Day One February 22, 2010 Break Outs (8:00-8:45 PT): 1. Make Sure Your Virtual Team Is Capturing “REAL” Business Results Virtual Team-building is skyrocketing! Six years ago, 45 million employees worked remotely at least once a week. In 2010, the virtual workforce will hit 100 million. But, perhaps more important than the numbers, are the strong impact effective virtual teams are having on their companies saving costs, boosting productivity, enhancing job satisfaction and improving cash flows and bottom line finances. Learn why the most successful virtual team are no longer just telecommuters with email and Blackberries. Attendees will bring their virtual team management skills up to date, learn the latest tools and techniques, and hear a case study example. -Claire Sookman, Virtual team Builders // Andrew Kun, Empowered By Awareness // Rob Masson, EMC 2. What’s Virtual Got to Do with It - Applying Virtual Solutions to Help Solve a Business Objective This session provides guidelines and best practices for how to introduce virtual or hybrid events into your organization. Discussion of why corporations are exploring virtual solutions to help solve business issues. Outlining what platforms are available and best applied to achieve a specific business purpose. Will answer the following questions: • How do I decide which events should be physical, virtual or hybrid? • How do I convert a physical event to a virtual event? • How do I use virtual events to extend a physical event? • What is the best way to introduce virtual events into my organization? • What if we've already tried a virtual event and we've not had a good experience? • What are some successful case studies? • What are some unsuccessful case studies? -Lynn Randall, Maritz Travel 3. Ask the Experts - Top Virtual Experience Producers Answer Your Questions This session brings together top virtual event, meeting and virtual environment producers with one agenda in mind--yours. This is an "open mic" session where you get to control the agenda and ask experts that have produced lots of different types of virtual experiences using many different form factors from podcasts to webcasts to sophisticated virtual events. –Randy Choco, Microsoft // Michael Doyle, Virtual Edge Institute // Vance McCarthy, iDev News // Tom Wieser, CGS Virtual Events // Frances Manwaring, Virtual Expos New Zealand Ltd. Break Outs (8:50-9:35 PT): 1. Fast-Track Your Skills to Capture Virtual Event/Meeting Opportunities Many event, meeting and marketing professionals have core skills and insights that will serve their careers well in the virtual world. All that’s needed is some fine-tuning and refurbishing. This session will reveal key lessons, insights and Do's and Don'ts to help these professionals adapt and align their skills for virtual opportunities. -Alex Sapiz, GPJ // Michael Vargo, Disney // Erin Handel, Bankerstuff // Mark Prine, USMotivation // Kenny Lauer, George P. Johnson 2. Case Study: Your Annual User Conference Just Went Virtual - Now What? Imagine This: Your executives tell you, your customers just can’t travel this year. So, your team will need to design an engaging and professional 100% online customer event, produce all the content, make it easy for customers and exhibitor / partners to participate, get rave reviews from your online participants -- and make it as good as or better than your annual physical event. You don’t have to be a billion dollar company… it can be done! –Kimberly Stone, Planview, Inc. 3. Using 3D Immersive: Demonstrating Products, Places and Processes (Business 3Di Track) Companies and government agencies are embracing virtual environments to reach customers, prospects and citizen groups with rich, interactive demos to show off products, building plans and processes. This panel discussion focuses on examples of using virtual worlds for rich, interactive product and process demonstration, in support of buyer-education and sales functions in b2b spaces. Live mixed-reality demos will include Sun's and IBM's Green Datacenters in Second Life (technology products), on data-visualization tools, and import of geo-data for construction of accurate large-scale models of an urban center. –Brian B. Quinn, County of Marin, CA // John Jainschigg, Ziff Davis Enterprise // Ben Lindquist, Green Phosphor // Ken Hudson, Virtual World Design Centre, Loyalist College Break (9:35-10:25 PT) Keynote (10:25-11:10 PT): KEYNOTE: Total Engagement Imagine the value if you could transfer the excitement and focus found in great games to your events and meetings and the rest of your business. This isn't just possible, it's inevitable says Byron Reeves. As productivity and engagement become more critical, the user experience provided by game technology offers a tantalizing solution for business. This is far more than a quaint metaphor or a twist on e-learning. Game design elements can address a host of business problems and can be allied to virtual events and environments. Hear how this vision of how we will work in the future and apply it to your events today. -Bryon Reeves, Media X Partners Program, Stanford University Keynote (11:15-12:00 PT): Keynote: Secrets of Virtual Event & Meeting Success Revealed! Cisco, Disney, Intel, UBM, Microsoft, SAP Share Best Practices, Tips, Gotchas In this exclusive Virtual Edge keynote, top business and event managers from Cisco, Disney, Intel, UBM, Microsoft and SAP gather in a thought-provoking and revealing roundtable discussion to share their plans, strategies, activities and tips for how to be successful with virtual events and meetings. –Kathy Sulgit, Cisco // Mike Vargo, Disney // Stephanie Wilson, Intel // Pamela McGlinchey, United Business Media // Kathy Visser-May, Microsoft // Annie Yuzzi, SAP Solution Provider Program & Lunch Break (12:00-1:15 PT) Sponsored by InXpo | Demo Presentation Break Outs (1:15-2:00 PT): 1. Proven Social Media Strategies for Virtual Events & Communities Social networking sites are becoming an important component to any successful virtual event strategy. FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn all have their advantages, but they also have their rules of engagement. This session looks at successful social networking strategies including structured and unstructured activities prior, during and after your event to get the most effective results. This session will also look at the next wave of social networking technologies capturing the attention of virtual event producers, exhibitors and attendees. –Jeff Hurt, Velvet Chainsaw // Kymberlee Weil, introNetworks // John Gibb, JSG Consulting 2. If You Build It -- Make Sure They Come Audience Acquisition Strategies for Virtual Events & Online Communities In today’s economic climate, it is becoming increasingly difficult to attract audiences to events of any kind. See what event planners are doing to sell out events in this down economy and learn about the technologies that are making it possible. This session explores the topic of audience generation by taking a look at the newest marketing techniques available to help gain interest in your events. Topics of discussion include online communities, social media, email marketing, web analytics, return on investment (ROI) analysis and more. -John Barber, Immersa Marketing // Eric Olsen, Active Events // John Grosshandler, Maritz 3. Are We (Really) There Yet? 3D for Immersion, Engagement, Retention and Learning (Business 3Di Track) Research suggests eye-popping 3D or immersive environments are more than eye-candy for virtual attendees. Compelling venues can produce compelling results. This expert panel of researchers and practicing producers looks at how the proper use of 3D immersive approaches can command more attention, incentivize attendees to action, promote deeper participation, and even help producers create long-lasting communities of repeat visitors. Learn how to effectively use 3D/immersive technologies to bring your attendees a feeling of "really being there." -John Jainschigg, Ziff Davis Enterprise // Byron Reeves, Stanford University // John Carter McKnight, Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law-Arizona State University // Dr. LeRoy Heinrichs, InnovationInLearning, Stanford University // Glenn Fisher, Linden Lab Break Outs (2:05-2:50 PT) 1. Apps, Analytics & Widgets for Event Marketing Why are event marketers creating apps and widgets? Did you know that with a little SEO you can steal the show? Will these viral tools generate more exposure, more engagement, more activity and more registrations? Without analytics you just don’t know what you don’t know. This session will look at a real life business case for utilizing these marketing techniques and delve into just what you need to understand about the technology and costs to bring your event marketing to the next level. -Staci Clark, Cisco // Dan Savage, Resolute Digital // Jarod Caporino, Resolute Digital 2. Virtual Engagement: Gizmos, Games, Gadgets and Surveys Aid Learning and Interaction Everyone wants a virtual event to be exciting, attention grabbing, interactive -- in a word: Engaging. Virtual event producers and platform firms now offer a candy store of engagement options. This engaging session shows attendees which networking and communication gizmos, games and gadgets really work. And, which ones are proven distractions. You’ll also discover how to create really interesting surveys, and learn when to pop them out. –Dan Yaman, Live Spark, Learningware // Ben Chodor, Stream 57 // Paul Dodd, 6Connex 3. Accessible Immersion (Business 3Di Track) As the enterprise market for virtual world applications gains traction, established platform providers are evolving their offerings with business in mind. Newer market entrants, meanwhile, are taking a range of architectural and feature-engineering strategies to broaden the appeal of 3D and make immersive environments more scaleable and business-friendly. This panel will discuss a broad range of existing products, contrast their architectures and examine features that bring these platforms more in-line with business needs, such as browser-embedded clients, integrated communications, web-like architectures and novel emerging tools for media and video integration. -John Jainschigg, Ziff Davis Enterprise // Jim Sink, Avatar Reality (Blue Mars) // Bruce Joy, Vast Park // Greg Nuyens, Teleplace Keynote (3:00-3:45 PT): Keynote: Learn How Oracle, Intel and SAP Extend Reach, Build Community with ‘Hybrid” Events In today’s economy, especially tightening travel budgets, events and your valued communities have been impacted. Face to face interaction at meetings and events whether internal or external facing, is not always an option and the need to interact online, while keeping the sense of community has become paramount. Learn how top event managers and community managers are combining the best of live and virtual outreach with online community techniques, to deliver success for their attendees, community members and their company. –Paul Salinger, Oracle // Chip Rodgers, SAP // Michael Ray, Intel // Michael Doyle, Virtual Edge Institute Solution Provider Program 2 & Break (3:45-4:15 PT) Break Outs (4:15-5:00 PT) 1. Case Study: The Global Hybrid Event Experience This session will feature a case study covering the strategy and planning for globalizing a central platform, www.ciscolivevirtual.com, to enable hybrid event extensions for the traditional corporate user conference. Learn more about the hybrid event strategic planning process, how to enable a rich hybrid user experience, measuring and reporting on the hybrid event, and extending the hybrid experience to a global audience. Make sure to attend this session to get insight on current (and get a glimpse into future) hybrid event trends. -Dannette Veale, Cisco // Kathy Doyle, Cisco 2. Virtual Event Launch Plan -- a 45-Minute Boot Camp OK, you’re sold on trying a virtual event for a meeting with internal staff, customers or prospects. Now what? Come to our Virtual Event Boot Camp, and in 45 minutes we’ll give you a compass, a direction, a roadmap, survival skills, and the confidence you’ll need for holding a successful virtual event. Even those with one or two events under their belts will find this session of value. – Michael Kushner, President, Virtual Media Strategies 3. Perspectives on Future of 3D Immersive Environments: Implications for Users and Developers of Virtual Events (Business 3Di Track) This presentation will draw on research from the Virtual Worlds @ Work initiative at Strategic Business Insights (SBI), a spinoff from SRI International (formerly Stanford Research Institute). Questions and issues that will be addressed include the following: • What types of developments can we expect to see from virtual worlds players in the next few years based on market dynamics we saw in the last couple of years? • What will the impact and implications be of emerging open source virtual-worlds platforms? • Which types of applications can best benefit from the unique affordances offered by virtual worlds? • Will we see significant improvements in usability of virtual worlds and what kinds of mashups may emerge to create higher user engagement and better user experience? The presentation will also discuss international developments and research projects that may have implications for what we will see on the virtual-worlds front in the next few years. –Eilif Trondsen, Research & Program Director, Virtual Worlds at Work Consortium Strategic Business Insights Attendee, Sponsor & Speaker Reception (5:00-6:30 PT) Sponsored by Unisfair | New Product Announcement! |
Day Two February 23, 2010 Break Outs (8:00-8:45 PT): 1. Prevent Virtual Event Nightmares How Producers Prepare Speakers, Exhibitors and Attendees 2. Virtual Events – Choosing the Right Virtual Event Technologies – A Digital Media Company’s Perspective Today’s event producers are faced with an array of virtual event technologies to buy – platform, webcasting, and feature-specific components. But evaluating fast-changing technologies, shifting pricing models, and company skill-sets can be a risky exercise for digital media companies – those whose expertise is in content, audience acquisition, and advertising sales. This session will share how a digital media company thinks about selecting and incorporating technologies into its virtual event experiences, and address: 1. Which technologies are most critical to a successful event? Which are overhyped and don’t matter? 2. What are the pitfalls of today’s virtual event platforms? 3. Which criteria should producers use to evaluate and select technologies – and technology partners? 4. What technologies will win in the future? Video? 3D? Something else? –Robert Rosenbloom, Platform Q 3. SPECIAL WORKSHOP: How to Strategize, Plan, and Execute a Virtual Event (part one) Industry Veteran Shares the Playbook for Successful Events Do you have a plan for implementing virtual events? a plan that addresses roadblocks to success? global markets? selection of a mix of technologies and options to achieve your goals? multilingual attendees? Virtual Events are changing the way we meet, attend or produce conferences; educate and train; demonstrate products and processes; and more. Planning checklists used in the past need to address today’s online virtual engagement options--and given the number of choices available, you need a well developed plan. In just 2 hours, attendees will build their own blueprint essentially creating a step-by-step plan to strategize, plan and execute a successful virtual event experience. Be prepared to be an active participant in this engaging and insightful workshop. –Kelly Graham, Cisco // Helaine de Tomasi, Cisco Break (8:45-9:00 PT) Break Outs (9:00-9:45 PT): 1. It Takes More Than a Spreadsheet to Measure Virtual Meeting Effectiveness & ROI One of the most difficult and murky aspects of a virtual event or virtual meeting can be measuring its value, and when to take the measure. Was the event or meeting valuable to attendees, exhibitors, and event producers? If not, why not? If so, how valuable? Metrics during an event are certainly important to know who, how many and how long people came. But, the true value of an event may not be known until well after the event. This session examines effective ways companies use to measure the value of their virtual and hybrid events. Special attention will be paid to how best to capture timely and accurate ROI information for all parties. –Todd Hanson, Catalyst Performance Group // Ira Kerns, Guidestar Research/Meeting Metrics // Michael Westcott, Red7Media 2. Attendees Don’t Want Just Video. They Want GREAT Video A great attendee experience starts with great audio but then immediately jumps to the visuals – closely followed by content. Are you producing for a livecast or embedded pre-produced or streamed video? What are the hidden technology constraints and considerations? What are the trade-offs between high and low-res in terms of cost and quality? What are the often overlooked stages of production—have you thought about the lighting? Audio? Preparing the speakers? What is the expectation for the attendee experience? This session will focus on best practices from some of the industries gurus who’ve been through it all. –Ed Kaim, SharpLogic, Inc. // Joerg Rathenberg, Unisfair // Michael Doyle, Virtual Edge Institute 3. SPECIAL WORKSHOP: How to Strategize, Plan, and Execute a Virtual Event (part two) Industry Veteran Shares the Playbook for Successful Events Do you have a plan for implementing virtual events? a plan that addresses roadblocks to success? global markets? selection of a mix of technologies and options to achieve your goals? multilingual attendees? Virtual Events are changing the way we meet, attend or produce conferences; educate and train; demonstrate products and processes; and more. Planning checklists used in the past need to address today’s online virtual engagement options--and given the number of choices available, you need a well developed plan. In just 2 hours, attendees will build their own blueprint essentially creating a step-by-step plan to strategize, plan and execute a successful virtual event experience. Be prepared to be an active participant in this engaging and insightful workshop. –Kelly Graham, Cisco // Helaine de Tomasi, Cisco Break (9:45-10:45 PT) Keynote (10:45-11:45 PT): KEYNOTE: The State (and Future) of Virtual Events The Virtual Edge Institute is proud to present its popular Roundtable Keynote session, featuring top executives from all top virtual event platform /producer firms. In this thought-provoking and interactive session, hear directly from those in the corner offices about where the virtual events / virtual meetings industry is in 2010, and where it is heading. What are the near-term offerings to improve attendee experience, reduce complexity, drive lead-gen, add interactivity, and create even more compelling peer-to-peer communications. Also, find out how customers are using virtual events today, and what improvements users are asking these providers for in the future. We’ll also ask top execs some of the questions you’re dying to ask: • What are the trends across your platforms? • Will virtual events become a core part of the marketing mix? • Could training and learning be the killer app? • What will virtual event cost structures look like? • What will the range of solutions look like? • What will the UI look like? • What are you doing to make it easier for me? • What will drive interaction at my events? • Can my agency create a totally unique look and feel? And, for those question’s we’ve forgotten, no worries. We’ll have an open mic. –Michael Doyle, VEI // Kevin Carbone, 6Connex // Malcolm Lotzof, InXpo // Chris Meyer, GPJ // Jim Parker, Digitell, Inc. // Tom Wieser, CGS Virtual Events // Paul Way, ON24 // Stu Schmidt, Unisfair // Ben Chodor, Stream57 Solution Provider Program & Lunch Break Sponsored by InXpo | Survey Presentation Sponsored by GPJ Break Outs (1:15-2:00 PT): 1. Add 'Live Event Sizzle' to Your Virtual Event Many marketing and meeting managers say virtual events need more ways to ‘add sizzle’ to compel sponsors and attract and keep attendees engaged. And for hybrid events, they’re looking for ways to give the virtual and live experiences more parity. This session provides a round-the-industry tour of the latest and most popular tools and techniques for adding sizzle to online events and more importantly to drive attendance, boost speaker effectiveness, increase sponsorship interest and deliver engaging experiences to virtual audiences. –Spencer Jarrett, Director of Creative Services, InVision // Darren Ross, CramerOnline // Paul Dodd, 6Connex 2. Virtual Learning: Using the Virtual Space for Training, Certification and Education With the rapid advancement of virtual learning technologies, companies and organizations are taking advantage of cutting edge tools in the virtual space to certify, train and educate their audience. Through the integration of interactive online communications and webcasting into the education space, companies are able to reach a wider audience at a lower cost, without compromising content or testing scores. -Phil Tierney, Intel // Ben Chodor, Stream57 // Ken Hudson, Virtual World Design Centre, Loyalist College // Pascal Kaplan, Ph.D., iCohere 3. Cheap Seats? - The Economics of Immersive Virtual Events (Business 3Di Track) What does it cost to put on immersive virtual events? What are the variables -- from platform requirements to duration-of-show, design and coding costs, multimedia production, web integration, audience and speaker and materials preparation -- that help you control cost, maximize impact, and guarantee success? –Glenn Fisher, Linden Lab // Craig Becker, IBM // Dannette Veale, Cisco // John Jainschigg, Ziff Davis Enterprise Break Outs (2:05-2:50 PT) 1. Secrets Revealed from Cisco System’s Virtual Global Sales Meeting - GSX Get an insider’s look at how Cisco planned and produced one of the largest, most complex virtual meetings ever, in about 6 months. The Cisco Global Sales Meeting recreated as GSX took on huge integration challenges and steep learning curves to produce one of the most sophisticated internal meetings ever. Now you get to see how they did it and what they’ll do differently next time and why. –Angie Smith, Cisco // Kenny Lauer, George P. Johnson 2. Not Just a Trade Show – Virtual Experiences That Help Organizations Lead Social Change In this TED-like session, join a dissimilar thinker, Pascal Kaplan, of iCohere, as he takes virtual down a new path where it converges with social change-management and thought-leadership initiatives in your organization. From corporate responsibility initiatives, to sustainability initiatives, to creating more aging-friendly communities, in this session Dr. Kaplan kicks it up a notch, sharing examples that go beyond mainstream lead-generation, training, online education applications of virtual to a strategy for catalyzing volunteer involvement in collaborative projects that achieve a higher purpose. Not for everyone, this outside-the-box session opens new windows on possibilities for integrated virtual and social technologies in our society. -Pascal Kaplan, Ph.D., iCohere // John Barber, Immersa Marketing 3. They Became What They Beheld: Immersive Role-Play in Virtual Environments (Business 3Di Track) Virtual worlds hold the keys to frontiers in education that only a few years ago were unimaginable. The option to bring students into relevant environments as a component of their lessons has the ability to enliven topics and engage learners in “true to life” experiences. One of the most fertile opportunities in utilizing virtual environments is to replace in-class role-play scenarios with virtually mediated ones. Through observation, it is determined that students identify dramatically with their avatar and with the environmental setting of the exercise. This cathexsis or investment of value is mirrored in learner behaviors, who literally “become what they behold,” aspiring to the roles played, and mimicking behavioral attitudes of the rehearsal figure which the exercise intends to instill. Using the Canadian border simulation at Loyalist College, this presentation will examine the student response to virtual worlds role-plays, comparing learner behavior to traditional in-class role-play experiences and with intended real world outcome behaviors. -Ken Hudson, Virtual World Design Centre, Loyalist College Break Outs (3:00-3:45 PT): Capabilities Quick Pitches See and hear nine major platform vendors give you the inside view on their systems and services. Each platform provider will get 15 minutes to share their current capabilities and future road map as well as showoff their look and feel and demo functionality. Room 203-Moderator Tim Clark, The FactPoint Group 3:00pm Stream57 3:15pm Expos2 3:30pm ON24 Room 204–Moderator Dean Takahashi, VentureBeat 3:00pm SharpLogic 3:15pm InXpo 3:30pm CGS VirtualEvent365 Room 209-Moderator Rob Masson, EMC 3:00pm 6Connex 3:15pm Altus 3:30pm Unisfair Solution Provider Program 2 & Break (3:45-4:15 PT): Break Outs (4:15-5:00 PT) 1. Demand Creation for Online Events- Getting the Right Eyeballs and More of Them Whether your event is a webcast, webinar or full virtual conference, getting the right people to register and attend is critical to success. This session will help you map out a strategy that identifies a value proposition-matched to the group you want to attract and then, look at sourcing contact data and creating compelling, multi-touchpoint messaging. –Mike Agron, Webattract // Bret Smith, Webattract 2. Virtual Event Platforms are not Virtual Events Its critically important to remember and fully embrace the nuances of event communication when developing your event's program and overall plan. Don't just rely on the features provided by a particular platform to drive the entire event experience. This session walks you through the process of planning the attendee user experience and then mapping content, features and creative in a package that communicates your message. –Steve Gogolak, Cramer 3. 3D In a Browser (Business 3Di Track) In the future (it's already happening today), the 'flat' and 3D internets will likely both live inside the browser, facilitating access to virtual environments and integration between virtual world and web facilities on the client side. This session explores the state of the art in aligning 3D with browser accessibility, ease-of-use and standards, and shows how close we are to realizing the important goal of a multidimensional net. –Darius Lahoutifard, Altadyn // Jim Parker, Digitell // Arn Hyndman, WebAlive Avaya // Michael Gialis, Project Wonderland 
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