De-Evolution: How New Tech. Brings Us Closer to Our Past

Great Post! To me an event offering free content...

2010-02-09T04:09:26.946-08:00

Great Post!

To me an event offering free content, is like a grocery store offering taste tests, P&G sending samples, a car dealer offering a test drive, or Macy's creating window displays.

You give away stuff for free, because you believe that you will have a shot at making a bigger sale (and repeat sales) after the trial.

For events, I think this is especially important.

Events are intangible. You can't put one in your hand and say - "oh I see how that would work. Excellent" It's not like a drill or screwdriver. You have to experience the event to understand the value. I don't think that brochures, website copy, etc do as good of a job of communicating the event's value as - video, virtual event experiences, community participation, etc.

Great Post! It was great to meet you at Event Camp. I am sorry that we did not get to talk more!

- Sam

@Bucchere thx of course and that is another great ...

2010-02-08T18:32:15.662-08:00

@Bucchere thx of course and that is another great analogy to draw from.

@Jenise Exactamundo and thanks for the kind words.

@Adrian ... nice parallel drawn here Adrian. You could have kept nuggets to yourself, essentially keeping clients 'in the dark' and you 'needed'. Instead, you grew your business and your book of people who were proud to recommend you to hundreds more. Nice points.

If we're not connected on twitter, sure would like to be http://twitter.com/clintonbon

thanks everyone,

CB

So true. One of my mentors, Jerry Weinberg, wrote ...

2010-02-08T14:37:46.804-08:00

So true. One of my mentors, Jerry Weinberg, wrote about this in his classic book Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Giving and Getting Advice Successfully (published in 1986 and still in print! - see http://bit.ly/aM7KJJ).

He taught me to teach my clients to solve their own problems, so they didn't need me any more, rather than trying to be the outside "hero" and believing that would keep the money rolling in. Although this may sound like a recipe for unemployment, it helped me enjoy a 22 year successful IT consulting career, thanks to continued word of mouth recommendations from happy clients.

Great post! The idea that free content provided on...

2010-02-08T13:15:10.705-08:00

Great post! The idea that free content provided online can cause people to want to attend an event is fascinating. It seems clear that virtual communities also hold great promise for enticing people to events. I think we all need to discuss how the events industry can benefit from online interactions that compel people to want to have live face to face experiences.

Great post, Clinton. This is the ol' "why...

2010-02-08T13:06:14.385-08:00

Great post, Clinton. This is the ol' "why #eventprofs should be like famous chefs" argument. Famous chefs write and sell cookbooks (ostensibly giving away all their trade secrets) yet people still eat at their restaurants. Go figure.

Great concept and I fully agree that everyone need...

2009-11-04T09:52:08.738-08:00

Great concept and I fully agree that everyone needs to consider how crowdsourcing can enhance their business.

Staying on topic above, you can also use crowdsourcing to do some of the leg work associated with your events such as promoting them.
* Research editorial calendars and past articles by targeted media
* Find comparable messaging from competitors
* Get contact information for specific blog and media professionals
* Do surveying and testing of ideas and concepts to groups of people
* And so on…

Here is a link to a discussion in the PR realm: http://brentfrei.typepad.com/blog/2009/08/crowdsourcing-is-an-internet-intern-for-pr-professionals.html

-Brent