Friday, January 19, 2007
Conference Sites Expand the Audience
The World Economic Forum starts next week, and the conference is inviting the participants, the blogosphere, and the public to join in the conversation.The Davos Conversation website includes feeds from the BBC, Huffington Post, the Guardian’s Comment is Free, and Buzzmachine as well as inviting bloggers to participate.
The organizers are inviting interactivity on an unprecedented scale. Event organizers are asking bloggers to tag their posts about the event with the "davos07" tag to make it easy to aggregate content from all over the world. This is a great idea for organizing commentary in one location.
I'm writing about this on a marketing website because the model could work for industry events where marketers want to gain maximum attention and participation. The idea of virtual trade shows has been tried before, but I'm talking about adding the interactive component to industry gatherings of national interest that can't accommodate all who would like to attend.
I realize that selling conference tapes and registration fees are big business, but if companies want to reach the widest possible audience, they can do so virtually. Most people would prefer to attend in person to get face time with partners and potential customers (and get a company paid trip away from home) because being there is best.
When you have a CES or Macworld or industry event going on, organizing bloggers and the press will magnify the impact of a product announcement. Many events put white papers online, but keeping the online world in mind when organizing an event will magnify the exposure.
There will always be private meetings and discussions that are better kept under wraps. But opening the doors to potential customers is always a good thing.
Posted By Jason Dowdell at 05:45 PM
Permanent Link: Conference Sites Expand the Audience
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