*Please make sure you use this document in conjunction with the companion
PowerPoint deck here.
Digital Marketing and Events 2.0
The Evolution of Physical Conferences / Events
in the era of Social Media and Web 2.0
aka How you can significantly increase engagement & reach
through social media PLUS events 2.0!
A draft discussion & best practices paper
by
Martin Walsh
Digital Marketing Director
http://twitter.com/martinwalsh
Last revised: 28 March 2009
Version 6.0

Digital Marketing and Events 2.0 discussion document
Background
Conferences like TechEd have not really changed their formats much in the last 10 years. They are
still mostly about one-way communication: a person telling you his/her views on various topics and
showing you slides or videos or demos about it. Your role as a delegate is to sit still, perhaps take
some notes and hope that the speaker will inspire you with something you do not know already.
These types of events could still be fun and useful socially, but generally speaking it is an inefficient
way to communicate, inspire, create real learning and reach potential audiences. Why spend $1m on
a physical event for only 3,000 attendees when you can invest the same or slightly more to reach 10
times that number? And, it is out of synch with all other forms of modern media in the internet and
digital age, where two-way communication is critical and the users are active participants in creating
experiences together with the conference producers.
Here is a great blog post by Social Media guru Seth Godin which sums up the challenge:
The new standard for meetings and conferences
If oil is $130 a barrel and if security adds two or three hours to a trip and if people are doing more
and more business with those far afield...
and if we need to bring together more people from more places when we get together...
and if the alternatives, like video conferencing or threaded online conversations continue to get
better and better, then...
I think the standard for a great meeting or a terrific conference has changed.
In other words, "I flew all the way here for this?" is going to be far more common than it used to
be.
If you think a great conference is one where the presenters read a script while showing the
audience bullet points, you're wrong. Or if you leave little time for attendees to engage with
others, or worse, if you don't provide the levers to make it more likely that others will engage
with each other, you're wrong as well.
Here's what someone expects if they come to see you on an in-person sales call: that you'll be
prepared, focused, enthusiastic and willing to engage honestly about the next steps. If you can't
do that, don't have the meeting.
Here's what a speaker owes an audience that travels to engage in person: more than they could
get by just reading the transcript.
And here's what a conference organizer owes the attendees: surprise, juxtaposition, drama,
engagement, souvenirs and just possibly, excitement.
I'm on a roll here, so let me add one more new standard:
If you're a knowledge worker, your boss shouldn't make you come to the (expensive) office every
day unless there's something there that makes it worth your trip. She needs to provide you with
resources or interactions or energy you can't find at home or at Starbucks. And if she does invite
you in, don't bother showing up if you're just going to sit quietly.
I've worked in three companies that had lots of people and lots of cubes, and I spent the entire
day walking around. I figured that was my job. The days where I sat down and did what looked
like work were my least effective days. It's hard for me to see why you'd bother having someone
come all the way to an office just to sit in a cube and type.
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The new rule seems to be that if you're going to spend the time and the money to see someone
face to face, be in their face. Interact or stay home!
Conferences 1.0
Most conferences today are organized like this:
1. The web site is used only for listing the program and the sponsors and signing up the
delegates.
2. There is no list of delegates on the web site, so you cannot research and connect with
interesting people prior to the conference.
3. As soon as the conference starts, the web site is dead.
4. In better 1.0 conferences the web site links to the presenter’s slide shows a week or two
after the conference, bit that is too late for most delegates.
5. There are no speaker videos on the web site, due to fear that videos make people want
enjoy them at home instead of paying to be at the conference. (Actually it works teh other
way around, for example the TED conference made a huge success in 2006 when they dared
to oppose this wisdom and started publishing all the speeches online.)
6. They drag on for 2-3 days with a dinner or a drinks “party” where the delegates hang out
with their friends.
7. They are all about key-notes, a speaker presenting to the audience, top-down
communication with no participation from the audience other than the usual awkward
questions from people who want to show off.
8. They are huge, with thousands of delegates, making it very hard to make contact with new
people, network and collaborate.
Before we discuss the possibilities, let’s consider this recent, widely reported moment with Mark
Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook:
Welcome to Conference 2.0
Social media is putting an end to the passive role attendees traditionally play at business
gatherings.
By Dan Fost - March 11, 2008
AUSTIN, TEXAS (Fortune) -- We've all been there: the dull business conference. A half-empty
room of half-asleep attendees answer their e-mail on laptops and BlackBerries, while some
hapless speaker lumbers through a PowerPoint speech.
That scenario is about to change, thanks to the growing ubiquity of social media. Consider author
Sarah Lacy's disastrous interview of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the annual
South by Southwest Interactive Festival here. Lacy, a Business Week columnist and author of a
forthcoming book on Zuckerberg and other Web 2.0 titans, drew the crowd's wrath by asking
Zuckerberg too many questions about his age and his company's outrageous $15 billion valuation
and not enough questions about issues more fundamental to how Facebook operates - things like
trust, privacy, and accessibility to software developers. On top of that, Lacy interrupted
Zuckerberg, seemed to flirt with him, and then grew hostile as the crowd turned against her.
And did it ever turn. Many in the audience started posting their thoughts on Twitter, a service
that broadcasts instant messages, and the ire built. The crowd began hooting and jeering, and
finally, when she opened the mike to questions, the first person asked Zuckerberg: "Other than
rough interviews, what are some of the biggest challenges Facebook faces?" Lacy turned to
Zuckerberg, asked, "Has this been a rough interview?" and the audience member said, "I wasn't
asking you, I was asking Mark." The crowd went wild.
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A bitter Lacy said she saw in the debacle "the downside of Web 2.0," but many others see it as a
signature moment - for what it says about the coming wave of new media, for what it says about
the way attendees can take over conferences, and even for the signals it sends about the still
rising tide of people power that Web 2.0 has unleashed.
There were many similar episodes at this year's SXSW, a conference packed with folks
empowered by their own mini-media empires on Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, Blip.tv, Twitter,
Utterz and a host of other tech sites. Several attendees told of being in smaller panel discussions
in which people either twittering or commenting in chat rooms run by social networker Meebo
turned the conversation into a new direction.
In one, "a revolution in the chat room tore apart the panel," according to Forrester analyst
Jeremiah Owyang. One person finally stood and requested permission to ask a question. "They
said 'No',"Owyang recalled, "and he said, 'The whole room is behind me. I'm going to ask it
anyway'." When the panel, on "Social Media Metrics," started to drag, according to Dave Evans of
Digital Voodoo, a social media consulting firm in Austin, "you could see the laptops flip up and
see the twitters happening." The panelists saw they were not giving the information that the
audience wanted, and refocused the presentation, Evans said. "It was a really interesting collision
between the Twitter back-channel and the live, public-facing channel," Evans said. "We always
say that the crowd is taking control in a marketing buzzword kind of way," Owyang said, "but
now it's actually happening."
This movement - call it Conference 2.0 - has been building for some time.
Events 2.0 – TechEd Possibilities
A new class of powerful, inclusive, popular and engaging events which are liberated from the
straightjacket of space-time by the convergence of new media technologies is ushering at our door:
Events 2.0 are next evolution of TechEd.
But let me explain myself better: Online (and offline) events should not be confined anymore by
physical the space-time boundaries of when and where the event actually occurs.
The convergence of new media communication and collaboration technologies like RSS, wikis, blogs,
podcasts, streaming and on demand video, discussion forums, as well as social media outlets with
more traditional information delivery channels like newsletters or mailing lists offers an opportunity
for extremely rich, engaged and dynamic communities to be built around the core track topics and
themes of events like TechEd.
The best way to explain Events 2.0 is to start simple.
Consider for example a physical conference for which a community site is built beforehand and in
which participants, presenters and sponsors start interacting and actively engaging with each other
way before the physical event starts.
Think also of an event that while it takes place in a physical space it is also re-broadcast and made
accessible in multiple ways, providing access and different levels of interaction to those attending
live as well as to those at a distance.
Imagine the breadth and richness of content options that can be created out of the many
interactions which have been generated across the virtual event communities.
Or the many possible compilations, playlists, and collections of user filtered and edited multimedia
content that could be created after the event was over.
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It is in the ability to merge and synergize the tremendous potential of new media communication,
participant collaboration, user generated content, social media and community creation
technologies alongside the attraction and interest generated by the live event guests that the
potential and power of Events 2.0 really lies.
Events 2.0 Overview
Live events are a great opportunity to market, showcase, demo, present and introduce new ideas, as
well as new products and technologies and directly engage with our customers. But, we also know
how complex it is to organize the logistics and how skilled the team running the show must be.
Given all this investment in organization and resources, how significant would be the additional cost
of extending the event into the virtual space by leveraging, in a synergistic, organic and well planned
fashion all of the most relevant new media technologies to enable a community and generate and
foster a groundswell of conversations around the event.
Consider the infinite number of revenue options and engagement opportunities that can be born
out of commoditizing the conference and creating a hot passionate and lively community that
generates all kinds of relevant content around any given theme.
Imagine how fantastic it would be if participants could engage their favourite speakers before the
actual conference and with their own questions and contributions, shape the topic and discussions
for the live event.
What are Events 2.0?
Events 2.0 or "extended events" are a yet-to-be-realized form of conference that extends well
beyond the physical event boundaries, into time (before, during and after the event) and through
multiple digital and social media formats.
Events 2.0 are events which are planned and carried out in a continuous experience that merges
offline physical events and online conversations.
In other words: Events 2.0 are typical conferences, social events or physical gatherings of some kind
that extend their lifetime, reach and value by extending their active engagement potential with their
participants by intelligently integrating community tools, content delivery and distribution channels,
social media marketing, live and asynchronous collaboration tools before, during and long after the
actual event has taken place.
How could we transform a traditional 2-3 day conference into an "extended-event" that provides
greater engagement and value to participants and presenters as well as providing us with broader
and longer term reach, engagement and dialogue with our customers, extra opportunities for
sponsorship and sales as well as greater opportunities for quality business networking among all of
the stakeholders and participants?
How can a physical conference take advantage of all the new media communication channels,
collaboration and social media tools to extend its lifespan, reach and engagement well beyond the
physical event itself while generating an engaged and passionate community around itself?
As digital marketing and websites now begin to utilize more effective inside-out strategies
(syndicating our content and messages) vs only using outside-in strategies (trying to drive traffic to
our website) how can we leverage and fully exploit the channels where customers already are?
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Another example is to consider that 93% of Microsoft’s revenue is derived through Partners.
How can Microsoft create individual customized partner hubs of TechEd so that our hundreds of
thousands of Partners can effectively ‘host’ their own virtual TechEd events for their own customers
on their own websites?
These Partners could embed live and on demand videos and specific calls-to-action relevant to their
own company, industry and competencies and importantly their customers and/or prospects. The
same principles could be applied to media partners, technology partners and even OEM partners.
to Inside Out marketing
Listen Utility
Relevant Entertainment
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How We Can Play
optimizing reach across the 4 syndication distribution pillars
Professional Media Partners
• Paid Placement • Sales partners websites:
• Integration into editorial ISVs, OEMs, VARs,
content Retailers
• MVP Community
Syndication Distribution
MS.COM Social / Customer
• Social embed: social
• Product sites networks, blogs
• Audience Sites • Persistent widgets (direct
• WW sites to customer)
• RSS Feeds
Syndication provides a menu opportunities to
achieve business goals
Goal: Drive Reach
• Broadcast our product & technology solution content other messaging and offers on hundreds of
websites simultaneously
• US Small Business Summit phase one achieved a record number of viewers (583K in just 3 days)
Goal: Push Product Offers
• Learn/Try/Buy/Subscribe call to actions are added alongside the video content
• Ability to match CTA with the relevant content to increase conversion
Goal: Change Perception
• Through video testimonials and commercials
• Through customers and partners sharing their success stories
Goal: Educate Customers
• Through Product Demos
• Through Tips/Tricks segments
Goal: Engage Customers
• Talk to our customers, learn their pain points, offer product and solutions info through live chat
Here are some starting ideas to consider:
1) Before the Event
 Open a blog, an RSS feed, a Twitter Account and provide a video intro for the event. Start
providing, value-rich information about the event in a periodic, consistent and systematic
way.
 Create a story around the preparation for the event and around the people involved in it.
Find a key character to narrate the story and keep audience on top of the latest happenings.
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 Open a forum / online community where discussion and relevant issues for the event can
take off right now.
 Complement forum topics with a distributed video commenting platform like Seesmic which
can allow a forum like experience which is not text-based but video based. Video
commenting can be very good for engaging in lively, passionate discussions as well as in
brainstorming sessions or analysis/focus groups.
 Inject some social media components allowing the community to energise and cross-fertilize
itself. Let people discover each other’s profiles and interests (opt-in), provide feedback on
the most followed discussion items and provide ways for users to contribute relevant
pointers and links.
 Integrate a presentation publishing platform like Slideshare for all participants to use, and
promote relevant and related presentations to the topics of the event.
 Create a set of manually edited newsradars (topic specific hand-edited news channels
gathering the best news and stories from a range of sources), generated by moderators or
community members and focusing on the very specific themes of the conference itself.
 Use Virtual Earth to showcase the origins of all the participants both physical and virtual.
 Market the event by using a mailing list and by developing a meaningful story that builds up
momentum up to the event launch.
 Create visual navigable spaces by using tools like Virtual Earth or Microsoft Photosynth
allowing the participants to enhance the discovery of the physical event physical
surroundings, hotels, bar, cafes, nearby social venues.
2) During the Event
 Enable a live reporting platform for any qualified participant or media representative who
wants to use it so they can report about specific sessions. Tools like CoverItLive provide all of
the features an in-session reporter may ever need. Consider opening up a limited number of
seats for voluntary official reporters for each session and monetize the sponsorship
opportunity they create content for the website, social channels and syndication.
 Support and make it easy for all participants to access live audio and video streaming tools
to enable wide and comprehensive real-time capture of all of the event happenings from as
many different viewpoints as possible. From the live sessions to the informal networking in
the allies. Think Crowdsourcing.
 Let participants engage amongst themselves and with the presenters during the live sessions
by creating dedicated Twitter channels and groups for real-time discussion and feedback.
Infuse and integrate two way dialogue channels into the sessions like PollEverywhere. Using
PollAnywhere, dynamic polls, questions and feedback can be asked of the physical and
virtual audiences and results can be sent via SMS or the web and be displayed in real-time
within the PowerPoint presentations.
 Utilize more traditional and well established real-time communication tools like text chat
and IRC channels and even TweetGrid. These technologies can still go a long way in providing
effective real-time conversation back channels for each live presentation during and
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immediately after the event. Why not hold a physical and virtual panel for discussion at the
end of each session which could utilize all back channels.
 Offer the opportunity to premium participants (MSDN/TechNet subscribers or paid
subscribers) and/or to the press to sit down and video interview, alongside other prominent
news reporters and bloggers the key personalities presenting at the conference.
 Leverage Friendfeed social aggregation or Twitter Aggregation capabilities to provide a
parallel information distribution channel for key event related personalities and events.
 Create thematic newsradars (topic specific news channels), Tag Clouds and Tweet Clouds on
the specific topics covered throughout the conference. Newsradars can provide immediate
value to an extended event by providing a comprehensive digest of the most relevant news
and issues on any topic.
 Provide conferencing spaces for live events to have parallel venues available to presenters
and participants before and after the live session. Also consider modeling the live event
sessions around the opportunity to be both live and at a distance by engaging and
responding appropriately to both audiences. Allow participants to promote and deliver
complementary keynotes, panels and sessions in a barcamp-like spirit on a set of virtual
stages or hubs dedicated to them.
 Hire editors and moderators to create and maintain key wiki guides on every key session /
track taking place at the event. Parallel events, other contributions and related sessions, live
discussions, related resources and user contributed materials should all be easily reached by
maintaining a well organized and always up-to-date set of wiki pages.
 Create environments both online and physically at the event which allow presenters and
participants to upload and share their own images, video, audio and text from their mobile
phones, video and still cameras to the website. People can then watch as it fuses into a
collective expression of the event.
3) After the Event
 Keep the conversation going. Maintain the most active forums, discussion and
conversational areas and aggregate all of the related content into highly focused channels.
Look at it this way: any event, when transformed into an Event 2.0 is an opportunity to put
in movement a series of mechanisms that can create / generate a number of highly valuable
content and engagement channels. These shouldn't be seen as useless and expensive-to-
maintain content marketing channels but ultimately as revenue and engagement-generating
dynamic user communities bonded together by one of the themes / personalities / issues
which the event has brought forward.
 Develop and design with our most loyal community participants our next year’s event,
starting from the very discussions we have kept open. Let our newly developed communities
design and shape our next conference by participating in the identification of topics,
speakers, events and format improvements which they want to see happen. What a great
way to bond more with an event audience and to crowdsource its insight and desires to
improve our offering.
 Showcase all of the event videos, key presentations, photos and Crowsourced content and
conversations. Make it as easy and simple to access all of this content in a variety of formats:
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Streaming video, on demand downloadable clips, podcasts, photos, text transcription,
premium options on DVD with special selected content. Consider utilizing more advanced
presentation delivery tools like Live Meeting to allow participants to create synched
mashup’s of live video recordings with the actual slideshow presentations delivered.
 Integrate social conversational components into each content item. Make it easy for people
to add comments, tags and to start new discussion threads under each show / presentation.
Allow each session to become a smaller pivot point for social aggregation, communication
and networking.
 Facilitate the user-generated creation of image photo-albums about the event. Beyond the
typical tag reference, used in these situations, allowing everyone uploading to public image
sharing sites to make their own pictures and videos associated with the event. Reward
individual participants who create multimedia photo-albums on specific themes and topics
by using some of the many great visual story-telling tools like Scrapblog, Smilebox, VMix,
OneTrueMedia, Mixercast, Vuvox, Flektor and or equivalent Microsoft platforms.
 Create user-generated video compilations of the most interesting sessions and topics by
making it easy for participants to edit playlists of the video clips they are interested in. From
YouTube playlists to Magnify or Splashcast powerful features, there are a growing number of
tools that do just this.
 We should send all attendees or registered participants an event email follow up asking
them to rate the event and or individual sessions. If a person’s rating falls below a certain
threshold then when the survey result is submitted it could trigger an automatic email along
the lines of, “We are sorry to hear TechEd 2009 was not all you expected to be. We would
like to offer you $50 off next year’ event we would appreciate your feedback or suggestions
to help make TechEd event better.” Now imagine the CPE benefit from a personal follow up
like this! It is also another opportunity to keep the dialogue and conversation alive by
highlighting the online resources.
Events 2.0 Benefits
If our vision for Events 2.0 is correct, these are going to be outstanding marketing, branding,
engagement and advertising channels, giving extended life to any physical event while hugely
increasing its reach and profit potential.
Here are some of the immediately apparent benefits that Events 2.0 can bring to any company
managing, organizing or designing the delivery of live events like typical conferences and seminars:
a) Larger audiences: As all participants don't need to attend on a specific date/time, potential
for participation is increased tremendously. Interested parties can access event recordings
after the event at their leisure. For physical events this provides a significant extension of
the reach and the possibility of scaling the number of participants.
b) Extension of communication and marketing reach: As a significantly larger number of
people can attend, participate, subscribe and listen to extended events, so does the reach of
our messages, brands, sponsorship and products and technologies. All of the extended
channels offer huge opportunities for highly targeted, contextual, non-intrusive marketing
and lead generation opportunities.
c) Greater opportunity for engagement and individual dialogue: Participants both in the live
event as well as in the extended post-event conversations have more opportunities to
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engage panelists, experts, speakers and companies/products being mentioned or
showcased. Through the use of RSS newsfeeds, Twitter, wikis, blogs and discussion forums,
event tracks can be kept alive for an indefinite period of time before the event starts and
long after the actual event is over. Multiple "vertical-communities" are created offering
valuable high profile demographic niches with specific interests and characteristics.
d) Participatory design and delivery. Yes, grassroots Events 2.0 design is here: Who's going to
grab it first? Participants can now become co-creators, contributors, editors, individual re-
sellers and publishing houses for any event. If only we allowed them to! Who is to say that
events need to be designed solely by Microsoft representatives? Couldn't emancipated
participants do a better job of it? Sure they could. Who better than our customers know
what they want to buy, listen to and watch and attend? Why take the risk of discovering all
this at event time?
e) Great ROI, expanded profit, increased engagement, extended sales and leads generation
marketplaces: Events 2.0 offer great opportunities to increase event profit-margins by
extending marketing and sales opportunities, dialogue and engagement, without a need for
expensive physical space and hugely expensive event-related logistical costs. Events 2.0 is
grounded in an extended communication framework not on additional costs for physical
infrastructures. Events 2.0 enables major cost-savings matched by the potential for higher
quality output when the organizing team is able to fully realize the direct involvement of
participants in the design and delivery of the event.
f) Greater opportunities for monetization: Events 2.0 garners the attention of lots of valuable
participants on specific topics and issues. Events 2.0 can also generate huge quantities of
valuable content which can be edited, compiled, annotated and packaged for digital delivery
in an infinite number of formats thereby contributing to a groundswell around Microsoft and
its products, technologies, solutions and brands. Such content can be exploited and
monetized in multiple and overlapping ways by, for example:
 Selling web-based conferencing and presentation space to small companies and
individuals who want to run parallel extended sessions within the conference framework
and official activities
 Providing paid access to private video conferencing rooms a-la OoVoo for media and
premium customers wanting to video interview your event key guests
 Providing paid (or MSDN/TechNet subscriber only) access to high quality (HD) recorded /
downloadable sections.
 Selling sponsorship space (internally or externally) on all distributed content formats
(RSS, wiki, social community, etc.).
 Offering paid subscription (or MSDN/TechNet subscriber only) access to very-narrow
content channels including user created topic-specific RSS feeds / Twitter feeds tapping
on all content generated by the event.
 Creating premium content offerings for MSDN/TechNet subscribers including case
studies, analysis and report data by selecting, aggregating and editing most valuable
content extracted from the live event.
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 Paid (or MSDN/TechNet subscriber only) access to higher quality full screen video of live
events as well as to individual downloads and video compilations created around key
themes and topics.
Resources Required
Events 2.0 are as challenging and complex to plan, organize and maintain as is a physical event.
The key issue with Events 2.0 is that traditional event organizers are not too familiar with the new
conversational marketing strategies and techniques and do not have the skills and experience
required to manage such an event.
Events 2.0 require many talented individuals with real experience in managing user-generated
content, in moderating forums and in motivating communities of interest to engage with the
selected issues, and in particular:
1. Having a talented Events 2.0 communication strategist. Someone who can aptly envision,
plan and coordinate the unfolding of a multi-channel event as an integrated whole.
2. Employing a skilled and experienced editorial team. Creating ongoing discussion topics, news
radars, webcasts, interviews and podcasts, blogs, tweets, wikis and live chats requires skilled
individuals who live and breathe the online world.
3. Selecting tools and technologies that are accessible to everyone. Having communication,
presentation and collaboration tools that are both easy-to-use and accessible by all types of
Internet users is a critical and essential requirement.
Yes, to be done right a typical Event 2.0 setup is likely going to require a dedicated newsroom
working to support these many, diverse tasks.
In addition, emphasis must be given to mapping, planning and defining the key objectives and
communications framework from the very beginning. This will result in a much safer probability for
success.
Conclusion
Traditional events are going to transform themselves into ongoing conversation streams. They can
be as popular and successful as the topics and people participating and moderating them are, and as
credible and authoritative as the depth and value of the conversations they are able to generate.
Events 2.0 are a natural, spontaneous evolution of traditional physical events and they are
characterized by the effective integration of communication and collaboration media with social
community technologies to create an extended and ongoing groundswell of news as well as lively
conversation channels. These will start long before the actual physical event takes place and which
can go on indefinitely after it.
Events 2.0 offers great benefits in terms of the creation end energizing of communities, user
generated content, engagement and interaction, social and business networking, online reach and
marketing and monetization opportunities by extending the topics and focus of the physical event
into the digital world via the use of social, conversational and information-distribution technologies.
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Events 2.0 represents the new "engagement marketing" frontier and those who will master how to
design, manage and deliver such rich multimedia and dialogue based experiences will likely be
remembered as the pioneers of a whole new way of creating and delivering live events.
Even though most of the tools that would be needed to set-up an effective Event 2.0 have been out
there for a while now, the true challenge is not only in integrating these into a coherent whole but
having individuals who can see this vision, transform it into a plan and execute it. This is certainly
more challenging and complex than bringing together the typical tech conference. But the success
and rewards would be significant.
What it takes to make Events 2.0 happen is a greater appreciation of this new approach by those
who organize and finance events. Events 2.0 requires stakeholders and organizers to first
understand what it takes to start, maintain and continually energize these multiple channels of
dialogue and conversations. They must appreciate the value of creating topic-focused communities
that are highly engaged. These are not easy tasks but the train is already leaving the station with or
without us.
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Appendix – Case Study
Microsoft confidential (please do not forward outside of Microsoft).
MICROSOFT SMALL BUSINESS SUMMIT LIVE (Phase 1) RESULTS:
On October 14th - 16th 2008, the Microsoft – CMG SB Digital Web Marketing team broadcast the
fourth LIVE annual Microsoft Small Business Summit (Phase 1). The team will rebroadcast the
Summit in Q3 (Phase 2).
The Summit is a key engine in driving results and scale against the Small Business segment and
validating Web syndication 2.0 as predictable scale engine for Microsoft.
The number of live viewers more than doubled compared to the FY08 March Summit, while the cost
per viewer decreased by 51%.
SUMMIT OBJECTIVES:
 Use our syndication model to reach 1M BDMs (Phase 1&2) wherever and whenever they are on the
web.
 Expose BDMs to the Microsoft business and technology products and solutions.
 Convert over 100K viewers (Phase 1&2) to the Learn/Try/Buy pipeline through clicks on products,
services and CTA offers.
 Connect business customers with SBSC partners.
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PHASE 1 TOP LINE RESULTS:
LIVE BROADCASTS COMPARED: March FY08 Vs. October FY09
March FY08 (4 days) October FY09 (3 days) % change
Video Viewers 247,625 583,203* + 135%
Viewers per day 61,906 194,401 + 214%
CTA Clicks (Learn/try buy) 10,227 11,559 + 13%
Product Demo Viewers 32,167 88,737 + 175%
Cost per viewer $ 3.028 $1.483 - 51%
Cost Per HVA (CTAs+demos+ $ 17.69 $ 8.62 - 51%
commercials +tips/tricks)
*on target to reach 1M goal of summit video viewer during Live and rebroadcast (scheduled rerun in Q3)
THE IMPACT ON OUR BUSINESS
During the event, Small Business BDMs engaged in over 100K high value Learn/Try/Buy activities
aligned against our business goals. As in the past, Vista, Office, Server and Dynamics GP achieved
the highest share.
HIGHLIGHTS:
 12 hours of broadcast video featuring over 50 guests in 48 8-10 minute segments. Guests included business
experts, technology evangelists, and successful small business owners, providing a mix of expert advice,
technology solutions, practical tips, and inspiration.
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 12 live product demos from Vista, Office(1) (2), Server, Dynamics GP, BPOS, Volume Licensing and many more
(see the full list on MSCOM/video).
 Microsoft Vice President Bob McDowell joined as a guest to tell the inside story on Windows Vista—what went
right, what went wrong, and lessons learned.
 Over 370 paid sites simultaneously hosted the Summit live: samples include, CNNMoney, Allbusiness, WSJ,
BizJournals, SBSC sites, MSCOM/Smallbusiness, MSCOM/Vista SB, and many more.
 “Long tail” syndication test through Tremor Network, broadcasting the Summit live across 367 sites
 Chat test that connected 202 BDMs with ~12 SBSC.
 Twitter test led by PR during the live event to extend PR reach.
 Ready To Go campaign: ‘Summit in a Box’: 257 campaign executions/SBSC partners engaged, and 1460 of
Campaign Components Downloaded
 Strong response rate to CTAs on major sites - 4.18%
 Summit PR news reached an estimated 11.3 Million people leading up to the event and also cultivated an
engaged online community (Twitter) during the broadcast. (Please see attached for full PR summery.)
 Piloted international syndication of the Summit with SBC Canada.
LOWLIGHTS:
 Low 0.33% response rate on Tremor Network (367 sites) *Tremor Media was a pilot and the low response rate is
under investigation.
 Day one media deployment was slow
 Streaming servers hiccups on day one and three (estimated affect ~5%)
 Chat room - Technical issues on day one
 4 publisher sites opted out (Linkedin, Yahoo, TheStreet, Reuters) due to concerns with the user experience, as
the player ad is conceptually new.
3 YEAR LIVE SUMMIT REACH TREND:
As in FY08, we are planning to re-broadcast the Summit in Q3.
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SYNDICATION RESULTS DURING LIVE PROGRAM:
Note: *Pending final confirmation after impression reconciliation and final reporting.
Ready-to-Go Results (RTG) with MS Partners: (see full report attached)
Mar Sept Oct TOTAL
FY08 FY09 FY09
Partners Engaged/ 170 90 167 257
Executions
Summit Syndication 80 33 96 129
Code Used (from RTG only)
# of Campaign 828 456 1,004 1,460
Components Downloaded
Customers Reached 55,188 61,363 121,188 182,551
SUMMIT CONTENT:
This year’s Summit provided 12 hours of LIVE, interactive broadcasts plus 24 hours of encore presentation over
three days. Formatted as a TV talk-show, the Summit delivered 48 content segments focused on the business
and technology needs of small business owners, 12 of which showed the problem-solving power of Microsoft
products and services, including Vista, Office, Server, Dynamics GP, BPOS, Volume Licensing, Response Point,
and Office Live and Office Accounting. We also featured external and internal experts—including John Jantsch
on marketing, Michael Santarcangelo on security, Nell Merlino on women’s entrepreneurship, Stephanie Frank
on motivational strategy, Steven Rogers on finance, and Rieva Lesonsky on general small business issues-- to
help small businesses with sales and marketing; productivity, mobility, and security; financial management;
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and startup. Finally, we interviewed more than a dozen successful small business owners, who provided both
inspiration and practical tips on how to succeed even during an economic slowdown.
TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM:
This technically and logistically complex project required the collaboration of many colleagues, partners, and
vendors. Our TV producers and hosts delivered 4 hours of high-quality live TV programs each day of the 3-day
Summit. The broadcast was streamed live from MS Studios to our video player, which was syndicated through
Atlas Rich Media to over 400 sites.
The Summit broadcast was synchronized to the second with our call to actions (CTAs) based on the content of
the Summit segments. The end result was the world’s biggest virtual small-business summit, and an event
where viewers could see and interact via chat, phone, and email from anywhere in the world.
CUSTOMER FEEDBACK HIGHLIGHTS:
Partner Feedback:
“ I got 6 server leads in 1 day from the Summit chat room”
Kevin Royalty, SBSC
(Kevin is a Server expert who presented during the Summit and later joined the chat.)
“The Small Business Summit is a great idea/resource. The format is great. The hosts do a great job of
keeping it interesting and the content is very relevant to small business owners. I hope to see Microsoft do
more of these in the future.”
-Gary Grabowski
TriLogic Corporation
“Thanks for letting us “host” this event…it has lead to three client discussions this week!
-Greg Sartz
General Networks, Inc.
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“The Summit looked great on our home page we had banners linking to our Small Business Server page
where we had the streaming video (the large viewer) with all the information and screen shots of SBS 2008.
Just imagine it…!
-John S Simpson
Advanced Business Concepts, Inc.
FROM THE CHAT:
Overall, SBSCs and BDMs provided each other with helpful information and advice, and most conversations
were around the Summit topics. All together, the chat resulted in more than 3,000 lines of transcripts, which
we are still reviewing. Here is a snippet from day one:
14/10/2008 12:10:28 I have learned so much from this B2B chat. It's like IM blogging. Mr. Wibbels'
is giving good blog advice.
14/10/2008 12:11:44 I started a blog for our firm in January, SMB TechConnect, that is a topical
discussion on issues affecting the small to midsized business centered around
technology
14/10/2008 12:12:24 The key that has made it get noticed is that it's not TechSpeak. I use my style
as a writer and make it fun!
14/10/2008 12:13:25 Me, too.
14/10/2008 12:13:37 Right on. Speaking on the blog like you are speaking to your best friend make
all teh difference
14/10/2008 12:14:50 Money savers for your product is a good topic in this economic crunch.
14/10/2008 12:15:23 That's very interesting! Blog about something a potential prospect or current
customer would find interesting... You just gave me a really good idea!
14/10/2008 12:24:21 Consistent message today -- be known for one thing, don't be all things to all
people.
14/10/2008 12:56:58 If you already have a website with another provider, how do you get into
Microsoft office live?
14/10/2008 12:58:27 There are instructions to redelegate your domain...it is very simiple if I did it
anyone can. I believe I did a search on FAQ and found step by step directions
14/10/2008 12:58:53 Thanks.
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Who is Martin Walsh?
Martin is an award winning producer and Digital Marketing Director who
has built a successful marketing career spanning more than 21 years in the
media, games, technology and entertainment industries.
In addition to his professional career he is also in the process of developing
a variety of Australian feature films, ARG’s (Alternate Reality Games) and
video games in addition to a movie version of his critically acclaimed Battle
of Long Tan documentary.
Martin specialises in global strategic digital marketing, digital engagement, social media & social
influence marketing, social CRM, search engine marketing, digital PR / online reputation
management and online analytics. He has been instrumental in defining, developing and executing
Microsoft’s global digital * social media strategies and programs geared towards changing,
transforming & innovating marketing, product development, customer service and customer
engagement at both a local and global level.
Martin successfully grew the ecommerce division of a large Australian media & entertainment
company from less than AUD$22 million in annual turnover to more $AUD700 million in annual
turnover in under 5 years. He has held senior marketing roles across Tabcorp, News Corporation,
BMG, Village Roadshow, Austereo and Telstra and he has led Digital Marketing @ Microsoft since
2005.
He holds post graduate qualifications in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from Swinburne University
and he served in Australian Special Forces; 2 Commando Company, 1st Commando Regiment.
Contact:
Email: mwalsh@reddunefilms.com
Twitter: @martinwalsh
Mobile: +61 (0)438 417 143
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