your event.

3. Don't talk at people.

When marketing and promoting, it is tempting to do all the talking. That is how it was done for years. Social networking is different. The goal is to build relationships with people and let them do most of the talking for you.

4. Remember that social networking can do more than help you promote your event--it can also create a better attendee experience.

As travel costs soar, it is taking more and more to convince potential attendees that your event is the one they should blow their budget on. Social networking can be used to make your event more worthwhile in two main ways. First, the more you learn from your market, the easier it is to tailor an event to them. Second, offering social networking opportunities specially tailored to attendees (as ASAE did) allows attendees to make--and keep--more connections with other attendees.

5. Consider hiring an expert.

Maintaining a presence in social media is a lot of work if you want to do it right and preserve the integrity of your brand. This is why more and more organizations are hiring employees or consultants to handle it. Be honest with yourself about your ability to do this right--it is too important to wing it.