TSMI's Trade Show Marketing Report

Why American Idol Is Important to Your Marketing

Peter Davidson at BeConnected tells you at the end of his post on Trendwatching.

SMS(text messaging) while huge in other parts of the world has been slow to catch on in America. Cultural phenomenon like interactive TV programs i.e. American Idol have driven adoption and now even universities are building systems to use SMS to aid professors-student communications. If somebody uses SMS for years in school they are certainly open to it when they graduate and become your potential client.

How true.  When I was in Sofia working with ExpoTeam a couple of years ago,  SMS was already well established as a marketing tool to promote the Sofia Auto Show and Home Techno (Bulgaria's version of CES).  "Teaser" text messages were sent to Sofia cellphone users with different incentives to get them to pick up an invitation form from any of the hundreds of available outlets in and around the city.

Of course where there's only one big cell carrier, that makes life easier.  Still, there is a huge untapped marketing potential for SMS over here.  With millions being trained to text message in order to vote for their American Idol, it shouldn't be long before we start accepting SMS as a marketing medium.

Podcast #3 Now Live: Conference Content

Tim and I finished another podcast this afternoon.  It's up for listening at http://www.corante.com/eventlab/archives/2005/02/22/podcast_for_trade_show_and_event_organizers_3.php

This one isn't on marketing, per se.  It's about the importance of managing conference content.  Hope you find it interesting.  And if you disagree, let's hear your comments.

Doug Fox

Doug's name came up again today.  Whenever that happens I usually do a quick search to see if I can find out what he's been up to.

I never found anything.  Until today.

He really did give up EventWeb and talking about distributed education for dancing just like he said.

Here's the proof:  Great Dance.

introNetworks: When You Connect All the Dots, What Do You Have?

I revisited Sue's post on introNetworks to learn more about the technology since it seemed interesting at first glance. 

From reading the description on the DEMO blog, my first question is, why isn't this application the back end of nTag?

As nTag is already well on its way to establishing itself as a networking enabler and accelerator, what's to stop them from adding a few more questions to the initial profiling and producing some dynamic charts like introNetworks that show the relationships between attendees?  Should be child's play.

But then some bigger questions occured to me.  And I began to wonder about whether this was something useful or just a throwaway toy.

If I encountered an event using introNetworks, I might fill out the profile form honestly once, just to see what happens.  Call it field work.  But if I was serious about attending an event and wanted to concentrate on my agenda, I likely wouldn't complete a profile.  I'd prefer to remain fixated on my goals.  I like quiet time anyway.

Conversely, if I were attending primarily to network and meet the "right" people who could help me, I'd probably make stuff up.  I said the same thing about nTag a few months ago.

I'd like to know, who does fill out everything in the profile truthfully.  And why?

We rarely did it on Prodigy and AOL in 1994 when we first discovered chat rooms.  We lied through our teeth.  And we're still lying online.  Anyone over 30 and married, anyway.  Just now we do it through IMs instead of chat rooms.

We embellish our resumes.  Or so says just about every research study on the subject.  Maybe you and I don't lie.  But THEY do.

Heck, most attendees lie on their registration forms.  You really don't have that many attendees from companies over $50 million in revenue who decide all purchases.  You don't.  If they weren't lying, your post-show research would always match with your registration stats.

But it never does.

So why would we tell the truth to introNetworks or nTag?

On the other hand, could this be another generational thing?  Are younger attendees who grew up online more amenable to utilizing these social network applications in the way they were intended to function? 

Here's where I think the value of introNetworks would be especially appropriate:  in deciding whether or not to actually attend a show or conference.

If I could access one of those interNetwork dot graphs to see whether there was a critical mass of people with the same interests as I have, that would tell me if the event was really worth my time.  Sort of like measuring a Chinese restaurant by the number of Chinese who eat there.

I don't really need to communicate with you.  I just need to know you're going where I'm going.

Putting aside tradeshows for the moment, my wife and I were talking about doing some singles nights at Aldo.  It would be intriguing to have nTags or introNetworks on hand, although without a wearable interface, the latter wouldn't be all that helpful.

Or, we could buy some "Hello" badges and simply ask people to put down three bullet points of things in which they're interested. 

Problem solved.  Cost: $5.00.

Don't Say Scoble Didn't Warn You

Scoble:  If you do a marketing site and you don't have an RSS feed today you should be fired.

It took a few years for email to reach to critical mass.  It'll take RSS a few years as well.

But, it doesn't cost you anything to add the code for an RSS feed to your site.  And some part of your audience is receiving RSS - and preferring it to email and/or bookmarks.

So simply ignoring that 0.5% or 5% or whatever it is in your market by not doing something that's free... well, that's dumb.  And if not worthy of firing, at least worthy of getting a wrist slap. 

Or a smaller raise.

Content Is King (Again).

From Sue:

Content makes top of planners' list

Forget rates, accessibility, staff, and F&B costs--according to this survey by YPB&R, both corporate and association planners said the thing about which they are most concerned is “making the agenda relevant.”

This is great news.  Sue makes the point that the survey results could be interepreted to imply that planners are finally looking at their meetings strategically instead of tactically.  And she's likely right on that account.

To me, this is more proof that the big tech conferences - where "content was king" - aren't really dead.  Their spirit lives on.

Another example:  There was a post on MIMlist today referring to an article in Meeting Focus about informal networks.  The author suggests this is a trend that planners need to incorporate in their meetings.

Anyone who's done tech conferences (and more recently marketing, business, legal and insurance among other subjects) has been managing informal networks for quite some time.  We called them 'SIGs', among other things. 

The SIG meetings we used to run in conjunction with our tech conferences were roughly equivalent to a blogger meetup of today.  Some opinion leaders with name value were brought into lead discussions that attracted many of their followers, who in turn invited others, resulting in some tremendously boisterous and compelling conversations.

In other words, you could say that the "innovations" we're seeing in the meetings press today were all done by the Internet World in 1998.

It was good to be the king.

End Game

Sometimes, at the accelerated pace of business we're all experiencing these days, I think this is what we're ultimately resigned to...

On a serious note, this WOULD make a great sponsorship opportunity.

I'm always amazed there isn't more bathroom advertising.

Photo courtesy of Shawn Zehnder Lea at Everything And/But Nothing via Brand Autopsy.

You Asked for Timely. We Bring You X-Events

Yesterday I mused that our industry is headed in the direction of "dynamic conference production" in which marketing and content are being developed almost simultaneously.

Today, I get this in the old Bloglines box from Robin Good:  X-Events.

The convergence of RSS, wikis, blogs, podcasts, discussion forums, newsletters and mailing lists with real-time communication and collaboration technologies is a certainty.

Traditional events are going to transform themselves into ongoing conversation streams, as popular and successful as the topics and people participating and moderating them, and as credible and authoritative as the time they are able to thrive online.

He goes on to talk about the benefits of creating X-Events and how they will be more beneficial and valuable to everyone involved.

No doubt many among us can see this coming.  But not enough of us at this time.  This is one of those microtrends that may end up capturing entire segments of potential conference attendees before our leaders even pick up on it. 

So far the only flaw I can see is that it might be a bit hard to explain to the sponsors who would be underwriting it.

Robin has even created a new position that I think may be my next calling:  X-Event Communications Strategist.

I'll have to remember to get back to Robin when my schedule allows.  Interesting stuff.  And I've gotta do something for the next decade.

More On Timing

I remembered I wanted to say something else about timing.

I have to relate an experience from last week.  If it looks like I'm dumping again on IAEM, that's not the intent of this post.  They just happened to be ones with whom I had the experience.  The point I want to make is that we have a systemic problem with all of our industry events. 

The deadline to submit presentations for the IAEM Annual was last Friday.

The IAEM Annual is the first week of December. 

In other words, if you had unprotected sex tonight, you would be holding your newborn before the IAEM annual.

I have no idea what to do about that other than put it out here for discussion.  As a member of the education committee, I don't like it, but I have to work within the parameters they provide.

I submitted my own proposal for a session.  If you're familiar with the form, it asks you for a title, a 50-word description - and if you're doing a panel, they want to know who is on the panel.

My proposed session hasn't been vetted by the committee yet and we won't know if it's a go until late Spring.  None of the session proposals have been reviewed yet.  But, that doesn't stop IAEM from asking questions that assume you're ready to present tomorrow.

But that's only part of the problem.

I tried to comply with their request as best I could.  Since the conference is in Atlanta and IAEM doesn't pay expenses, I tried looking for some interesting folks in that area to talk about PR.  Toby Bloomberg, bless her heart, agreed.  I've got some other requests out there from folks who'd have to fly in, but hey, it's NINE MONTHS AWAY.  Do you know who's coming in for Thanksgiving dinner yet?

And it's not only trying to get interesting people to talk.  It's about trying to get TIMELY interesting people to talk.  I asked Toby to participate because she's not only a good marketer, but recently went through some PR hell of her own with a recent AMA session on blogs, courtesy of a blogger who didn't like the conference write up and blogged about it.

A lot can happen in nine months.  If you buy into the notion that we are content providers, shouldn't we aim to have the most relevant content at that particular time?  If some show has a PR meltdown or PR windfall between now and November, do I disinvite one of my commited speakers to make room for this person who would likely be more interesting - and by extension sell more conference registrations?

Now, I know the practical answer to that.  You plug in some names and wait until the marketing pieces are ready to go to print before you commit to your panelists.  If they can't make it, you change them.  But I only know that from experience.  For someone new to the process who had a great topic and wanted to do a panel, the form could easily discourage them from going forward with their submission.

It's difficult having one foot in the old world and one in the new.  I'm not trying to piss off anyone in Dallas.  I just want what's best for the industry.  And I'm not suggesting the folks at IAEM don't want the same thing.  They're simply moving along at a pace and style that most associations are comfortable.  It's not an IAEM-specific issue.  Lag times are bad regardless which industry association you look at.

How do we change this?

Business Blogging Awards

I don't know whether to hug Tim Bourquin or smack him off the top of his head.

He's nominated this thing for the 2005 Business Blogging Awards.

It's a lovely and appreciated thought.  But I'd be lying if I didn't say my immediate reaction is, "Damn, now I HAVE to find more time to post daily even if it kills me."

I miss blogging.  I just took a break and spent ten minutes wandering around following a thread and the trip was fascinating. 

Much more fun that making sure all of my media partners have their travel plans and publication bins in order.  Which is what I'm taking a break from.

Work sucks.  I'm thinking it's worth the income cut to skip the detail work and just write.