It's All Virtual

Introduction

Spring has sprung, which means that the year’s event schedule is now in full swing.  What’s a topic that’s getting a lot of attention?  Virtual and hybrid events.  In the past few weeks alone, virtual and hybrid events have sprung up as session topics in numerous industry events and  meetings.

International Confex, March 2011, London

International Confex took place March 1-3, 2011 in London.  According to the event’s web site, “More than 12,000 people attended the event to see the latest innovations and services in the events industry.”  The event included the following sessions:

1. “Using virtual worlds to extend reach of events and venues”
2. “What price for technology – why going virtual can wind up costing more than face to face” (Note: “Contrarian” to virtual, but I’d like to hear more)
3. “A master class in blending live with online technology presented in association with Eventia”
4. “Virtual meetings demystified” (featuring my colleague, Chris Meyer of INXPO)

For more information: View the event’s full session agenda.

MTO Summit, March 2011, Chicago

MTO Summit took place March 21-22, 2011 in Chicago.  This event focuses on meeting technology, so it’s no surprise that this year’s Chicago event included a session on virtual events.  The session was titled “How to Make Virtual Events Satisfy Customers and Deliver Profitability,” and featured the following speakers:

1. Warwick Davies, The Event Mechanic!
2. Michael Doyle, Virtual Edge Institute
3. Kenji Haroutunian, Outdoor Nielsen Expositions Sports Group
4. Michael Kushner, UBM
5. Stephen Lieber, HIMSS

For more information: View the session listing.

A summary of the session from BizBash: “MTO Summit Addresses Value of Virtual Events, Future of Mobile Apps”

Exhibitor 2011, March 2011, Las Vegas

Exhibitor 2011, now in its 23rd year, kicks into gear this week in Las Vegas.  On March 31st, Mike Mraz will lead a session titled “The NEW Tools for Trade Show Success”.  One of the topics Mike will cover during this 90 minute session is “The appeal of virtual trade shows”.

For more information: View the session listing.

EastVirtual Event Workshop, May 2011, Washington D.C.

It’s nice to see workshops 100% focused around virtual event strategies and production.  Earlier this month, Virtual Edge Institute announced a Digital Event Strategist Certification (my thoughts on the certification).

The EastVirtual Event Workshop is a “one-day, face-to-face educational seminar,” that “helps associations go from little or no virtual event knowledge to knowing the first steps for building a 30-day implementation strategy.” It’s a 1-day workshop – and it looks interesting.

For more information: View the workshop web site.

Conclusion

Virtual event planners have more information and tools than ever before.  That being said, we need more discussion, more workshops and more tools. Drop a comment below and let us know what information and tools you need.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 28th, 2011 at 5:15 AM and is filed under Virtual Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.