This post is sponsored by Eventbrite. Nonetheless, I find the product updates mentioned below quite useful as a conference organizer
There is a current trend in the events world –or at least in many of the events that I admire and are setting the baseline on how events should be– which is concerned with:
Using [web] technology to make events more discoverable, sell better and help logistics run smoothly and painlessly both for the organizer and the attendees
Making technology disappear (by making it invisible or eliminating it altogether) inside the conference room to create a more intimate atmosphere and allow face-to-face (F2F) interaction in it’s purest form
Today Eventbrite announced three products (one completely new, two improved) that further expand their services to help you with the first point mentioned above.
The Conference Basics Tribune is a free newsletter specifically made for event organizers -> It includes a selection of articles, tips, recommended mobile apps, books and featured event organizers. Want to see how the newsletter looks like? Here are a few examples.
Evernote (web) goes by the tagline “remember everything” and it’s latest free app –Hello (iTunes)– becomes a faithful follower of that motto specifically built to help you remember people you meet (for example at a conference). Read the full article →
The Conference Basics Tribune is a free newsletter specifically made for event organizers -> It includes a selection of articles, tips, recommended mobile apps, books and featured event organizers. Want to see how the newsletter looks like? Here are a few examples.
This is the first guest-post by Ana Silva, specialist in Enterprise 2.0 and social media, and scholarly on serendipitous matter (more on Ana at the end of the article). Serendipity, the art of looking for something and ending up finding something else, at times more valuable than the thing you were looking for in the first place, is generally seen as something that happens in our personal lives, as portrayed in Hollywood movies.
The Conference Basics Tribune is a free newsletter specifically made for event organizers -> It includes a selection of articles, tips, recommended mobile apps, books and featured event organizers. Want to see how the newsletter looks like? Here are a few examples.
Illustration by Otto (taken from the original article)
Simon Jenkins writes in this articlein the Guardian something I’ve been emphasizing in my event organizer activity, that is, even though we’re more connected than ever (or thanks to it) there are more physical/face-to-face events taking place that in any other time of the human existence. But beware! Those experiences cannot follow the ways (best practices) valid until just a few years ago. In fact, best practices are not enough for creating a compelling experience… one that is at least relevant, useful or entertaining for the participants, or in other words, worth dedicating your time, money and attention.
Extract from the article:
Post-digital is not anti-digital. It extends digital into the beyond. The web becomes not a destination in itself but a route map to somewhere real. In Marshall McLuhan’s terminology, it is cold where live is hot. This is why concerts did not die with the invention of records, but thrived on the difference. The screen relieves loneliness, as once did letters and phones, but it remains a window on the world, not a door. You cannot download the thunderous beat and sweaty presence of thousands at a Lady Gaga concert, any more than you can make love on Facebook, much as some try. You have to go somewhere for it to happen.
The Conference Basics Tribune is a free newsletter specifically made for event organizers -> It includes a selection of articles, tips, recommended mobile apps, books and featured event organizers. Want to see how the newsletter looks like? Here are a few examples.
An event produces a lot of ephemeral tidbits of valuable content that resonates in real time but then fades (e.g.: tweeted quotes the speaker currently on stage). How can you highlight that content not only to the attendees but also to their connections on social media and a broader audience that might not be aware of your conference? Professional illustrator Chris Shipton (twitter, web, company: Livescribes) might have a solution for you.
The Conference Basics Tribune is a free newsletter specifically made for event organizers -> It includes a selection of articles, tips, recommended mobile apps, books and featured event organizers. Want to see how the newsletter looks like? Here are a few examples.
You have an iPad but are afraid of it slipping from your hands while you’re speaking on-stage? Grabbit has a solution for both iPad 1 and iPad 2 owners, and at a quite affordable price too. With it’s hardshell body and quality leader strap, it appeals to both technologists and business men alike. It has several other features but it’s the strap what makes it useful for event organizers and speakers alike, or as they write “Ideal for presentations & one-hand entries. Great for showrooms, inventory work, hospitals, conference rooms, podiums & stages.”
The Conference Basics Tribune is a free newsletter specifically made for event organizers -> It includes a selection of articles, tips, recommended mobile apps, books and featured event organizers. Want to see how the newsletter looks like? Here are a few examples.
Last month at the Wired Conference I talked with Julius Solaris, editor of the Event Manager Blog, about the current trends in the events world. Read the full article here. Watch the video below. Read the full article →
The Conference Basics Tribune is a free newsletter specifically made for event organizers -> It includes a selection of articles, tips, recommended mobile apps, books and featured event organizers. Want to see how the newsletter looks like? Here are a few examples.
Campus Party (web) is a sort of “Las Vegas for Geeks”. A huge festival (often larger that 8,000 attendees, or “campuseros”) attracting developers, hackers, gamers and geeks that live together 24hs a day for one full week. Belinda Galiano (twitter) co-founded Campus Party nearly 15 years ago and now is working to bring it to Silicon Valley in mid 2012.
The co-chairs of such a unique event are no other than the web’s fathers, Al Gore, Tim Berners-Lee and Vint Cerf. Located in NASA, Campus Party Silicon Valley (#CPSiliconValley) aims to engage more than 10,000 campuseros in lectures, workshops and interactive experiences in the realms of innovation, creativity science and digital entertainment. Read the full article →
The Conference Basics Tribune is a free newsletter specifically made for event organizers -> It includes a selection of articles, tips, recommended mobile apps, books and featured event organizers. Want to see how the newsletter looks like? Here are a few examples.
How does innovation firm frog (web, twitter) create a more cohesive team between new hires and the old boys and prevent fellow frogs (they call themselves like that and their offices are known as “ponds”) having to introduce each other during client meetings? Solution: they organize internal Speed-Dating sessions!
The Conference Basics Tribune is a free newsletter specifically made for event organizers -> It includes a selection of articles, tips, recommended mobile apps, books and featured event organizers. Want to see how the newsletter looks like? Here are a few examples.
The concepts for running a Lean Startup described by Eric Ries (twitter, blog) in his recently published book (The Lean Startup, Amazon) can also be applied to make a conference better by turning “ideas into products, measure how customers respond and learn whether to pivot or persevere [in your actions].”
Lean Startup principles can help you innovate an event’s marketing, experience design, program curation and many other activities in order to create a radically successful business.
The Conference Basics Tribune is a free newsletter specifically made for event organizers -> It includes a selection of articles, tips, recommended mobile apps, books and featured event organizers. Want to see how the newsletter looks like? Here are a few examples.
There is a current trend in the events world –or at least in many of the events that I admire and are setting the baseline on how events should be– which is concerned with:
