In a livestreamed press conference this morning, Michael Doyle, Executive Director of the
Virtual Edge Institute, Deborah Sexton, President and CEO of the
Professional Convention Management Association and Susan Katz, PCMA Board Member and Director of Corporate Events and Travel with True Value Company,
announced that PCMA has made a strategic investment in VEI that will allow VEI to accelerate the development of standards for the digital events industry and the establishment of best practices and education.
(This article appeared originally in my column in Meeting Mentor Magazine.)
When corporations go virtual, significant cost savings are often the reward. For most associations, however, it’s an added expense. And it can be equally significant. Plenty of numbers are making the rounds in the industry, and much of what you’ve heard is true. AARP really did spend $250,000 producing its event, and ASAE spent more than $100K. But there are also many associations spending as little as $15,000. The difference is often in your definition of virtual.
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By 2016, I think every single face-to-face event will have a strong online extension.
Big words from Tony Lorenz yesterday morning when I called about the announcement of his new firm – bXb Online.
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In
last week’s post I complained about the arduous task of getting comparable bids from virtual event platform vendors. This week I want to give you the 10 questions I’ve found that are most important to your RFP process.
I’ve been working to help a client select a platform for his virtual event, and I can’t say it’s been easy. Comparing apples to apples is nearly impossible because each of the vendors responds to RFPs so differently. Most all of them have a “bundle” of services, but of course none of them bundle exactly the same elements.
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(This article appeared originally in my column in Meeting Mentor magazine.)
When hired as special projects manager for The Association of Boarding Schools, Amy Shivers knew she’d be working on something called a virtual event, but she could hardly have imagined what that meant or where it would take her.
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I had my first personal virtual experience yesterday – as opposed to a business experience – when I attended church online. I had every intention of attending physically, but it was Mother’s Day, and I had a lazy kind of morning, then realized as I stepped into the shower that we’d never make it. I knew my church offered a livestream – and I’d been wanting to check it out – so I sat down in my sweats, with no make-up and wet hair, ate breakfast and attended church.
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I talk to a lot of people these days about “going virtual” and most of them are clearly overwhelmed by the idea – especially association planners, strapped for time and resources. It reminds me a lot of how freaked out we all were about Websites in the 90s. Remember that? Same arguments then as now. “My people won’t come – It’ll hurt my event – Those are for tech shows – I’m too busy – Where’s the return?”
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CEA President, Gary Shapiro, says the International Consumer Electronics Show will add a hybrid element for educational programming to the 2012 event – but don’t be looking for a trade show floor online.
