Blogs - The Virtual Edge Institute

‘Perpetual’ Virtual Environments May Unlock Long-Lasting Customer, Employee, Partner Relations & Drive ROI

As we prepare for the next Virtual Edge Summit trade show (both in the physical and virtual world), a powerful idea that has been percolating for a while seems to be coming closer to a reality. This virtual event and meeting space and now virtual environment sector is converging and getting very interesting. Really, there’s something new happening every day. I get calls about new technologies practically every week, I hear about new… Continue

Published by Michael Doyle on February 1, 2010 at 4:30pm — No Comments

WEB.ALIVE BETA 2.0 COMES OUT SWINGING

Soon to be released as the AVAYA web.alive application it certainly sports some neat detailing: The latest features of the Web.alive 2.0 beta include : · drag and drop documents and images into web.alive to make presentations, collaboration, and training easy · voice just works (even better!) – noise suppression & echo cancellation allows for a great experience with your built-in laptop speakers and microphone · web rendering – it can render virtual any web content in world. This powerful… Continue

Published by Joe Rigby on December 22, 2009 at 2:22pm — No Comments

NORTEL WEB.ALIVE: IS IT A CONTENDER?

Immersive Environments using Web.Alive There are game engines, originally created for development of computer/video games, which can be used for non-game virtual worlds. Unreal Engine (UE) by Epic Games ( http://www.unrealtechnology.com ) is probably the strongest, robust and most popular. UE is a complete 3D development framework for PCs, Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3, providing a vast array of core technologies, content creatio… Continue

Published by Joe Rigby on November 8, 2009 at 5:10pm — No Comments

Forget “Content is King”; You’d Better Start Thinking the “Attendee is King”

Many physical event and meeting producers know how hard it is to get an audience. Virtual events have become an attractive option for those professionals, as they figure if they take the expense and travel out of the equation, it will just be easier to attract an audience. But virtual event producers have their own challenges when it comes to attracting an audience, and keeping them engaged. And, according to a recent survey, it’s only going to get tougher -- even in a down economy where virtua… Continue

Published by Michael Doyle on November 5, 2009 at 6:40pm — 1 Comment

Uniting the Virtual Worlds Will Benefit Everyone

If ever there was a win, win, win situation here it is. When Virtual Worlds decide to unite the event will make front page news. The entire industry will benefit in three key areas. It will allow the owners to speak with one voice enabling them to define their own agenda. It will allow an entry point for needed sponsorship. Third the end user will gain a better sense of community and shared responsibility as pioneers of this wonderful technology. Continue

Published by Charles Gatlin on November 5, 2009 at 4:00pm — No Comments

The Reality of Virtuality

Only a few weeks ago we held our first ITM forum in second life and the feedback has been great. Attended by around 20 delegates (a similar number to the amount who attended the real-life event the day before at the NEC) the forum we designed was created to test the boundaries of this technology in a business environment and its application for meetings and events. As part of ITM’s goal is to innovate and explore the use of technology in the travel and meetings arena our introduction to Second… Continue

Published by Paul Tilstone on October 21, 2009 at 8:58am — No Comments

Who is Responsible for Your Virtual Event’s User Experience?

It has been a busy few weeks for virtual events and we have had the luxury to attend a few recently that were overall pretty good but still have some issues that shouldn’t be happening. Remember, just because it is a “virtual” event doesn’t mean it should anything less than a perfect experience for your attendee—in fact, it’s even more important in my opinion. Why? The obvious reason is that people are in front of their computers with the ability to connect to a world of information or their ema… Continue

Published by Michael Doyle on September 21, 2009 at 3:00pm — No Comments

Forbes in a Funk over Virtual Meetings and Events

The new Forbes Insights document titled Business Meetings, The Case for Face-to-Face poses the question: Can webconferences, videoconferences and other virtual meetings really take the place of face-to-face contact? The answer is presented somewhat ambiguously in the report as they state "business executives overwhelmingly agree that face-to-face meetings are not just preferable but… Continue

Published by Michael Doyle on September 1, 2009 at 2:54pm — No Comments

Taking the Next Step in our Development--the Virtual Edge Institute

At Virtual Edge, were taking the next step with the creation of the Virtual Edge Institute (VEI). VEI will serve as the overriding organization for all of our activities. The Virtual Edge Institute is dedicated to advancing the development and adoption of virtual event and meeting technology and best practices for collaboration and marketing. So what does that mean? Our mission is to help marketers and event professionals plan and produce successful events and meetings utilizing virtual event t… Continue

Published by Michael Doyle on August 28, 2009 at 5:57pm — No Comments

Another Compelling Rational for Virtual Events—if Done Right

HOW LONG BEFORE A HOT LEAD GOES COLD? For most B2B markets, the correct answer is one hour, after which the lead is no longer “hot.” (or it could be what Dennis Shiao calls an “A” lead in his blog The ABCs of Lead Follow Up http://allvirtual.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/the-abcs-of-lead-follow-up-for-virtual-events/). It’s still a lead, but it’s no better than any old lead taken from a list. Applying a statistical measurement to extract patterns of success and failure, Dr. James Oldroyd of the Kel… Continue

Published by Michael Doyle on July 20, 2009 at 10:45am — No Comments

On the Eve of eComXpo there’s a Story I Just Have to Write—But Not Now

eComXpo starts tomorrow and runs July 8th and 9th and targets the ecommerce and affiliate markets. What is interesting is that this event has been around for years --I think the first one was February 2005 but I could be wrong and I don’t have time to track someone who knows down—but it has been around for a long time in this business and they were producing more than one a year since it started. So what’s interesting about this? Let me share some stats. The March 2007 eComXpo virtual event had… Continue

Published by Michael Doyle on July 7, 2009 at 10:00pm — No Comments

Don't Overwhelm Your Attendees

Twice in the last two weeks (which is not exactly a full on trend but…) I have had people say something related to the amount of unwanted emails they are getting after they attend a virtual event. I have to admit, I think there is a certain understanding that if you attend an event for free or you register and don’t opt out of follow up emails from the show or the exhibitors, you should expect to be contacted. Same might even go if you visited a booth and downloaded some materials…I can understa… Continue

Published by Michael Doyle on June 26, 2009 at 4:14pm — 1 Comment

I’ve Never Heard of So Many People Leaving a Meeting …to Attend the Meeting

I’ve heard four different stories of people who attended Virtual Edge Summit in person and then left to attend virtually. But I also heard two stories of people who were attending virtually and then decided to come in to the live event. The best story is from one attendee who left the summit to go to the airport for her flight and logged in to the virtual event at the terminal with others that she was traveling with. They were chatting with us live from the airport while in the virtual event. S… Continue

Published by Michael Doyle on June 12, 2009 at 11:30am — No Comments

A Great Byproduct of the Virtual Edge Summit…It’s Called Business

If you missed the first Virtual Edge Summit in May (we’ll be doing another and the date will be announced soon) there has been a constant flow of demos, deals and partnering that has been going on since the event and it is very encouraging and exciting. Today I was talking to a company about one of my pet peeves which is the lack of ability for exhibitors to bring in their own booth properties and environments into virtual event platforms. I really think we have to get to the point where an exhi… Continue

Published by Michael Doyle on June 11, 2009 at 2:44pm — No Comments

The Recession is Going to Be Longer and Deeper--So Get in the Lemonade Business

I was talking to a couple of very successful VCs the other day and one of the things I really wanted to find out was what they thought was in store for the economy over the next few years and they were both downright pessimistic. Companies and governments (excluding the Obama stimulus programs) are still cutting spending and unemployment will continue to grow. When I asked about the travel and events industry three years from now (the timeframe they gave for a recovery) it was not very good. Co… Continue

Published by Michael Doyle on June 4, 2009 at 12:25pm — No Comments

We're in the Process of Doing a Little Survey on Virtual Events & Meetings

We wanted to test out the waters and see how businesses we're utilizing virtual event and virtual meeting solutions. It is not meant to be a formal research report but a quick benchmark of where people are today. You can find a pfd of the current responses here. Though we have under 200 responses currently, some interesting things have been uncovered as well as ideas on how to approach a larger, market study. Interestingly, everyone was familiar with the te… Continue

Published by Michael Doyle on May 3, 2009 at 11:14pm — No Comments

Could the Virtual Event and Meeting Industry be Half the Size of the Soft Drink Industry in a Few Years?

Virtual events are a means to attract and bind customers, improve customer satisfaction and customer loyalty and to achieve similar results with employees and partners. The reality is that with virtual events and meetings you can do this while decreasing travel costs—which can be about 50% of the cost of any meeting. According to the US Travel Association of the $175 billion spent on meetings in the US, 54% is travel and lodging related and my guess would be that it is about the same percent of… Continue

Published by Michael Doyle on March 29, 2009 at 6:00pm — No Comments

The Challenge for Virtual Events is the Space-time Continuum “It’s all regional”

With a physical event, people travel to the same location and therefore the same time zone to have their meeting but with virtual events, you can have people attending the meeting while located in every time zone in the world. That makes it pretty hard to schedule a convenient time for everyone. Until recently, this problem was largely relegated to virtual event producers, but now, with physical events becoming more regional every day the problem cuts across all types of events and meetings. I… Continue

Published by Michael Doyle on March 22, 2009 at 4:30pm — No Comments

The Ecosystem Surrounding Virtual Events is Building--Don't be Left Out

There is not a day that goes by now that I don’t get a call or email from a company that is scrambling to establish their presence in the virtual event and meeting space. From major event management companies that are forming alliances and building out programs and practices (watch George P Johnson, Immersa Marketing and Maritz to name just a few), to staffing firms and headhunters scouring the landscape for corporate clients as well as the virtual events service providers. Over the next few we… Continue

Published by Michael Doyle on March 11, 2009 at 2:30pm — No Comments

IBM Saved $350,000 on its Recent Virtual Meeting

CNBC's Julia Boorstin reports in her story Virtual Meetings Get A 2nd Life that companies are moving to virtual events and meetings to save money and because it looks better than sending people off to places like "Pebble Beach golf outings." In talking to executives from virtual and physical event and meeting companies they all agree, the pendulum has swung tremendously toward virtual events. As Julia points out "hundreds of companies have held meet… Continue

Published by Michael Doyle on March 1, 2009 at 3:09pm — No Comments

< Previous Post

All Blog Posts (31)