Online Inspiration for the Meetings Industry
This post is adapted from an article by Greg Oates. You can read the original article here: http://oates.co/qa-imex-group-illustrates-evolving-role-of-meetings-as-content-hubs/
I recently had a chance to chat with Greg Oates while onsite at IMEX America mostly about Content Hubs and curating online content. Here is a summary of what we discussed
Where does the content for IMEX America come from?
We produced about 50 pieces of short video content throughout the show through our several partnerships amongst other video activity happening at the show. BOB.tv and Hilton Worldwide sponsored IMEXlive provided a dedicated social media video crew which was used to interview mostly speakers and association representatives on what’s going on in their world and why they were at IMEX America.We also worked with CNTV on a live TV show streamed directly from the show floor. CNTV also did a series of interviews with hosted buyers and exhibitors for marketing purposes. All in all we have over 100 pieces of professional video content around IMEX America. It’s actually quite a challenge to track it all, but it’s really exciting having all this great content out there.
Video content strategy
Content keeps IMEX top of mind all year round. Events like ours are a sort of industry specific "media on steroids", if you look at the amount of photos and videos created at and around the show. This is however nothing like a hybrid meeting but more of a video content strategy. Like many other events our video strategy is a work in progress and will continue to evolve.
For me, it’s all about how you capture and use good quality content to your advantage, whether it’s for the event, the community or a specific product. I have observed four or five distinct strategies in this area. On one extreme there are events like the TED conferences that are recording all of the content for free. Then they’re disseminating it and creating this incredible vibe and brand value around TED because of the quality of video and content that is relevant to a wide audience.
On the other end of that scale, you have academic conferences that are recording very basic video of very unique often medical related sessions. As that content isn't available anywhere else they’re actually able to sell that on a pay-per-view or subscription basis.
And then you have everyone else who is sort of in the middle, recording stuff that they think is useful, and trying to find an audience sometimes on a pay-per-view or package price, but mostly for free or as part of a membership.
As IMEX we’re not thinking of charging for any of our online content, we simply want to use it as a showcase for why people should come to the shows. My main mission is that people see these videos, and grab some good ideas and some good content. So the call to action is, “Wow, I should really be there next year.”
Event Tech Startup Contest
We were blown away by the quality of the presentations, and I think we were very lucky to partner with the right person, with Julius Solaris from Event Manager Blog. He has a Pinterest board with over 1,000 startups. The fact that, of the 10 there, maybe seven weren’t exhibiting so they showed up at their own cost, did the pitch and were able to participate—that is really telling. They saw a really good opportunity at IMEX, and we had something like 27 entries from which we chose the 10. I’ve been to a few of these before so I anticipated the response to be good, especially online.
I just love the concept that these people are creating new technology because they see a gap in the market. Just taking that pure fact is incredibly exciting, and I really want to get that message across to the buyers. If I’m a planner, and I’m looking to plan an event, and I’m looking for a new idea that can help me save time and money, yes you can go to lots of educational sessions, but in half an hour you can hear about 10 new products that teams of people have spent a lot of time perfecting.
Some of these products are not ready to be released, but that’s the whole part of a startup. Here are some really smart people working on problems that everyone else has. So there is an incredible amount of energy going on, and to have all of that at IMEX and available to planners, that is really exciting.
The role of the event technology consultant
It is no secret that planners are often too swamped to implement and test potential innovations in real world settings. When it comes to meeting design and event technology, I think this role in the industry of an event technology consultant, or apps specialist, those people are going to start popping up a lot more. Large corporations and associations are going to find a lot of value there, because it’s very challenging today and it’s quite crazy.
It comes back to the idea of big data. It’s all out there but if you just dive into the middle of it, you don’t find anything. You need to have someone hold your hand through it, and hopefully as an industry we can get better at that.