Event Industry News Podcast

Podcast: The Launch of SaaStock Remote

This week’s very special guest is Saastock founder Alex Theuma. Following a career in IT, Telecoms and Cloud, Alex moved on to creating a powerful network across the Saas founder and investor community.
 
During the recording, Alex talks about the pivot to virtual and the launch of SaaStock Remote which open its virtual doors tomorrow (10th June 2020). And, shares his opinion about the future of events and how he’s leveraging technology to serve his global community.
 
This episode will no doubt be of interest to event organisers around the globe.
 
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Pioneering Digital and Online Events

Joining the podcast this week is William Thomson, author, event consultant and head honcho at Gallus Events.
 
The digital and online event world is new territory to many event professionals, but William started his digital event journey more than a decade ago.
 
In this episode, he offers insight into monetising events, how to make sure the content for attendees is on point and how to produce long-term evergreen content that can generate recurring revenue, post-event.
 
Further delving into the digital event world, we also touch on a new online course; a learning framework for members of the industry looking to organise online events.
 
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Social Media Tips and Tricks from digital producer at George P. Johnson

Joining me this week is Caitlin Kobrak, digital producer at George P. Johnson.
 
Managing social media campaigns for mega-events such as Cisco Live, we discuss her favourite social media tools and tactics.
 
Platforms that were once thought to be relevant only to teenage audiences, Caitlin explains how this landscape has changed over the last two years, and, how businesses can use consumer-focused platforms like TikTok to feed a B2B event campaign on other business-oriented platforms.
 
Lots to learn from this edition including, how to measure social post success, how to best focus your efforts and how social media for events could look in the future.
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The State of the Experience Industry

This week’s episode welcomes Rachel Butler, head of marketing and brand communications at Marble LDN; an award-winning live experience agency with a heritage steeped in festivals, music and the arts.
 
Rachel and I discuss the company's recent report - The State of the Experience Industry.
 
In an industry that’s constantly evolving and, in a few short decades, has totally transformed, the report covers what an experience is, how it plays a role in a marketing strategy and how corporates and business value live experience.
 
But, what will experiences look like in the future? Buyer’s predict that sustainability and technology will shape things to come - with AR and VR both playing key roles.
 
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Podcast: The Explosion of E-sports

Based in London and founded in 2016, Esports Insider is a business news site, agency, media and events company. Joining me this week is Sam Cooke, managing director and co-founder.
 
In this episode, Sam and I discussed the explosion of e-sports. E-sports attracts huge audiences which presents major brands with high-impact sponsorship opportunities but, they are currently missing out.
 
It’s a challenge for the e-sports community to convince brands of the return on marketing investment. Sam hinted that one of the objections to overcome is the misconception that the audience is a certain narrow demographic, when in fact, it’s much wider than you may think.
 
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The power of podcasting

My guest this week is Jason Allan Scott, an award-winning Entrepreneur, Podcaster, Bestselling Author and CEO of A Podcast Co.
 
In this episode, we discussed how podcasting can be a powerful alternative to launching a virtual event. If you’re an organiser with a focus on delivering great content, then podcasting should be considered as it drains far fewer resources than virtual event platforms.
 
This edition of our podcast is packed full of hints, tips and tricks to get the most out of podcasting, including ways to develop monetisation streams.

www.apodcastmasterclass.com next course starts 20 May - see site for details Jason@JSJVS.Com
 
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Podcast: Key steps to rebooking digital events

With almost zero exhibitions taking place at the moment due to Covid-19, Acier Events, an onsite exhibition sales company, is another business that saw its usual activity evaporate overnight.

But, it’s just the beginning for founder Chloe Richardson, with virtual now being the new norm for the foreseeable future.

In this episode, Chloe talks me through the steps that organisations should take to make a success of the digital model and highlighted that events should remain at the heart of the customer to make it a success.

She also accepted that the rebook process might take a while longer due to more effort being needed during the pre and post-event periods.

I found this episode really interesting and the ideas shared can be applied to many business types.

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Podcast: Top tips for virtual events

This week’s episode takes me (virtually) across the pond to the U.S.
 
My guest this week is Brian Fanzo, founder of iSocialFanz, a company which has helped launch digital and influencer strategies with the world’s most iconic brands like Dell, EMC, Adobe, IBM, UFC, Applebee’s, and SAP.
 
Fanzo, a seasoned podcast host and presenter, is now hosting virtual events - another online product born out of the social distances measures currently in place around the globe.
 
In this feature-length special episode, Fanzo shares hints, tips and best practice at virtual events including:
 
Being the ‘Best’ Virtual Event Speaker
Content-Bridging
Attendee Engagement
Create great audio and video without spending thousands $$$$$
Choosing the best platform
 
Brian highlighted that the demand is there right now having received 17 enquiries this week already.
 
Whether you’re an organiser, professional speaker or just starting out, you’ll take something away from this edition.
 
Post Covid-19, I feel virtual elements will play a bigger role in physical events than previously, whether due to travel restrictions or an event simply wanting to reach a wider audience.
 
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The Pivot to Virtual Events in just 40 Days

Many organisations in the industry have had very little choice but to pivot to a virtual solution. Swoogo, an event registration platform, is no exception.

Joining me this week is Molly Falco, the company’s director of marketing, who explains what was achieved in just 40 days.

The company’s ethos has always been ‘Make Things Easy’ so the first step was to create a place for customers’ virtual events to live within the existing Swoogo product. Using a single sign on (SSO) process, data is transferred from the streaming platform securely by Swoogo rerouting the link to one of its own. This cool feature also prevents uninvited people accessing meetings, or in Molly’s words “Zoom-Bombing”.

One feature I really like is that this new offering is Streaming Platform agnostic - meaning organisers can use their preferred platforms rather than being forced to learn another. It’s also possible to use multiple streaming platforms simultaneously.

In contrast, Molly went on to tell me that Swoogo will soon be launching ‘Swoogo Virtual’ which will include its own white labelled streaming service. Many will ask (as I did), Is it not crazy to launch another when there are so many others already? Molly said “When we jump on a Zoom call for example, there is almost a total loss of brand identity and very little option for customisation. A cool benefit of having our own is that organisers will be able to customise and preserve brand identity and/or that of their sponsors.

Molly reminds us that the fundamental activity when exhibiting needn’t change completely as a result of going virtual. Visitors dropping in to say hello, having meetings, doing demos or choosing what content they download, is all possible in a virtual setting. Data-capture is also largely unaffected due to the SSO and, there’s no need to pay for a device to scan bar codes.

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Podcast: Best practice for event marketing

Once again, it’s been a big week for the industry. Since our last broadcast, Edinburgh Festival, Wimbledon and The Open Championship have all been cancelled.

But, is there already light at the end of the tunnel?

On 3 April, China hosted what organisers claim is the first major trade fair to take place in the country following the Covid-19 pandemic. China’s first reported death was 11 January and reports today (7 April) show zero new deaths due to the outbreak.

If the UK were to follow the same timeline, then major events could start as early as the end of May.

If events do get the go ahead as soon as May then marketeers may need to act quick. This week, my podcast guest is Tag Digital’s Laura Davidson, a specialist in digital event marketing who highlights best event marketing practice.

Serving 2,000 events annually, Laura also shares key-analysis from when events began to cancel in Asia through to the more recent cancellations in Europe and the UK.

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