David Meerman Scott’s view on Social Media for events highlighting Singapore’s 1st Tattoo Show as an examnple…
The 1st Singapore Tattoo Show, held Jan. 9–11, 2009, was endorsed and supported by the Singapore Tourism Board and included show ambassador Chris Garver of Miami Ink. The goal was to get 5,000 visitors to the show, where more than 120 artists from around the globe representing all the various modern tattoo styles ticked away with their machines and all sorts of fun and funky exhibitors showed their wares.
Promotions leading up to the Singapore Tattoo Show were anything but ordinary, and what I find particularly impressive as a show promotional tool was the Facebook Group called Tattoo Artistry that was started by organizers 3 months prior to the event. Facebook turned out to be a terrific way for people to connect well before the physical event, and the Tattoo Artistry Facebook Group quickly gained 3,000 members, securing a place as the center of this artwork for the region. The physical show started with a virtual group.
The passion of the members of the Tattoo Artistry Facebook Group for “their event” meant thousands of people promoting to their Facebook friends. The online community aggregated people eager to attend the live event. Instead of relying on buying expensive advertising, a community of passionate fans built anticipation and buzz.
With more than 15,000 people attending, the Singapore Tattoo Show brought three times the expected number of attendees Just as interesting, The Tattoo Artistry Facebook group is now Asia’s largest social network for the tattoo industry, tattoo enthusiasts, and fans. The group will continue to grow as an online destination to connect, and plans are already underway for the 2nd Singapore Tattoo Show in 2010 with the Facebook group as the center of the free promotions for the event.
Made in IBM Labs: IBM Creates Software for Holding Face-to-Face Meetings in Virtual Worlds
Allows Meeting-Goers to Teleport Themselves From Instant Message Chats to Virtual Conference Rooms — No Reservations Necessary
ARMONK, NY–(Marketwire – March 4, 2009) – IBM (NYSE: IBM) is making it easier for widely dispersed businesspeople to interact and collaborate without the time and expense of in-person meetings.
What is making all this possible is the marriage between “virtual world” Web sites, and “unified communications and collaboration tools” — technology that links such things as voicemail, audible chat, and instant messaging. Virtual worlds are interactive, immersive Web sites with three-dimensional graphics. There, people are represented by versions of themselves, called avatars. With origins in multi-player gaming sites, virtual worlds re-create the social and visual dynamics and cues of human interaction, and are now increasingly used in business settings.
IBM is now allowing selected clients test Sametime 3D, a new tool which will let business colleagues not only exchange instant messages and chat verbally, but also share presentations and ideas in private, prefabricated, reusable meeting spaces located in a variety of virtual worlds. These spaces will allow participants to, literally, throw ideas on the wall during a meeting to “see what sticks,” and to vote on, organize, and save the most promising proposals. Avatars can make presentations to one another, socialize, debate, or, literally, examine ideas and 3D objects from all angles.
IBM’s new software enables groups based in different locations to meet on a regular, periodic or impromptu basis in these virtual worlds. With this new software tool, IBM is providing several reusable meeting spaces, including a theater-style amphitheatre, a boardroom and a collaboration space which can each be used for impromptu or scheduled brainstorming sessions, status updates, town hall-style meetings, rehearsals, training classes, and more.
“This project is part of IBM’s ongoing work to redefine the nature of online meetings,” said Colin Parris, IBM’s Vice President for Industry Solutions and Emerging Business. “The work that takes place during a meeting is hard enough; people shouldn’t have to struggle with logistics. Whether through improvements to Web conferencing capabilities or with special offerings such as Sametime 3D, IBM is offering new ways to engage and collaborate, making meetings more effective and productive.”
The new software overcomes several challenges that have existed for businesses wishing to hold meetings in virtual worlds: First, businesses can collaborate the way in which they are accustomed, using software they may already have, such as electronic presentations, enterprise security, and instant messaging tools. Second, IBM has prefabricated a variety of re-useable spaces specifically designed for productive meetings, making it unnecessary for adopters to painstakingly build meeting rooms each time they want to meet. Third, these spaces are secure, overcoming privacy concerns manifest in many public areas of popular virtual worlds. And finally, colleagues not wishing to participate in a given virtual meeting can still view documents, presentations and results from those sessions — or even snapshots of a previous meeting.
In the future, the software will provide a variety of ways for participants to circulate reports to one another that document the meetings’ progress. IBM will also make it easier for users to chat verbally and exchange information generated by and for virtual meetings, with traditional computer software already installed on their computers and servers.
Selected IBM clients and business partners are now being invited to work with IBM’s Lotus Services organization to test this new software. The solution, which may be available by the second half of 2009, uses version 8.0 of IBM Lotus Sametime, and a plug-in designed by IBM Research for virtual worlds. When the software is developed fully, clients will be able to use it to connect any number of virtual worlds, such as OpenSim or Second Life. A demonstration of the software’s capabilities is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfqGwKFStuw
IBM is in the forefront in exploring virtual worlds. Hundreds of IBM researchers, consultants, and developers are developing and providing new ways of learning, collaborating and doing business in virtual worlds. IBM is helping clients to develop their virtual world strategies, and is providing them with solutions and services that enable adopters to better collaborate. In addition, IBM is leading an initiative to help improve compatibility between disparate virtual worlds. Internally, IBM uses virtual worlds to conduct research, host events, and to acclimate new employees.
Having trouble selling your delagate tickets at your event – maybe Conference Bay can give you a helping hand and a new way of thinking….
As you know, Conference Bay has at the basis of its business model and beliefs that one of the most basic things that conference organisers could do differently is the pricing of the tickets for their events. In most cases an Early Bird discount and some group discounts are available, but customers nowadays expect something more sophisticated than that, having experienced how (budget) airlines and hotels price their similarly perishable goods.
Since its inception in September 2007 Conference Bay has been chipping away at reactions from organisers like “this is the way we have always done it” and “we do not offer discounts as we have a very high quality event”. In many cases, reactions such as these were followed a few weeks later by phone calls and e-mails asking us to help the organiser sell some additional seats. We believe that especially in the current economic situation conference organisers have a great opportunity to change the way they market and price their product. By asking people how much they are willing to pay for a seat they will not only get a much better understanding of the price point at which they would sell the optimal number of seats (from a profit point of view) but they would also be able to find out if there are price points at which they might be able to sell additional products (say a 3 hour or one day conference instead of the standard 2-3 days).
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