Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

I'm having trouble making a decision.....................if I come right out and say what I think I may very well be dismissed as a platform vendor who is taking cheap shots at the competition or the virtual events industry in general. Believe me, I am not - I believe in virtual events and feel the market will be richer and more likely to succeed with a rich array of platform choices. On the other hand, if I'm too diplomatic or polite, where will I get the feedback to tell me if my opinion is isolated or the general consensus?
So, let me just say I have a problem with what seems to be the generally accepted graphics and user interface we, as virtual event platform vendors, offer to our organisers, exhibitors and visitors.
I vaguely recollect that it was when I was working as a project manager launching a new e-learning conference and exhibition in 2000 that I was first called by a  company who explained virtual events were the 'next big thing' and I should look at a platform they had created around an event at the National Motorcycle exhibition in Birmingham. Needless to say, at that time, the user experience was fairly woeful, but I seem to remember the graphics being not a million miles away from what we see today.
I really think we need to at least offer a option to get us away from a 'literal' view of an exhibition hall, conference centre, networking lounge and so on. Why can't the exhibition stands be displayed on a carousel for example? I understand the linking of visuals to existing functionality so new visitors have a more intuitive experience, but surely we also want a little bit of the 'wow' factor? Virtual events should be cool and look up to date or even 'cutting edge'!
Typically, the back end of a lot of platforms available today are very impressive, delivering statistics and lead generation information for exhibitors that physical event organisers can only dream about. Stretching our imaginations on the way we present the front end can only increase the quality of the concept, product and experience.

What is the best platform for your event?

Just as there is not a single, established format for a live, physical event, a single venue type, single speaker line up, so there is not a single virtual event platform solution for all needs.

The best platforms are those that can accommodate the needs and wants of the organiser, no matter what format, functionality, look and feel is required. That is a big ask of the platform developers, especially if one of the desired outcomes is a platform that is as easy to configure and use by the organiser, as possible. Alternatively, platform providers can take the 'niche' rather than the 'generalist' approach and try and address the core functionality requirements that will appeal to a certain sector or event type.

However, are there some given requirements that you should consider ahead of all others if you are looking to select the right platform for your event, or even list the 'must have' features of your own platform that you are looking to develop?

Let's look at:

- Ease of access - Is a download required? Is 100% browser based solution best?

- User journey must be clearly signposted and intuitive

- Content must be easy to find and minimum number of clicks away

- Look and feel of environment should be appropriate for exhibiting brands

- Platform should be robust and scalable

- Content management should be easy for organisers and exhibitors

- Environment should offer a reasonable degree of customisation

- Platform should offer comprehensive and easy to manage reporting system

- Cost

There are many more considerations of course, but I strongly believe the first thing you should do when choosing or designing a platform is put yourself in the position of the visitor. What will turn them off and what will encourage them to explore, engage, experiment and return? In some cases a full range of functionality will enhance the visitor experience, in others it may be best to keep it simple.

Of course, as every event organiser knows (virtual or physical), the platform or venue are important, but content is still king. If you get that right, your visitor will be more forgiving of any shortcomings in the environment.

Optimising the Visitor Experience

Image via Wikipedia

So, who were the first people to try and take events online?

Were they events people who saw the opportunities to extend the life and reach of their existing physical events by publishing the content online and using communication tools to enable a dialogue between visitors and vendors? Or, were they developers who could see that, by pulling together a series of publishing and communication tools and putting it behind a user interface that effectively linked the physical and online worlds in the minds of the exhibitors and visitors, it was possible to 'recreate' an event online?

Either way, we are now in a rapidly developing market where the content owner/publisher has an impressive array of virtual events platforms to choose from. These platforms have a range of user interfaces, communication tools, content delivery and archiving options, functionality modules and detailed reporting capabilities, but are we all being a little blinkered in our approach?

The best quality of interaction will always be in person, face to face. Virtual events will only ever come a distant second in this regard. So virtual events need to offer advantages to compensate for this fact. These compensations are generally considered to be:

1. Extending life.

2. Extending reach.

3. Lower investment (lower risk/better ROI).

4. Lower carbon footprint.

Is that enough? Many would say a resounding 'yes', but I believe there is also a huge opportunity to offer a much better visitor experience online.

Regardless of the origin of a platform's design, most providers tend to offer a solution that takes a number of the limitations of a physical event and replicate it online. For example, why should every visitor be presented with the same exhibition? Why can't the virtual event recognise me, look at my preferences in my registration details, and deliver me a customised experience so that the stands/booths of the vendors that are most likely to have products and services that are going to help me, are presented to me 'front and centre'? Why not use tag clouds that can 'hover' over a stand/booth to give me an instant indicator of what is being discussed with that vendor? Features like this benefit the visitor and cannot be replicated in the physical world. Let's use them to demonstrate the full potential of taking the best of the web and the best of events and using them with the single minded goal of producing the best visitor experience possible.

As we all know, get the customer experience right and everything else will follow.

Circumstances & Disclosure

Before I start examining the 'whys' and 'wherefores' of existing virtual event platforms, services and business models I need to disclose that I work for a virtual events platform vendor, although this is not the primary thrust of the business, the platform was developed as a means to an end. When I joined Decisive Media (www.decisivemedia.co.uk), known to many in ICT and Telecoms as TelecomTV (www.telecomtv.com), the company was looking at launching a series of physical events. However, the whole TelecomTV community had been built online from the company's formation in 2001 and it seemed to me, as the subscribers were used to consuming content and interacting online, virtual events could offer a logical and cost effective solution.
Over a few weeks in late 2008 we took a look at a good number of platforms available in the market and concluded, with the in-house talent at our disposal, we could create our own. Primarily, the reasons behind this decision were:
1. We felt we could produce a platform on which we could run our own events that would have a return on the investment in development, within a reasonable time-frame, as opposed to paying a platform vendor a considerable rental fee.
2. We also believed there was an opportunity in the market to produce a simple platform that brought together the best of web tools and the functionality of events in general, and make it 100% browser based (especially important for corporate clients who have IT protocols that don't allow for large downloads and 'exotic' plug-ins) with an emphasis on allowing the visitor to have a 'relevant' experience and find the content, exhibitor or contact, as easily (within a minimum number of clicks) as possible.
3. Create a new revenue stream with a flexible approach to the commercial model - ownership, licensing, and partnership (shared revenue from stand, sponsorship and delegate sales to share the risk).
If you are interested, please take a look at some examples of our work:
http://ictworld.telecomtv.com/ and http://www.symantecvirtualexpo.com/
and let me know what you think.........

My First Post - Why?

Hello World!

This is my first blog. I've always thought it was a good idea. It's just that inertia is such a powerful force that I always found something more important or urgent to do (like not start it!).

I'm not sure what I'm trying to achieve, if anything, but I just feel that I often meet people in my job that give me new perspectives on subjects I have long held fixed opinions on or others that just frustrate me with their closed outlooks. The area in which I am involved that provokes most of these polar opposite experiences is virtual events, virtual tradeshows, digital marketplaces, call them what you will. Hence the title for the blog 'Positively Virtual' - my optimistic and enthusiastic leaning towards a brave new world of events online.

My journey started in SL a few years ago and have 'dabbled' with the experience, read Tim Guest's "Second Lives", looked at a lot of virtual event platforms and am enthused by the possibilities for both social and business interaction. I've also had a degree of exposure to 'serious gaming'. This is such an exciting space, full of possibilities and innovation.
However, coming from a live events background I have always been convinced that eventually the 'perfect storm' of economic and green pressures, coupled with technological improvements in accessibility and quality of interaction, will drive a huge migration of events online. These events may replace or support real world events - a whole new debate in itself.
I am in two minds as to whether the future of online events is in generalist virtual worlds or on bespoke business event platforms - I see advantages and disadvantages with both. In all probability there is no right answer, each type of event should be taken as an individual case and as infrastructure and SL improves, and the choice of virtual event platforms increases, the medium for delivery can be selected to best suit the organisers (and visitors) needs.
We're seeing a lot of new platform offerings targeting the business and consumer events, I'm sure this will continue and grow, as will permanent virtual corporate destinations, shopping centres and economic communities etc.
An exciting space to be involved in........better than banking anyway!

I hope I find a new sense of discipline and become a regular blogger, and hope my ramblings are of interest to at least a few.

Kind regards,

Jim.