Planview Sees 250% Increase in User Group Conference Attendance with Virtual Event
Planview, an Austin, Texas-based portfolio management company recently celebrated both its 20th anniversary and its first ever virtual event. A longtime producer of physical events, Planview made the leap into the virtual world more out of necessity than choice. As with so many other corporate decisions these days, the economic climate proved the deciding factor. After years of success in the physical realm, Planview customers began to crunch the budget numbers, and the travel expenses were just too prohibitive. “They could pay for the event cost,” explains Planview manager Kimberly Stone, “They just couldn’t get here.” Faced with the stark choice of low turnout or canceling the event entirely, Planview execs opted for a third strategy: producing the event virtually. Stone was charged with creating an event equal to or better than the highly popular physical version. To learn about virtual events and evaluate potential technology solutions, Planview sent Stone to the Virtual Edge Summit.
In the end, Planview opted for a combination of virtual and physical elements for the event. They utilized Unisfair’s platform, and from the beginning, it became clear that their needs were atypical of the usual Unisfair client. For starters, the focus of the event was more about communication, not lead generation, and secondly, the company planned to charge for the event (leading to an exceptionally high attendee to registrant ratio of 80%+). In light of these differences, Stone soon realized that this would be an improvised process. Planview partnered with Cvent for its registration which augmented Unisfair’s registration system, creating a registration spreadsheet that was manually processed and uploaded with Unisfair’s API using an uploader program programmed by the Planview team. The development became a true collaboration between Unisfair and Planview’s web team.
The physical portion of the event included a program where Planview bought groups of attendees lunch which was delivered to their conference room complete with event signage and welcome kits. The groups also had the opportunity to participate in special roundtables and consulting sessions through the use of a teleconferencing system.
Planview partnered with Launch Marketing to manage the budget, the welcome kits and special marketing percs designed to encourage group attendance. These strategies were intended to promote a “group attendance feel,” where people attended the event together in their conference room an important aspect of the overall marketing model (a great tactic to save streaming bandwidth as well).
The online event included keynote speakers with six live sessions and 29 prerecorded sessions, audio Q&A, 15 Planview booths plus 3 partner booths featuring Microsoft, Pervasive and Blue Star, 58 videos of content spread among the booths (all produced in-house). There were two networking lounges, one for general discussion and one for the on-demand presenters’ session Q&A. In retrospect, although both lounges were used, Stone admits that a single chat room would have been sufficient. The logistics of maintaining and staffing the 15 Planview booths proved an “epic” task, but in the end, the hard work paid off. Planview’s first virtual event netted 2½ times the attendance of their physical events, plus overall positive feedback on the content and the experience. The only negative comment was that customers missed the face-to-face contact of the live event, not to mention the party atmosphere. Some, however, preferred the virtual experience because it allowed them to multi-task at work while viewing content or participating in a chat. On average, attendees spent 172 minutes per day at the event.
So with the success of Planview’s first virtual endeavor, are they ready to abandon the physical format? Not so fast, says Stone. “Our customers, by and large, seem to be more optimistic looking toward 2010,” she says, “So, I feel a physical event’s probably going to happen.” It is possible that the event will be a hybrid including a virtual component as well as physical. While a virtual event is cheaper, it is by no means inexpensive, notes Stone, and building another virtual experience to rival their first effort would be quite labor intensive though easier than the first event. Still, Planview has some unique assets which put the company in a favorable position should they decide to go the virtual route: a production staff that can create all video content in-house plus a savvy web team that has certainly learned from its first endeavor. The ingredients are in place for Planview to make a big splash with its customers should it decide to make the virtual experience an annual event.
In the end, Planview opted for a combination of virtual and physical elements for the event. They utilized Unisfair’s platform, and from the beginning, it became clear that their needs were atypical of the usual Unisfair client. For starters, the focus of the event was more about communication, not lead generation, and secondly, the company planned to charge for the event (leading to an exceptionally high attendee to registrant ratio of 80%+). In light of these differences, Stone soon realized that this would be an improvised process. Planview partnered with Cvent for its registration which augmented Unisfair’s registration system, creating a registration spreadsheet that was manually processed and uploaded with Unisfair’s API using an uploader program programmed by the Planview team. The development became a true collaboration between Unisfair and Planview’s web team.
The physical portion of the event included a program where Planview bought groups of attendees lunch which was delivered to their conference room complete with event signage and welcome kits. The groups also had the opportunity to participate in special roundtables and consulting sessions through the use of a teleconferencing system.
Planview partnered with Launch Marketing to manage the budget, the welcome kits and special marketing percs designed to encourage group attendance. These strategies were intended to promote a “group attendance feel,” where people attended the event together in their conference room an important aspect of the overall marketing model (a great tactic to save streaming bandwidth as well).
The online event included keynote speakers with six live sessions and 29 prerecorded sessions, audio Q&A, 15 Planview booths plus 3 partner booths featuring Microsoft, Pervasive and Blue Star, 58 videos of content spread among the booths (all produced in-house). There were two networking lounges, one for general discussion and one for the on-demand presenters’ session Q&A. In retrospect, although both lounges were used, Stone admits that a single chat room would have been sufficient. The logistics of maintaining and staffing the 15 Planview booths proved an “epic” task, but in the end, the hard work paid off. Planview’s first virtual event netted 2½ times the attendance of their physical events, plus overall positive feedback on the content and the experience. The only negative comment was that customers missed the face-to-face contact of the live event, not to mention the party atmosphere. Some, however, preferred the virtual experience because it allowed them to multi-task at work while viewing content or participating in a chat. On average, attendees spent 172 minutes per day at the event.
So with the success of Planview’s first virtual endeavor, are they ready to abandon the physical format? Not so fast, says Stone. “Our customers, by and large, seem to be more optimistic looking toward 2010,” she says, “So, I feel a physical event’s probably going to happen.” It is possible that the event will be a hybrid including a virtual component as well as physical. While a virtual event is cheaper, it is by no means inexpensive, notes Stone, and building another virtual experience to rival their first effort would be quite labor intensive though easier than the first event. Still, Planview has some unique assets which put the company in a favorable position should they decide to go the virtual route: a production staff that can create all video content in-house plus a savvy web team that has certainly learned from its first endeavor. The ingredients are in place for Planview to make a big splash with its customers should it decide to make the virtual experience an annual event.
Tags: Kimberly Stone, Planview, Unisfair, virtual customer meeting
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