Livingston

Sep
05
2008

The Value of Events

search-camp-philly-logo.jpgThis weekend I will be a part of five different sessions at SearchCamp Philly, an unconference coinciding with PodCamp Philly. Like many events, I am sure there will be skeptics who will decry the usual self congratulatory echo chamber back slapping. In fact, I’ve often criticized the star stuck uber-attendee. Yet for the business-oriented, events can yield great value.

Normally, I try to speak at or attend events where prospective clients will be, association conferences or private and public business-oriented events. My second preferred type of event is often university-based — preferably local — both for giving purposes and for recruiting. Last comes the echo chamber events. While I try to avoid intra-social media crowd events, sometimes business takes me there and that’s OK. Regardless of event type there’s always some positive benefit of going.

First of all — regardless of Internet fame — speaking can yield great business opportunity. Speakers often receive a halo of subject matter expertise, unless they muff their session. In turn, such events can yield leads, additional earned media opportunities, or just great contacts. Speakers bureaus have been a hallmark of well designed PR programs long before the latest 2.0 craze.

Secondly, we are so dependent on the Internet social scene to find like minds and thought leaders. Yet, my experience has been that events like these deliver substantive relationships. If you don’t act like a tongue-tied, star struck babbling fool, what was an admiration for someone can turn into a substantive contact or acquaintance.

BlogWorldJoinME08_160pix.gifFor example, BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas on September 20-21 can be viewed as an echo chamber event. Or it can be viewed as a business opportunity. For me it’s the latter, and I have a significant project taking place there. In fact, I’ve already got more than 15 meetings set up for the weekend with some of the Internet’s top minds. I’ve admired several of these people for a long time, and look forward to meeting them in person, and seeing how I can build value for them. At Gnomedex, I had three new business meetings.

Lastly, the educational content can be very good at conferences. Personally, I find that most of my time is spent in the hallways networking. But there are always sessions I plug into just to learn. Beth Kanter’s session at Gnomedex was a great example of a worthwhile 40 minutes.

There’s always something to learn, and those who can’t see that, well, that’s too bad. You cannot underestimate the value of remaining teachable.

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by Geoff Livingston | PR, social media |

9 Responses to “The Value of Events”

  • Mark Drapeau Says:

    September 5th, 2008 at 8:27 am

    Geoff - I met you at an event in Chicago, even though we both live in the Washington DC area. I had never heard of you until someone gave me a free copy of your book. We had a great time and continued our professional relationship back home. I can tell the same story for any number of other people I have met at great Web 2.0 events in the last six months. Agree wholeheartedly. Mark P.S. See you at the conference on Monday!

  • Lauren Vargas Says:

    September 5th, 2008 at 8:39 am

    I enjoy speaking at events outside of the echo chamber. For example, a couple of weeks ago I spoke at the Boys and Girls Club of America Southwest Leadership Conference and walked away with great leads. However, the most valuable take-away was the food-for-thought generated by session discussion. Just like teaching, I find I learn so much when I give back to the community. It has always paid off!

    BTW…I will see you at BWE! I will be attending the Milbloggers Conference Panel.

  • mike ashworth Says:

    September 5th, 2008 at 8:57 am

    Hi Geoff,

    Your last paragraph is so true,

    “There’s always something to learn, and those who can’t see that, well, that’s too bad. You cannot underestimate the value of remaining teachable.”

    I am often amazed at the number of people I come across who claim to work in Marketing, New Media, Social Media etc. who appear to have given up learning the day they left school, college, university. Real learnings that is, not just jumping on the latest bandwagon and riding it to death and fleecing small businesses. Quite sad really. your words should be a kick up the rear for all of them…

    Mike Ashworth
    Marketing Coach and Consultant
    Brighton and Hove, Sussex, UK

  • Geoff Livingston Says:

    September 5th, 2008 at 12:36 pm

    Thanks Mark and Lauren. Our relationships are great examples of this second point at play.

    Mike, man, wow. So true. I actually had a friend who wanted to enter the SM space because it was hot and advised him not to… Because he wants to have a successful new business, I think pioneering is over in social media, and that it’s time to enter e new space. In this case, I suggested green/enviro marketing.

  • mike ashworth Says:

    September 5th, 2008 at 1:13 pm

    I think the challenge is that many marketers appear to be led by the tools (all these new fangled social media spaces etc) so that they can still broadcast to people, even though many of us realised a long time ago that this stopped working.

    Rather than hammering each new tool to death and bombarding people they ought to start thinking about people, communities, relationships, what do people desire from their lives, their values, needs, wants etc. If they can’t grasp this sort of stuff they shouldn’t claim to be in Marketing.

    As you point out their is a trend towards green / environment Marketing, and this is a positive thing however we also need to ensure it takes account of people’s other values as well.

    I am now of the opinion that there is a lot to be learnt from Sociology, Psychology, Behavioural Science, the study of communities, behaviours in crowds, groups etc. that will also shape the stuff that happens online.

    Personally speaking I’d rather read a magazine about Psychology than the latest Marketing magazine on the shelves at my local newsagent.

    Mike Ashworth
    Marketing Coach and Consultant
    Be Remarkable
    Brighton and Hove, Sussex, UK

  • Mark Drapeau Says:

    September 5th, 2008 at 1:24 pm

    Mike - I worked as an animal behavior scientist for years, and that is what made me intellectually curious about technology enabling human social networks in the first place. I have been a little shocked to not come across more credentialed experts in sociology, psychology, animal behavior, neuroscience, and so forth as I meet more and more people in public relations, advertising, and marketing. At the end of the day, it’s just a big animal behavior problem.

  • Geoff Livingston Says:

    September 5th, 2008 at 1:35 pm

    Mike: Yeah, I can see that. I tell folks, you have to understand the medium (tools, two-way), but also how to communicate. Without formal PR and advertising training, I’d be lost in the dark as to how to use the tools.

    Mark: Social implies sociology, and I see the study of culture and people’s interactions as a community as paramount. My masters work at Georgetown’s CCT program revolved around cultural adoption and behavior patterns (cct.georgeotwn.edu).

  • Simon Ford Says:

    September 5th, 2008 at 5:55 pm

    Geoff,

    I agree with you on how events lead to substantive relationships. Well designed events add more meaning to our other-wise distant online interactions, making things more real and personal.

    Just in case you’re interested, we’re in the process of launching a web 2.0 social media website, networking and ticketing platform where event planners, organizers & promoters manage & promote events - they invite fans to join their network as attendees, customers or guests. You can view our promoter’s tour here;

    http://www.eventslisted.com/tours/super-promoter/1.php

    Keep in touch!

    Simon Ford - Events Listed
    http://www.eventslisted.com/eventline/socialmediastrategies

  • Nicholas Tolson Says:

    September 5th, 2008 at 7:59 pm

    I love the irony inherent in this line: “Lastly, the educational content can be very good at conferences.” And the fact that it’s the only mention of the organized content at conferences.

    Indeed, as soon as you realize that much of the best things at conferences are outside of the actual sessions, you start to realize the true value of conferences.

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