Create Your Next Customer

There has been much speculation regarding the health of Live Events with Apple’s recent announcements that Steve Jobs will not keynote MacWorld in January and they will no longer support the event after 2009.

Jennifer Pahlka wrote an excellent blog post that highlights the unique value Live Events provide, while adding some perspective on Apple’s reluctance to leverage third-party events as part of its overall marketing mix.

Here are some key highlights:

• The Apple/Macworld announcement has prompted much speculation about the health of the events industry in general, but this could be a bit of a disconnect. The economy is going to take its toll on pretty much all forms of media as advertising budgets shrink, but forward-thinking companies are not going to abandon their efforts to evolve towards more conversational, multi-directional approaches. 
• Events are the original and most proven form of conversational marketing. The Cluetrain Manifesto states that the Internet has re-enabled the dynamics of a classic bazaar, with all the attendant chaos, debate and overlapping voices; it doesn’t take much imagination to see that conferences and tradeshows literally embody that archetype.
• Events give companies a way to go beyond message: to engagement, to listen and promote, to express themselves as a collection of human beings. By collaborating with traditional media, Bloggers and social media networks Live Events provide an unparalleled platform for markets to evolve and grow, and for organizations to engage with their customers and partners like never before.

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 22nd, 2008 at 3:12 pm and is filed under Tech Marketing Smarts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.