On Dec. 15, EXPOhosted the industry’s first virtual trade show and conference on event technologies. Powered by InXpo, EXPOTECH Virtual was a full-day event with keynotes and breakout sessions, an exhibit hall, a library chock-full of content and a networking lounge where attendees chatted about the industry’s hottest technologies, the pros and cons of social networking, mobile applications and more.

Couldn’t make the event? No worries — you can still check out the content at www.expotechshow.com/virtual. Here are a sprinkling of key takeaways from the hottest keynotes and sessions.

Keynote: The Revolution of Rising Media Expectations: Live Events in an Age of Linked, Mashable and Social Experiences

Speaker: Jack Powers, Director of New York’s IN3.ORG, the International Informatics Institute

The Skinny: Events and media need to evolve to meet the expectations of customers and prospects who live in a world where technology enables them to get what they want — any time they want it.

THE TAKEAWAYS

Get creative. Technology is improving at lightning speed, yet many event producers and speakers are still stuck using PowerPoint presentation tools. Consider spicing things up with video or embedding multimedia into your next presentation. Or consider a round of Pecha Kucha presentations, which use a lighting-fast format to highlight 20 slides at 20 seconds each.

Understand unconferences. Unstructured sessions led by attendees can work as part of a larger, structured conference, but shouldn’t be adapted in lieu of a rich, content-focused education track. Why? “It’s an abdication of event responsibility,” Powers says. “If you’re the thought leader, where is the leadership?”

Try a conference saloon. A conference “saloon” can give attendees a new way to experience presentations without diverging too much from the traditional conference format. A saloon, which features food and drink and live presentations on flat screens in a large room, gives attendees the opportunity to 1) either watch the presentation live in the same room as the presenter, or 2) retreat to the saloon where they can move between presentations and comment on what they’re watching with other attendees.

Session: Virtual Events: Are you a believer?

Speakers: Eric Biener, Vice President, Streaming Media and Network Sales, Nielsen Business Media; Malcolm Lotzof, CEO, InXpo; Brent Arslaner, Vice President, Unisfair

The Skinny: Donna Sanford, Publisher and Editor of EXPO, played devil’s advocate with three virtual event experts. The panel tackled organizers’ thoughts and concerns about entering the virtual space, including issues such as attracting an audience, keeping them engaged and selling space.

THE TAKEAWAYS

The concern: “I don’t know how I can sell a virtual booth when I’m having enough trouble selling physical space.” The resolution: Integrate the booth with other opportunities (either within the virtual show or in a physical event or elsewhere) and highlight the online-only opportunities. “It’s the communication opportunity that you’re providing prospects with a virtual platform — and the opportunity to continue that dialogue after the show’s over,” Biener says.

The concern: “I don’t think my attendees will ‘get’ virtual.” The resolution: When virtual events entered the scene, they were mostly used by the media and high-tech industries. Now, as more and more people have gotten used to the technology, other industries — including consumer packaged goods, financial services and retail — have hopped on board. “Companies in the industries that would be considered technological laggards are embracing virtual events,” Arslaner says.

The concern: “What if my attendees only come for the education and don’t want to check out the exhibit hall?” The resolution: Work with exhibitors to make sure that what they have in the booth is valuable to attendees, and not something they could find just by going to the Web site. Think about event-specific content like videos and PDFs, and provide oneon- one opportunities to chat with knowledgeable representatives. Make sure to market that this information will be available to ensure attendees will make a stop at the event. “The more educational the content is, the better,” Lotzof says.

The concern: “How many booths are too many?” The resolution: “Sometimes more isn’t better,” Biener says. “The platforms as they exist today work better with 50, 100 or 150 booths. If you’re marketing to a fixed audience and it’s not consumers, try to think about the bellwether clients who would drive the best interest and try to give your best customers the best ROI opportunities by limiting the number of exhibitors who can be there.”

Session: Defining Your Social Networking Strategy

Speakers: Andy Steggles, COO, Higher Logic; Mark Sylvester, CEO, introNetworks; Cate Salvatore, Communications Director, GLM, a dmg world media business

The Skinny: Designed for organizers who are ready to get their feet wet in social media, this session underscored the importance of defining a strategy, including the benefits and drawbacks of private vs. public networks.

THE TAKEAWAYS

Why social media? Social networks are invaluable because they provide a low-cost way to generate business, listen to your audience, position your show as a marketing partner and be where your customers are, Salvatore says.

Break your strategy into several parts. Salvatore led attendees through the New York International Gift Fair’s (NYIGF) Twitter strategy. At two to five months out, for example, the NYIGF spends time listening and responding to inquiries; and monitors the feed weekly. Not many original tweets are posted at this time. Approximately two months out, staff starts monitoring the feeds daily, and begins posting product launch announcements and industry news and updates. At the show, monitoring goes into overdrive. Staffers are listening and responding to inquiries and posting event announcements as well as links to media coverage of the show. “There’s a very steady stream of information,” Salvatore says.

Private benefits. Thinking about a private social network? One benefit is data collection. On a public network, the most you can get is what you can find from viewing and searching profiles and activity on the network, Sylvester says. On a private network, you control the information. A private network can be tied into registration, immediately inviting new registrants to join.

Think content. Getting attendees to engage in a private social network requires compelling content. Line up industry thought leaders to post and blog. Make sure to stagger the posting so all the activity doesn’t happen right at the beginning of the network’s launch, Steggles advises.

Session: Inside Our Social Networks

Speakers: Lance Fensterman, Vice President, Reed Exhibitions; Eric Wahl, Group Marketing Director, Advanstar Communications; Margaret Core, Director, Sales and Marketing, Conventions and Conferences, Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO)

The Skinny: Three organizers who have been there and done that took attendees through their social networking strategies at their shows, explaining what worked, what didn’t and why.

THE TAKEAWAYS

See what sticks. The upside to the newness of social media as a marketing strategy is that organizers can engage in some experimentation without worrying about long-term detrimental effects. “Use the spaghetti method to see what sticks,” Fensterman says. “There’s a large margin for error in social media. No one knows everything yet.”

Set a goal. Start early, and like every other marketing strategy, set a goal. For social media, one goal could be converting a certain percentage of your audience base to those tools, Wahl says.

Understand the nuances of each tool. Facebook users typically trend young, Wahl notes, and tend to stick to the site, so attempting to drive them elsewhere might be a futile exercise. Instead, consider strategies that push users to a Facebook fan page or group instead of away from the site. Twitter, on the other hand, is a great way to drive traffic elsewhere. Users often post and check out links to media and news stories on the site, so a pushing strategy will be a more organic fit with Twitter.

The media is using social networking in a big way. Even though the number of media representatives at the BIO show dropped from 435 in 2008 to 340 in 2009, the number of media impressions and clips increased. Core attributes the uptick in coverage to the organization’s use of social media tools to connect with reporters covering the show from afar. “The media definitely uses social media tools as a way to get a heads up on story ideas,” Core says. “Don’t overlook the fact that media are early adopters of social media and you can get the word out by using social media proactively.”

Session: Increasing Your Audience — And Revenue — Through Hybrid Events

Speakers: Michael Doyle, Executive Director, Virtual Edge Institute; Jim Parker, CEO, Digitell, Inc.

The Skinny: Thinking about adding a virtual component to your physical event? Experts led attendees through the virtual process, and offered insight on what organizers need to look for when evaluating platforms.

THE TAKEAWAYS

Increasing revenue. Hybrid events offer the opportunity to tie in sponsor and exhibiting packages with the live physical events. Think about how offering virtual as an add-on will increase the exhibitor’s exposure to your target audience and push that angle. Further, exhibitors who can’t attend a physical event can reach attendees with a virtual-only sponsorship or exhibit. From an attendance perspective, Doyle notes that companies are often sending fewer people to the physical event to save money on travel costs. Offering a companion virtual (hybrid) component will allow those at home to get the content online, and the show can still garner the registration fees.

Evaluating options. When evaluating which platform is the best fit for your show, pay special attention to what you can access on the backend. Parker suggests checking to see if the platform includes registration, automated e-mails, restricted access, tutorials and social media components.

Captured content. Whether or not you’re running a virtual component to your physical event, look at how you can capture the content at the show to generate additional revenue. Parker says that capturing and archiving live content for access later will increase the value of the event to attendees, and the fees charged for access will generate more revenue for the show.

EXPOTECH Virtual Top Line Stats
Total unique attendees: 497
Average time spent at show: 3 hours, 22 minutes
Average time spent per booth: 9 minutes, 59 seconds
Average booths attendees visited: 6
Average unique visitors each exhibitor received: 94
Total documents added to trade show bags: 2,055

SNAPSHOT: OTHER CONTENT

Session: Big Ideas and New Opportunities for 2010 and Beyond

Speakers: Nancy Walsh, Executive Vice President, Reed Exhibitions; Peter MacGillivray, Vice President- Events and Communications for the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA); Eric Biener, Vice President, Streaming Media and Network Sales, Nielsen Business Media

The Skinny: An expert panel of industry vets discussed how they’re driving changes in their businesses. The focus: shifting the perspective from “new revenue streams” to “new value propositions.”

Keynote: How Social Media is Changing the Role of Media

Speaker: Michael Brito, Social Media Strategist for Intel

The Skinny: One of the new breed of customerrelations specialists, Brito shared the lessons he’s learned as a social media strategist.

Session: Panel Discussion: My Favorite Technologies

Speakers: Susan Burkhart, Director of Marketing for InfoComm International; Paul Gralier, Vice President for Hall-Erickson; Mike Moreno, Vice President and General Manager, Contemporary Forums

The Skinny: These tech-savvy panelists let attendees in to see what tools they’ve used to drive new revenue, improve efficiencies and enhance the event experience.

Session: Measuring up: How Attendee Analytics Can Change Your Show

Speakers: Dave Fellers, President of EthnoMetrics; Roger Lewis, President of Alliance Tech

The Skinny: You know measurement’s important, but what are you really doing about it? This session delved into several elements of the event experience, showing participants how and why they should measure attendees to make sure the event delivers.