Exhibitor 2010 Series: Part 3 – Virtual Dangers

This is the third part of a five part series discussing my recent takeaways for the Exhibitor 2010 Conference in Las Vegas, March 14-18, 2010. View Part 2 – Guerilla Marketing.

There’s little doubt that one of the hottest topics in tradeshows and events has been a virtual or hybrid component. Extending the reach and life of an event has been made possible by social tools and technologies to further communication between physical and virtual participants. The final session that I attended at Exhibitor 2010 was titled Emerging Best Practices: Virtual Events and truthfully was one of the more anticipated topics on my schedule. However, I left the session taking away more concerns than promises.

The session revolved around the topic of virtual tradeshows and the claim that they could work in tandem with the physical events, a theory I firmly agree with. Many fear that virtual events threaten the need for a physical environment, thus endangering face-to-face meetings and those involved in creating the environments. Some great parallels were introduced:

Movies were feared to destroy theatre; they didn’t…but they changed it.

TV was feared to destroy movies; it didn’t…but it changed it.

However, I felt that the discussion was heavily weighted towards the software and virtual environments with a slight disconnect or understanding of how they enhance or compliment the physical events.

Where is the Danger?

Quite simply, a virtual or hybrid event will do one of two things for an attendee: Enhance their desire or Replace their need to be there in physical. The danger lies in the fact that the line between these is very thin. A virtual element that does not properly compliment a face-to-face event has the potential to damage the perceptions of the event, both physically and virtually. Consequently, while I do not believe face-to-face trust development can be emulated through virtual channels, I believe it can sway a number of attendees away. Considering we’re paving a new channel of event communication for a developing generation that is tech savy, we’d better get this right.

During the session, I had little doubt that a virtual tradeshow could provide a positive experience for the organizers and exhibitors. Among highlighted points was eliminating costs of convention space, exhibit components, travel expenses and material collateral. All are a tempting avenue for almost any participant of events. But again, I failed to hear examples of how it could enhance the physical event, though the claim was reiterated throughout. Instead, I couldn’t help but feel that most of the design and structure of such a platform was there to Replace. Tisk, tisk.

How do we Fix it?

More importantly, how do we, as event organizers, include a virtual element that enhances the physical and, in turn, creates more interest from a virtual audience? The core is relationships. If face-to-face will ever successfully adopt a virtual layer, it must enhance and compliment its nucleus.

Audience engagement – What channels are available to merge your physical and virtual audiences? Interest level in face-to-face revolves heavily around the opportunities to network. Give your event a platform to plant the seeds for your audiences to engage with each other.

Sustainment – Your event can now exist beyond its physical timeline. Keep the conversations and topics continuing as long as possible. Not only do you develop communities who are associated with your event, but you’re drawing in new audiences and marketing your event 365 days.

Visualization – Magnify the importance of face-to-face engagement at an event by displaying it front and center to your virtual audiences. There is power in witnessing networking and the understated importance of handshakes and eye contact. Highlight this and grow your virtual audiences in to physical attendees.

For those who attended, what were your takeaways from this session? Did you have a different takeaway from the format of virtual tradeshows? What are other ways you’ve seen a virtual element utilized to enhance a physical event?

Continue to Exhibitor 2010 Series: Part 4 – Viva la Face to Face

(image by fdecomite via Wikipedia Creative Commons License)

1. 

   Cece Salomon-Lee says:

   April 7, 2010 at 12:18 pm

   Eric, while I didn’t attend the conference, you raise some very good points with regard to leveraging virtual to complement a physical event. We advocate to our customers, and in our own hybrid event, to consider the experience for both physical and virtual attendees. Often times, we focus only on the technology component.

   Here are some additonal articles that may be of interest to you and your audience:
   - Michael McCurry’s blog post on Virtual Attendees are Real People: http://bit.ly/91pLFb
   - Our own hybrid event takeaways: http://bit.ly/ajrn5K
   - Meetings & Conventions article on hybrid events: http://bit.ly/8XmXCg

   Thanks,
   Cece

   reply