Accelerating the Power of Face-to-Face – Live & Online

Posted by on May 13, 2012 No comments

Exhibition and Convention Executives Forum

bXb Online recently announced its partnership with the Exhibition and Convention Executives Forum (ECEF) to extend its content to an online audience for the first time in the event’s 11 year history.

ECEF, which is scheduled for Wednesday, May 30, 2012, at the JW Marriott in Washington, DC is offering complimentary online access from 9:00am – 10:30am ET to The Value of Face-to-Face Marketing session.

ECEF brings together 200 of the exhibition and convention industry’s brightest thinkers and doers. At ECEF, attendees join the A-list of C-level decision-makers from the exhibition and convention industry, the Who’s Who of association and business media executives from around the world.

bXb Online’s Mission

Creating this complimentary online session has opened the doors to this esteemed event for the first time! This move by ECEF aligns with bXb Online’s mission to accelerate the power of face-to-face through online business stories and experiences.

Register here for this online event. Online attendees will be eligible to win a free registration to ECEF 2013 – a $645 value. For information on ECEF, visit www.eceforum.com

Session details:

9am – 10:30am ET — The Value of Face-to-Face Marketing:  Join top industry executives as they discuss the role of exhibitions in marketing and procurement.

The progression of online extensions of face-to-face events continues on May 30th.

We hope to see you there!

-Lauren Mulherrin

 

 

Association Membership – A Millennial’s Perspective

Posted by on May 3, 2012 6 comments

While skimming through the twitter feed of @bxbonline, I always come across great blog posts about the association and event industry written by Jeff Hurt at Velvet Chainsaw. However, a recent Monday morning was different. I didn’t just read his blog and happily retweet the content. I felt motivated to respond. I felt passionate about the subject. And I felt that I had a puzzle piece to the solution.www.istockphoto.com

Jeff’s post, “Today’s Youth Are On A Quest For Authenticity And Community” focused on the amazing research conducted by McCann Group about the Millennial generation. Having written a previous blog post about the Millennial generation, my own generation, I was intrigued to see what Jeff had to say. My typical reaction to Millennial Generation articles written by somebody outside of the generation is, “How did you draw these conclusions?” In many cases, it appeared that summations were drawn from other articles written by those not in the Millennial generation.

Jeff did it right.

The Dilemma

McCann Group didn’t just dish their opinion on the Millennial generation; they collected the information from the source. Jeff brought these solid facts into his post and related them to the association industry. He shed a bit of harsh light on the current membership dilemma; “Our membership is comprised mostly of Baby Boomers. Most will retire in 15 years or less. We’re not sure if they will retain membership with us or not. We’ve got to attract more Gen X, Y and Millennials. Where do we start?”

To be sure there are many associations doing it right. However, it is increasingly evident to my generation that most are behind in this important aspect of their business.

It is clear throughout the McCann study that justice is extremely important to Millennials, yet as Jeff stated, “…they (millennials) do not feel they have to join an organization to be an activist. They can self-organize their friends for justice by using social tools. They don’t feel the need to pay a membership fee so an organization can lobby on their behalf.”

If the benefits of advocacy on Capitol Hill aren’t going to draw this young generation in, then what will? As an industry we should look at the qualities of community and authenticity that are so highly regarded by my generation.

McCann defines this Commune motivation as the need for connection, relationships and community. Aren’t associations about uniting people that share the same interests, beliefs and industry? Aren’t events meant to bring people together? Surely associations, the original social network, can offer this type of connection to the Millennial generation.

Two-way Mentorship

My recommendation on Jeff’s post was to bring together the relatively soon departing Baby Boomer generation and the entering Millennial generation. This relationship has the ability to foster a valuable two-way mentorship.

Having just graduated from Boston University in January, acquisition of further book knowledge is not as high on my priority list as creating lasting relationships with industry professionals. I want to learn what I can’t read in a book. I want to take in the stories and advice that motivates our Founder at bXb Online and his peers. I gain wisdom that comes from their years of full-time work experience within the industry. I’m obviously not alone in this quest for mentorship. My friends are searching as well.

Recently, a student posted the following on an association industry discussion board:

“…do you as industry professionals have any recommendations on what it is exactly that you look for in a candidate for a position on your team?”

She received only three responses.

As previously mentioned, I see this as a two-way mentorship. In discussing this issue, my boss encourages me to mentor our team members as well. I’ve had long phone calls explaining Twitter and other social media outlets to my mentors that are from the Baby Boomer generation and Generation X. I also bring a very different and valued point of view to team meetings and projects.

There is so much opportunity for growth within an association by setting up dual mentorships and events. Touching on the other value held so highly by the Millennials – Authenticity, it is crucial that these mentorships are genuine.

Millennial Voice

Millennials should be on the boards of associations to help plan these mentorships and the events surrounding them. If associations lack true Millennial voice and don’t embrace social media and online extensions, young professionals will see right through the facade. By adding Millennials to positions of true voting leadership in the association, the industry will have the ability to mold my generation into future leaders of entire associations in every corner of the industry.

We all have so much to learn from one another no matter what the age or level of work experience. Let’s embrace the Millennial value of community and embrace one of its many definitions; “A feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.”

-Lauren Mulherrin

 

For further reading on this topic, I recommend The End of Membership As We Know It by Sarah Sladek.  

 

The Evolution of B-to-B: Are You Thinking About the C?

Posted by on May 2, 2012 No comments

As B-to-B marketers, we constantly ask ourselves – how do we effectively raise our profile in this crowded marketplace?

While the adoption of new technologies provides us with an opportunity to constantly re-evaluate our marketing efforts, it also provides us with an opportunity to deepen our connections and relationships with our current customers, and in turn reach out to potential customers.

Recently, I attended the BtoB Magazine NetMarketing Breakfast event in Chicago. They brought together a high profile group of marketing executives to speak to this topic directly. As you would expect, the conversation continuously circled back to their increased efforts in digital and social media marketing.

Neal Campbell, Senior VP and CMO of CDW, stated that he no longer thinks of his efforts as B-to-B marketing but rather B-to-C due to the influence of social media.  This makes sense, as social media is a platform in which individuals personally engage.  Social media enables the connection between the company, which is supporting its brand strategy via social media platform(s), and the individual of another company participating on that platform.Individual

What does this mean for us as B-to-B marketers?  We need to think about our customer’s experience as an individual’s experience and the ways we can effectively engage them as individuals.

Smart marketers reach and influence their target markets using a strategic variety of interactive solutions. Online events, as a continually emerging category, are one of the most effective interactive solutions in the market, and their rapid adoption rate reinforces this position. A recent study, Association Virtual Events: State of the Sector written by Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele, published by Tagoras, shows that 73.5% of respondents plan to offer another virtual event in the future.

A show host has the ability to craft the user involvement from beginning to end with ample opportunities to create meaningful experiences. From the initial marketing messaging to promote the event, to the post event communication, opportunity is presented through a multitude of touch points.

And it doesn’t end there. Savvy organizations implement post-event strategies for re-purposing content, as well as maintaining 365-day environments.

Keep in mind – the reason we create plans to connect with the audience on both the B-to-B and B-to-C level is to engage and develop lasting relationships with them.

When our customer talks, we need to listen to him or her, as an individual, not necessarily as a branded participant in the organizations they represent.

- Deb Greif

The Federal Government’s Unique Opportunity to Deliver a Smart Outcome With the Meetings Industry

Posted by on May 2, 2012 No comments

The event industry is buzzing with political activism regarding the 21st Century Postal Service Act of 2012, passed by the Senate on April 24th and the DATA Act, passed by the House on April 25th.

Meetings Focus explains that, “an amendment passed by the House and Senate in two separate bills extremely limits federal employees from attending private conferences if any federal funds are used for travel expenses.”

Meetings Focus continues by addressing the main concern of the meetings industry; “The definitions used in the amendment impose severe restrictions on all private conferences: associations, other nonprofits, and corporations could only have a federal agency’s employees attend one meeting held by that organization every year.”

Association, corporation and government events all carry significant value to many stakeholders. This amendment demonstrates how this value is misunderstood on Capitol Hill.

Education and its role in our future economic growth, is leveraged through events that deliver content and create community in all industry sectors.

This legislation under consideration in its current form will curtail the ability for the government to interact with the private sector, leaving government even less informed than it already is about the needs of business and the constituencies those businesses serve.

It makes sense in any business scenario to cut unnecessary costs. There is undoubtedly too much money spent by our federal government in all too many areas. This amendment as it is written however is a bit uninformed in its approach to addressing the issue.

There is no silver bullet to address this issue, including this proposed legislation.

Possible solutions include mandate of business measurement practices (developed by the meetings industry with input from federal government) to support federal government spend on a meeting or event, and broad adoption of the scaling face-to-face events to wider even more measurable audiences – live and online.

Face-to-face events are valuable and necessary. Funds need to be invested to get the right people to the right conferences and meetings at the right time. Coverage of key events live and online will deliver to those individuals not covered by a reasonable budget, the ability to gain knowledge and experience through online coverage of the very same events today’s proposed legislation will damage at best and extinguish at worst.

There must be satisfactory compromise and discussion between the government and our industry. Online extensions of face-to-face events are reasonable, scalable and relatively low cost solutions not nearly utilized to the extent they can be by the federal government at this time.

Sign-on to the Open Letter to Congress Opposing the Restrictions on Attendance at Meetings HERE.

-Tony Lorenz

6 Tips to Promoting your Online Exhibitor Presence

Posted by on April 15, 2012 No comments

When companies enter into the world of online events, they may feel like they were dropped somewhere far outside of their comfort zone. A typical question that an online event host may get from their online exhibitor is, “Should I, and how do I market my online booth?” In many ways, the strategy to market an online booth is quite similar to marketing a face-to-face booth.Social Media Marketing

Below are 6 tips to help your online exhibitors achieve ROI, as well as to generate buzz about your online event.

1) Post the online event banners (in many cases supplied by the online event host) on your website, company blog, newsletters and all visual social media channels – Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest etc.

2) Promote your presence at the online event via Twitter. Make sure to include the designated event hashtag in order to get maximum exposure of your message.

3) Create an Event Page on Facebook listing all pertinent information for registration (ask the online event host to supply you with the details) and make sure to invite all of your Facebook fans to the event.

4) Send a personalized pre-show event invitation via email to all customers and prospective buyers. Make sure to include links to all of your social media channels and the designated event hashtag.

5) Include mention of your online presence at the online event within your email signature and provide the link to registration.

6) Give attendees an incentive to visit your online booth by promoting a prize or give-away in all your communications (when applicable).

Equip your online exhibitors with all the necessary marketing tools to be successful. Create a marketing kit for your online exhibitors and sponsors with online event banners, logos, designated hashtag, registration information and links, along with your tips.

Your exhibitor will be well on his/her way to increasing brand exposure, optimizing the number of customers and qualified prospects that visit their online booth and to promoting your digital event!

-Lauren Mulherrin

 

What is the Cost of Status Quo?

Posted by on April 12, 2012 No comments

The February 2011 release of The Economic Significance of Meetings to the U.S. Economy study revealed that the U.S. meetings industry directly supports 1.7 million jobs, $263 billion in spending, a $106 billion contribution to GDP, $60 billion in labor revenue, $14.3 billion in federal tax revenue and $11.3 billion in state and local tax revenue. Associations and their resulting face-to-face events have a long, rich contributive history and continue to be an extremely powerful instrument in the development of commerce in the meetings model, in business communities specifically, as well as the world economy.

Times Are Changing

There are signs that associations and their membership are undergoing major societal shifts. In the 2011 book, The End of Membership As We Know It, author Sarah Sladek suggests that there are three key shifts that are affecting the decline in association membership:

  1. Economic Recession
  2. Demographic Shifts
  3. Rapidly Changing Technology

Sladek suggests that while the economic influences will come and go over time, the other two are long-term issues to be addressed. Having spent a good deal of my early career in the sales and marketing of consumer goods, I see examples of other industries going through this same metamorphosis.  Here are challenging questions the retail sector is beginning to ask internally:

“What is the cost of status quo? Is it continued margin erosion? Slowing comps in generally high-performing stores? No new stores on the horizon? Or, perhaps it’s the increasing pressures felt from losing loyal customers? Is it the failure to deliver results to shareholders? Or, too much or too little promotional stock? Or, is it all the above, and more?” – Manthan Systems, Schaumburg, IL. (Supermarket News)

Likewise, Sarah Sladek suggests several questions to pose when addressing membership challenges:

  1. Is the association addressing Member Benefits?
  2. Are your association elements assisting members in problem solving?
  3. How is your association differentiated from the competition?
  4. Are you building a viable online community?
  5. Is your association’s membership model currently relevant and relevant for the future?

So, what is the cost of status quo?

What should we be doing?

The retail industry is using online sales to extend brand reach and subsequent purchase influence.

Let’s recognize that if retailers can influence sales through web and online experiences, why shouldn’t B2B Meetings and Events be able to influence membership and attendance as well? The United States has the second highest number of internet users, as well as the second highest percentage of users to total population in the world. Look at the world-wide potential!

The B2B events world and associations specifically, have an outstanding opportunity to address membership and attendance challenges with content capture and online distribution.  Excellent, trusted and supported B2B content is developed each and every day around the world by professional and trade associations.  Corporations have also designed such content for use at trade shows, exhibitions, conventions and conferences. I believe that the answer in finding scale of distribution with this quality content is accomplished in a clear, easily accessed, brand-enhancing environment through the Internet.

Consider a global online events platform organized by distinct industry channels; this Network approach provides a mechanism to build community and increasingly aggregate, onto one online site, the world’s most recognized and valuable B2B content from face-to-face events. The industry channels provide the primary structural component of the Network. Over time, the Network will grow as an increasingly rich, online platform, with all of the content and community industry professionals want and need.

Every B2B stakeholder – association members, independent professionals, and individual network subscribers – can easily join a relevant online community in their selected channel(s) of interest and search to find the very best industry content all available in one place.

-Dave Olender

A Horse is a Horse – Of Course

Posted by on April 9, 2012 No comments

It is sometimes easy to tell when technology is making an impact. Confusion ensues when determining what language to use when describing this new technology. As a rule, the more inexact or misleading the terminology, the more profound the effect.

Horseless Carriage Thinking

We could arguably term this phenomenon as Horseless Carriage Thinking. It is many times a characteristic of the greatest innovations of our time.

When automobiles first appeared, they were called horseless carriages. We did not yet know what a car really was, or what it would eventually mean to the world. So we adopted a term that served as a bridge, the carriage, modified by the item that was removed – the horse. 

We eventually abandoned that placeholder word, which had helped bridge the gap between past and future. We heaped more and more innovation on this horseless carriage and in doing so changed the way we move from place to place.

Those horseless carriages, a seemingly quaint niche at first, eventually changed the entire global landscape.

Cordless phones in the home and wireless phones for mobile dialogue also came into the world identified by what was missing. Now we just call them phones. That word, however, now connotes devices with e-mail, calendars, social media platforms, games and our music. The words are the same, but their meanings are radically different.

Powerful New Innovation

So as it relates to virtual trade shows, and for that matter virtual events, we are still using old ways of thinking and nomenclature to identify powerful new innovations. It is understandable, and yet the business community knows that the convergence of face-to-face and online experiences is well underway.

The innovation above wasn’t really about carriages, or telephones. It was about transportation and communication. So are we talking about events, or are we really talking about content and community?

I vote for the later.

Embracing the Future

We spent a half-day recently at a long impressive table with six CEO’s of the world’s largest medical associations. Not an hour. A half-day of their valuable time. That session was the second of an earlier session this past month. Every one of these executives is taking next steps to varying degrees to fully engage their businesses in this category. One of them runs what is arguably the largest medical meeting in Europe. Another is running one of the top three technology events in the world.

As an industry we are in the middle of this transformation of the ways content and community are delivered and established. Unless we remind ourselves once in a while we may lose track of that fact. And no one person or entity is responsible for it. Many, many are responsible.

Read this article on horseless carriages and you may see the parallels. I am guessing the individuals named Duryea, Otto, Lambert and Black didn’t realize the impact they would have over time.

- Tony Lorenz

A Few Great Ideas

Posted by on April 6, 2012 No comments

Last week, I was fortunate enough to get away to Colorado Springs and attend the Great Ideas Conference hosted by The Center for Association Leadership - ASAE. The format allowed for an attendee to select from a series of workshops.  All the sessions were interactive allowing for a collaborative learning environment.

We should apply this format to our online events, allowing for substantial interaction between presenters and attendees, and providing tools for collaboration among the online attendees.  A step further would be allowing collaboration between the face-to-face and online attendees.

One presenter included the use of Poll Everywhere to incorporate instant audience feedback into his session. This is a useful tool that can be used for bringing together the online and face-to-face audiences.

A few other great ideas from the meeting that can be applied to the development of an online event:

Get rid of the clutter.

When designing an online event, focus on the education. This is the core of your event and why an individual will see value in returning to your environment or attending a future event. We hear it often… “Content is King,” and it’s true whether it’s a face-to-face or online. The add-ons are just that. So unless something is providing meaning, consider it clutter.

Have the vision.

While it’s useful to know what has been done in the past regarding online events, it is more strategic to focus on the needs of your member or client. This allows you to craft an experience specific to them. No one knows your audience better than you do. Begin with solid education, followed by opportunities for engagement and collaboration, and keep your vision on the end result in order to enrich their professional life.

Create experiences.

We spend a lot of time crafting experiences for our face-to-face event attendees, but are we doing the same for the online attendee? Whether it’s a video chat, a virtual tour of your online environment, a live walk through of an exhibitor booth, or a virtual only round-table discussion – attendees will remember these Wow! experiences.  Make certain you and your team dedicates the time to create.

Reinforce the education.

While there is immense value in the hybrid experience around an Annual Meeting, what is often overlooked is the value of the smaller opportunities you can present in your online environment.  Continue the conversation with a half-day or single webcast event. Limit the experience to 3 or 4 opportunities such as a live webcast, a moderated chat, and meaningful sponsor product demo – all in support of the topic or theme.

A wise person said, “If you aren’t growing, you’re dying.” For fresh inspiration and the opportunity to collaborate with peers, we need to invest time in our own professional growth. There are always conferences and events that offer these opportunities. For a sampling of events check out these links below:

PCMA Events: http://www.pcma.org/Calendar/All-Events.htm

ASAE Events: http://www.asaecenter.org/Education/calendar.cfm

IAEE Events: http://www.iaee.com/events–education/event-list

-Deb Greif

Have You Seen Your Syndicated Content Lately?

Posted by on April 6, 2012 No comments

There is a lot of talk these days regarding syndication – syndicate this or syndicate that – syndication is reported to have been first established in 1885 in the newspaper business by Addison Irving Bacheller.

But what does it really mean to syndicate something?

Let’s first look at some definitions of syndication:

  • Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside of the network system
  • Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips
  • Web syndication, where web feeds make a portion of a web site available to other sites or individual subscribers
  • Syndicated loan, when a group of banks work together to provide funds for a borrower

http://gothamist.com/2011/04/06/netflix_will_be_your_mad_men_fix_th.php

The most common examples of syndication encompass news and entertainment content. In entertainment it usually involves the production of a TV show, like Mad Men, that is then made available to a network like American Classics TV, LLC. (AMCTV) and its broadcast channel affiliates for exchange of monetary compensation in a revenue share model. Netflix secured syndication rights for Mad Men and international syndication sales are bringing in an additional estimated $700,000 per episode.

The producer of the show content bears the costs such as scripting, writers, actors, crews, sets and copyrights used in the production of the show. This means that the content developer then has the opportunity to make a profit by syndicating the show out for broadcast, and then may additionally syndicate the show for re-runs on the network/affiliates as well.

There have been a lot of interesting articles regarding online content syndications and how they can be scaled in such a way that fixed website destinations may become obsolete in the future. Our world is about content saturation and overload.  When you Google a simple topic, typically you receive millions of results. So how can you specifically get to the quality content you desire, and know that it is trusted, accurate, prescreened and supported by leading industry authoritative organizations?

B2B Syndicated Content

In the B2B world, there exists an opportunity to syndicate content that addresses those issues. Excellent, trusted and supported B2B content is developed each and every day around the world by professional and trade associations as well as corporations designed for use at trade shows, exhibitions, conventions and conferences. An interesting secret is that these organizations themselves, with all of this valuable, trusted content are currently only reaching about 10%-15% of their possible attendees and members – let alone the large potential audience outside of their association. So what is the answer in finding scale of distribution with this quality content that is accomplished in a clear easily accessed brand-enhancing environment?

The Network

If you begin with the idea of a global online events platform organized by distinct industry channels, this Network will then build community and increasingly aggregate, onto one online site, the world’s most recognized and valuable B2B content from face-to-face events. The industry channels are the primary structural component of the Network.

Association members as well as independent professionals and individual Network subscribers can easily join a relevant online community in their respective channel(s) and search to find the best content and community available in their discipline or area of interest. Network attendees, association show organizers, corporate brands and media companies within and across industries, will also have the very best industry content available in one place. And since these online attendees will also be the content owners, they will have access to what they need, when they need it.

Over time, the Network will grow as an increasingly rich, online platform, with all of the content and community that industry professionals want and need in an otherwise increasingly oversaturated online environment.

What are your thoughts on the Network Content Syndication?

- Dave Olender

Dodger Blue and the Opportunity in Event Marketing

Posted by on April 1, 2012 4 comments

Full disclosure: I am not an LA Dodger fan. I am an insufferable Chicago Cub fan. This is our year. Really.

The LA Dodgers just sold for US$ 2.15 Billion. Nice day for Frank McCourt, a fairly vilified citizen of LA; not quite as nice for his ex-wife Jamie. But that is another post.

Why should the event marketing industry care?

The recent Sale of the LA Dodgers was a transaction that has garnered a metric ton of attention in the last few days. Knowing the legacy of the Dodgers, you would think that the competitive bid for the team was a function of many wealthy Dodger fans, from LA and NY especially, who want to be a part of Dodger history. Even a Cub fan has to face that music. Owning the team that once fielded the likes of Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Kirk Gibson would be very cool for any number of qualified buyers who bleed Dodger Blue.Dodgers

But the Dodgers are in bankruptcy court thanks to a very bitter divorce battle. Their on-field and financial performance has been mediocre at best of late. Their ticket prices are already relatively high. They have an aging stadium in need of US$ 200 million in capital improvement to bring it to par with most other baseball stadiums out there.

So of course they sell for over 7 times revenue; a full US$ 1 billion over their very recently appraised value!

The Dodgers were purchased by a group of very bright financial professionals lead by Guggenheim Partners, a Chicago-based group with, truth be told, surprisingly little starry-eyed admiration for the history of the Dodger franchise.

“… it’s not a baseball deal first but rather a television and entertainment deal that also comes with a real-estate opportunity, then you can begin to scratch your way back toward justifying the price,” said David Carter, director of the Sports Business Institute at the University of Southern California in a recent WSJ article.

And there we have the reason why the event marketing industry should care.

The new Dodger ownership knows that they must field great content. In their case it’s a competitive baseball team. In our case in this industry, we must field strong content at our conventions and tradeshows.

But the real value to be harvested by Guggenheim is in the wider marketplace of those people who just can’t get to Dodger Stadium. Much like trade shows and conventions, the Dodgers have an opportunity to more aggressively monetize the extended audience who can’t make it to the game.

The top 20 tradeshows in our industry, most of them owned by associations, when reviewed in aggregate drive more event revenue over just twenty events than the LA Dodgers do in a full 162 game season. And those twenty events are much more profitable today than a full Dodger season. Trade show/convention profits then fund important advocacy and other association activities.

This model rolls through a tradeshow and convention industry with approximately US$ 100 billion in the US alone every single year; just a portion of the greater annual meetings and events spend of US$ 263 billion. Direct revenue in trade shows run by B2B media companies was approximately US$ 11 billion last year. The Dodgers revenue at its high water market was under US$ 300 million. The entire revenue line of the four major US professional sports leagues – NHL, MFL, MLB and NBA combined is just US $ 25 billion.

So our upside from newly expanded content distribution in event marketing industry is shall we say, considerable; especially given the fact that most of our content is attractive to a global marketplace. Interest in the Dodgers drops off considerably once outside of North America.

Soon to be expanding highly profitable Dodger revenue will go to Guggenheim Partners, as it should. They see the market opportunity and are investing in the business to harvest the value outside of their Dodger Stadium gate.

The Dodgers received 7X on revenue primarily because they are about to better monetize the broadcast rights in their region, probably through a lucrative deal with an existing regional network. Or they will build their own regional network as Yankees have done. Tougher sledding as that is not really their business. The Texas Rangers have a very interesting story. You will see the parallels.

Guggenheim cannot justify the price based on the revenue from their 162 events. They justify it on the back of the broadcast of that game to the wider marketplace.

Will the content owners in our industry leverage their investment, as Guggenheim and the rest of sports ownership has increasingly done over the years?

At bXb Online we are working with industry leading organizations PCMA, ASAE, and IAEE, and we are now in dialogue with many of those same top twenty trade shows and conventions. Our stated endeavor is to do for B2B events what broadcast television has done, and continues to do for sports. This analogy works – even though the numbers in B2B events are actually much more global than professional sports in the US. And the competition comes to B2B, albeit in a different form.

Every day we gain more and more support for this Industry Network being modeled by the industry, for the industry.

We are grateful for the incredible input to date from industry thought leaders and the marketplace in general. Every day delivers more and more momentum to a platform that many are increasingly saying can favorably redefine the event marketing landscape.

Play Ball.

-Tony Lorenz