I just got back last night from the Virtual Edge Summit out in Santa Clara, CA and, despite some minor jetlag, I am completely invigorated for an amazing 2010 in the virtual events industry. Here are five quick takeaways from the conference for those who missed it:
- 2010 will bring a new focus on “community” for virtual events. To that end, some speakers and company leaders were criticizing the “event” part of the virtual event title as a narrow descriptor for the potential of the technology, saying that it could have broader marketing appeal.
- New verticals are adopting virtual event technology, so it’s not just something for the technology companies anymore. More importantly, groups outside of marketing are now using virtual event technology for internal communication and training.
- Virtual events are time intensive activities and that point was made clear by every event organizer who presented. This included representatives from Planview, Cisco and SAP.
- The partner channel will be an important part of the industry as rapid expansion will force the product companies to bring on service providers to support the increase in implementations.
- Measurement will take on more importance as companies perform their second, third and beyond events. All agreed that virtual event measurement is second to none, but how to use the data effectively is still something that the industry needs to figure out.
Overall the optimism is obvious: everyone feels that virtual events are here to stay and there is massive growth expected within the industry.
Look out for further insights in the next few days.
Have other takeaways? Let’s hear them in the comments:
Tags: ben chodor, virtual edge, virtual edge summit, Virtual Events