Let's face it, traditional PR is dead. Bloggers rule. It is going to be very tough to succeed online without some blogging spin.

You don’t have to be a science fiction nerd to enjoy the event that is the movie Avatar.  If you haven’t seen it you soon will be one of the only ones. It is a movie event not to be missed.  What can we learn from this Movie event?   In our economy, obviously companies and associations don’t have 500 million laying around for their next event.  Now, more than ever we are in a mode of showing return on investment for attending or putting on meetings and events.

We are in a time of low attendance at movie theatres just like we are experiencing at events/meetings.   Avatar made going to the movies, a must see. It is a memorable event which engaged the audience for the whole experience.   Avatar took some risks on how it’s “always done” and it paid off big.  How can you take some strategic risks to engage your audiences? Use new innovative concepts or break the mold with new event technology?

Here are some ideas I put together about James Cameron and his team who designed the whole Avatar event.  I hope it might spark some dialogue for you and your meeting professional friends & teams.

1) Story

The movie Avatars actual story is pretty typical:  heroes and villains.  But it has a solid theme and engages you for the full 2.5 hours of the movie. This comes from storytelling, planning and pacing. Avatar left no stone unturned and the presentation was really well thought out.  Event organizers and speakers can learn from this.  Put yourself in the shoes of your attendees and tell them a story.  Make them comfortable and deliver the story in the most engaging and impactful way possible.  What is the theme of your event as a whole? How can you make a story out of it to engage attendees?  You might feel uneasy too bring it up in the planning meeting, but someone needs to step forward and start the creative conversation.   What sort of action are you looking from your audience when they walk out the door at the end of the conference? Are you presenting problems and then solutions for your audience?

One awesome thing I saw with the marketing of Avatar is the big story behind the story.  Not about the movie itself, but how it was made.   The story surrounding the making of this epic movie took on a life of its own. This was the talk of many articles in all sorts of magazines and the web.  Building excitement and drama.  Would the high cost be a bomb?  The side story of the brash James Cameron taking his Titanic money and doing it his own way, giving mainstream Hollywood a run for its money really build the buzz.  This moved the Avatar brand much faster, got the media and people talking about it before anyone saw the first Pandora resident.  (Pandora is where the movie takes place) Of course the movie had to deliver and it did.  Great use of stories to build buzz. Think about drama or story you can put around an event or meeting.  What will get your attendees excitied.

2) Environment

James Cameron broke the old mold of bringing a new type of movie to the theatres. Not many theatres can show the film in 3-D so he made different versions of the digital prints for all types of theatres. The movie is beautiful. Plus ask anyone and they will say if you haven’t seen it in 3-d then you really haven’t experienced it.  Then the next person will say if you haven’t seen it in  3-D IMAX giant screen you are missing out.  So this means people will see it once or twice before the dvds come out.   As Maartin Vanneste talks in his book Meeting Architecture you must have an architect for the content and experience of the attendees.  Someone has to lead the event.  All the wonderful food and comfortable venues is really important but what do you want your audience to see and feel? Most ballrooms are built for weddings. Those giant Chandlers are testament to the fact. How can you make the room reflect your story?   How can you immerse them in an environment to help them absorb the messages or content?  What innovative concepts can you infuse?  Spend an equal or more time developing the story and environment of the event or meeting.  Can you make sure the look and feel of the event is impactful and special?  James Cameron used 3-d and rich visuals to transport us to another place where we learned all about this strange world of Pandora. Think about your next presentation or stage; build and environments around your content. Play off the environmental design; Make it rich in visuals not text.  Use video, audio and images to cement ideas and points. Use technology to engage and inform and get your attendees talking and setting the stage about the environment you are presenting. When I saw Avatar it was a total event.  The large IMAX screen at the Metron in San Francisco the full audience and that exciting buzz.  It was a total experience.

3) Experience

Today just leaving the house for any reason has to be event based. With blue ray players, the internet, cable, everything can been seen, bought from home. James Cameron designed something that made people go to the theatre in droves.  Event professionals need to keep this in mind. Make every event an experience by knowing what your audience wants and listen to them. Be creative.  What do you want attendees to walk away with? This is where listening comes in and the internet has many free and paid listening tools for this. You can build a dedicated audience using these tools.  Listen in to your audiences with easy to set up tools like Google Alerts,

Twitter search, Twendz.  Use the free Google Analytics tools to see where your audience is coming from and go there and listen. I did a tutorial with Radian6 a while back and it was a simple listening tool and gave me more information about my industry and events then I could ever use.  But was fantastic! Listen and build the experience.

4) Technology

You can’t escape the technology these days. It is not going away and will become more prevalent in events and meetings to extend the content of events before and after and during the face to face meeting. Embrace it.  James Cameron’s team utilized some unbelievable technology to design and produce Avatar.  You are dropped into a 3-D world of amazing visuals and excitement.  But Cameron’s team also utilized the web to build community and buzz around the event before it was even released.  Are you dipping your toes in Social Media and the web for your events or conferences?  Are you keeping up to date on the new technology to educate and engage in your sessions?  What about taking audience polls, using video and animations to provide for all types of learning? Always searching for new technologies is so important. Especially to engage younger audiences. The are rapidly going to be your audiences soon. So start experimenting.

Are you thinking about a mobile application for smart phones? Games for mobile devices?  How about a game for all the gaming consoles homes these days? Getting the budget to produce these types of media for your event might be out of reach but it will get cheaper.  Good thing about many of these new tools is they are updatable.  Maybe you could use it year round. Ramp up before the next meeting with updates to the technological tools. Might be a great way to engage audiences. Think about included twitter feeds, audio, video podcasts, streaming and community forums.  My friend Gary Rosenzweig  has been making games for all sorts of companies.  What a great way to have your attendees learn your content.  Build a game around it! Embrace technology.

5) Social Media and the Internet-

Avatar utilized social media and the web to build a community and buzz about the event like seasoned gorilla marketers.  Avatar made these tools focusing on the opening of the movie Avatar to be a can’t miss event.  You can use these same tools below for your event or conference and most are free.  Your costs will be the time build strategy, the community and keeping them alive by being there engaging and listening to your event or meetings community.  I know it will pay dividends for you.  Most of all, experiment with different strategies. Many new companies are becoming specialists in this area for events. I heard some very cool things from a company called Velvet Chainsaw (Jeff Hurts new employer)

this week that are moving in the direction of providing solutions for events and conferences in this new area.

What did Avatar exactly do via Social Media?

Facebook page: Facebook is rapidly changing to fit your business needs. They have new updated features making it very easy for your attendees to engage and interact around your event.  Plus unlike most other web tools everybody seems to be on Facebook from your grandma to your 12 year old.  Avatar has 700k members that James Cameron’s team engages with.  Last year David Merman Scott had an excellent post about a conference that utilized Facebook to increase attendance. 

 Twitter page:  Is a newly adopted event technology and a great way to connect with your audience to get them spreading your message.  Make sure you have a conference hashtag and is it available on all web and printed materials so your audience can start the conversation as soon as possible.

 Webcasts: James Cameron teamed up with MTV/Facebook to use a webcast where questions were submitted by a virtual audience and James Cameron and some of the stars were interviewed.   Are you doing pre conference webcasts, podcasts, videocasts to start engagement with your audience?  Build the community this way. Have a few webcasts to build awareness and engagement. They are a great way to listen to your audience and have a two-way communications channel to start testing your events story, and make sure you are on the right path.

 Live Streaming: One very cool thing is utilizing free streaming technology.  Avatar used the free service UStream for the red carpet premiere of the movie so fans could feel the excitement live.  Think about streaming your event to attendees who cannot attend.  This will build your attendance if it is a good event because people will want to be there in person. Trust me, nobody would like to sit in front of a computer for a whole event instead of actually attending. So build use it to build awareness and community.  Many have chat rooms attached to the service so make sure you interact with the virtual audience. Some live streaming methods: iphone, Quik, Justintv, livestream, vivu.tv. Ask your production company about ways you can do this to get the quality you are looking for. Many paid options are out there also which buys you more quality and piece of mind.

6) Avatars are blue but green people are also needed-

One of Avatars messages is environmental destruction.  I don’t want to write any spoilers in case you haven’t seen the movie but just don’t take from the city you are visiting. Or in Avatars case, the planet you are visiting for your event or meeting.  Don’t fly in with your big carbon footprint, extra large shoes and trash the city you are holding your conference or meeting in.  Be as green as possible. Community service is always a great way to give back. In the movie Avatar character played by Sigourney Weaver is trying to do this with the Navi people.  You already know to reduce your carbon footprint, recycle, use local foods, turn off air conditioning in ballrooms at night. (and your hotel room when you leave it) Water stations instead of plastic bottles etc. If you want some tips on this contact Johanna Walsh or Midori Connolly who are my green people friends. I am constantly learning from them both. And they both live here on earth.

Some other ideas (not Avatar related) 

If your meeting or event is corporate having a Linkedin group is a good idea. Flickr which is an image based community is also a great way drive traffic to your event.  Plus a great place for your attendees to find pictures from past events and current ones.  Make sure you have a YouTube channel— YouTube is the second most popular search engine on the internet.  I heard recently from Brett Bumeter that Google search is reading the titles in videos now.  So think about putting as much content on your free channel on Youtube as you can.  A great way for your community to find more information and get educated and informed about your event.  Remember use the conference #hashtag. Hav it on everything print collatoral to email signatures.  Another huge add is community based software that can be attached to your site.  MPI uses Pathable.com and a conference I recently attended PCMA in Dallas Crowdvine was fully utilized.  They are great ways to engage your audience. You can make direct connections to other attendees, start conversations, and work out your schedule.

So in closing this out hopefully you will take some of these tools and build on ideas to infuse story, emotion, environmental experiences, event technology, social media to build community, education  and engagement in your upcoming events.   Maybe take some risks like James Cameron did with technology and story. It seems to be paying off for him.  He spent 500 million to make the Avatar movie.  He had a 232 Million dollar opening weekend and it made one billion dollars by the end of 2009.  I think it is the highest grossing film of all time at the time of this posting.

What if you were able to have a 500 million budget for your next meeting? (or 500 Thousand?)  What risks would you take?  Iove to hear if you have used any of these tools at your event or meeting?

Maybe come tell me in person next week at EventCamp Feb 6th in New York City at the Roger Smith Hotel?

Should be an awesome time learn, share and converse about social media, event technology and the innovative concepts we all want our events and meetings to utilize!

Also, go see Avatar. If you need someone to go with you call me. I would love to see it again.

Cheers!

Mike

Summary: A virtual journey to some of the most incredible places on the planet for corporate events and sales incentive trips. They're also perfect for galas, weddings & parties. Destinations include Sweden, Japan, Malaysia, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. 

10 Super Cool Ideas for Corporate Events Venues & Incentive Travel Destinations

Photo: Absolut Ice Bar, Stockholm

Running out of ideas for unique corporate event venues and incredible destinations for sales incentive trips? It's a big, beautiful world out there. The possibilities are endless. Just pick a corner of the world, sit, back, and relax. Take our virtual tour to preview what you'll experience when you're ready to hop on a plane. Even, if you can't go, we hope that this journey through cyberspace will spark your creativity. After that, it should be easier to come up with ideas for super cool locations near you.

If you enjoy reading about these ideas, please spread the word. Tweet about it.  Stumble Upon it. Please take a minute to add your comments about some of your cool ideas for corporate event venues and travel destinations. What cool places have you used or dreamed of using?

Please note, this exploration is intended to be for relaxation and fun. We have not been paid to promote any of these locations. As our goal is not promotional, some of these videos were created by visitors. Accordingly, they may not have slick production values.  Sometimes, it's of value to experience a location as captured by visitors to get a sense of their spirit of fun and awe. All of these venues have websites and most have promotional kits with DVDs if you're ever interested in showcasing them for a client.

If you want your team to experience an ultimate event at an incredible destination, you could have your next corporate event.....

1. In an Ice Hotel or at an Ice Bar (Sweden, Canada, Japan)

They last for a few months every year as weather conditions permit. Then, like Frosty the Snowman, they're gone again until next year.

2. In a Castle (France)

3. In a Tropical Fantasy (Jamaica)

Photo: The Enchanted Gardens, Jamaica

"But it can't be done." you say. "It's January, I'm in Montreal and I don't have the budget to fly my team to Jamaica." Notice the snow on the ground at the beginning of this next clip and think again....

...in Germany too

4. In a Palace (Abu Dhabi)

5. In the Desert (Dubai)

6. At a Borgo (Italy)

7. At a Winery (Canada)

8. At a Resort with an Onsen in the Japanese Alps (Japan)

....or closer to Tokyo. Take a peek.

9. In the Sky (International)

10. Above the Clouds in Genting Highlands (Malaysia)

Click for Aerial View of Genting Highands

Coming Soon: Under the Water at the Hypropolis Hotel (Dubai)

So where in the world do YOU want to go for your next corporate event?

Photo Credit: Kasallek - Absolut Ice Bar, Stockholm

Photo Credit: Executive Oasis International - The Enchanted Gardens, Ocho Rios, Jamaica

It is the most revolutionary way of Social Ticketing... all you have to do is register your Event in www.twicketer.com, they will provide you the URL to distribute it through twitter, facebook, my space, etc. You can sell or buy tickets.  The purchase can be made with PayPal or a Credit card and it is also possible to buy tickets for your friends, each of you will receive a link in your smartphones, as easy as that!. At the event security will check your smartphone as an ID and validate your ticket.

Features
- No need of scanning hardware
- You can distribute mobile tickets via your printed marketing materials if signing in at www.textmarks.com
- No cost, only a minimum service fee is added depending on the ticket price.
- The ticket buyer will receive a ticket back up via e-mail.
- You can buy more than one ticket, just provide the mobile numbers.
- They don't keep CC records and their system is the most secure.
- You can sell tickets through your brand.
- Twicketer will make the design of your mobile tickets.

Coming Soon
In the next future you'll be able to purchase tickets with Google Checkout and Amazon Mobile. Besides you'll be able to customize your mobile tickets design.

Event Planning Highlights: 10 Most Memorable Events of the Decade

Summary: From Beijing to Brussels to London to the virtual world, here is a look back at the 10 most outstanding special events of the 1st decade of the 21st century plus a bonus....the opening ceromonies for Dubai's Burj Khalifa.

Re-live the most magical special events of the 1st decade of the 21st century

What makes an event exceptional? Some events have high production values and special effects that are so stunning that they practically take your breath away. Other events are considered to be outstanding because they are pivotal. They represent a truly innovative approach, usher in a new era or mark an important historical event. Events that bring people around the world together to share an inspiring and emotionally engaging experience are definitely considered to be outstanding. The most significant events are those that raise awareness and funds for various worthwhile causes such as the fight against poverty, hunger and disease. While no 2 individuals are likely to have identical top 10 lists, we can probably reach a consensus about a number of events that were memorable and well executed.

 Here are my picks for top 10 events of the decade. Please add your comments and let me know if you agree with my list. Also, please share any events that aren't listed that would make your shortlist of top special events of the decade.

If you like this post, please let us know by favouriting it, Stumbling Upon it and re-tweeting it. That way we'll know to keep more like this coming.

Bonus: Burj Khalifa Inauguration Ceremonies in Dubai (2010)

This spectacular display of music, fountains, fireworks, and the official dedication of the Burj Khalifa by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum missed qualifying for our list of top 10 events of the decade by 4 days. This event was of such a magnitude that we'd be remiss if we waited until 2020 to bring it to you. Pierre Marcout, CEO and Artistic Director of record-breaking event architect company Prisme International and his team are to be congratulated for successfully designing and executing this unforgettable event.

• Virtual Time Capsule of Burj Khalifa from start to finish with videos, photos, facts, and figures.

Dubai's Burj Khalifa explodes from top to bottom in a dazzling display of fireworks during its official inauguration ceremony.

Enjoy:

Longer Version in Electrifying High Definition - The BEST Coverage I've Seen

Celebration with commentary in Arabic

10. Slumdog Millionaire's Sweep of the Academy Awards (2009)

9. Dinner in the Sky Inaugural Event (2006)

• World's Most Extravagant Meals

En français

In English

8. Opening Ceremony for the Atlantis Hotel in Dubai (2008)

7. Millenium New Year's Celebrations Around the Globe - A Moving Televised Event (2000)

6. Opening Ceremonies for Beijing Olympics (2008)

5. Prince's Charity Birthday Bash at Wembly in Memory of Princess Diana (2007)

4. Bono's Charity Events Especially U2INSL War Child Benefit Event in Second Life (2009)

3. Cisco Systems Virtual Sales Conference (2009)

Cisco Systems slashes budget by US$1 billion with virtual global sales conference

Cisco Systems' first ever virtual global sales conference brought together 19000 sales professionals from 89 countries, spanning 24 time zones in 600 Cisco virtual conference rooms.

• How Cisco Transformed Global Sales Event into a Virtual Experience
• Cisco Global Sales Meeting Uses Gaming for Engagement
• Gaming and Virtual Reality at Cisco’s Annual Sales Meeting

2. Trip by Dennis Tito - First Space Tourist (2001)

• Space Tourism

1. President Barack Obama's Inauguration Celebrations (2009)

Photo Credit: Opening Ceremony, 2008 Olympics, Beijing ♥ China ♥ guccio

It's becoming an yearly tradition to review LeWeb. Mainly because it is the most significant Tech event in Europe. Great personalities in the Tech/Social Media scene flock to Paris for inspirational talks, in a rather dull event format.

I'll be quick, bear with me.

Ustream FTW!

- I followed LeWeb via the fantastic Ustream channel. I guess this is also my first remark. Ustream kicked butts. It was hours of flawless livestream with no interruption. See it yourself from the tweets. There were an average of 3000 viewers on the channel and 200K uniques watched videos live. Videos are available on the channel for you to enjoy.

- I was significantly upset about the lack of integration with slides. Since the event was nothing revolutionary as far as the concept was concerned, I was tied to watching the slides to make sense of what was discussed. That brought to my attention the first takeaway: Integrate speaker and slides on your stream. That is if you really need slides. I don't like slides. No secret there.

Twitter

- I loved the fact users organized themselves to tweet. Major example being friend @farhan who created @ConfFar account for the event to avoid flooding the stream with tweets. Great idea as tweets from events are becoming an issue. It's simply not interesting if you are not following the event.

- I also loved http://livetweeting.com/ - Live, crowdsourced translation of tweets by volunteers

- I hated the lack of communication with the organizers. It was not told anywhere on the main website what was the main tag, #leweb or #leweb09. Or at least I wasn't able to find it, which is sort of a failure. When I asked for the tag, the @leweb account was silent and did not reply to me. Actually I haven't noticed them being active at all during the event. I remember asking the same question at The Next Web and got 3 replies from the organizers in real time.

Citizen Journalism

- If you think about attendees as such, you are not getting it. People attending your event are reporters of the event. True evangelists with your augmented audience. You need to empower them and channel communication. You'll achieve that by clearly communicating your online tools, ie hashtags, tags, backchannel.

- Liveblogging is dead. I really don't see the purpose of liveblogging anymore. Twitter is the substitute.

IPhone App

Stellar! I loved it. You could watch the live stream and tweets. What more can I say? Oh wait, it was free.

Top 5 Speeches

On a content perspective here are the best videos on Social Media, loved them!

5. Chris Brogan

Can't see? Click here

4. Tim Ferriss

Can't see? Click here

3. Chris Pirillo

Can't see? Click here

2. Gay Vaynerchuck

Can't see? Click here - Plese note comments on conferences toward the end and great post interview by @ConfBasics

1. Her Majesty Queen Rania

Can't see? Click here - She blowed me away with her 140 character slides on top of a very powerful message.

Online conference eCommunities were the rage in 2009

Did you offer one for your annual meeting attendees? I did.

So what are they? Online eCommunities are virtual communities of people that primarily interact via the Internet for social, professional, educational or other purposes.

Online Conference eCommunities have become a supplemental form of communication between people who are attending the same conference. The registrants of the face-to-face event use special online social software to connect with each other.

Online Conference eCommunity users can:

• Create profiles
• Connect with others attending the conference before, during and after the conference online
• IM
• Participate in text-based chat rooms and forums
• Schedule itineraries
• Setup times to meet with exhibitors or vendors
• View live or archived presentations
• Share photos from the face-to-face event
• View venue and tradeshow floor plans
• Setup appointments with exhibitors and vendors
• And a host of other features

Many online conference eCommunities integrate with social networking platforms like blogs, Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.

From free to low-cost eCommunities like MeetUp and Ning, to customized features of Social Collective and Zerista, there are ample opportunities for you to provide conference attendee engagement experiences through an online conference eCommunity. If you are thinking about adding one to your 2010 Annual Meeting or Conference attendee offerings, here are 14 online conference eCommunity providers for you to consider.

BizBash SCHED

Offers Facebook and Twitter integration, attendee communication interface, conference scheduler, detailed session and speaker information, mobile interface, video and audio integration and more. Not as robust as other eCommunities but includes some unique conference organizer features. Clients include BizBash Expo & Awards, BlogWorld 2009 and Exploit Labour Conference.

CrowdVine

Offers Facebook and Twitter integration, blog aggregation, customizable conference eCommunity website, attendee itinerary planner, attendee profiles, IM, speaker and session rating system, attendee communication interface, mobile interface, third-party registration support of EventBrite, RegOnline and Laser Registration, and more. Clients include PCMA 2010, Web 2.0 and IA Summit.

eventVue

Offers conference attendee registration package through partnership with Acteva, Eventbrite and RegOnline, social media integration with blogs, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and YouTube, customizable conference micro-website (full conference website), attendee profiles, IM, embedded video and audio, mobile interface, and more. Clients include Defrag, Mashable’s US Summer Tour 2008, and Mass Technology Leadership Conference.

iCohere

An often over-looked platform that is well known in eLearning circles but lesser known in the events industry. Provides opportunity for a full, exclusive, online virtual conference complete with attendee registration, eCommerce, attendee profiles, IM, live audio, video and Webinar integration, virtual vendor showrooms, blog feature and more. Limited customization for look and feel as compared to other eCommunities. [We currently use iCohere at my work for our exclusive walled industry eCommunity for our nonprofit members.] Clients include ASAE, National Defense University, US Forest Service and WorldVision.

MeetUp

Offers a turnkey event attendee registration package, eCommerce, social media network integration, customizable border for micro-website, attendee profiles, IM, message board, and more. Mostly used by local self-organized groups.

NFi MemberFuse

Used more for member eCommunities than conference communities but can be customized for conferences. Integrates with Association Management Systems like Avectra, offers RSS integration, customizable eCommunity website, user profiles, IM, attendee communication interface, resource library, and more. Clients include MPI WEC09, NMC09 and OmniPress Conference 2.0.

Ning

Offers full integration with social media networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, customizable eCommunity website, user profiles, IM, surveys and pools, user communication interface, mobile accessibility, and third-party event and registration support through widgets.

Omnipress’ Conference 2.0

Built on the Pathable platform, Offers Facebook , LinkedIn and Twitter integration, customizable conference eCommunity website, attendee itinerary planner, session handouts and slides, attendee profiles, IM, surveys and polls, attendee communication interface, mobile interface, third-party registration support of EventBrite, RegOnline, eTouches, Certain or Cvent, and more. Clients include American Public Health Association, DAC and IEEE.

Pathable

Offers Facebook , LinkedIn and Twitter integration, customizable conference eCommunity website, session handouts and slides, attendee profiles, IM, surveys and polls, attendee communication interface, mobile interface, third-party registration support of EventBrite, RegOnline, eTouches, Certain or Cvent, and more. Clients include MPI WEC09, NMC09 and OmniPress Conference 2.0.

Social Collective

Offers a turnkey conference attendee registration package, eCommerce, Facebook and Twitter integration, customizable conference micro-website (full conference website), attendee itinerary planner, attendee profiles, IM, exhibitor and sponsor fan pages, crowdsourcing application, speaker rating system, detailed session and speaker information, embedded video and audio, mobile interface, eMarketing capabilities and more. (Yes, this is the conference platform that I used in 2009 and plan to use again in 2010.) Clients include IAEE, SxSW 2009 and SxSW 2010.

Twubs Conference Suite

Integrated with Facebook, Flickr and Twitter, operates as a conference aggregator for several social network streams, attendee profiles. customizable site, live event audio and presentation streaming, and ability to use moderate Twitter hashtag tweet for chats, questions and image magnification. Clients include International Foodservice Distributors Association, Microsoft Tech-Ed LA, and TEDTalks.

Yuku

Free community platform that includes user profiles, chat, photo galleries, polls, community calendars, in-line video embedding, blogs, RSS feeds, customizable skins, and more. Similar to message boards.

Wild Apricot

Offers a turnkey conference attendee registration package, eCommerce, Facebook and Twitter integration, customizable conference micro-website (full conference website), Digg-like rating feature, online fundraising, membership management, attendee profiles, IM, detailed session and speaker information, and more. Clients include GMIC, SITE Chicago and Healthy Start, Healthy Future’s Life With A Baby.

Zerista

Offers customizable conference micro-website (full conference website), detailed session and speaker information, attendee itinerary planner, attendee profiles, IM, exhibitor and attendee scheduler, exhibitor virtual booth, embedded video and audio for virtual attendance, integrated webcasts, virtual tradeshow, interactive venue maps, interactive tradeshow floor, integrated Google maps, and more. Clients include Democratic National Convention 2008, SxSW 2009 and SxSW 2010.

I am sure there are other eCommunity platforms as well. Which have you used?

The following is a blog post based on a presentation I gave to a round table of Marketing Directors for large event companies in London.

The events industry needs a bit of a shake up. Social Media are making things terrible for traditional environments. Change is key. Only by changing the traditional approach social media can bring benefits to the industry.

This presentation could not have been published without the invaluable help/inspiration of @jeffhurt @samueljsmith @spkrinteractive @iandavmcg @michaelmccurry .

I am sure you read and document yourself a lot. The imperative or the buzzword is you need to do SM. I guess the question would be why should you?

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/untitlism/

Probably the best reason would be that it is highly likely that your target is using social media as we speak. The enormous growth of Facebook, twitter and LinkedIn is giving businesses the chance to reach more people, better and in real time. That changes the way we market and the way we budget.

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/limbic/

We all thought that. I am gonna make millions with little effort and with 1/10 of the budget. So we jump on social media like a starved lion on a gazelle. We start broadcasting and shooting out as many promotional messages as possible. We cover all the possible networks and spam thousands of people to earn some attention. At the end of the day this is how you do it!

Anger and backlash are the likely results. The Habitat mistake showed us that above all examples. Nobody likes to be sold at. Reality is nobody cares about how cool you are. What we care about is relationships, what we care about is sharing, learning, discovering, innovating.

I can’t tell you what ROI will be but I can surely tell you what your Return on Inactivity will be - quite devastating as it is quite late in some instances.

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/teacherafael

Perception is changing and fast. If I get used to a behaviour, I expect to see it taken care of wherever I mingle. If I am used to recycling home I expect recycling facilities at the events I go to. Otherwise it’s a cognitive dissonance, which means frustration.

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctabu

We spend lots of time on the web, in the UK 41% of web users look at a social networking site daily. It’s part of our lives and we are definitely not developers or geeks.

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/gre

So if social media are not taken care of, if you don’t offer spaces for your attendees to find their friends, if you don’t communicate with them through the channels they use, this is probably the end result of your event. Frustration and dissatisfaction.

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/

So let’s have a look at trends and developments in the events industry in relation to social media.

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/meddygarnet/

Events as we’ve always perceived them are a like a hockey stick shaped graph. Pretty much boring and uneventful until we reach the hype, the event. This is when everything happens, this is when things cannot go wrong, this is when consumption is intangible. And then it’s all gone until next year when we’ll start all over again.

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/sgirolimetto/

This is the effect of social media on events. Peaks. Attention is continuous and the overall experience substitutes the hyper-excitement of the ‘one-off’ The events starts well before the day when people meet face to face. It is not location based but it happens all over the world. It is tangible thanks to online discussion. It is linked to the next event in the same way two mountains are connected in a mountain range. Once the event is over you have the community that continues to talk and attracts new players to the game.

Photos by http://www.flickr.com/photos/intersectionconsulting/ and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/haagsuitburo/

This is a terrific infographic about how brands are tackling the ‘new marketing’. Marketing people look at what is out there. They Plan by listening, they engage by creating content and publishing with web2.0 platforms. They promote their content and review for corrections.

What happens for events is quite similar. After listening attendees should be gathered in a community, these are few examples. Marketers then populate communities and web 2.0 tools to push their proposition. Then the party starts, the events happen, everything can be then reviewed for next year.

I chose Eventvue, Pathable and Ning for easiness of sign up through Ning ID - Facebook login - Twitter connect - Open ID. There tons out there and I am sure you'll find them in comments.

Photo by http://cargocollective.com/learnsomethingeveryday/

It’s simply not possible, that is it. You can’t keep your eyes open, you can’t control your brand, you can’t control your event. If Social Media were a sneeze you couldn’t keep your eyes open. The Harvard Business Review asked why brands are so reluctant to let it go, what do they have to hide? You have to let it go and there are a number of ways to do that.

Here are some examples on time budget investment:

 

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/earcos

Get the most out of speakers and try to involve them into the conversation. Invite them to join the online platforms you set up. Fetch their content from blogs and publish it for attendees. Get them to mingle with people at the event. Set up rooms for that. Get your audience to rate them, share their slides on your platform for the use of the world.

Here are few examples and case studies. Slideshare, Keynote Tweet and Powerpoint Twitter Tools are great to involve speakers with the community. SXSW does great in getting the attendees to vote for panels and speakers. Great way to involve speakers and generate buzz from the Word of Mouth Supergenious Conference.

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/17258892@N05

Give voice to your attendees. Let them talk about your event. Set up tags on flickr, twitter and for blogs. Collect the conversation and promote it online for the benefits of potential prospects for the next year. Get someone to talk to them during the event online as you do offline.

Here are some examples and great case studies.

- Cisco GSX
- TedX Amsterdam
- BlizzardCon
- LikeMinds
- Ecomm (Google Wave at Conferences)
- Camper experiment to decide for its store design getting customers to vote at an event.

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/bombeador/

If you have to give control away make sure you are ready for it. People online speak their mind and if they don’t like what they see, they are going to talk very bad about you. It looks like an oxymoron for some, it is quite straight forward to me.

Some great tools for Twitter moderation:

- Twubs
- Paratweet
- Wiffiti

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickwheeleroz/

Producing unique experiences, engaging, innovating always pay back. I have never read anything negative online about Ted. I have never read anything negative about user generated events.

Some examples of those doing it differently:

- LikeMinds
- Coachella (iPhone app, Water program, Layaways, Choose your artist Lineup program)
- TED
- PechaKucha Night

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/darwinbell/

Grow and talk to the 10% of people who upload content. Taking care of the mass is also important as the percentage of people uploading will grow. But for the time being your focus should be the evangelists, those who cared enough to talk about you. Whether positively or negatively. This is going to allow a smoother control release process.

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/travelinlibrarian/

If you have questions, comments or want to add examples or tools please comment!

Filed under  //   Event Technology   Innovative Concepts   Social Media  

Towards Crowdsourcing Management for Online Communities & Online Groups

No one has ever come up with a perfect model for managing online communities. With the recent closing of Geocities and the explosive growth of online groups for event planners, it's time to pause, reflect on lessons learned and develop a more inclusive, bottom up approach to management. Could crowdsourcing be the wave of the future?

Ever since the advent of the first bulletin boards, management of online groups has been a challenge. As a result of the ease in the proliferation of spam, the risk of an online group devolving into a gloried classifieds section is high. Preventing discussions from degenerating into shouting matches or communities from being inundated with pornography and other inappropriate content is also a challenge. A number of online group management models have been tried. To date, no perfect model for managing online groups has ever been created. Let's look at some of the appraoches that have been attempted. What have we learned along the way? How can crowdsourcing lead to a lighter, more flexible and more inclusive approach to group management.

Geocities Community Leaders:

I was part of the network of community leaders at Geocities, one of the original virtual communities. Geocities was created in 1994 by David Bohnett and John Rezner. By1998, Geocities was the third most visited Internet site.

GeoCities to Shutdown; What Was GeoCities, You Ask?

Now that Yahoo! has pulled the plug on Geocities, Reocities is attempting to salvage and restore the original Geocities content to create a perpetual archive.

Reocities: One Man's Quest to Bring Geocities Back from the Dead.

The graphical interface, innovative for its time, consisted of a number of neighbourhoods with blocks, just like any residential community. In mid-1995, the original 6 neighbourhoods were created. To encourage interaction among homesteaders and create true virtual communities, over time community centres, chat, and discussion boards were added. Each neighbourhood in this virtual world was named after a location in the real world and given a specific focus. For example, Eureka, where I used to "reside", was for entrepreneurs and Augusta was for websites that focused on golf.

The free websites hosted at Geocities were called homesteads and they were to be strictly non-promotional. However, it quickly became apparent that some "homesteaders" (as they were called) were pushing the envelope and violating the "content guidelines" of the community by remote loading, as well as creating promotional websites and sites with violent or pornographic content:

GeoCities Member Terms of Service and Page Content Guidelines

To deal with this, Geocities formed a volunteer corps called Community Leaders. Each Community Leader was given an in-depth training programme and assigned a group of "blocks" within their community to patrol and discussion boards to monitor. Reocities is not the first to archive Geocities content. In fact, through archive.org's "Wayback Machine", the amount of information that has been preserved in incredible.

GeoCities Special Collection 2009: Saving a Historical Record of GeoCities

You can travel back in time and still see the original team of which I was a member:

GeoCities Eureka Community Leaders

and details of about the Community Leader programme:

Geocities Community Leaders

Eureka Community Leader Application Form

This model worked really well. There was a sense of community, ownership, and inclusion. Members of the community were provided with a form to report "content guideline violations". Owners of websites that didn't meet the "content guidelines" were given coaching and tools by the Community Leaders to improve their sites. If violations were severe, the sites were deleted and the vacant homesteads were made available for new members. The model wasn't perfect and it was a challenge for Community Leaders to keep up with some of the spam on discusssion boards and porn and phishing sites that seemed to be constantly springing up. Still, there is a lot that we can learn from this early model.

The sale of Geocities to Yahoo! for $2.87 billion dollars in 1999, lead to the eventual demise of the Geocities Community Leader programme. Yahoo! closed Geocities on October 26, 2009.

Yahoo tangles with GeoCities volunteer community leaders

Moderators:

LISTSERV, and usenet newsgroups, from which discussion boards evolved, used moderators. All posts were approved by  a moderator and spam was weeded out.  Yahoo! Groups and Google Groups had the option of "moderating" new members until they  proved themselves or putting members back on "moderation if they violated the rules of the community. These approaches eliminated spam but, because postings was not "real-time", the interaction between users was slow and significantly reduced using this type of technology.

Discussion boards are online communities with specific themes. On discussion boards, members typically create an avatar and a user name to ensure their anonymity. To access a discussion board, every new member must agree to its "Terms of Service", a set of rules that are to govern their conduct on the board.  As they grow and develop, discussion boards begin to function like real communities with all of the positive and negative aspects of any human ogranization. Due to the anonymity, cliques, power elites and scapegoats eventually emerge. Arguing, tension and conflict plague many discussion boards. Some communities have get-togethers for members in different areas of the community and eventually, the anonymity breaks down when information about the identify of other members is passed around in a clandestine manner. On some boards, conflicts have even escalated to the point that members have called the boss of rival members to report them for spending time on the board during business hours.

A key difference between discussion boards and LISTSERV and usent newsgroups, is that postings are real-time. The moderator model on dicussion boards was developed to deal with spam, online stalking, harrassment, insults, and other inappropriate conduct on discussion boards. There are different areas or sections of the board that focus on specific topics. Most discussion boards have volunteer administrators who have final say and volunteer moderators for each area of the board. Members who have concerns about content can "blow the whistle", flag a post or send a confidential e-mail to the moderators. They delete all spam and inappropriate content. Moderators also keep an eye on discussions. They can warn, suspend and ban members who violate the terms of service. The main challenge with the moderation model is that there is often controversy and tension when content is removed. Until suspended or banned, any member can go to the feedback section and create a lot of drama.

Group Managers

The group management model is typically used on websites such as LinkedIn that have a network of groups, each with a specific focus. Groups can be built around common interests, professions, countries, or companies. Typically, members join groups using their own names. This curbs some of the negative behaviour that is rampant on discussion boards. On LinkedIn, initially, each group had an owner who started and managed the community. As groups grew, LinkedIn added functionality so that Group Owners could appoint Group Managers to assist them. Based on the clear set of posted guidelines and rules that have been developed in consultation with group members, Group Managers are the ones who make the call about what is acceptable content and what is spam . Group Managers are empowered to approve members, feature discussions, and, starting in mid-2009, create sub-groups. To deal with spam and inappropriate content, Group Managers can:

• post reminders
• write to the group members who aren't following the posting guidelines
• delete threads and individual posts
• temporarily remove members (suspend)
• permanently remove and block members (ban)

The advantage of the Group Management model is that a lot of the moderation goes on behind the scenes. For this reason, the tension, conflict and drama that plagues discussion boards is eliminated. It is highly effective and can virtually eliminate spam. The downside is that no group member who have been issued a warning, suspended or banned is ever going to be happy about that. There can be a very strong backlash in the form of disgruntled former members engaging in highly vindictive behaviour such as posting negative comments about Group Owners and Managers on blogs and other websites or tweeting it on Twitter. This has happened in the forums at dating sites and a number of online communities. Individuals can't afford to risk having their reputation tarnished in this manner, potentially jeopradizing their livelihoods. For this reason and demanding work commitments, fewer and fewer individuals are willing to volunteer to moderate or manage groups.

Crowdsourcing for Online Communities: The Shape of Things to Come?

On his Crowdsourcing blog, Jeff Howe, a contributing editor at Wired Magazine, defines crowdsourcing as "the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call". You can hear more about what Jeff Howe has to say about crowdsourcing here:

When applied to online communities, it means that all group members share equally in community management. With crowdsourcing, it is the members of the community who drive the content. They define what content is appropriate and flag content that should be removed. The role of the Group Manager is simply to execute the collective decisions of the community.

New technology is making crowdsourcing possible even in large communities. Crowdsourcing is already being used in LinkedIn's Q&A section. Content is completely member driven. LinkedIn members have been given the tools to create questions, respond to questions and flag and remove content. Similar technology could easily be applied to LinkedIn Groups or any online community. Until the functionality is available to automate this process, it can be handled manually. One of the groups I belong to on LinkedIn, Event Planning and Management, launched crowdsourcing on November 13, 2009. It will be interesting to see how things unfold as our community moves away from the group management model and makes the transition to crowdsourcing.

Is crowdsourcing the wave of the future for online community management? Will this approach make communities more accountable to members? Will it help online communities navigate around some of the pitfalls that were inherent in other online group management models? Most important, will it create a bottom up rather than a top down approach to virtual community management? Only time will tell.

Photo Credit: opendemocracy