Crazy Not to Blog...

So how come you've not created a weblog to promote your meetings, seminars, conferences and tradeshows?

If you're a CEO or top executive of a conference or other face-to-face gathering, you're crazy not to blog.

You may think that weblogs are the terrain of some geeky tech nerds who are hanging out on the outer edges of the solar system, but that is NOT the case.

Back to Alan Meckler - who has the front-runner advantage and status for being the one and only executive of a show producer to blog away - who benefits in many ways that you probably don't realize as a result of his new weblog.

First, anybody can subscribe to his news feed. I'll write more about this soon. But for now, I just want to point out that I subscribe to Alan's posts. I don't have to go to his weblog to read what he writes. Using my weblog software, I can subscribe to news feeds from many weblogs. So If Alan says something that captures my attention, I click the "Post" button, add my comments and publish it to my blog. The entire process takes a minute or so. The bottom line is that Alan is creating a highly distributed network of subscribers to his weblog that will post his comments on their blogs. That is a great way to leverage the web to generate interest in your meeting - at very little cost and effort.

Second, he gets direct feedback from large audience. Blogging is one of the best ways for senior-level executives to get unfettered feedback from their audience. Everybody knows that top executives are always getting watered down silliness from their underlings who have the unexplicable urge to gloss over reality. By blogging and asking for feedback, Alan can get a lot of direct comments on what his audience (IT buyers and sellers) really want and are really interested in. So not only is he creating a distributed marketing/sales network - see item above -  he's simultaneously creating a great market research mechanism at no extra cost.

Third, Alan is putting a human voice and personality to a corporate entity instead of relying solely on institutional marketing and the normal ridiculous hype that companies spew. In today's age, it seems that authenticity is what sells - and if you don't have a human, breathing voice, it's impossible to be authentic. So take that, Alan, you're authentic!!

Fourth, despite my earlier rantings, that he is kicking the living daylights out of Comdex - this might be a good thing. I condemned Alan in earlier post for taking unnecessary shots at Comdex. But after thinking about it, Alan might be right. Comdex is in bankruptcy court and the top Comdex executives are looking for a huge pay-out to retain their services. So Alan is hammering away at them. What he's really saying is "IT vendors hold off on signing a space contract for booth space with Comdex." "Don't sign that contract." "Don't sign that contract." "Don't sign that contract." He's going to wear down the IT community. He's probably going to convince a lot of folks that Comdex is hurting and that they would be crazy to sign-up for booth space with a failing show.

Fifth, he's going to get a lot of press because of the first mover advantage. Alan is the first to blog away. I've seen mentions of his blog in Fortune, I think. I'm sure he'll get written about in other publications. Of course, he might get articles about him because he created Internet World and he's creating Comdex competitor. But I still think the fact that he's writing a weblog is going to generate additional publicity.

Sixth, I keep writing about him because you're not blogging - if you were blogging I'd be writing about you. So what are you waiting for?

Seventh, it doesn't matter what I write about Alan, his new blog and his new show. It matters that I'm writing. I keep doing it...

7:42:09 AM    

Conference Blogging Examples

Lance Knobel in reponse to my request for examples of conference blogging emailed me the following

I ran the World Economic Forum’s Davos summit 1999-2000. With about a month to go to the 2000 Davos, with the encouragement of Dave Winer I started blogging (before the word existed) to help Davos participants get a better understanding of the meeting, and to get the most out of their experience. The art of this has moved on considerably, but I think my entries from http://www.davosnewbies.com/2000/01/03 to the end of the meeting http://www.davosnewbies.com/2000/02/02 stand the test of time pretty well.

6:05:57 AM    

Upgrades to My Blog

This weekend I'll add a list of bloggers to the navigation bar to the right.

I'll have the regular list of weblogs that I like and those related in some way to meetings - education, wireless, handhelds, facilitation and related weblogs.

Two other categories of links I'll add over time are - 1) a list of conference bloggers - groups of people who are blogging from a conference and 2) bloggers that speak/present. I think second category will be fun - It will have links to bloggers that speak either on a professional or informal basis at conferences and other meetings/seminars. I figure that if a cutting-edge speaker blogs, then he/she is connected to what is truly important in life and can offer a more spiritually moving and substantive perspective on the transcendental forces that are reshaping humankind and society.

Also, I need to add a commenting tool so readers can praise and blast me for my ramblings. I'll do that after I get the weblog links up.

6:00:12 AM    

Meckler on Me

I got to think about this one. I'll comment later.

Captain Smith Update. Lots to talk about! Doug Fox of the Future of Meetings does not like my tone or the way I... [Alan Meckler]

5:47:17 AM    

More on Meckler

Alan Meckler continues in his mission to build something better than Comdex. OK, I just subscribed to his news feed. You know, I wish all CEO's would write a weblog -- yeah, Dave, Alan is worth watching. He is getting weblogs very quickly. A CEO that gets weblogs is an exciting thing to watch! (There aren't many of them). Does your boss weblog? Tell me about it.
[The Scobleizer Weblog]

5:44:53 AM    

Glen Fleishman on Hotel Wi-Fi

Check out 80211b News blog for latest on Wi-Fi developments at hotels and WiFi in general - here's update about Marriott plans.

Marriott pushes further: Marriott hotels, including the brands Marriott, Renaissance, Courtyard, Residence Inn, TownePlace Suites, Fairfield Inn and SpringHill Suites, have 200 properties set up with Wi-Fi--although the extent isn't mentioned in any article (rooms, meeting spaces, public areas?). They plan to unwire 200 more with Intel's help on co-marketing. Marriott charges a bizarre $2.95 for 15 minutes and 25 cents per minute thereafter according to several stories, but they must have a day rate as well.[80211b News]

5:42:33 AM    

Emergent Groups in Action

When you boil things down, there are two ways to market a meeting:

1) You can build an audience, or

2) You can find an existing audience.

For most of human history - a bit of exaggeration - you had to pursue the regular range of marketing tactics to build your audience - direct mail, advertising, PR, radio ads and the rest. More recently you can use the Internet (email marketing, website, search engines and other Internet marketing tools).

But what if you grabbed the top of your head and twisted it 180 degrees in the other direction and asked a fundamental question:

"Instead of building an audience for my next meeting, what would happen if I tapped into an audience that already existed? What if I leveraged the Internet and searched out existing or forming self-organized groups that already had a desire to meet with each other face-to-face?"

Wouldn't your odds of success be a lot better if you found a group of people who were already talking online, who were passionate about the ideas that brought them together, and needed a forum for continuing their conversation?

Here's an example: I was reading the posts to the technology discussion list at the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) - it's closed list only open to members. Posters to the list were talking about an excellent seminar that ASAE just conducted on Microsoft's .NET platform and services. A number of the messages talked about how great it would be if there was a .NET seminar part II.

So I keep reading the messages and saying to myself when on earth is an employee from ASAE going to jump in and say, "Hey, I saw you were having a great follow-up discussion about the first .NET seminar and some of you have expressed interest in a follow-up seminar. We'd be delighted to put one together. If you click on following link, I created a quick survey form. If you fill out this form, we can make this follow-up session even better. Or, you can just email me your thoughts (or post to the list) - what would make this follow-up program even more worthwhile to you?

This ASAE representative would have been taking advantage of an emergent group of people who had already expressed a clear desire to meet with each other. There is already a built in audience. There is already a built in audience of people who are willing to pay to participate.

But I didn't see such a message to this list. Maybe something was happening behind the scenes that I just don't know about. But that doesn't appear to be the case.

If you accept my premise about seizing opportunities by leveraging emergent groups, then an important question is what structural changes have to take place at an organizational level for meeting and conference organizers to be able to spot emergent groups?

The answer to this question is definitely a challenge. It would require a major shift in the way associations function. It would require new definitions of community and empowerment. It would require considerably more flexibility so that associations and other organizations could pull in the right people and resources on a turn of a dime in order to accommodate the interests of members and their larger communities in almost real-time.

But if associations want to prosper in the future, that is exactly what they have to do - tap into the emergent groups instead of trying to orchestrate gatherings from on high.

5:29:15 AM    

Intel and Marriott Promote Wi-Fi

Intel, Marriott make room for Wi-Fi. The chipmaker and the hotelier announce a campaign to promote high-speed wireless access to the Internet at about 400 hotels in the United States, Canada and Europe. [CNET News.com]

12:10:14 PM    

IACVB Shares Challenges

In a home page story, the International Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus (IACVB) offers a clear and straightforward assessment of the many challenges that cities around the world currently face in their efforts to attract more group/meeting business.

I commend the IACVB for their no-nonsense assessment. I get very tired of reading industry surveys and studies that so clearly have no basis in reality that it's impossible for me to write about them -- they just strain credibility to such an extent that I don't even know where to start.

This IACVB letter from its President & CEO Michael D. Gehrisch, describes some of the key challenges:

- Cutback in corporate travel business.

- Smaller marketing and operations budgets for CVBs.

- Meeting planners have smaller budgets.

- Shorter lead times for booking meetings.

- Meeting planners reducing room blocks to avoid attrition charges/penalties.

- More consumers book their hotel rooms for meetings directly via the Internet.

These are all huge challenges. I appreciate this letter from Michael Gehrisch and look forward to learning how IACVB and other industry associations serving the meeting and travel industry are going to work to address them.

8:32:28 AM    

Capturing Palm Screen Shots

For my EventWeb story this week, "Visual Palm Show Guide," I included screen shots of a conference and tradeshow application developed for the Palm OS. Bluefish Wireless developed this app for the Alaska Society for Technology in Education's (ASTE) 2003 Conference, which took place last week.

To take the screen shots, Woody Wicks of Bluefish sent me the Palm OS Emulator, the Bluefish viewer and the ASTE show guide. The Palm Emulator lets you run Palm apps on your PC - it's usually used by developers to debug programs. 

Once I loaded the ASTE show guide into the viewer, Woody gave me a walk-through of the application (showing me the session lists, exhibitors, floor plan and survey tools), and then gave me a good suggestion about taking screen shots of apps running in the Emulator - very helpful and straightforward.

Open both the emulator and PowerPoint. Create a completely white page in PowerPoint and go into slide view mode. Then, on Windows PC, push Alt-Tab until you have selected the Emulator. Now, the Emulator will be on a completely white background, which is ideal for taking screen shots. Then, I found four pages on the show guide that I liked and, for each one, I pushed the print screen button and saved the image to my clipboard.

Next, I went into Macromedia Fireworks, opened the graphic image from my clipboard and edited it. As you'll see in the article, I create both a larger and smaller version. I add the smaller image to the article itself and then readers can click on this thumbnail version to view larger, more detailed version. This seems to be the best approach, but I'm open to suggestions on improving it.

I found this simple and effective. I should probably get a screen capture utility. But that might not solve the problem of taking good screen shots of the Palm Emulator. The emulator has rounded edges so unless you have the emulator against a 100% solid color background, then you will end up with funny, distracting colors in the background.

Also, if I demonstrate Palm OS apps in future at seminars, I'll use this Emulator to demo industry programs. I'd like to know if there is similar emulator for Pocket PC OS?

4:54:17 AM    

Calling Conference Bloggers

In this blog devoted to the future of meetings, I want to include links, resources and perspectives about conference blogging. If you'd like to share your experiences as an attendee or meeting/conference organizer with on-site blogging, I'd be delighted to hear from you. Or, if you know of examples and stories in your or other blogs, I'll link to them. Thanks!

4:42:23 PM    

Michael Hough’s Observations

Michael Hough, an industry author and consultant, and producer of Exhibition and Convention Executives Forum (ECEF), offers following observation regarding my early posts:

We are seeing a lot of activity on the IT event front, including two Comdex competitors, CeBIT coming to America and Imark embarking on a road show.  But I don't think the problem is the show format, nor the venue, nor the organizer, nor the price of exhibit space.  The dogs just do not like the dog food.  IT exhibitors and attendees no longer see the need for face to face events. 

What will happen?  In my humble opinion, generic IT shows will disappear and be replaced by targeted, solutions-oriented events.

11:50:05 AM    

Self-Organizing, Anti-War Protesters

This article (free registration to New York Times required) is really critical to understanding the creation of self-organizing groups. Many successful events, meetings and conferences over the coming years will be those that learn how to nurture and leverage instantly created, self-organizing groups. The anti-war protesters with their instant, global access to communications technology are paving the way for this growing trend through email, cell phones and other devices. Also check-out Smart Mobs blog. 

How the Protesters Mobilized. The Internet has changed protests by allowing mobilization to emerge from free-wheeling amorphous groups. By Jennifer 8. Lee. [New York Times: Technology]

10:45:43 AM    

Scoble on Winning Over Comdex Crowd

Robert Scoble's suggestions to Alan Meckler for his upcoming Computer Digital Expo (cdXpo):

First, my conference credentials. I've been to (or planned) CeBit, PMA, Comdex, CES, VSLive, TechED, some computer show in China that I forget the name of, and a variety of others (and these are just the technology ones).

In other words, I've been to more than my fair share of conferences and exhibits. I'll throw out the small minor ones for now, and focus on the really big ones. What would I do to win over the Comdex audience? (Alan Meckler asked for good ideas, and his goal obviously is going to be to get people to spend more time at his show than across town at Comdex).

1) Make it easy to find things. Invariably my boss has told me to "see XYZ company." It almost always is impossible to use the map and figure out the numbering system. Make it super easy.

Continued on Scoble's Feb. 25th entry - [The Scobleizer Weblog]

5:23:14 AM    

Break-Even Analysis Audio Program

Jim Spellos, CMP, president, Meeting U., just wrote another great article for this week's EventWeb, "Break-Even Analysis Spreadsheet," which includes an Excel spreadsheet that walks meeting, seminar and conference organizers through the process of setting registration fees for their events. It's an impressive and comprehensive financial model that you can use for educational purposes or evaluating your pricing structures.

Jim and I are now talking about producing a companion audio recording to help users take advantage of this spreadsheet. We are going to do our first experimental recording in the next two weeks or so. I'm going to record our conversation by phone (he's in New York and I'm in DC) and save it to RealOne or MP3 format. Then readers can open his break-even spreadsheet model and listen to the audio walk-through and explanations.

What are we going to record? We will probably conduct an interview-style recording. I'll ask Jim a series of questions about each worksheet, the budget numbers and calculations, and Jim will then explain how these formulas help determine registration fees for meetings with different financial objectives.

We'd appreciate your feedback on this project. If this proves to be a helpful educational tool, we'll probably expand the offering and make this material available in an offline version as well. You can email Jim and me (Doug).

5:10:09 AM    

Meckler Embraces the Spirit of Blogging

In his latest post, Alan Meckler, CEO of new Comdex competitor in Las Vegas, makes a quick turn-about and embraces the collaborative spirit of blogging and the value of feedback. Check out my Feb. 23rd post.

Blogger Aid. Wow! I am getting lots of help and suggestions from a variety of bloggers. I am open to improving. In... [Alan Meckler]

4:42:23 AM