Sessions at Virtual Edge Summit 2012 on Tuesday 10th January

Many of the virtual platform vendors now offer a true self-service option for deploying virtual events and digital engagements. But how do you best manage these options across the entire organization to ensure quality and success? This panel will focus on best practices for managing engagements across multiple business units and differing use cases.

Learner Outcomes:

Discover how self-service virtual platform options are aiding organizations deploying multiple events for a variety of uses.
Create a plan for managing the self-service options across the organization.
Build consensus and buy-in for self-service from within your organization.

This session focuses on how a community contributes to the learning of its members – especially with Web 2.0 technologies. What are the keys to building a successful community – and, more importantly, how do you sustain it? Why should organizations cultivate communities and how can they encourage and promote ongoing collaboration among members?

Learner Outcomes:

Identify how a community contributes to the overall learning of its members.
Create a plan for building your own informal learning community.
Develop techniques to encourage and promote ongoing collaboration within the community.

While the last few years have been about virtual conferences, many predict the next few will see a broadening of the use of virtual into partner/member briefing centers, 365 “evergreen” environments, product roll-outs, virtual road shows, career & recruitment events, editorial updates and tablet directories with interactive content. Come hear what UBM Studios – producers of more than 250 virtual environments and events in 2011 – anticipates as virtual’s next stage.

Learner Outcomes:

Identify new uses of virtual technologies within the larger scale of your organization.
Create a portfolio of virtual environments and products, and identify monetization strategies.
Build a strategy now for staffing, marketing and producing these new products.

See for yourself how the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society is able to generate revenue through its virtual conference and expo. Get the details you need to create your own successful virtual show.

Learner Outcomes:

Identify your organizational goals and missions that could be served with a virtual conference.
Determine the staffing and resource allocations necessary for a successful virtual event.
Write your own successful hybrid event marketing plan.

3D immersive technology is becoming easier for event producers and attendees alike. Champions of the technology claim greater engagement and longer attendance hours are logged in 3D environments. So is it a viable alternative for your audience and when does 3D become the front- runner in virtual engagement?

Learner Outcomes:

Discover the evolutions in 3D immersive technology that may make this engagement option more feasible for your event.
What types of audiences respond best to 3D environments?
Find monetization options to make 3D affordable.

Walk through the new digital formats, methods and technologies our speakers are experimenting with to engage attendees and add timely content to their virtual and hybrid conferences. We’ll cover unconferences, unpanels, integrating multiple face-to-face locations virtually, Facebook streams and much more.

Learner Outcomes:

Plan new ways to engage attendees.
Choose the format that’s right for your events.
Create interactive activities that fully actualize Web 2.0 rather than adapt traditional conference models to the online world.

Presenting to a blended audience — in person and virtual – is the hardest task a presenter faces: two audiences, having two experiences with two very different ways to engage them. Join us for a practical session on how to help your presenters bridge the experiential gap.

Learner Outcomes:

Identify the critical experiential differences between your physical and virtual audiences – and prepare a plan to bridge the gap.
Write your rules for making the virtual audience feel connected and heard.
Manage the Q&A, interactivity and Twitter stream of your virtual events.

Killer case studies! Join these successful corporate event organizers for a discussion of how virtual events and environments are meeting a variety of objectives. This session is chock full of great ideas and best practices!

Learner Outcomes:

Identify the type of virtual engagement that best meets your various business objectives.
Implement best practices at your virtual events for lead-gen, training, orientation, customer engagement and sales.
Create stimulating environments that motivate, engage and support users by formal, informal and social means.

Self-paced eLearning, downloadable documents, document sharing, Webinars and 3D immersive activities and meetings offer the most engaging, effective use of technology for training – expanding the reach while substantially reducing costs. Improve your training and learning initiatives with tips and best practices from this session.

Learner Outcomes:

Use the strengths of various digital technologies to create effective integrated learning programs.
Structure your learning programs in the learn/apply format.
Create 3D immersive activities that help change concepts into behaviors.

See how virtual events, telework and other remote instances are paving the future of government business. From charter development to post-event procedures, we’ll uncover the multi-phase, scientific approach used by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention in this first government virtual initiative.

Learner Outcomes:

Craft a charter development, communications and marketing plan for your virtual event.
Build a virtual use-case based on a proven scientific approach.
Plan the various technology integrations that work best for your constituents.

As we’ve evolved from the fear of virtual events cannibalizing our physical events, it’s now time to realize that online extensions can be a driver of in-person registration. This session will help you understand the “virtual boost” opportunity and provide a forum for maximizing results.

Learner Outcomes:

Develop a virtual event action plan that moves people to register for your physical event.
Examine the role preview events, press events and digital teasers can play in building excitement for your physical events.
Employ content and social strategies that engage and spur potential attendees to action.

Come see why many say product launches are the ultimate use of a virtual event. Not only can you increase your reach, you can do it on a global scale. This hands-on workshop will walk you through the steps you need to craft the ideal virtual extension.

Learner Outcomes:

Create a virtual extension of your next product or service launch.
Define the global reach you seek and the localization steps you’ll need to take for mass appeal and understanding.
Prepare a marketing and communications plan that integrates the best elements of virtual.

While some producers are finding financial success with their virtual and hybrid events, others struggle to sell booths, sponsorships and sessions. Is it their market or their model? Get your monetization questions answered in this important session.

Learner Outcomes:

Identify the various monetization strategies and pricing models for virtual and hybrid events and determine which one is right for your organization.
Set proper expectations for exhibitors in terms of number of attendees vs. number of engagements and number of leads.
Use the metrics from your event reports in your sales presentations.

Explore the strategy, use-case, execution and results from Thrivent Financial’s hybrid National Sales Meeting. Our speakers will identify appropriate applications of virtual and hybrid technologies, and how to effectively engage the audience before, during and after your event.

Learner Outcomes:

Identify appropriate applications of virtual or hybrid technologies.
Engage your virtual audience before, during and after the event.
Leverage technology to drive revenue for your organization.

This session is designed to help you learn what types of content to feature in your virtual events; how to effectively facilitate and participate in the conversations around that content; and how to translate these insights into key data points for your organization.

Learner Outcomes:

Become more strategic about content, and focus efforts on uncovering the types of content constituents want and respond to.
Determine the relevancy of various types of content for your virtual and mobile audiences.
Develop conversation around your content to extend its life and connect with attendees.

While it’s true that virtual events are an excellent delivery vehicle for continuing education, let’s not forget their place in the realm of lead generation. It takes a well-conceived and executed plan, and the right engagement techniques. Come learn the secrets of lead gen via virtual events.

Learner Outcomes:

Prepare the specific business cases for using virtual, whether for you or your sponsors and exhibitors.
Design engagement techniques specific to the business outcomes you desire.
Deploy mobile and social to continue the conversation and further score and nurture leads.

Is gamification just hype? Not if you want to increase and improve attendee engagement, build loyalty and enable an experience roadmap that drives attendees to the activities you want them to complete. In this session we’ll explore what gamification is and why it’s the current shiny object of the event industry. And we’ll review some examples of gamification for events – a few of which may surprise you, as you’ve probably leveraged them before without realizing gamification drove the tactic.

Learner Outcomes:

Have a clear understanding of what gamification is.
Identify effective gamification implementations.
Define how gamification can address and drive attendee engagement.

Hybrid means different things to different people. Some are using very simple and inexpensive methods of broadcasting content from their events with little engagement or production support. Others are designing elaborate user experiences and engaging high-end productions with “on-air talent.” What’s right for your organization?

Learner Outcomes:

Define the strategic goals leading you to deploy digital technologies for your events.
Outline the financial goals and milestones these events must reach.
Determine what level of event and engagement will be required to match the strategic and financial goals.

Events and learning are being impacted tremendously by the adoption of smart phones and tablet devices. Once thought to be just an on-site tool, attendees now want to connect with one another before and after the event, too. How do you plan for a continuous mobile engagement and what does that mean for costs and revenue opportunities?

Learner Outcomes:

See through a new and different lens to determine how to best develop your content for mobile devices.
Determine which of your virtual event elements can translate to mobile.
Assess rapidly changing user and device trends such as eBooks and mobile “web” apps.

Sometimes the simplest virtual events pay big dividends. Come see how the Ontario Hospital Association has created a 280 percent return on its virtual investment, and how University Business has built an archive of virtual content specifically to promote its physical conferences and build its online event community into a year-round destination.

Learner Outcomes:

Prepare a roadmap of simple ways to engage customers and members.
Identify the audience segments you need to reach, and the content that will inspire them.
Create an audience acquisition plan to reach beyond current customers and members and launch your organization beyond “thought-leader” status to “trend-setter.”