I spent an exhilarating weekend in NYC attending EventCamp, which was the 1st industry gathering of its kind. The conference brought together event professionals to share best practices and learn new strategies of leveraging social media and technology to create a successful event. Keep in mind that this was another 1st experience for me…the 1st time I have ever attended an event, since usually I am working at them so that added another layer of excitement for me!
When the EventCamp organizers announced a CrowdCampaign question, I became very excited when I knew MY answer. The question: “What’s the #1 Take Away from EventCamp?” My answer follows:
I constantly preach that you must gather, engage, and interact with your audience in order to have a successful event. When virtual events started gaining popularity, many in the event community turned a blind eye or became scared that they would replace live events. Yet I have always said that virtual events are a great compliment to live events because they offer yet another opportunity to connect with your audience, especially in today’s economy or time-strained society when not all of your audience can travel to your live event.
Virtual events in collaboration with live events also extend your reach to an audience that you have not met yet. We live in a globally connected community due to the internet, so our audience and our reach are larger than ever. Once we find this larger audience, we are obligated to engage and interact with them. And if they are not standing right in front of us, we now have the opportunity to connect with them virtually.
So live and virtual events do not compete with each other because both are necessary to build relationships. When they are used to compliment each other, your audience is far greater than when just using one or the other. Just think of how successful your event could be when you connect with both of these audiences!
So what did I take away from @EventCampNYC? I took away PROOF that virtual and live events are friends and not enemies. Just look at the fact that almost every person who was following along virtually commented that they wished they could be at EventCamp 2010 and that they could not wait until they could be at EventCamp 2011! Follow the #EC10 tweet stream and you see constant interaction between the virtual audience and the live audience. Think of the sense of satisfaction that the virtual audience had when they saw that the EventCamp staff and speakers listened to them and responded to their needs, questions,and suggestions. And notice that after EventCamp 2010 ended, we are all interacting with each other as ONE UNITED AUDIENCE. Not only that we are gaining a NEW audience from people who heard about EventCamp after the fact and are going back through the archives and everything that the original audience is continuing to post about it.
The audience will continue to grow virtually, so that the next live EventCamp will be even bigger and better than the first!
At the start of the Great Depression, Kellogg’s and Post were neck and neck in cereal sales. Post slashed their marketing budget, while Kellogg’s maintained theirs. When the Depression ended, Kellogg’s had a market share dominance that they maintain to this day. 
Throughout the years I have come to find that many people in customer service positions are REACTIVE, rather than PROACTIVE. Think about it…who would you rather assist? The customer that comes in screaming their head off and demanding that YOU do something to make their situation better regardless of who is at fault, or the customer that calmly approaches you and asks if you could help them out? 
When walking around the trade show floor, I am constantly amazed at how many exhibitors I see who do nothing to encourage attendees to enter their booth. Having a booth presentation is a strong way to make a statement, and encourage attendees to stop, look, and listen. 
So you have purchased your booth space, had your exhibit house design and build your exhibit, contracted all of your services, booked your airline flights and hotel rooms, hired your 
A Professional Trade Show Presenter is an individual who is hired to give scripted or unscripted presentations or product demonstrations in an exhibitor’s booth at a trade show. The Presenter is the exhibitor’s “Company Spokesperson,” a representative of the company, and oftentimes the first impression of the company. An exhibitor has made a wise selection when the Presenter accurately portrays the “image” of the company, and is mistaken for a company employee.
