MPI experiments with a virtual event

Congratulations to Meeting Professionals International for the leadership shown in extending their July World Education Congress (WEC) with a virtual event. Not only did it allow MPI to distribute access to some content and exhibitors to those who did not attend, or continued access to those who did, but, as an event organization, it provided information and an example to their membership.

The decisions they made in how they did this exemplify the issues we all face in facing this new opportunity. What to charge for? How much to charge? Will it cannibalize existing attendance? What to put online and what not to?

Similar questions marketers face with every new technology.

There are no perfect answers, and we should not wait for them. We’ll only figure out best practice by diving in,  making the best judgments we can, and comparing notes.

Some of MPI’s decisions:

• The full $625 access pass for the physical event includes the virtual event. (Good call.)
• The Virtual Access Pass was $299. (About half price.  Logical.)
• The General Assembly alone was $19. (Hm.  I’d be inclined to make this one free.)
• The virtual event is open for six months.  (I bet this is partly to allow a down time between ‘events’ to build interest for the following year.

I don’t have their attendance figures.  Generally the combo physical and online events this year have seen similar attendance figures to what they expected without a virtual event (down slightly from 2008), but a much higher total combined audience.

Did it cannibalize attendance?  No way to prove it one way or the other, but it certainly did not create a major dip in physical attendance that hurt the event.

Every survey says that people prefer the physical event: and some simply can’t make it whether you offer the alternative or not.

 

Interactive meeting tool

There is a real trend toward adding interactivity to conferences…from encouraging Q&A to whiteboarding, breaking out into table-sized discussion groups, or giving the attendees a specific problem to solve.

But for some meetings, the interactivity is not simply a learning tool. Or an opportunity to contribute to the industry.

Sometimes it is the whole point of a meeting.

Like when a company is rolling out a new strategy or vision, and needs immediate employee feedback–both to improve the vision and to ensure full buy-in.

The June issue of Convene includes the article Faster Feedback, highlighting the abilities CoVision’s meeting software.  The idea is that after the presentation, each table group discusses the ideas presented, while a table moderator captures the key points on a networked PC.  A “theme team” 3-4 people who are skilled at seeing trends in responses, synthesize the collected ideas into a usable summary that quickly goes back to the presenter.  After a break the full group is already discussing how to modify or act on the original ideas.

Interesting that CoVision takes the automation only as far as it logically goes, but no farther.  Some day you can imagine pattern-recognition software replacing the 3-4 people in the theme team.  But I  would worry about whether that was an advantage.

It can be daunting to manage the process of really getting feedback from a large group.  In this case, Q&A would not get you there…and how many companies have decided that a lack of Q&A when they rolled out a new strategy meant that everyone was on board…to disastrous results.

This reminds us…there is no excuse not to get the group feedback.  There are tools to help.

 

Audience segmentation within events

A lot of the attraction of industry events is that attendees can see everything under one roof. The umbrella event.  All things to all people.

Oops, maybe that last sentence goes too far…and a good thing becomes a bad thing.

Its important to frequently think about the event in terms of each audience that attends.  Maybe you cater a bit to the largest groups, or to the most qualified/most attractive to exhibitors.  But there’s gold in other segments as well.

Robin Raskin created a new show within a show at CES by targeting aging boomers with the Silver Summit.  As reported in Expo’s May 2009 issue, she promoted the concept to 25 companies that had products for people over 50, created specialized content, and partnered with AARP.  Audience tracking was woefully lacking, so unfortunately we cannot tell how many people came to the event (though it was packed), or how many people came to CES especially because of this new area (though half of the 1500 survey respondents said they did).

How many key segments can you identify within your event that deserve special programing and focus?  [Boomers aren't a bad place to start!]  The benefits are enormous:

• A segment of current attendees that are even more devoted to the event
• New attendees who come specifically because of the new area
• Incremental revenue, both from new exhibitors and from second booths from existing exhibitors
• New sponsor partnerships
• Keeping the event vital and recharged
• Extra press attention
• Eliminating one more opportunity for a competitor to create a show that leaches off your audience

 

Improving event flow

Run across ethnoMetrics yet?  They put 45 video cameras with 360-degree panning in the ceiling of a convention center and watch what really happens at an event.  A lot of the value comes in analyzing the behavior of attendees at individual booths…information that, if acted on, could really improve an exhibitor’s results from an event.

The data is also useful to the show producer in looking at overall event flow.  A case study in the May 2009 issue of Expo discusses what RSNA (Radiological Society of North America) does with the data it receives from using ethnoMetrics over multiple years.

• Instead of eliminating the poster area, they realized its importance, but poor layout.  It has now been redesigned in a hub-and-spoke plan with sessions organized by topic.
• Video analysis showed large numbers of people leaving at lunchtime, due to long lines at the center restaurants. The new RSNA Bistro resulted in a 30% reduction in cab activity from 11 – 2, and a 20% increase in lunches served at the center.

Once they leave, you don’t know if they come back.

• Cab loading was redesigned, with two lines working simultaneously, to cut wait times in half.
• Registration was also streamlined… in layout, to speed registration for exhibitors, whose self-serve area was roadblocked, in staffing (reducing after peak days), and in repurposing much of the area by the third day.

These are all great ideas any event can learn from.  And while ethnoMetrics can give great data, it isn’t cheap.  But if you know what to look for  many flow issues can be seen at eye-level if you take the time to look.

 

Conference scheduling for peak awareness

One thing I love about my line of work (the event industry) is the variety of challenges we face in any given day.

So I had to pass on this tidbit from the May issue of Convene (PCMA’s magazine).  An article with Carolyn Schur, specialist in circadian-rhythm disorders and author of Birds of a Different Feather–Early Birds and Night Owls Talk About Their Characteristic Behaviors.

Do you use roughly the same conference schedule every year, regardless of whether your national event is in Hawaii or New York City?  An 8 a.m. keynote in New York is pretty painful to a Californian, for whom it is only 5:00 in the morning.  Likewise, the Saturday evening pre-event party in Hawaii is going to be a wash-out for those on ET.

Its hard to work around, but worth thinking about.  Here are her tips:

A Sleep Expert’s Top Tips for Meeting Success

1. Schedule the most critical components of the meeting between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
2. Keep lunch light and based on protein, fruits, and vegetables.
3. Plan tours and activities after 2 p.m. or in the evening.
4. Schedule networking events in the morning or evening. This allows attendees to decide if they wish to attend, without feeling that they are missing key content if they do not.
5. Repeat sessions so that attendees can choose the time that allows for greatest alertness.
6. Particularly when you are organizing a national meeting on the East Coast, plan the first full day to start with breakfast between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. and the opening keynote at 9:30 a.m. or 10 a.m. This is when most attendees will be comfortable and get the most out of their experience. Alternatively, consider the impact of that late Saturday-night banquet and dance on early birds when holding a national meeting on the West Coast.
7. Closing keynotes between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. will greatly tax early birds’ attentiveness and patience, particularly if the speaker addresses difficult issues.