President's Message
It's been a tough couple of years.
Many meeting planners have left our industry, never to return. Many others hope, that as the economy recovers, we will go back to business as usual. We believe this is highly unlikely. The convergence of recent economic challenges, the emergence of social networking as a force, the rapid adoption of new mobile technologies and the rise of marketing-aware consumers all herald the end of business as usual.We are, without doubt, in a new world, where old production and delivery models are crumbling, a world where content is available instantly, at whatever level of detail is desired. We are entering a world where the Internet is creating vast new opportunities for reaching audiences and challenging existing venues for meeting planners.
Higher expectations
There is more content out there than ever and consumers have learned to expect to control how they experience very specific, very relevant content. They expect to dictate format and delivery channel – building their own personalized news feeds or iTunes mixes, discarding a TV network's programming schedule, using their DVR or Hulu to watch what they want, when they want. Given that experience, it should be no surprise that attendees of our events have higher expectations than even a couple of years ago. We can do better. We must do better.Responding to a more sophisticated and demanding audience, Parliant Conference Companion provides tools to quickly and throughly search and find all the they have interest in, making personal schedules, ensuring they are at the right place at the right time, while maintaining a list of posters and vendors they want to see.
It is no longer a case of holding a meeting vs. Internet offerings. We must embrace the best of both worlds.
We have to think about the digital conversation that is going on in every event, because whether you know it or not, it already is. Witness the digital conversations generated by bloggers and attendees tweeting live from sessions or the show floor. These conversations augment the supplied content with live commentary and debate, facilitating networking, making key business connections and generating leads. Those conversations also create a virtual experience for those not on-site. If we don’t sponsor and contribute to it, it will happen on it’s own without our input. Rather than considering it competition, one should embrace this collection of blogs, chats, social media posts, webcasts, and more, because if done right, they can enhance the value of your face to face event.In the end, it's all about people
While large vendors can create their own media events, (Apple for example) there are many other excellent speakers who cannot create their own forum. They need your forum. A room full of interested attendees is still a speaker's best venue to impart their knowledge, experience or observations. Many times it is the question period after the presentations that has the greatest worth. Feeling the room dynamics, watching the body language of the attendees and the feedback in the halls after the session is part of why speakers volunteer to give these talks. It will take longer than many pundits think before this kind of human interaction and dynamics will be replaced by electronic alternatives. Yet there exist opportunities to digitally enhance the value and experience of a face-to-face meetings, enhanced with on-device content. After the event, you will have this content to offer, for a price, to those whose did not attend.Make your message stick
The impact of new content is far greater at a meeting than reading it through a web browser in your office. The reason is obvious: attendees, when exposed to new content, are surrounded by peers and thought leaders, who act as catalysts for in-depth discussion between peers, speakers, pundits, and industry partners. The message is better examined, critiqued, accepted and reinforced though the reaction of those around you.Onsite events:
• immerse attendees in a multi-sensory experiences, not just a computer screen
• elicit and reinforce emotion and inspiration from the interaction between speakers and attendees
• foster meaningful relationships among attendees, partners, thought leaders and company executives
• interact in real-time with speakers and panelists using our audience response capabilities,
• find and communicate peer-to-peer with any other attendee, speaker, or pundit
• preview educational videos prior to presentations, and
• listen to podcast interviews by colleagues who have made groundbreaking breakthroughs in the field, before deciding to attend that a session all on the ubiquitous handhelds from Apple.
Keep the community alive
Conference organizers work long and hard and spend a lot of money to collect the experts, practitioners and content into single place for an unfettered exchange of experiences and ideas. During a conference, one forms a community, whose members are the chosen few who invested the time and money and travel, to be with people of similar background and interests. Why truncate that community at the end of the conference?We believe an annual conference should be only the beginning of a year-round relationship between show organizers, attendees, speakers, industry pundits and domain experts. In the future, attendees will join that community with a jump-start at the conference, then continue the dialogue with their peers year round, renewing relationships at the next annual conference. Parliant's Conference Companion Software provides unique mechanisms to accomplish this new business model.
Keep your advertisers happy. Advertisers will pay a premium for program advertisements that stay in front of their target market year round. Users would welcome multimedia advertising that allows them to "peel the onion" to whatever level of detail they desire.
Our objective is to aid an organization's transition to treating the conference as the beginning of an ongoing relationship that includes web communities, training and many other sales and marketing initiatives.
With Conference Companion, delivered today, each attendee can access every aspect of an Annual Meeting, including program guides, floor maps, exhibitor listings, social venues, and more. Attendees access information and communicate in ways that have never before been possible. For the first time ever, they are able to receive up-to-the-minute meeting updates, communicate peer-to-peer with other attendees, watch educational video presentations and listen to podcast interviews by colleagues who have made groundbreaking breakthroughs in their field and so much more.
It's a brave new world
These are exciting times for our industry and I believe Parliant has a role to play in assisting its clients to identify then take advantage of these new opportunities. It’s not going to be easy. Uncertainty remains and the challenges we all face will continue to be daunting. When old models are strained or broken, we build new ones. Our most recent offering, Conference Companion, is a manifestation of that objective.Parliant is here to help you create compelling events that inspire. We will provide you the tools to leverage the value of your conference content so it can be accessed anytime, anywhere and anyhow throughout the year. We are here to help your attendees maximize the value of your meeting offerings, so they return year after year.
As you work through this web site, I think you will be surprised at how far we have come already. I invite you to join us as we continue the journey through this brave new world.
Kevin Ford
CEO
Parliant Corporation