E-venting.net

At the Intersection of Social Media and Events is... a Widget

I'm more than just a geek. I'm actually two geeks - an Events geek and a Social Media geek. So when Freewebs asked me to produce a conference for them on Widget Marketing, I happily accepted, and WidgetCon was born.

You've seen widgets - they're those little mini-applications that are all over the social media web: slide shows, games, music playlists, YouTube players, etc. All these are widgets. You probably have some on your own blog.

WidgetCon is about how advertisers can use widgets as a new type of media. Which is interesting and all, and I'm doing the programming for it. But what's more interesting (at least to this audience I trow) is the widget we created for the conference:

Introducing the world's first Conference Registration Widget:

Here's what it does:

• WidgetCon is by invitation only. If you’re invited, the WidgetCon widget will confirm your RSVP based on your email address. It's linked to a database on the backend with invitees' info, so it recognizes you.
• But that’s not all – you can also use the widget to custom design your conference badge for WidgetCon. You can even upload a picture which will display on the website (but not on the actual badge - we opted to keep it only online because of resolution quality concerns)
  
• “Attendees” on the widget displays a slide show of all the RSVP’ed attendees and their custom badges. It's a list of who you'll be able to network with, and a photo album of badges combined.
• And if you have colleagues who are not yet invited, they can request an invitation using the widget. Their info and badge design go into the database until their request is reviewed. Clicking a box on the database backend accepts their invite and adds their badge to the "Attendees" slide show.
• It also pushes out updated content. We chose to include tabs with the Agenda and Speaker list, but could easily have included one with a RSS feed to the show blog, so all updates were pushed in real-time to the widget. And yes, if we elect to stream live video from the conference, we can do that through the widget as well.
• Finally, like all widgets, you can easily post it to any blog, profile page or website.

We put the WidgetCon Widget into a WidgetCon website, but it's also distributed all over the web. And that's its magic, really - distributed content. Wherever it shows up online - on this blog, on speakers' blogs, on ad agencies' corporate intranets, whatever - the entire conference has a presence there, not just an ad banner and a link. It tells a pretty complete picture of what the event looks like, invites interactivity, and encourages participation. And because the event is on Widget Marketing, it's naturally an ideal proof-of-concept of the show topic.

But it's also something I can see show producers getting behind no matter what their focus is.

So try it - monkey around with it, turn it over in your head, even put it on your own sites if you want by simply clicking on the "Get This!" button. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Extended by Popular Demand - Free Consultation Day

Actually, it's more of a current-client commitment. But Free Consultation Day is now tomorrow, March 31. I still have a few spots if anyone else wants to pick my brain on:

• Event Strategy
• Event Marketing
• Speaker Proposals
• Launching a New Event
• Agenda Format and Composition
• Pricing
• Programming Strategy
• ...or anything else I've written about here

E-mail me to coordinate.

March 30 is Free Consultation Day

My calendar on Thursday March 30 is wide open. I'm wrapping up a massive show on March 28th and have some ongoing projects afterwards, but my bandwidth is about to increase by a lot. So I'm designating Thursday March 30th as Free Consultation Day.

You may have a few questions about Free Consultation Day:

You: What is it?
Me: Anybody who wants to schedule half an hour with me can do so, and ask me anything you want - about an event or road show you might be planning, suggestions on which shows to sponsor or exhibit at, feedback on constructing a show P&L, speaker recommendations, programming strategy, tips on pitching a speaker, whatever.

Y: Why are you doing this?
M: I could use a new client or two over the summer and beyond. I figure having a candid conversation with anyone interested in interactive media, marketing and advertising events is a better way of demonstrating value to prospective clients than sending out pitch emails.

Y: How does it work?
M: Send me an email. We schedule a time to talk. We talk. I act like someone on your team, not a consultant trying to scare up business by half-answering questions, or working hard to identify challenges (that naturally I'm equipped to solve) rather than address whatever ones you bring to me. Maybe you'll think I know my stuff and hire me. Maybe if I give you everything I've got in 30 minutes, and not keep curtain #1 closed until you sign a retainer agreement, you'll start to think of me as a prospective partner, not just a hired gun. Is that possibility worth missing the last half of Oprah to me? You bet.

Y: Who the heck are you to do this?
M: I'm no oracle or guru or vigorous self-promoter. I just happen to have some knowledge, experience and perspective that some of you may find profitable. And I'd much rather work with someone who reads this blog and is already in my head a little bit, than pitch some company I've never heard of, who has never heard of me, and end up competing on price instead of value.

Y: Anything else?
M: Yes. Now would be a very good time to forward this to a friend or colleague who might not read this blog or know who I am, but might make an excellent client.

Y: How do I get started again?
M: Drop me a line. Operators are standing by.

UPDATE: Re-scheduled for Friday March 31.

Field Report: Ad:Tech Impact, Seattle

Without question, Ad:Tech is first and foremost a trade show. Secondly, it's a conference. The Ad:Tech Impact show in Seattle yesterday (the first of a 10-city sweep) was neither. It's more seminar than anything else, and its programming has more in common with IIR or IQPC events than what we commonly think of as Ad:Tech. I suspected as much when they were first announced, not without some skepticism about how they would go over, and integrate with the rest of what Ad:Tech does.

It's too early to rule on the integration, but the Seattle event was, by most measures, a success. And that's no small feat for the first occurrence in a road show of a brand new event. A moderately-sized audience of about 120 arrived roughly on time and stayed through most of the day; many of the show's 33 paid sponsors were either presenting on stage or showing their wares in the 'Solutions Expo' of tabletops in the back of the general session (underscoring the likelihood that the show was a financial success); and the speakers were well-prepared and largely professional (except for the guy from Responsys - he was patronizing).

The first thing you can say about the content at Impact is that it's tactical. Jim Sterne provided the opening keynote, and gave a history of web analytics and some direction for how to champion interactive issues within the organization through analytics and ROI. His speech was peppered with his characteristic folksy wit and warmth, and his audience alternated between scribbling notes and chuckling. While his speech wasn't as provocative as some interactive industry keynotes, it did open the day perfectly. His most memorable concept was about funnels (and not just because he categorized (and drew) them as 'martini glass,' 'margarita glass', 'wine glass' and 'shot glass'), and in truth the day's content was a sort of a funnel. Jim touched broadly a dozen different issues in analytics and marketing ROI, each of which was tuned later in the day in one of the other presentations.

Notice that I said 'presentations,' not 'sessions.' The entire event was comprised entirely of presentations. PowerPoint after PowerPoint - ranging from 15 to 60 minutes each. This was one of my two grumbles with the program. While the PowerPoint and the next PowerPoint and the following 6 PowerPoints certainly underscored the tactical nature of the event, it also robbed the program of some of its potential freshness. I'm a strong proponent of the presentation as a programming format, and I've done research with a client to support it. But as Oscar Wilde said, 'Moderation in all things, including moderation.' An unrehearsed panel discussion or two would go a long way towards adding some electricity into the room.

The second challenge I would make to the show's content strategy is about the speaker mix. One of the conferences I programmed last year was the Shop.org Annual Summit. The tracks at this event are also programmed to be tactical, and Shop.org achieves this by stocking each session with retailers presenting to their peers. Not one of the speakers at Impact was a marketer, or even from an agency. All were vendors. That's not to say that vendors don't know their stuff - in many cases they know it better than their clients. But vendors-only presentations don't allow much room for dialogue, or peer-to-peer networking. And while most of them did a good job reigning in the sales pitches, attendees nevertheless saw about a dozen different companies essentially talking about what their companies could do for the attendees, if hired.

And no small part of the content was sponsored. Of the 6 3/4 hours of content at the event, over 2 1/2 hours - almost 40% of the show - were solo presentations delivered by sponsors expressly because they were sponsors. While this is a good way to satisfy sponsors stage-time requirements, I think Ad:Tech will find it a challenging way to build a long-term franchise for these events.

But almost every attendee I spoke with about the event felt it was worthwhile. Based on my (admittedly small) sample, I got the impression that most of the attendees were either from companies too small to afford a travel budget for larger shows in San Francisco, Chicago or New York, or else they were more junior employees at larger corporations, who didn't personally have conference and training budgets yet. Several I spoke with had never been to an industry event before (despite being in Seattle - a fairly connected city). And that's precisely why Impact works - it reaches a largely unitiated audience, starved for content. Attendees reported how grateful they were that Ad:Tech came to their city in the first place, and were pre-disposed to get something out of the show. That's a far cry from trying to hold a show in New York, where the audience is jaded before the opening keynote even begins.

Part of Ad:Tech's strategy, however, is to use these events to feed into their bigger shows. If they're successful, they'll be left with a new challenge on their hands. They will have raised their audience's expectations of what Ad:Tech means, and will have to elevate the Impact content (and operations - the show was much rougher around the edges than the rest of Ad:Tech) to rival the bigger shows. Or else continue to rely on a fresh crop of attendees to introduce into the Ad:Tech fold every time Impact comes to town.

More Expansion: iMedia Breakthrough Summit

I learned yesterday that iMedia is launching a new event of their own - the iMedia Breakthrough Summit. This may be old news to some of you - I'm still getting the hand of this "scoop the media" thing.

You get a good sense of the show's focus just be seeing the names of the tracks: Mobile, Video, Games. The model is the same that iMedia Summits have always employed: invitation only, buy-side for free, sell-side subsidizes through sponsorship and hefty ($3000) attendance fees.

This show is different, however, in that its intended audience comes from both the client-side and the agencies. It could certainly create a new dynamic, though one that probably doesn't favor sellers. Agency folks will want clients' attention as much as the media sellers, which may render the sellers third wheels unless the folks at iMedia go to great lengths to round out conversations and networking opportunities.

While every event in interactive right now includes some discussion on the same topics in focus at this one, a show devoted exclusively to Mobile, Video and Games within the context of advertising is unique. (Digital Media Wire does summits on all three, but focus more on marketing than advertising.) But that's also the challenge to this model: many of the marketer and agency work within Mobile, Video and Games will NOT include a media buy. Clients are increasingly launching their own video, and their own games, supporting them through channels they already own. To satisfy media seller sponsors, iMedia may have to turn the conversation towards the measured media angle, even when it wants to naturally follow another course.

But the content IS hot, and iMedia is positioned well to launch this program. But another show crowds the already-jammed interactive events calendar. While each new show does ostensibly represent a new market opportunity, some near-term constriction is inevitable. Already the spring is getting dense - with this, Ad:Tech SF, Ad:Tech Impact, MediaPost's OMMA WEST, another VNU Digital Marketing Expo and at least one IAB Leadership Forum (not yet announced, although Direct Response has been in the early spring the last two years). Wait until the summer Road Shows spring up, the traditional organizations launch more e-shows, and client summits start to hit the grid. With so much supply against a finite demand, there's no chance my dream of charging for content will be realized anytime soon.

What the IAB is Uniquely Qualified For

Today in New York is the IAB Measurement Expo. This is a new event for the IAB. Originally scheduled to run was the "IAB Leadership Forum - Agency Summit," but that show fell off their Events Calendar almost immediately after the MIXX EXPO. Shortly afterwards, the Measurment Expo appeared in its place.

I am uniquely qualified to talk about what's wrong with the IAB's event strategy because I created it. Here's the problem: the IAB aims most of its events at agency and client advertisers (the 'buy-side'), lets them in for free, and then charges publishers to sponsor the events AND attend the events ON TOP of the dues they already pay to the IAB. The objective of course is to make a market, but the IAB is not uniquely qualified to make a market. Its challenge is largely in recruiting an audience of buy-side executives because these people are not its membership. In fact, there is no direct relationship between clients or agencies and the IAB. So identifying them, marketing to them, encouraging/cajoling/strongarming them into attending IAB events is a herculean undertaking. Its member companies expect the IAB to bring them together with advertisers, but that's a misplaced expectation. Yes, education should be part of the IAB's events charter, and part of that education will be aimed at the buy-side. But the tide has finally come in on interactive advertising, and the industry is nearing a point (may already be at the point) where the buy-side will and/or should be willing to pay for strong conference content aimed directly at them. Their jobs, promotions, 401K plans, human capital depend on it. The IAB's events strategy was appropriate in 2003 and 2004 when its ambition was to merely get the attention of advertisers. But now it has to evolve.

Which is exactly what it looks like is happening.

The Measurement Expo is the type of event the IAB is uniquely qualified to produce. It's not a marketplace where buyers and sellers come together to do a deal. Rather, it's a forum for industry-wide consensus-building on what is perhaps the most niggling issue still facing interactive advertising (at least, if you believe what Dave Smith will tell you everytime he has your ear). The IAB is the only organization that can spearhead measurement inititiatives, and Events have to be a strategic part of the education and vetting process. Replacing the Agency Summit with the Measurement Expo is precisely right. I think the industry needs more events like this, and that they should have stronger support than the 50ish people registered for it.

The IAB Annual Meeting and the IAB Ad Ops Summit are also the types of events the IAB is uniquely qualified to produce. They have unrivalled relatiohships with every major publisher in the industry, and the industry needs considerable sell-side education and professional development. So far, the IAB has focused largely on media sales when programming for their membership. But the challenges publishers now face far exceed sales tactics: Product Strategy, Content ownership and creation, Video Ad Models, Syndication Ad Models, Competitive Pressure from Micromedia - these issues have turned the industry on its masthead over the past 6 months alone. THESE are the issues that need addressing, the debates that need waging, the standards that need setting and the consensum that need building.

Not only should it be part of the IAB's charter - it's a huge market opportunity. Nobody owns the 'content for publishers' space yet, although every show is making forays into it. But it's the IAB's business to lose.

Ad-Tech 2: The Spawn of Ad-Tech

I saw yesterday that Ad:Tech is launching a new event series called Ad:Tech Impact, which they're billing as 'Key Metrics for Marketers.' The series will hit the following 10 cities in March and April:

Seattle              Miami
Los Angeles       Boston
Phoenix            Cincinnati
Denver             Toronto
Dallas              Atlanta

I think this kind of line extension makes sense for Ad:Tech (certainly more sense than a brand extension into, say, Ad:Tech Magazine) as a way to diversify revenues from the trade shows. But given the one-day format and focus on Data and Metrics, I think the series may fail in a cardinal tenet of show production: Run only events which you are uniquely qualifed to produce. Let me explain.

Ad:Tech is running right now in NY, where I am today. The Ad:Tech folks say 8300 people are "expected to attend", although I can assure you that's conference-speak for "are registered." The vast majority of them are very likely free exhibit hall registrations, where there will be massive attrition (north of 50% is common). So maybe 3000 people will make an appearance, or maybe 4000. At a show this large, the precise turnout isn't crucial. What is crucial is why people come. Ad:Tech's stock in trade is the exhibit hall. And the bigass parties. That's not meant as a slight to the speakers or the content - I know many of the speakers and invite them to speak at my own shows. But Ad:Tech is simply not renown for its content. It is uniquely qualified as a meeting place - a place for the industry to aggregate a few times a year and take stock of itself.

The Impact events are one-day events. A one-day event can't have much of an exhibit hall, if one at all. And with a one-day show, you want to keep the audience's attention in the general session for as long as possible, cutting into networking time. So these shows will have to lead with their content, which, as I've said, isn't something Ad:Tech does well. It's the networking that makes Ad:Tech 'must-attend' events. I'm suspicious about how they'll infuse a one-day show in Toronto or Cincy with must-attendedness.

What they do have going for them is that they've chosen cities that aren't event-saturated in the way that Chicago and NY and San Francisco are. What constitutes 'must-attend' in a city where there isn't much to attend is certainly at a lower threshold than what gets a New York Media Director out of the office. But the mere fact that 'it's Ad:Tech' won't do it, because these one-day, content-driven, networking-deficient shows are NOT Ad:Tech.