Introduction

While some have been quoted as “taking their talents to South Beach,” we’re simply casting a wider net.  We’re heading over to our new blog, which is titled “Casting Calls.”  You’ll still get to read about our thoughts on virtual events, hybrid events and virtual business.  It’s just that you’ll need to update your bookmarks and RSS feeds.  Sorry for the inconvenience!

A Taste of What Calls

We’ve already got a bunch of blog postings over at our new location.  Here’s a taste of what’s available there:

How Hybrid Events Are Like Reality Television

5 Ways to Measure Virtual Event Success

How to Integrate Social Media Channels for Your Event

6 Tips for Selling Virtual Event Sponsorships

See you at our new home – come on by and visit, no need to bring housewarming gifts!

Introduction

I participated in a Focus Roundtable discussion on the next generation of virtual events and digital communities.  Before the session, I joked on Twitter that the panel had so much insight to share, that if I put them on my roof, their knowledge would power my house. And let me tell you, the panel was electrifying.

Panelists

1. Moderator: Shannon Ryan, Focus (@brandrelevance)
2. Michael Doyle, Virtual Edge Institute (@virtualedge)
3. Paul Salinger, Oracle (@psalinger)
4. Dennis Shiao, INXPO (@INXPO)
5. Dannette Veale, Cisco (@dveale)

2011 Trends – Digital Events & Communities

The panelists highlighted three key trends:

1. Growth and interest in hybrid events
2. Creation of communities around events
3. Integration of social networks into events, whether they’re physical, digital or hybrid

Dannette highlighted ways in which Cisco Live and Networkers Virtual leveraged content throughout the year (e.g. Ask The Expert sessions) to drive community interest.  I highlighted the importance of dedicated “community managers” to foster and grow communities, while Michael warned that while communities are great, it can be challenging for corporations to build and scale.

Paul introduced his notion of sequencing (e.g. when the event concludes, what do we want attendees to do next?) and noted that event strategy should be around “total engagement” from “interaction to interaction”, across all channels (e.g. face-to-face, digital, hybrid, etc.).

How to Make Your Event’s Content Relevant

The Twitter audience did a great job capturing some of the key points:

Cece (@csalomonlee) quoted Dannette, “Don’t forget the basic items for your #virtual event – don’t boil the ocean..KISS (keep it simple stupid)” #FocusRT”

Lauren (@LaurenonFocus) quoted Paul, “Relevant content depends on how you’re engaging a remote attendee vs. a live attendee”

Dave (@VelChain) agreed with Dannette, “@dveale Like the recommendation of tagging virtual content to improve relevance. #focusrt”

Conclusion

While we were able to address one or two more questions, my conclusion (as the roundtable drew near) was that the time flew by – and that we could have easily talked for another 3 hours without looking at the clock.  It was great to be part of the roundtable and to see the activity on Twitter as the discussion unfolded. We’ll head over to FOCUS (topic: Focus Marketing RT) to answer questions that we didn’t have time to address.

This post was authored by Emma King, our VP of Learning & Development.

Introduction

I had the pleasure of joining thousands of learners at Cisco’s 2nd Annual Virtual Forum for Education Leaders, held on the INXPO platform.  The event delivered on its promise to speak about bridging gaps in education and leveraged virtual technology to deliver a global message to participants from over 100 countries.

Great Agenda

A compelling agenda empowered 16 thought leaders to collaborate to deliver a resounding message to school systems worldwide, that it’s time to use technology to connect with students, and that the technology is ready to enable collaboration, resources and metrics to monitor our students effectively. Case Studies were presented on how to use video to deliver theory, how moderated chat rooms can continue the conversation and how live webcasts & forums can draw from the knowledge of the audience to empower the students to be responsible for their own learning.

The Future of Classroom Learning

Unfortunately, today’s classroom structure delivers a stream of theory content to students without evaluating their  knowledge, tracking their skillset or empowering the student to pace their own education. Today’s event highlighted exactly how and why classrooms of the future can be shaped using virtual learning technologies to provide theory delivery, combined with forums for mentoring and further expert advice. The expert advice could be done utilizing virtual collaboration tools or by providing innovative study halls.

More Targeted Instruction

Salman Khan of Khan Academy spoke clearly to the benefits of using video to connect with students, with the ability to drive the opportunity for feedback in a formal/virtual classroom setting.  The key message here was that by tracking learning behaviors in the consumption of that learning, teachers can use metrics to pinpoint those students who are struggling and provide focused interventions to them, while not needing to reinforce the therory to those who clearly understand.

Our stereotypical “push form” of learning does not entice our students to learn, and brands schools with the label of “boring”, according to keynote speaker Gregory B. Whitby, Executive Director, Diocese of Parramatta.  Enabling students to consume the facts/theory online prior to a lesson enables the teachers to focus on those students who need intervention, and allow those who ‘get it’ to work at their own pace.,

Similar to that of my own daughter and her dexterity in the use of my iPad on international trips to England, John Chambers, Cisco’s CEO, highlighted  that his granddaughter can use an iPad with such ease that he knows that the device drives our learning, much as the content drives the device.

Conclusion

Virtual innovation has created a dynamic, hybrid space for learning and our schools ought to start using technology to connect with their students. We’ve published a White Paper on Virtual Learning.  Contact me if you’d like a copy.

About the Author

Emma, our VP of Learning & Development, is responsible for working with INXPO’s Clients & Partners to build learning centric virtual environments.

Introduction

My colleague Sean Keen recently wrote how virtual event platforms can allow content and brands to take center stage.  Sean’s piece focused on the attendee experience, otherwise known as the “front end”.  I’d like to take you inside the “back end” of our INXPO VX Platform and show you just how easy it is to create new virtual events, and load in your content and branding.  In less than an hour, you can create the foundation of your virtual event via these 6 easy steps.

1) Select Your Event Type.

We’ve packaged up common event types for you: virtual booth, executive briefing center, trade show, conference, product launch center and learning center.  For a virtual trade show, selecting “trade show” provides you with a pre-determined set of spaces and features.  Because we’ve hosted hundreds of virtual trade shows for clients, we have a pretty good sense of the most common spaces and features in a typical trade show.

If you’ve already produced events in the system, you have the option of “cloning” a previous event and customizing it from there. For instance, perhaps you produced a virtual trade show in 2010 and are looking to create the 2011 version – why not start from last year’s event as a foundation?

2) Choose Your Spaces.

We’ve provided you with a pre-determined set of spaces for your event type, but you’re not required to use all of them.  If you choose not to have a Prize Center in your trade show, you can delete it with a single click.

Similarly, if you “cloned” last year’s trade show and decided that this year’s show will have one less Lounge, you can simply delete the extra spaces with a few clicks of the mouse.  If there are new spaces you’d like to enable, you can add spaces just as easily as you deleted the others.

3) Pick Features You Need.

Determine what features you’d like to make available in your event.  For instance, perhaps you want to enable Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn via the INXPO Social Suite.  Enable each service by clicking a check box, add your Twitter ID and hash tag, and away you go.  Enabling and disabling features is as easy as adding and removing spaces.

4) Design Your Own Reporting.

We provide you with a comprehensive set of reports for your event.  You can build your own “data portal” by reviewing the data and metrics important to you and enabling them into your reporting dashboard.  To save on real estate, you only enable the data and reports you want to see.

5) Load Your Content.

You’ll find yourself spending the most time on this step.  “Event content” encompasses quite a lot – it’s everything from branding and signage, to session abstracts, to speaker bios, to exhibitor listings, to event notifications, to email reminder text.  And more!  Take the time to do this step well – I believe your event depends on it.

6) Open Your Event.

You don’t want to open your event to the public until it’s been reviewed, checked and tested, of course, but with INXPO VX Platform, it’s never been easier to review the progress of your event, as it’s being built.  After each step, you can generate a real-time preview, to see the result of the change you just applied.  In addition, your colleagues can be invited in to review the event as well.  You can provide them with “read-write” or “read-only” access, depending on whether you’d like them to make changes as well (or not!).

Conclusion

Building virtual event has never been easier.  View our video to see the 6 Easy Steps in action.

Introduction

We recently announced the launch of the new INXPO VX Platform. With VX, we made a deliberate and decisive shift in the visual language used for virtual events.  These changes are a result of listening to the market.  The industry has evolved rapidly and so has our clients’ approaches towards building virtual events.

A Brief History of Virtual Events

Traditional virtual environments are designed to evoke the look of physical events.  Areas such as “show floors,” “booths” and “auditoriums” are rendered as “3D-like” representations of their real-world counterparts.  Events created within our VX platform take a more streamlined approach.  While an individual “space” may still include a graphical treatment inspired by its physical event analog, navigational elements and content now take center stage.

In my mind, these two different approaches perfectly encapsulate the past and the future of the virtual events industry.

The physical event metaphors became the standard during the genesis of our industry.  Back in the early days, our greatest challenge was not only communicating the value of virtual events, but explaining the new concept of virtual events to an audience that was accustomed to static, flat websites.

Three-dimensional show floors and booths made the new concept of virtual events more comprehensible to users by leveraging their familiarity with physical events.  In addition, early adopters of virtual event technology often struggled to determine what content would create an engaging user experience.

As a result, many sponsors would repurpose static documents and pages from their websites, rather than making use of rich media.  Graphical flourishes often served as a means to create a visually appealing experience in the absence of consistently compelling content.

Where the Industry is Headed

The climate of virtual events software has changed dramatically, and the new visual language used by our VX platform was created in response to these changes.

Virtual events are quickly gaining mainstream acceptance. With hybrid events, physical and virtual are no longer seen as mutually exclusive. Many physical event producers view virtual “extensions” as a means to expand their reach and keep their audience engaged long after a physical event has ended.

Most importantly, we are witnessing a shift in the attitudes toward content in virtual events.  Event hosts are no longer satisfied with using virtual events as a platform to house static content, and are embracing the use of live video, interactive forums and user-generated content.  This content-centric approach to programming enables organizations to better connect with their audience and maintain their interest for a far greater period of time.

Virtual event producers are beginning to realize the value of streaming live content from their physical events into their virtual environments.  Audiences find these unrepeatable moments to be the most compelling type of content.  Creating a real-time conversation between the physical and virtual audience helps the virtual audience feel that they are active participants in an event, rather than viewers of a small subset of event content.

Content and Brands Take Center Stage

VX environments are designed to showcase this kind of rich multimedia content.  Graphical flourishes such as booths and show floors no longer take center stage.  Navigation has been simplified and made more intuitive, empowering users to access content more easily, without training or support documents.  In early virtual events, attendees would spend a great deal of time navigating and exploring the environment.  VX environments place a greater emphasis on the consumption of content and social interaction.

The new visual language employed by VX is better suited to reinforce a brand’s identity.  In the traditional model for virtual events, environment configuration began by selecting graphical booths from a pre-defined library. These assets, while visually appealing, did not always lend themselves for use within branding guidelines.  VX “spaces” were designed with “brand maximization” in mind, with a cleaner, more neutral appearance that does not compete for attention with branding elements.

Our central goal in developing the VX platform was to streamline the event creation process and facilitate the rapid deployment of events.  In the past, event producers would spend a great deal of time designing booths and show floors.  The VX platform allows producers to launch events faster, freeing producers to focus on the key element of any event: its content!

Conclusion: Evolution to a Revolution

I don’t mean to suggest that the booth/show floor analogies are completely outmoded, or that they are no longer supported by our virtual event platform.  In fact, we will continue to fully support this model, along with the ability to create custom environments.  The VX platform provides tools for quickly and efficiently creating events that use this new visual language, but the underlying technology is the proven INXPO platform, which provides unparalleled scalability, versatility and extensibility.

The new visual language employed by VX not only represents an evolution in our platform, but a revolution in our industry, where engaging rich media content and social interaction will serve as the focal points of engaging experiences.

About the Author

Sean Patrick Keen is a Webcasting Product Manager at INXPO. He is responsible for working with the Development and Creative teams on new product developments, and for introducing clients to new features.  Sean has extensive experiencing in webcasting and has produced over 100 webcasts.  Prior to INXPO, Sean spent several years working with new media companies and creative agencies, specializing in project management and web design.

Introduction

Recently, I attended the 2011 EventCamp National Conference in Chicago. The event brought together a small group of event marketing/planning professionals who are interested in learning ways to integrate technology and new media into their meetings, conferences and special events. In addition to the physical attendees, a large group of people attended a virtual platform that we hosted, participating in live Twitter Chat and watching real-time feeds of the on-site presentations.

Session: “Hybrid Events: Choose Your Own Adventure”

During Erica St. Angel’s (@EricaStAngel) session, “Hybrid Events: Choose Your Own Adventure”, Liz King (@lizkingevents) tweeted, “Interesting – when doing a hybrid event, how do you account for people who are low tech?” She then added to that, “what do you do for no-tech participants?”

Those of us immersed in social media, virtual events and webcasting are often lulled into a belief that “everybody’s doing it”, but that’s simply not the case. In recent Pew Institute surveys, it was shown that that of Americans online, only 8% use Twitter, although 73% of adults over 18 have Facebook accounts; in 2009, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration reported that 36% of Americans did not have home based internet access. That leaves a significant portion of the population not hearing our tweets, seeing our status updates, getting our emails or visiting our websites. So what do we do?

As the early adopters, leaders and champions of virtual events, webcasts and business, it is our responsibility to educate, in order to create excitement and buzz around what virtual has to offer.

Here are five tips for turning “no-tech” into “tech-please”:

1. Build Trust – It is critical that the client knows you have their best interests in mind at every point. Remember, for them, everything is riding on this event and they need you to not only teach them the value of the technology but provide security that it’s not going to damage their credibility.
2. Educate, Don’t Sell – You’ll need to teach your client not only what the technology is, but what it can do and why it matters to them. The key is to make it personable and relate it to their business needs. Provide examples, testimonials and referrals to people who’ve had successes with virtual events/webcasts.
3. Start Small – Invite your client to be an attendee of a virtual event/webcast first. Have them attend with you on the phone or by your side, so they can ask questions without feeling frustrated or lost. Then ease them in with only a small portion of their event being online, such as one or two webcasts, rather than a full hybrid event.
4. Don’t Use Technology for Technology’s Sake – The key, especially in the early stages, is to keep things simple, focused and easy to navigate as this will help your client champion the experience when discussing with their colleagues, clients and friends.
5. Continue the Conversation – Once the event is over, don’t pack up and move on. Your client is going to need help harvesting the online data, understanding the information and putting it to use. Understanding the feedback will help them see the value in virtual.

Conclusion

The goal is to make believers out of those who haven’t adopted the technology yet. They aren’t just going to take you at your word. It’s going to take hard work, a lot of teaching and, more importantly, patience and time. Even the most staunch technology avoiders will relent if you put in the effort, follow the guidelines and are able to create relevant, measurable success.

If you’d like to view the on-demand  archives from Event Camp National Conference, we invite you to register for our virtual environment, vBIZ:

http://bit.ly/ecncvirtual

About the Author

Jenn Gibson has been with INXPO for over five years, which has allowed her to be an active participant in growing awareness around virtual events, webcasting and shifts in technology. She has held many positions within INXPO, including Associate Producer, Event Director and Webcasting Department Manager; currently, she is a Sales Engineer, where her primary duties are working with new clients to understand their goals and match them with the appropriate solution for their event. Her primary focus over the course of her career has been in webcasting, working with the leading providers in the industry as well as assisting in the development and enhancement of INXPO’s webcasting product, XPOCAST. Follow her on Twitter @JennLGibson.

Introduction

Good news for virtual event exhibitors:

There are a lot of virtual events you can sponsor.

Bad news for virtual event exhibitors:

There are a lot of virtual events you can sponsor.

How do you select which virtual events to sponsor? On Eloqua’s “It’s All About Revenue” blog, Jesse Noyes provides many of the answers in a great piece titled “5 Tips For Sponsoring Virtual Events“.

Selecting Virtual Events to Sponsor

The 5 tips from Noyes are:

1. Examine the Main Sponsor’s Credibility
2. Mind the Gap Between Theme and Your Business
3. Mix It Up
4. Stagger Your Timeline
5. Track, Track, Track

These are all great tips – and the one that resonates most with me is tip #2 (“Mind the Gap”). Noyes sums it up perfectly when he writes, “If there’s not a relatively direct route from the theme of the conference to the product or service you provide, it will prove harder to convert the leads you collect.”

I’ve seen a number of virtual event exhibitors sponsor “the topic”, rather than sponsoring the “the topic that directly matches the products and services we provide”.  To Noyes’ points, I believe exhibitors need to ask themselves these key questions:

1. What business problems (or challenges) are attendees looking to solve?
2. What do attendees need in order to solve the problem?
3. Do my company’s products and services “fit” within the answers for #1 and #2?

Best Practices for your Virtual Exhibit

Noyes provides a sidebar on virtual exhibit best practices that is as valuable as the main article. He lists the following:

1. Be On Point
2. Don’t Be Stingy
3. Be Noticeable
4. Buy Stamps
5. Take A Walk
6. Follow Up Fast

“Buy Stamps” is something virtual event exhibitors will need to practice more intelligently. If prospects are already “hot leads” in your CRM system and your booth staff are not aware of this, then that’s not a good thing.  Just like customer service reps who pull up your customer record when your call comes in, booth staffers need the right information (and context) before they engage with visitors and prospects.

Here’s a link to the full posting:

http://blog.eloqua.com/5-virtual-event-tips/

Related Content

We have a white paper called “Beyond the Booth: Best Practices in Planning and Executing Virtual Exhibitions and Sponsorships”. Give me a shout-out if you’re interested in receiving a copy.

Introduction

MEETINGS:review produced a video highlighting PCMA365, a year-round, virtual experience for the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) and its members.  The video is titled “PCMA365: Turning a three-day conference into a year-round experience“.

Highlights

1. 00:48 Susan Katz, PCMA chair, notes that the association needs to be on the forefront on what’s going on technologically
2. 01:20 Tony Lorenz, Senior VP, Freeman, explains the components of a hybrid event
3. 01:47 Steve Boyce, Global Enterprise Manager, INXPO, provides details around the creation of the virtual PCMA community
4. 02:23 Martin Copeland, Managing Director, Content Management Corporation, explains the many video feeds at PCMA and takes us behind the scenes into the video switching room
5. 03:18 Carrie Ferenac, President, Convention News Television, discusses the live broadcasts from PCMA, delivered over CNTV
6. 03:46 Steve Boyce notes how the INXPO VX Platform has made it as simple and easy as ever to create virtual events – and that every face-to-face meeting can have a virtual component
7. 05:00 An inside look at the PCMA365 virtual partner showcase
8. 07:30 Kati Quigley, Director, Event Marketing, Microsoft and former PCMA chair, discusses the extended engagement that PCMA365 provides for its members

View the Video

View the video here: http://meetingsreview.com/news/view/52954

The following is a guest post by Gary Vlk, Executive Vice President at One Smooth Stone.

Introduction

You’ve heard the buzz, done your research and surveyed your attendees. Now you’re ready to incorporate virtual technology into your overall business strategy.

Before jumping into event development and tactics, you must first lay the groundwork by developing a comprehensive virtual event strategy. Asking the right strategic questions up front will not only help ensure your virtual event is a success, it will also build your brand and your department’s brand within your organization. This is an opportunity for your events department to drive the strategy process before human resources, marketing, training or another internal department redirects.

Analyze the Overall Event Function and Goals

The process for developing a virtual event strategy is similar to that of a live event, and in both cases it is critical to begin with your overarching goals and objectives. What are you trying to accomplish, and what benchmarks will you return to throughout the planning process? Whether you are seeking to reinforce a critical message to your audience, save costs, reach new audiences or launch a product, the basic question is the same: Why are you doing this?

For many organizations, event objectives are related to revenue and sales results. According to the Event Marketing Institute’s latest research, 80 percent of marketing executives surveyed say their top business priority is generating new revenue, and more than one-third gave top billing to generating new leads. Increasing event attendance, awareness and reducing costs are also priorities for more than 50 percent of those surveyed. Statistics like these are telling, and may reflect some of your company’s top priorities, as well.

How do these rank among your list of priorities? Identify the goals that are unique to your organization by asking your leadership and executive sponsors important questions.

• What challenge or problem is your organization trying to solve by gathering people together virtually?
• What forces, external or internal, are pushing your organization toward a virtual experience?
• What challenges are facing your target audience, and how could virtual event technology address them?
• What are the key messages to be communicated? What is going on in your business that will drive the message and goals of your virtual event?

Remember to keep a broad perspective, addressing the immediate goals of your standalone event experience and the objectives of your long-term virtual event strategy. Your first virtual event experience, done well, will lay the foundation for future virtual experiences. How are you preparing and training your audience to interact with your organization through this new medium? How will this training progress from event to event?

This stage of the process will probably take the most time, and it should not be glossed over. The goals and objectives you identify now should be revisited throughout the planning process.

Select a Platform

Virtual event technology is broad and flexible, with new applications and methods of integration popping up continually. How will your organization leverage the technology to its greatest benefit?

In this step, determine the event application. Will your event be fully virtual or a hybrid live-virtual experience? Are you creating a standalone event or an ongoing virtual community where your audience regularly returns? Are you designing a virtual trade show booth or training/educational experience?

If virtual technology is new to your audience, the first virtual experience may be simply helping attendees get their virtual feet wet. Which aspects of the virtual space will you utilize your first time around and how will this grow or expand over time? How will sponsors be incorporated, if at all? As with every step, make sure your decisions are tied back to the business problem you are trying to solve.

Build a Strong Team

Attempting to plan and execute your first virtual event without strong partnerships increases your risks. To alleviate this concern, put together an internal team of cross-departmental leaders who have bought into the virtual event concept and who will keep the overarching vision and goals in mind. This group should consist of IT, training, HR and marketing players—as well as your leadership team—and should help determine goals, set up infrastructure, craft content and get the word out.

Your team should also include the right external partners. Search for a technology platform that comes highly recommended and has a proven track record, one that can withstand the demands placed on it by your events. Find an event communications firm to consult on the strategy, marketing and content development. The right firm will lead the process and coach you through the experience of smart execution.

As you are assigning roles and building your team, do not neglect the importance of managing your brand within the virtual space. Which team member will be responsible for monitoring and appropriately handling what is being said about your organization and virtual event online? Who will address questions and concerns with virtual attendees as they arise? Just as you staff your registration desk at a live event, be sure to find the right individuals to take care of your virtual audience’s needs.

Develop a Communications Strategy

Getting the word out about your new virtual event platform and offerings will be especially crucial when your attendees are experiencing the technology for the first time. How will you spread the word, build the buzz and incentivize virtual newbies to participate in the virtual experience? Analyze your audience before developing your marketing tactics and messages. How do they most often consume messages? Where are they interacting and how can you join the conversation? What motivates them? What will hinder them from participating, and how can you overcome those barriers?

The content of your communications strategy should market the overall event, as well as educate and inform your audience on how to use the technology. There will be a learning curve within the virtual world, and staying ahead of the curve will help ensure success. Incorporate all of these pieces into a detailed communications strategy, and determine the medium and message of each piece.

Craft the Experience

Now that you have pulled together many of the building blocks for your first virtual event and strategy, you are ready to address the nuances of the attendee experience.

• What do you want attendees to experience at each stage?
• How should the experience differ among attendee groups, such as customers, sponsors and/or employees?
• Should certain attendees be offered exclusivity and special access to content or features?
• How will the event architecture be structured?
• How should elements such as fun, gaming, education, networking, white space, trade show access and incentives be prioritized and incorporated?

Depending on the platform you’ve chosen and its suite of features, the options available to you may differ. Educate yourself on what is available, what has been done and what can be tweaked for your audience in order to most appropriately achieve your business goals and objectives.

Measure Your Success

Virtual event technology offers an incredible amount of measurement and data capability. Because attendees enter a virtual environment with a unique username and profile, all their activities can be tracked and monitored. This is music to the ears of event planners who have been searching for the elusive secret to determining event ROI. For sponsors, every booth visit, sales conversation and promotional material viewed can be tracked, offering valuable data for post-event sales follow-ups. For your organization, virtual event data can help you better determine educational content and event structure the next time around, based on the popularity of certain features.

The strategy phase is the time to hone in on the statistics most important for you to track during your virtual event. What benchmarks should be set to enable you to compare ongoing virtual experiences to each other? When your first virtual experience concludes, what will success look like and how can it be measured? What measurement tools should be put in place, if any, to supplement what is already integrated into the virtual platform? The right data from your first virtual experience can be a useful tool in your marketing tool belt, providing content to promote future virtual events to your C-level executives, internal departments, attendees and sponsors.

Don’t Skip the Strategy!

Many meeting and event professionals are action-oriented, type-A personalities who like to check things off our to-do lists. Spending the right amount of time building a strategy can be challenging when all you want to do is jump in and begin the planning process. But do not skip or rush this—developing a robust and comprehensive virtual event strategy will lay the foundation for your first successful virtual event experience. It will provide the framework for many virtual experiences to come and the next time around, it will be that much easier. Taking the right steps now will determine the future success of your virtual events and drive critical growth and revenue generation for your organization. This is a unique opportunity to build your strategic brand and pave the way for future success. It’s time to take the lead!

Introduction

Super Bowl 45 will be played this Sunday in Dallas, Texas.  As we prepare to watch the big game, I want to consider ways in which your virtual events can be more like Super Sunday.

Halftime as a Scheduled Break

Virtual events commonly have a jam-packed session schedule, with virtually no room to catch your breath.  In a football game, there’s a scheduled halftime, which allows coaches to re-group with their teams – and, allows spectators (both on-site and “virtual”) to grab a bite, or get up and stretch.  (Note: at halftime of the Big Game, turn up your television volume, so that you can hear the Black Eyed Peas perform while you venture into the kitchen.)

In a virtual event, a scheduled halftime can be beneficial.  First, it’s an explicit “half way mark”, which helps everyone understand where they are in the “event day”.  Next, like the coaching staff, it allows the event producers some time to take a breath and assess the “first half performance”.  Like a coach in the locker room, the production staff can hold a team meeting to figure out how to adjust their game in the second half.  Finally, it gives attendees a chance to line up their “second half” sessions, do some attendee networking or visit exhibitor booths.  Event producers could even sell a “halftime sponsorship” and direct attendees to a particular sponsor’s booth.

Building up to The Event

While fans of the two teams don’t like it, the NFL has a 2 week period between the Championship Games and The Big Game.  This gives both teams extra time to watch film and plan strategy.  And, it gives the media time to cover, promote and generally hype up the event.  The NFL even has a “media day”, during which coaches and players are made available for media interviews.

For a virtual event, make sure you plan for a similar “2 week period” in which producers, speakers and exhibitors have the time to prepare, learn the technology and get ready for game action.  Use that time to promote the event, both to generate registrations and to sustain a higher attendance rate.  Use media placements, live video interviews, Twitter, Facebook and other tools to engage the community and get them excited for your big show.

Make the Event Bigger than the Event

Super Sunday is no longer just a sporting event – it’s now a global cultural experience.  How can you make your virtual event bigger than “the event”?  Consider a 365 community that’s open year round, which is then “lit up” throughout the year for your scheduled, live events.

The NFL doesn’t simply have “The Super Bowl”.  There’s the pre-season, the regular season and the playoffs.  Then, you have NFL scouting combines, which lead up to the NFL Draft, a major event in its own right [for some].  Training camp then kicks off, covered by programs such as HBO’s “Hard Knocks”.  For some fans, the NFL Experience spans all 12 calendar months.

Give your “fans” reasons to come back to your environment throughout the year.  Complement your big “events” with half-day or even 1-hour live events.  Give your fans access to your executives, industry experts and each other.  If done well, your event, while important, is one step along a continuum of activity throughout the entire year.

Conclusion

Whether you’re interested in the game action or the commercials, enjoy the “experience” on Sunday. For us, we’re not fortunate enough to experience the on-site event, so we’ll enjoy the virtual experience, both on television and online.