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!

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

• Heading home after 3 successful days in Dallas. Looking forward to afternoon meetings and then, it's LA for a week! #eventprofs #

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• Changing the Equation for Organizers and Attendees – http://j.mp/cqhdWk <-> #mpi #iaee #cemaonline #eventprofs #tradeshow #
• Good Read RT @emiliebarta: Many thanks to @D_Elms for . . . writing an article about me (why pro speaker?) http://bit.ly/9FbUjz #eventprofs #

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• The Startup Success podcast w/ CEO David Schenberg – @BeLinker new features, enhancements and 'client wins': http://j.mp/cE6eHa #eventprofs #
• Changing the Equation for Organizers and Attendees – http://j.mp/cqhdWk <-> #mpi #iaee #cemaonline #eventprofs #tradeshow #

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This week, Bob and Pat of the Startup Success Podcast interview friend of the show David Schenberg, CEO and co-founder of BusyEvent about new events technologies that change the equation both for organizers and attendees.

David shares his insights on why being first matters, not being afraid of creating a hardware-based barrier to entry for potential competitors and choosing a business that can scale.

We’d also like to thank Microsoft WebsiteSpark for being our first official show sponsor!  Microsoft WebsiteSpark and StartupToDo.com have free Microsoft software for designers and a six month scholarship to StartupToDo.com you may be interested in.

Download Show #68 or if you prefer, Subscribe to the podcast in Apple iTunes.

Bob Walsh is on Twitter at http://twitter.com/bobwalsh or you can email him at bob.walsh@47hats.com.

Patrick Foley is on Twitter at http://twitter.com/patrickfoley or you can email him at patrick.foley@microsoft.com

URLs mentioned/relevant to this show:

• The BusyEvent BeLinker System
• Demo competition for CEMA (Corporate Event Marketing Assn.) where BusyEvent won the Technology shootout against other event technologies.
• Microsoft Tag
• The BusyEvent Blog
• Get your share of the $55,000 BusyEvent Stimulus Package

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!

The Old Way is Broken.  We’ll Pay You to Fix It!

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!

Get your share of BusyEvent’s $55,000 Giveaway and
Calculate Your Event’s ROI:

http://j.mp/beROI

• I liked a YouTube video — Events Asia 2010 – Flying Lanterns – 1 http://youtu.be/UAfu99jcO9c?a #

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