LiveXchange: Year Three and Growing
Just got back from Business Facilities LiveXchange this week in Houston--I'll post pictures soon once the photographer we hired gets his shots back to us. We had 30 sponsoring locations, 30 delegates (companies that are seeking a new location) and 8 speakers drawn from the cream of the crop. And once again, it was amazing. Let me put it this way: while no event is perfect, the praise we got (most of it unsolicited, I might add) from attendees of all stripes was over-the-top enough that I would be embarrassed to make it up. More than a few "best event I have been to" type of comments.
The first two years, we held LiveXchange at the Chateau Elan outside Atlanta, GA. This year we picked The Houstonian in Houston, TX. So we were a little nervous to move outside the venue that had served us so well, but we believed in the model and we really wanted to see how the event would pay out in a totally different geography. (Conclusion: it helped us get more Texas locations and delegates who were interested in the Southwest; although it must be said that the location most in demand for one-on-one meetings was Team New England, perhaps because it covers six states.) Next year we're holding the event in early November at what for me personally is the most attractive location yet...click here to find out.
Also new this year was the fact that our sister magazine, Today's Facility Manager, held their first annual TFM Forum event at the same time (one level above us at The Houstonian). Their event used the same format as LiveXchange but matched facility managers with vendors of facility products and services. It was smaller, about the same size as we were in our first year, but every bit as successful.
Our job for next year's event(s) is to really focus on how to craft our marketing message to let delegates know in advance what they are in for at LiveXchange (and TFM Forum). This year I felt that there were too many delegates who had low expectations of the event coming in and were surprised that the event was many times better than they imagined. Now, I do believe in the power of "underselling and overdelivering," but we need to undersell a bit less, or at least change the tone. I think we were not getting across the message that this event is very high-end. I would like to see more delegates and sponsors in 2008.
At least we had some killer software creating the custom-matched itineraries for everyone this year. I'm allowed to say that because I wrote it myself--I never thought I would get back to my pre-editing roots of computer/Web programming, but as the person who has handled the scheduling mechanism through other means over the past two years for LiveXchange, I thought that it was time we had some good software to register all our delegates and ask them for their ratings of sponsors, and vice versa. It was a much larger project than I bargained for, actually, but the results were perhaps even nicer than I hoped for, and the matching algorithm became very smart.
If you have a project that needs a new location, you'd honestly be foolish to skip LiveXchange next year.
posted by Karim Khan at
5:18 PM
The first two years, we held LiveXchange at the Chateau Elan outside Atlanta, GA. This year we picked The Houstonian in Houston, TX. So we were a little nervous to move outside the venue that had served us so well, but we believed in the model and we really wanted to see how the event would pay out in a totally different geography. (Conclusion: it helped us get more Texas locations and delegates who were interested in the Southwest; although it must be said that the location most in demand for one-on-one meetings was Team New England, perhaps because it covers six states.) Next year we're holding the event in early November at what for me personally is the most attractive location yet...click here to find out.
Also new this year was the fact that our sister magazine, Today's Facility Manager, held their first annual TFM Forum event at the same time (one level above us at The Houstonian). Their event used the same format as LiveXchange but matched facility managers with vendors of facility products and services. It was smaller, about the same size as we were in our first year, but every bit as successful.
Our job for next year's event(s) is to really focus on how to craft our marketing message to let delegates know in advance what they are in for at LiveXchange (and TFM Forum). This year I felt that there were too many delegates who had low expectations of the event coming in and were surprised that the event was many times better than they imagined. Now, I do believe in the power of "underselling and overdelivering," but we need to undersell a bit less, or at least change the tone. I think we were not getting across the message that this event is very high-end. I would like to see more delegates and sponsors in 2008.
At least we had some killer software creating the custom-matched itineraries for everyone this year. I'm allowed to say that because I wrote it myself--I never thought I would get back to my pre-editing roots of computer/Web programming, but as the person who has handled the scheduling mechanism through other means over the past two years for LiveXchange, I thought that it was time we had some good software to register all our delegates and ask them for their ratings of sponsors, and vice versa. It was a much larger project than I bargained for, actually, but the results were perhaps even nicer than I hoped for, and the matching algorithm became very smart.
If you have a project that needs a new location, you'd honestly be foolish to skip LiveXchange next year.
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