View-Master Revisited

This week, I was treated to a rough-cut of a DMO's forthcoming virtual reality promotion.

The glories of the city's convention center and hotels were revealed in full and fabulous 3D.

Writing for Associations Now, Samatha Whitehorn claims VR is destined to become "a mainstream feature of association meetings and destination marketing."

Little wonder, Whitehorn says. "The power of VR is that it gives the viewer a unique sense of empathic connection to people and events."

DMOs will tap VR to give their cities an edge in event planners' eyes, and even offer it as an alternative to live streaming, so folks unable to attend an event can join in from afar.

But wait a cotton-pickin' minute!

"VR's going to kill my event," every planner's shouting.

Not in my book.

I may be a curmudgeon, but VR is only higher octane View-Master.

Don't get me wrong: I loved View-Master as a kid. But it didn't keep me from exploring the world beyond my bedroom.

I predict VR will indeed find its niche—alongside the Pet Rock and the Cabbage Patch Kid.

What do you think?

Your Ex-Spouse and Your Event Have Something in Common

April 14 marks the first-ever Global Meetings Industry Day.

The event-industry advocacy group Meetings Mean Business joins forces with the Convention Industry Council to celebrate meetings with rallies, proclamations and social media storms.

April 14 is also set aside for National Ex-Spouse Day, National Pecan Day, National Support Teen Literature Day and National Dolphin Day.

Busy day.

Chili Pepper Burns

Mary Boone co-authored today's post. She is considered a leading authority on the design of meetings to incorporate engagement.

Bob:

For as long as I've been involved in event promotion, I've been stymied by the ubiquitous chili pepper brochure.

From time immemorial, every event planner who's ever held an event of any size anywhere in the American Southwest, it seems, has illustrated the cover of her promotional brochure with a chili pepper.

I understand why a B2C event planner might use the tactic.

But why—when attendees are time-starved, budget-conscious and results-driven—do B2B event planners persist in the belief that destination matters? That destination influences prospective attendees' decision to attend a B2B event, or prefer one event over another?

The answer: DMOs.

Destination Marketing Organizations (in quainter times called "Convention and Visitors Bureaus") have brainwashed two generations of B2B event producers.

And not for the better.

In the drive to "put heads in beds," DMOs have propagated the myth that B2B events are just a form of tourism.


Their sway over B2B event planners has cost the planners dearly—in attendance, income and career.

That's why I insist chili pepper burns.

Mary:

I don’t think the answer to this situation is to dismantle DMOs. I think the answer is to raise awareness and educate.


Imagine this. An event planner is putting together an event. She is trying to figure out, among a million other details, where to hold it.


What if she knows the “Flo” (think Progressive insurance) of DMO professionals? She calls Flo. “Flo, I need to hold this event somewhere and I’m not sure where.”


Flo: “Tell me more about the objectives of the event. What’s your organization trying to achieve? What type of environment is going to support those objectives? Tell me more about the culture of your organization…”


Then, after a great conversation, Flo says, “You know, I’d love to be able to say that Chili Pepper, Texas, has the perfect venue for you, but this one time I have to admit that Vancouver, B.C., might be better.”


Shock and awe. So this time Flo doesn’t get the business, but guess who our planner is going to call every time she needs help?


If DMOs are educated to be consultative, client-centric, and business-focused in their interactions with planners, they can be deeply essential to the process of strategically selecting a location that matches the needs of both the event and the business.

3 Tips for Better Event Photography and Video

Michael J. Hatch contributed today's post. He is Director of Sales for Oscar & Associates, an event photography and video production company specialized in conferences, exhibitions and corporate events nationwide.

Pictures Will be Worth 10 Thousand Words… Tomorrow

Don’t just go through the motions of contracting a photographer and telling them you want "three days' of candids and posed photos." There’s more to it than that.

Provide the photographer answers to these questions: What is the theme of your event? What are its goals? And—most importantly—what are the goals of next year’s event? Promoting tomorrow's event may be the primary reason you're capturing images today.

Ask for Bold, Unique and Creative

Most photographers are creative people. It’s one reason they chose the profession. Your photographer will love you for asking for bold, unique and creative shots.

If you tell a photographer you simply want candids and posed shots, that’s all you’ll get. Your photos will look just like all the photos you'd ever find on any event organizer's website.

Ask in addition to candids and posed shots for close-ups, shots on angles, backlit shots, overhead shots, and foot-level shots.

Georgia O’Keefe said it best about her famous giant florals: “If I painted them like all the Old Masters' still-lifes, no one would have ever paid much attention.”

Videos Will be Worth a 100 Thousand Words

Look at YouTube, websites, blogs and emails: event organizers are using videos, because videos are infinitely more engaging, believable and shared.

Capture video testimonials with attendees, exhibitors, sponsors and speakers. Ask for videos of the live action on your show floor, keynote sessions, educational sessions, receptions and evening events. 

And if you want “bold, unique and creative” results, ask for aerial videos, both indoor and out. Drones make aerial videos more affordable than ever.

Going Virile

Ad exec Madonna Badger's new video We are #WomenNotObjects, which asks marketers to stop eroticizing females, is hot, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Ms. Badger's beef is only one among many voiced by women in advertising, including the 21,000 sister mad women who comprise the 3% Conference.

3% Conference founder Kat Gordon told Forbes the issues surround "lack of."

"Lack of support for motherhood, lack of mentorship, lack of awareness that femaleness is an asset to connecting to the consumer marketplace today, lack of celebration of female work due to gender bias of award juries, lack of women negotiating their first agency salary and every one thereafter," Badger said.

Female event marketers are also flexing their muscles.

AWE, the Association for Women in Events, has opened its doors in Washington, DC, according to TSNN.

Adults Say the Darndest Things

Today's post was contributed by Margit Weisgal, author of Show and Sell: 133 Business-Building Ways to Promote Your Trade Show Exhibit. Margit writes for The Baltimore Sun on Baby Boomers' issues and interests.

For 17 years, TV personality Art Linkletter hosted a segment on his daytime show called "Kids Say the Darndest Things. He'd interview children and watch them, wide eyed, as they spouted incredible responses to his questions.

Like Linkletter's kids, the adults who staff your trade show exhibits also say the darndest things. One of my favorites is, “Why do I have to be here, when I could be out meeting customers?”

Really? What do they think they’re doing at the show?

Sometimes—maybe too often—we don’t take the time to explain to staff our goals and objectives for a trade show. 

When they don't understand why you're participating, or what you hope to accomplish, they'll work like a team of horses pulling in different directions. Not a team at all.
 
Marketing is about more than what you say. It’s also about what you do. And actions speak louder than words. If the two don’t jibe, your credibility goes away. 

It’s the darndest thing.

Don't Just Do Trade Shows. Do Trade Shows Right.

Today's post was contributed by Margit Weisgal, author of Show and Sell: 133 Business-Building Ways to Promote Your Trade Show Exhibit. Margit writes for The Baltimore Sun on Baby Boomers' issues and interests.

When it comes to finding and interacting with a qualified audience, trade shows continue to be at the top of the list. 

Trade shows are the only place where you can customize your marketing message to fit the person in front of you (all the technologies out there still put prospects in groups); and the only place where you can create impressions that last longer than a few seconds.

But (and there’s always a "but"), trade shows have to be done right. 

Doing it "right" means training your staff to ask questions. Why? Because how they interact with visitors is very different from any other conversation they have.

Booth staff should always ask visitors questions before pitching them. Who are you? What do you do for your company? What brought you to the show? To our booth? What’s your agenda for the show?

Only when you understand what’s in it for them, can you be memorable, by positioning your response in terms of visitors' needs.

We do business with people we like, trust, and respect. That only happens when you listen first and talk later. And that’s doing it right.

Events, One. Robots, Nothing.

Robots will ruin content marketing in coming years and make events the top channel for B2B content sharing.

With 71% of B2B executives already down on marketers' content, it won't be long before 99% of them shut their eyes to it.

Marketing automation users are to blame. 

In their frenzied efforts to target personas, they've forgotten persons.

The persons least targeted are, in fact, the folks who share the content that most influences buyers.

As salespeople know, sales result from speaking and sharing the right content with the worker bees who forage at trade shows.

That's why the event industry has been forever able to tout its channel as B2B's Number 1 "sales accelerator;" and why events have perennially been B2B companies' Number 1 choice among media for lead generation and relationship management.

The demise of content marketing will soon make events the top medium for content sharing, too.

DISCLOSURE: My employer serves the event industry.

The Internet of Experiences

The Internet of Things is coming, David Pierce writes in Wired, "like a molasses tidal wave."

Not so the Internet of Experiences, if event marketers have their way.

Last year saw quantum leaps in product design by the tech companies that serve event marketers (firms like Cvent, DoubleDutch, Eventbase—even Facebook).

Those improvements practically assure event marketers will embrace event tech—and with gusto.

While gizmos galore have been dispensed at events, none ever became indispensable.

In 2016, finally, that will change.

DISCLAIMER: My employer is an investor in DoubleDutch.

Your Event is Either an Experience or a Waste of Time

While they puzzle over details, many event organizers never grasp the key to a satisfactory event.

It has to deliver an experience.

In the same way a restaurant is not about food, an event's not about tables, chairs, booths, badges, busses, signs or even speakers.

An event is about an experience.

Restaurateur Danny Meyer says the restaurant's job isn't to serve food.

It's to create an experience of wellbeing: to instill in each patron the sense that "when we were delivering that product, we were on your side."

Delivering an experience justifies the patron's expenditure—not of money, but of time—Meyer says. "When they leave, are they going to say, 'That was a good use of my time?'"

"The most precious resource we all have is time," Steve Jobs once told a reporter.

Are you delivering an experience, or wasting your attendees' time?

Greening Your Event: The Attendee Experience

Part 3 of of 3-part series

Today's guest post was contributed by Cara Unterkofler. She is Director of Sustainable Event Programs at Greenview.

While it’s true the majority of your event’s carbon footprint is generated by things your attendees will never see, there are many additional practices that will affect your attendees' experience—and how they evaluate your brand.

According to GreenBiz, more than 80 percent of a typical company’s market valuation today is intangible, up from only 18 percent in 1975. 

That means the cheesy give-aways, the absence of recycling bins, and the over-abundance of unnecessary printing are sending your attendees a message about your brand, and affecting your organization's worth.

Likewise, seeing that you printed all your materials on FSC-certified paper; that you planted a tree for every attendee (to offset emissions and rebuild ecosystems); and that you provided a menu of seasonal, healthy foods also sends attendees a message: your organization is progressive and mindful, and is leading the way toward a community worth being part of.

Greening Your Event: The Venue

Part 2 of of 3-part series

Today's guest post was contributed by Cara Unterkofler. She is Director of Sustainable Event Programs at Greenview.

If selecting your destination is the most important sustainability decision you'll make, the second most important sustainability decision concerns your hotel and venue partners, which in many cases are the same building. They comprise 70-90% of your event’s non-travel footprint.

To select an efficient and sustainable hotel or venue, you don’t need to brush up on energy efficiency and water conservation, or create a mile-long RFP no one has time to read. 

In the case of hotels, you can start by seeking out properties with reputable third-party ratings such as LEED or Green Key. Ask the hotel for a fact sheet on the its sustainability initiatives, so you can stay up-to-date on best practices. And ask what the property can offer your attendees. For example, Starwood Hotels can pre-enroll your room block in its “Make a Green Choice” program.

Greening Your Event: The Impact of Destination

Part 1 of a 3-part series

Today's guest post was contributed by Cara Unterkofler. She is Director of Sustainable Event Programs at Greenview.

The environmental impact of an event can be measured using various metrics. 

One popular metric is the event’s "carbon footprint."

The graph (representing a large citywide event with a substantial expo) shows that the largest contributor to an event’s carbon footprint is the fuel used by attendees to travel to the destination (fuel represents around 80%). And don’t forget there's freight being shipped along with them, representing another 5-15% of an event’s total carbon emissions.

This means you don’t have to understand carbon footprinting and the science of greenhouse gases and climate change to make a huge difference, when it comes to sustainability; nor go digital; nor figure out if your printer uses vegetable-based inks.

It simply means you need to select an event location that is close to attendees and, ideally, accessible by car or train. 

You’re likely already doing that, so keep it up and feel good that you’re not only increasing your odds of greater attendance, but having a positive effect on climate change from the comfort of your office.

What Do Gen Yers Want from Tradeshows?

Part 2 of a 2-part series

According to new research from Amsterdam RAI, organizers need to indulge Gen Yers, if they hope to attract them to tradeshows.

“Generation Y are used to getting exactly what they want," the RAI says. "They are conscious about world problems and love to have specific knowledge and skills that give them value in their networks. Gen Yers are children of a our visual culture and therefore love everything visual."

As a result, the RAI recommends organizers:

• Deliver collaborative experiences and know-how before, during and after the show.
• Be playful, hip and socially conscious when marketing.
• Invest in a strong visual identity.

Hole, Baby, Hole

Renowned marketing guru and Harvard professor Ted Levitt liked to tell students, “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.”

Pardon the pun, but it's surprising this decades-old saw has reentered everyday discussions of social media marketing.

It's not as if Levitt's insight doesn't deserve resurrection. It does.

That's because most marketers still believe they're selling drills.

How about you?

Is your head screwed on right?

Your motto should be, Hole, Baby, Hole.

Why Event Planners Should Use Distinctive Imagery

Part 5 of a 5-part series on event design

Want your event to be memorable?

Use distinctive imagery.

According to neuroscience research, we pay attention to imagery that's novel and surprising.

Moreover, we recall images that are salient; we forget images that are common.

Thanks to Ron Graham of Freeman for providing this event-deisgn tip.

NOTE: I wrote this post in 2013, not imagining that two years later I'd be employed by Freeman. Wonders never cease. 

Why Event Planners Should Consider Height

Part 3 of a 5-part series on event design

When planners assign rooms at an event, room length and width get all the attention.

But a room's third dimension should be given equal consideration.

According to neuroscience research, high ceilings promote creative and abstract thinking.

Low ceilings promote detail- and task-oriented thinking.

High ceilings also lure attendees to linger in a room.

Low ceilings do just the opposite.

Thanks to Ron Graham of Freeman for providing this event-design tip.

NOTE: I wrote this post in 2013, not imagining that two years later I'd be employed by Freeman. Wonders never cease. 

How to Toot Your Horn at a Tradeshow

You can trumpet your message at a tradeshow if you know what the audience seeks, says exhibit marketing expert Mim Goldberg in an interview with eConnections.

Effective graphics draws the audience into your booth and "creates memorability and validity to follow up after the event," Goldberg says.

But to be effective, booth graphics must be simple and focused on the audience's needs.

"Consequently, knowing and understanding your target audience is necessary," Goldberg says.

Pinpointing solutions is smart. Money-savings. Time-savings. Better productivity.

Illustrating big ideas is not. A booth that tries too hard to will be ignored or forgotten. "You can always tell if an [ad] agency has done the graphics for a show because they look like blown-up ads," Goldberg says.

But booth graphics alone aren't enough. "Verbal messaging and some form of interaction are necessary," Goldberg says.

"For example, if your company’s message is saving money, have graphics, discuss how your company can do this and, if possible, have a product that can demonstrate how this may occur."

You Say You Want a Revolution?

Then get ready.

It's called NFC.
 
It will change the way attendees discover content at events.

NFC (the acronym for "Near Field Communication") is a form of short-range wireless that bridges the gap between the real and virtual worlds.

The technology allows anyone with an NFC-ready mobile phone or tablet to access content by touching the device to a comparable one—or to a "smart poster."

Thanks to the manufacturers, nearly one-third of new phones are NFC-ready right now. Two years hence, all will be.

With NFC, attendees will be able to touch salespeople's phones and instantly download anything now delivered on line. Videos. PowerPoint slides. Flyers. White papers. Discount coupons. You name it.

Salespeople not around? No worries. Attendees can do the same thing by touching a smart poster.

But wait, there's more.
 
Provided the nearest cash register is NFC-ready, attendees will be able to pay for purchases with a touch of their phones.

The revolution NFC will usher in isn't pie in the sky.

It's underway as we speak.

EXPO Magazine has said NFC "will change the face-to-face landscape."

Learn why "NFC will disrupt how things are done."

B2B Marketers: Attract Big Dogs with Web Video

They gripe when employees do it.

But 73% of C-level executives watch Web videos during the workday, says MagnetVideo's David Rose.

That's big news for marketers.

Web videos work especially well when you want to draw the top dogs to your booth at a tradeshow, according to Rose.

One of his clients, QuantiSense, used a Web video to boost traffic at the National Retail Federation's Annual Expo.

Traffic increased 218%.

Before the show, QuantiSense shot a one-minute video and built a show-specific landing page to house it. The firm then blasted promotional emails to prospective attendees, and shared links to the landing page on social media outposts. The firm also posted the video on YouTube, grabbing organic Google search traffic by including the term "NRF 2012" in the video's title, description, tags and closed captioning.

During the show, the firm placed a 60-foot high banner outside the entrance to the exhibit hall. The banner featured a QR code that, when snapped, automatically launched the video. QuantiSense also played the video on large monitors inside its booth.

After the show, QuantiSense blasted followup emails to all visitors that included a link to the landing page. There was no escaping that video!