Eighteen days ago. I was on LinkedIn yesterday and there, under the WordPress section of my profile, those three words jumped off the screen: 18 days ago! 

Yup, it’s been that long since my last blog post. Oh the humanity! By blogger standards, that’s a lifetime ago and I accept any criticism that might come my way as a result of such poor form. How could I have possibly gone under for so long?  Well, I’ve been taking British Airways’ advice (http://businessgrants.ba.com/) and spending as much time as possible over the past couple of weeks to “Be There Face to Face” with clients, prospects, vendor partners, and peers. That’s entailed a lot of meetings and networking, and a good amount of travel. All great stuff, but it did take me away from my day-to-day duties…and my blog, for sure. 

So why the sudden push to “get out there?” Did I have some leftover travel budget to spend before the year is out? Yes, but what really drove me was a deep desire to re-connect and re-kindle relationships with the people who allow my business to exist, and who help make me better at my job. 

We’ve all been waiting for the “Great Recession” to end. Waiting for cutbacks on spending and travel to be loosened. Waiting for telltale signs that it’s OK to get back to business. I decided that I wanted out of the “let’s wait and see” bunker; I wanted to stop worrying about the future of my business and start shaping it. 

Of course, many of you have been turning to social media for quite some time now to bypass the bunker, to share ideas and build relationships. I’ve blazed trails in many areas…social media isn’t one of them. Truth be told, I was dragged into it kicking and screaming. Still, I do understand its appeal as well as its power. 

Because my objective was to activate new business, it seemed natural that I would take the time to meet with folks face to face. And I’m glad I did. I put faces to the names of some new clients, offering up a smile and a handshake in the flesh. My team shared a room with our client’s executive team and participated in high-level strategy and creative brainstorming sessions. What a huge benefit to hear information unfiltered, “read” body language, measure instant reactions to ideas, and witness firsthand decision makers processing information (vs. interpreting “pregnant” pauses over the phone). To be able to influence new business opportunities and realize heightened credibility and deepened partnerships from such real-time collaboration…priceless.

Before I stand accused of “denouncing” online communications in favor of face-to-face meetings, let me be clear. It all boils down to objectives. In my case, I needed face time with people to accomplish what I was looking to do. As to the ongoing argument of virtual events vs. face-to-face events, I believe both have a role, and they can complement each other.

For weeks I’ve been spreading the word with clients and vendors alike about employing social media and virtual events to not just extend audience reach and leverage tight budgets, but to enhance live meetings and events. While I am relatively new to the world of virtual event technologies, I am a veteran of bringing brands to life and moving people to action through engaging, relevant, and memorable audience experiences.  Anything that can further that mission will always find room in my tool kit.

The corporate meeting and events industry has continually re-invented itself through the years, but now the canvas has truly been wiped clean. What an exciting time for creators of brand experiences! It’s amazing that when fears dissipate, opportunities emerge. Yes, it’s good to be out of the bunker.

When we last left off, I was heading to a conference in Chicago. Back for just over a week, this is the first chance I’ve had to sit down and pen my thoughts on the experience. It seems that the simple act of my leaving town has resulted in a sudden flurry of new business activity here at Impact Productions. (Note to self:  get out of Dodge more often!)

The seminar, I am happy to report, was well worth the travel and expense. I was re-energized by the opportunity to network with peers, and truly inspired by some great content — which focused on industry trends, emerging event technologies, and case studies of winning event marketing strategies by top brands.

Am I at all surprised that I got more charge out of this in-person training session than I did from the webinar I attended the week before? No. I was fully engaged, and took part in peer meetings and brainstorming sessions you simply cannot replicate online. And I think most people would agree there is no substitute for face-to-face time with a presenter.  Face to face, after all, is still the best way to interact, share ideas, and build relationships.

That is the very message of British Airways’ new ad campaign targeting business travelers. Aptly themed, “Be there face-to-face,” the multi-phased program focuses on the importance of face time with regard to building relationships that help grow businesses. To date, this has largely been the stuff of event industry publications. It is truly validating and beyond exciting that a mega brand such as British Airways is spreading the word – and citing real-world examples and compelling stats – on the power of face-to-face meetings via mainstream advertising. (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/business/media/
26adnewsletter1.html?_r=1)

So it’s official then?  In the “virtual vs. live event” debate, live wins every time, right?  And virtual events will go down as a short-lived fad of this not so short-lived recession?  Not exactly.  Virtual communications, while allowing marketers and planners to bridge the gap during these challenging times of budget cuts and restricted travel, have proven to be a very effective tool to help extend audience reach, maximize costs, and increase ROI.  Online event technologies are now officially part of the event marketer’s tool kit – and they are not going away any time soon.

Many marketing and event professionals agree that live (or physical) events and virtual meetings will live side-by-side.  And progressive brands are already integrating virtual components into their face-to-face events, producing what are known as “hybrid events.”  According to Miguel Arias, Director + Partner at Imaste IPS, a recruitment services agency based in Madrid, “Hybrid events will become a natural trend in 2010.” (Read his full comments in response to my October 2 blog, “Can Live Meetings Really Be Replaced by Virtual Meetings?” and check out his company’s valuable findings on virtual meetings at http://blog.imaste-ips.com.)

Going forward, the meeting and events industry will indeed be about live events and virtual events building upon each other to help drive bottom-line results. And I believe that those brands that exploit these synergies and embrace a strategic mix of face to face, online, and hybrid event solutions, will be better positioned to reach their customers and communicate with their stakeholders. 

The challenge is discerning when to employ face to face and when to deploy technology, and how to create relevant, authentic, and engaging hybrid experiences. I have a feeling brand marketers are up for the task. I know I am.

Just last week I logged on to a webinar that I was really looking forward to attending. The topic was particularly relevant to me, and the session promised timely tips and tricks I was eager to learn. Sixty minutes later I went about my day with barely a morsel of new information about the hot topic. The presenter may have delivered great content but I can’t be sure.  What happened?

The truth is, I was never engaged.  And not long after tuning in, I had tuned out the presenter. Why? Because I could. In the confines of my office, I was easily distracted. Always the multi-tasker, I didn’t see the harm in checking e-mails, reviewing activity on Twitter and LinkedIn, snacking, even holding an impromptu meeting with a colleague to kick-start a new project. 

And it seems I am not alone. According to the U.S. Travel Association, in a survey of senior executives, 81 percent of respondents admit to sending emails while on conference calls and 75 percent acknowledge having side conversations. 

Normally I consider myself a respectful audience member with a better than average attention span. I’m patient – meaning that I’ll give a presenter longer than most to make a point (ditto for movies). And I don’t need a whole lot of flash to stay engaged, just solid content. (One of my favorite movies is My Dinner with Andre.  Enough said.)

Still, I got to thinking…had the presenter dived right into the meat of the content, would I have been hooked sooner? If the presenter was a tad more dynamic would I have hung in there? Would it have helped if the webinar offered streaming video, not just audio? I can’t be sure, but I do suspect I would have remained a distant, passive listener just the same. 

I was missing that connection that comes from being a captive audience member, observing and engaging with the presenter and the rest of the audience in real time – something technology, despite all its advances, cannot simulate. 

Next week, I’m off to a live seminar in Chicago where once again the topic is very relevant to me. I’m looking forward to networking with peers, learning new concepts and ideas that resonate, and returning home with industry information that can be shared with colleagues, clients, and readers of this very blog. I will be out of the office for several days, and my company is spending money on the training and travel, so naturally the stakes are higher than attending a free webinar online. But I have to think the rewards stand to be that much greater.

I’ll let you know how I fared, and pick-up where I left off when I return from the Windy City.

To be continued…

I’m hearing quite a buzz these days about the virtues of virtual meetings and some growing lament on the “end of live events as we know it (sigh).”  Before I join the official debate online, I’d like to share with you a story I heard from a friend that I believe cuts to the heart of the matter:

A teenage son sits in the living room with his teenage girlfriend in front of the TV. He pulls out his cell phone and thumbs blur as he types a message. His Mom, also in the room, thinks it may be time for a conversation about “how to keep a girlfriend,” beginning with, “don’t text someone else when you are in her company.”

Just as the young man finishes and looks up, his girlfriend’s phone buzzes. She picks it up and nonchalantly replies. Mere seconds later, the boyfriend’s phone buzzes.

“You,” the mother says, “are not texting each other!?”

But in fact they were.

Now, as you gauge your reaction to this with regard to your children, your friends, your colleagues; as you ponder the question this presents, the concerns it raises about our decreasing ability to relate to each other face-to-face, the increasing predominance of technology into every facet of our lives…also ponder this:

Are you considering holding your next corporate meeting in virtual space?

If you think it’s silly or sad or somewhere in between for two people to sit next to each other and text rather than talk, we agree.  And on that premise, we respectfully offer that meeting and event technologies are best used to enhance the personal experience, not replace it.  We’re humans and we crave human interaction.  And we’ll always get more out of the experience by actually “being there.”

Without live interaction, the life of the relationship goes cold.  Clearly no one aims for impersonal relationships with their clients, employees, executives, and shareholders.

Will technology play a bigger role in corporate meetings?  Yes.  And to be clear, virtual meetings have huge benefits for corporate planners, marketers, and audiences the world over.  But there is a right time and a right place for them in your overall event marketing strategy.  To think that virtual events can truly replace live events in terms of the experiences they provide, the opportunities they afford, is naïve – even an awkward teenager would probably agree.

This is a huge topic in the corporate meetings and events industry, worthy of a great deal of consideration and at least a couple of blogs.  So visit us here for more analysis and insight as we explore the pros and cons of face-to-face vs. cyberspace, (spoiler alert: I’m pretty partial to LIVE).  And a special shout out to friend and fellow blogger, Mike Hanbery (http://mikehanbery.blogspot.com/), for sharing his story.  Thanks Mike!

A few years after we launched Impact Productions, we began marketing the tagline “Live Branding Specialist” to help set us apart from the myriad of event suppliers turned “production companies” around the time of the dot com heyday. Unlike a lot of those dot com companies, the phrase stuck, and since then it’s become our signature, our niche, our differentiator.

So what does “Live Branding” mean?

Well, unfortunately, it’s not an easily definable noun that’s easily pigeonholed. Live Branding is an intangible process. More to the point, it is an experience, and it’s different for each brand and for each audience…but let’s start with the core principles of Live Branding:

Focus on the Audience. Audiences are everything. Reach them and call it a success.  Fail, and explain to the CEO why the company spends a lot of money on a fruitless meeting every year.

Engage the Senses. Yes, this means sound and lights and video and graphics and live entertainment. It also means a deliberate, strategic mix of them – a plan for the overall flow of the presentation, and how it supports the goals of your event and company.

Deliver A Clear Message. Live meetings are full of stimuli…noise, if you will. Live Branding pushes the non-essentials to the side and amplifies the important themes.

Make the Connection. Live Branding stays with your meeting attendee; it doesn’t get left behind like a hotel towel. It accomplishes this by providing a multi-sensory vehicle to answer the all-important question, “What’s in it for me?” Live Branding, when done right, generates a deep connection with each member of your audience – your clients, employees, shareholders – resulting in the creation of brand champions.

Live Branding is hard work because it isn’t formulaic. Each corporate event has its own goals, settings, and audience. Each company has its own culture. Live Branding takes all that into account to deliver an engaging and memorable experience; one that goes home with you—not just because it’s stuck in your brain, but because it’s relevant to you. Because your audience is ready for it, receives it, processes it, understands it, appreciates it, and believes in it.

I coined the term Live Branding years ago and it has guided my craft ever since.  That practice has made my clients’ events and meetings more successful and I’d like to share with you what I’ve learned.  So stay tuned and let’s explore The Power of LIVE together.

Sheila Stack

Thanks for joining us. I’m Sheila Stack, Founder and President of Impact Productions – and I’m a champion of the power of live events.

Check in here to engage your brain toward the pursuit of making business meetings more meaningful, driving home your message and making it resonate beyond the flight home.

That’s what we do here. We bring your audience all the way in. We take their experience beyond what they expect. We take your brand and place it center stage, creating emotional connections with your people at every turn giving it…well, impact.

Here we’ll address hot topics in the meetings and events industry…I’m sure you’ve noticed there are a lot of them right now. What are the challenges we’re facing, how are we rallying to overcome them – at what cost, and to what degree of success? We’ll also look at what folks in our industry are doing to make corporate events more memorable. What fresh ideas are out there, and what trends are shaping our industry going forward?

Let me tell you, we at Impact Productions love this business to the core. Do we necessarily love the overnight load-ins, eating in 60 seconds flat between general sessions, going for days on coffee and energy bars? No, we’re not that crazy; but we do embrace it. Pride and joy, after all, comes from experience. (For the record, and speaking for myself, I do actually thrive on all of the above working conditions!)

I sincerely hope Impact’s fervor comes through in this blog. I want you not just to hear what I say, but to feel it with me. That’s important, because that’s our signature: connecting with audiences on a deeper level. We arouse thoughts. We move people. It’s no longer enough for your audience to have something to see and hear; they have to feel it, they have to believe.

The Power of LIVE in action

That connection… that’s live branding done well. That’s Impact Productions. This is our journey. It’s good to have you along.