The economy is really putting the kibosh on travelling, attending seminars, and all sorts of spending. But, is staying in the office, burning the midnight oil the only B2B Marcom alternative? No! The show must go on! How?
Virtual Trade Shows!
I've touched on this subject here and here.
The following crossed my desk just this week (kinda' tells us what's hot, right?):
The Rising Tide of Virtual Events
With the economy continuing in a downward spiral, many companies and trade groups are turning to virtual events, whether for large, outward-facing shows or internal meetings, as a cost cutting tool. According to an ON24, Inc. survey, of the 10,000 enterprise executives asked about their events and attendance in 2009, 42% said that the economy would decrease their company's participation in physical trade shows compared to 2008 (20% by at least half) and 64% said that they would have fewer or no (22%) physical sales kick offs.
More from VirtualWorldNews:
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ON24 just completed a survey of more than 10,000 enterprise executives which polled the anticipated use in 2009 of "in-person" trade shows, conventions and seminars versus virtual events such as webinars and virtual shows. The survey showed significant growth for virtual events in 2009, with physical events projected to decline more than 40%.
76% of the survey participants said their companies have already begun using virtual events or plan to begin using them in 2009 to supplement some of their physical events.
75% appreciate that there is no travel required when an event is conducted virtually.
64% value the ability to attend a virtual session on their own time schedules.
58% found it useful to be able to forward to their colleagues the virtual sessions that they thought would be of interest.
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Virtual PCB, the industry's first virtual trade show and conference for PCB
designers, fabricators and assemblers, will be held February 24-25, 2009.· Participate in live group chats with industry experts
· Attend webinars
· Access targeted technical information