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 exhibitor can bring their own booth to whatever platform they happen to be exhibiting on or there needs to be a lot more flexibility in the platforms to allow exhibitors to showcase their brands in more unique and creative ways. And guess what, they said they have had two meetings since the Summit dealing with just that and they are making that an important part of their development road map. They didn’t realize it was a real opportunity until they met with attendees at the show that told them it would be an important differentiator and something that was occasionally a criticism from higher management.

I’m also talking to companies that are sending out RFPs where they had been sitting on their hands for awhile trying to figure out what they were going to do, now after the event, they are ‘doing’. I’ve heard from platforms that weren’t at the event that they are almost ready with their new versions so we’ll have more solutions with more options soon. And people that were in the process of building events are now doing so with a lot more confidence and a new group of colleagues ready to help them out if they get into trouble.

It all is making me realize though that this great ‘meshed’ event that we did needs to be continued with the virtual attendees and the physical attendees getting connected better. That is another one of my pet peeves …I go to a virtual event and I have a chat or send someone a message and maybe they don’t get back to me while I’m at the show and I feel like I’ve lost the connection. I think I’ll talk to one of the platform vendors that supports video chat and see if we can use their platform for a networking get-together. Anyone that has some ideas on ways to connect the virtual and the physical audience please let me know what you’ve tried and what is working.