Peter Jennings dying of lung cancer just changed my worldview on smoking. While I've "quit" before, I now really sense the urgency more than ever and am trying to do something about it.
Why Peter Jennings? Because he was 67 and in otherwise good shape. He thought he would beat it. And, as I learned this week, he'd given it up for 17 years (1984-2001, having gone back to it after 9/11).
So why didn't, say, Johnny Carson's death from emphysema do it for me? Because I could deal with dying at 79. He was still playing tennis well past 75. I don't see "80 as the new 60" for me - I'm not just not figuring on lasting that long. Planning to live to 79 is about right.
But 67? That's a whole other story. Now I'm left wondering if I'm even starting too late to change. That's only 18 years away. Only one more year than Jennings himself had quit smoking.
What's my personal (and self-inflicted) angst doing on here, you ask? To point out that worldviews sometimes change in a heartbeat. Could be an attack like 9/11, could be buying your first iPod, could be Peter Jennings dying.
Could be the idea of Web 2.0.
In addition to trying to quit smoking, I'm beginning to think that maybe blogging just isn't going to happen for most of the trade show industry in the near future. Rather, blogging is going to happen TO the trade show industry first.
My worldview is shifting from "blogging is good for all of our industry's existing trade shows" to one of "let the people who really understand social networking take over."
In other words, turn the whole model upside down. Let the growing social networks create some chaos and see where the chips fall.
What if Gawker Media or Jason Calacanis decided to get into the events business? What would their events look like? How would they promote them? What if Gawker's Jalopnik decided to compete with the NY Auto Show? How would it be different? Would it be more effective for automakers and aftermarket suppliers?
Better yet, what if Gizmodo or Engadget decided to take on CES? Or simply launched an event and let us decide what the heck it was. Those two blogs are read by more people than read any single tech publication.
A surprisingly large number of bloggers have already leveraged their blogs into speaking gigs, with many taking the next step - presenting one or two-day seminars on whatever their expertise is. These bloggers have developed loyal followings who will pay money to hear more of what they've been exposed to on blogs.
If they can do conferences, why not full up trade shows? It could happen soon in selected niches.
Maybe not in your niche. But just in case, have you considering going out and embracing the audiences who read blogs to let them know your event is still relevant, even if you're not blogging?
Hugh Mcleod recently talked up his success he had advertising his GapingVoid blog on the very popular AdRants blog. He suggests that others follow his example.
But, who says you need a blog to do what Hugh suggests? (Granted, if you are blogging you'll probably have a bit more credibility with people who see your ad. Then again most visitors to blogs think they're on regular old websites, so how much does it really matter?)
Just because you're not blogging doesn't mean you can't advertise. Go out and find the blogs in your industry, figure out who the best ones are and go buy some ad space on them.
Odds are pretty good you'll find the following to be true:
- they'll be inexpensive
- they'll be productive from both a PPC (pay per click) and a CPR (cost per response) standpoint, perhaps moreso than any other online ads you'll do
- the blog owner will probably bend over backwards for you.
Well, maybe not Gawker or Weblogs Inc. But just about everyone else will.
Note that you can't just throw up the same buttons and banners you do everywhere else. Your blog ads have to do more. Like the ads that Hugh puts on AdRants and vice verse. They're engaging and informative almost to the point of being "anti-advertising".
I'll predict that once you see the results from your blog ad campaign, your worldview of blogging will change. Quickly.
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