The 'Pablo Picasso' of Virtual Meetings

The Virtualis Convention Center in Second Life has become one of the first options that Dan Parks offers to clients looking to save costs.

For example, one event last year brought in 80 people from several different countries for three days of training – with a team of people to help with orientation for an entire week. The total cost was around $10,000. By comparison, the budget for the previous year was $175,000, Parks said.

In general, he said, an event in Second Life is about 10 percent of the cost of a similar event in a physical location. Full Article.

What you need for an effective Outdoor Tradeshow?

Options for effective Outdoor Displays

Branded Pop up Awnings – What better way to be prepared for unpredictable weather than with an instant shelter, fully printed to promote your brand, logos, marketing message or products.

Outdoor Banner Stands - Outdoor banners stands are durable hard wearing weather resistant displays that are an effective way to display your graphics. Outdoor banner stands are portable and sturdy, making them an ideal display choice for your outdoor graphics.

Flag Displays - For high impact, attention grabbing displays, feather flags, wing banners, flying banners, portable flag poles and event flags for maximum viewing at your outdoor display or exhibition.

Portable Counters - Portable counters that can be personlised to your corporate style with graphics that are either permanently applied or attached for easy removal for rebranding later projects. All counters fold down for portability and flexibility and are suitable as promotional counters at your outdoor event.

Display Barriers – Display barriers are ideal for queue management, crowd control and café barriers. Display barriers are ideal for defining seating use at your event and promoting your logos. More.

Are You Serious About Tradeshow Marketing?

It’s a fair question, and one you probably don’t think about enough.

“Of course I’m serious,” you respond. “I wouldn’t be doing this if I weren’t serious!”

Gitomer’s approach is from the sales aspect, and he covers such things as ability to deliver, desire to serve, friendliness, truth at ALL cost and more.

Much of that applies to tradeshow marketing. So, how serious are you?

Do you plan your pre-show marketing?
Do you pick your staff with an eye to having the most open and enthusiastic personalities at the show?
Do you train your staff?
Are you regularly re-examining your tradeshow booth’s marketing message to make sure it in sync with your products and your audience desire?
Do you debrief your staff each evening before turning them loose?
Do you make adjustments at the show based on your observations of visitors or the staff debriefing?
Do you have definable, measurable goals for each tradeshow?
Do you re-assess those goals based on the type of show and expected audience?
Can you crunch the numbers to come up with the ROI over the last year’s worth of shows?
Do your sales staff have real, actionable leads after each show, rated as ‘hot,’ ‘warm,’ or ‘cool?’ More.

The 8 Best Tradeshow Tweets

1. Conferences and Break-out Sessions. Business execs find this useful. It gives insights into presentations and ideas, and helps bring you closer to people who are not there…as well as connect with ones who are.

2. Booth Promotions. Got a prize to giveaway? Regularly tweeting about stuff going on at your booth is a good way to bring visitors by, and helps remind non-attendees what kinds of things your company is doing.

3. Raves. Love a booth? Promotion? Graphic? Break-out session? Meet a cool dude/chick? Tweet out a rave. Works even better if they’re on Twitter; if so, be sure to use their handle.

4. Ask/Answer Questions. Trying to find a good restaurant or watering hole? Need an answer to an industry question? Ask and ye shall receive.

5. Engage in Conversations. Similar to #4, but perhaps on a more casual or personal level. A conversation may only be a few tweets long, but even a short one can be engaging. Continue.

Social Media Revolution

Social Media is NOT a fad. YouTube Video

Eco-Friendly Promotional Marketing...and More

Try to put yourself in the shoes of a customer or prospect walking the show floor at your next event. You're likely to be overwhelmed by an endless array of Frisbees, coffee mugs, paper weights and squeeze toys. What exactly does it take to catch your eye or to make an impression?

Before opening a catalog or visiting a Web site and drooling over all the shiny items available to promote your organization, think about what you can do that will stick in someone's mind and remain cost-effective. Think about what you want the promotional products to do. What do you want to achieve at your next event? Do you want to generate "buzz" and attract attendees to your exhibit? Do you want to make sure every attendee goes home with something in his or her "goodie bag?" Or do you want to be more selective, rewarding actual prospects with something significant?

The best promotional strategies work toward one of two goals -- reinforcing your branding or emphasizing a call to action. Different products work better to help you achieve each of these goals. Let's start considering three types of promotional giveaways: practical, somewhat risky and green products. Continue.

3 Tips for Turning Your Tradeshow Contacts into Customers

Have you spent all day at a convention or fair pitching your products and services to a plethora of people with the hopes of hooking in new clients? At the end of the day, your feet and back hurt, you have the mental fortitude of a zombie, but your hopes are high that you’ve made some solid contacts. Yet, over the next several weeks the expected uptick in sales never materializes.

Your investment of time and money were high, but your return of new customers and sales were low. You question whether the convention was a gathering of time wasters and trinket collectors or if there was something in your pitch that put people off. Here are a couple of methods for converting those contacts into customers. Continue.