Job Listing: Director of Online Events at Everything Channel

October 19, 2010

Position: Director, Online Events

 

About Everything Channel

Everything Channel is the premier provider of IT channel-focused events, media, research, consulting, and sales and marketing services. With over 30 years of experience and engagement, Everything Channel has the unmatched channel expertise to execute integrated solutions for technology executives managing partner recruitment, enablement and go-to-market strategy in order to accelerate technology sales. Everything Channel is a UBM company. To learn more about Everything Channel, visit us at http://www.everythingchannel.com.

Job Description

Everything Channel has a fantastic opportunity for a Director Online Events.  This position will interface with senior management, sales, edit and sponsors to create virtual events and webcasts.  This position must be based in one of the following Everything Channel office locations:  Framingham, MA;  Manhasset, NY; San Francisco, CA.

For more info: view the full job listing

Responsibilities

  1. Virtual event marketing and management
  2. Sales tool development
  3. Virtual event management
  4. Evaluate new virtual platforms
  5. Lead virtual platform migration team
  6. Collateral creation
  7. Training new sales reps on virtual event product offerings
  8. Planning and managing budgets for virtual events
  9. Manage virtual event project manager

Qualifications

  1. BA/BS Degree
  2. Minimum of 5 years experience working in a position managing Virtual Events
  3. Strong knowledge of Virtual Event platforms
  4. Must be a strong conceptual thinker, with the ability to understand the ‘big picture’ of a project
  5. Must have flexibility, good judgment and attention to detail
  6. Ability to handle multiple high priority projects in a deadline-driven environment
Required Skills
  1. Strong knowledge of Virtual Event platforms
  2. Must be a strong conceptual thinker, with the ability to understand the ‘big picture’ of a project
  3. Must have flexibility, good judgment and attention to detail
  4. Ability to handle multiple high priority projects in a deadline-driven environment
Required Experience
  1. BA/BS Degree
  2. Minimum of 5 years   experience working in a position managing Virtual Events

For more information or to apply online, visit the full job listing.

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Posted by Dennis Shiao

What Virtual Events Really Do

September 9, 2010

In the book “Duct Tape Marketing” by John Jantsch (subtitle: “The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide”), there’s a paragraph in Chapter 2 titled “What You Really Sell.”  Here’s an excerpt of that paragraph:

“Here’s the funny thing about business. You don’t sell what it is you claim to offer.  You sell what the eventual buyers think they are going to get from your product. For instance, insurance sales folks don’t sell insurance; they sell peace of mind.  Chiropractors don’t sell neck adjustments; they sell some form of relief.”

Virtual event platforms sell a lot of things.  To some degree, the term “virtual events” is an injustice (or misnomer), based on the wide variety of applications supported by today’s platforms.  In fact, I wrote previously in a “virtual events futures column” that the term “virtual events” would disappear by 2011.

I don’t know whether my 2011 prediction will come true, but I do expect that by later this year, the “virtual” qualifier will start to be dropped, in favor of broader names.  With that being said, and in the spirit of Duct Tape Marketing, here’s my Top 10 List of what virtual “events” really do:

  1. Sales Pipeline Fueler
  2. Learning Platform
  3. Analyst Relations Venue
  4. Product Launch System
  5. HR Recruitment Engine
  6. Partner Community Enabler
  7. Corporate Training System
  8. Content Distribution Platform
  9. Revenue Generator
  10. A Marketer’s Ultimate Dream

Each of these terms better describes “what the eventual buyers think they are going to get from your product” than the term “virtual event.”

Share with us your thoughts – when you “purchase” a virtual event, what is it you’re really getting?

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Posted by Dennis Shiao

Let’s Collaborate On: Evolution Of Virtual Event Platforms

June 21, 2010

Let’s collaborate on how virtual event platforms (and their associated experiences) should evolve.  I’ve set up a wiki on PBworks that will allow all of you to chime in with your thoughts.  Here’s the link to the wiki – I invite you all in, to add your thoughts and make edits:

Be part of a collaborative blog posting

http://allvirtual.pbworks.com/How-Vendors-Should-Evolve-Their-Virtual-Event-Platforms

To edit the wiki page, you’ll need to register for a free account with PBworks.  Suggested ways to participate:

  1. Edit any of the existing material
  2. Add new paragraphs or sections
  3. Delete existing material (although I’d rather you re-write existing material than delete it outright)

Below, I’ve posted the current text of the wiki page.  If you have thoughts on this topic, be sure to visit the wiki and chime in! Based on the amount of activity this week, I may choose the publish the final version of this post here on this blog.  All contributors will be acknowledged.  If you do not wish acknolwedgement, simply skip the inclusion of your name in the list (bel0w).

Lastly, if you’d like to contribute, but would rather not use a wiki, leave a comment below and I’ll apply your comment(s) to the wiki (with proper acknowledgement).

Initial Draft – Visit the wiki to add your thoughts

To evolve their platforms for enhanced experiences and broader adoption, virtual event platforms should consider the following:

Make it easier to experience

Most virtual event platforms are easy to use – on a first-time visit, users tend to grasp the overall user experience and can figure out where to go (and how).  That being said, for wide scale adoption, virtual events needs to be as easy as Facebook.  That is, our grandmothers need to be able to access the site and figure things out.  On Facebook, grandmothers can update their profile, read their “friends” posts and write updates to their Walls.  Can a grandmother login to a virtual event, update her profile and participate in a group chat?  We’re not so sure.  Similarly, navigation and interactions need to be easier.  Most virtual events are intuitive to navigate (e.g. Lobby, Auditorium,  Lounge, etc.) – but may not be so intuitive with regard to message boards, chat, blogging, rating, etc.

Make it easier to find

The typical “location” of a virtual event is quickly becomin outdated – microsite with registration page, with no ability to experience the event prior to completing all mandatory registration fields. The registration page serves as a “wall” not only to potential attendees, but to search engines as well.  Virtual event platforms need to move “outside the wall” and expose their technology on Facebook, on blogs and on publisher web sites.  Platforms should widen their distribution via widgets, embed code and application programming interfaces (API’s).  Facebook is not limited to Facebook.com – it has Facebook Connect, Facebook Open Graph and much more.  Virtual events platforms, on the other hand, seem to be restricted to “VirtualEventPlatform.com”

Make the experience available on more devices

Most virtual event platforms support Windows, Mac and Linux.  They need to support more platforms, especially mobile.  On the mobile front, it’s important to consider iPhone/iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows 7 Phone and WebOS (listed in our order of importance).  To start, we don’t believe the entire virrual event experience needs to be “ported” to mobile devices -rather, vendors should determine the most critical features for attendees and exhibitors – and prioritize based on importance.  For instance, chat is an important element of virtual events, so why not make a mobile app that allows exhibitors to staff their booth via their smartphone.

Make the platform more adaptable and flexible

Related to our point about mobile support, platform vendors have important decisions to make regarding the development platforms.  Virtual event platforms today are based on Flash, Silverlight, Java and JavaFX.  Are those the “right” platform technologies for the future – or, should platforms move in the direction of HTML5?  Does a combination off HTML5, Javascript and Ajax create a more adaptable and flexible platform?  What do we “lose” by shifting away from Flash, Silverlight, etc.?  And what are the mobile implications with the chosen direction?  All good questions for the platform vendors to consider.

This article was developed collaboratively via PBworks.  Contributors to this article include:

  1. Dennis Shiao, Blogger at “It’s All Virtual”
  2. <YOUR NAME HERE>

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Posted by Dennis Shiao

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