1: High Impact

The audience is engaged the instant they log in and start viewing from their laptop, tablet or smart phone.

2: Low Cost

Virtual events can be as much as 75% cheaper to execute than a live event. A well-planned, produced and executed event will deliver outstanding feedback.

3: Instant Feedback

Instant feedback can be somewhat difficult sitting in the audience of a live event. At virtual events you can engage with fellow delegates online and ask questions in real time.

4: Convenient

One of the major pains for live events is attendees being unable to attend where-as virtual events give them the option to log-in at the start time or stream and view later at a time that is convenient.

5: Global Coverage

Virtual events can be viewed by audiences of hundreds or thousands interactively across the globe via the internet.

6: Environment

The cost to the environment is significantly smaller than that of a live event as delegates don’t have to travel from all over the country or world to attend the event.

7: Audience Engagement

The desktop through which the audience is viewing the virtual event can be optimized to suit individual preferences thereby maximising personal engagement.This leads to interactive Q&A sessions and discussions over social network sites such as Twitter.

8: Measurability

Valuable statistics such as who is logging on and when, audience size, geography, location and conversions are all available in real time.

9: Flexibility

Virtual events offer the opportunity to produce a number of versions or variants without any real cost implications. This means different languages, video content, graphics, and speakers are all possible.

10: Extendibility

You can divide your content into chapter headings and host it on the internet, or simply redistribute it via YouTube, DVD, QuickTime or to smart phones and tablets.

For further information on how Inconnection’s services can benefit your business contact us on +44 (0)161 482 8222 or email wowme@inconnection.uk.com.

By adopting virtual events over traditional business travel, your company can demonstrate a commitment to environmental sustainability. Virtual events are the perfect fir for companies who want to operate in a more environmentally-friendly fashion due to a number of positive effects virtual events have on a company’s sustainability activities.

Business travel is harmful to the environment

Virtual events will help your company reduce its carbon footprint as virtual events bring your event to your audience as opposed to flying them to one location for a face-to-face event.

Avoid environmental and financial cost of hotels

Your typical face-to-face event requires delegates to stay at hotels and despite the efforts of hotels to reduce their use of water and other resources, most still use vast amounts of resources, especially water. You can bring your key audiences together without incurring the environmental impact of a typical live event with a virtual event.

Save paper

Live events still rely on large quantities of paper whether its handouts, brochures, or welcome packs even in the age of smart pones and tablets. The cost to the environment of all this paper can be significant especially if the documents have not been made from recycled paper. It’s not just the impact of the paper itself; there are numerous costs to producing large quantities of paper such as the energy and water used to make the paper, to the carbon footprint of shipping the paper to the meeting. On average a virtual event saves 36,000 sheets of paper by using digital content and documents.

Cut out the waste

Look back over the number of face-to-face meetings, conferences, and expos that you have attended over the years. Aren’t they full of waste? From disposable plates, brochures and paper handouts that you throw in the bin (when you’re out of sight of the person that gave you them!) to marketing collateral that inevitably get thrown away. Even the nature of travelling and staying in hotels can make you more wasteful. A virtual event quickly connects your audience via an online events platform meaning you don’t have to bring together hundreds or thousands of delegates not to mention support them with food, drinks , and accommodation. You will still achieve the engagement and results you require but without the environmental impact.

They provide a story

In 2009 Cisco hosted a virtual event for 19,000 sales people and Cisco estimates that the virtual event prevented 84,000 tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere and saved 209,000 pounds of waste that would have been created by a live event. Choosing to host a virtual event, like Cisco, provides your company with a powerful story to tell as part of your marketing efforts. Customers are becoming more environmentally aware and they are often looking to do business with organisations that pro-actively ’go green’.

The decision about how best to host events and connect with audiences often goes beyond calculations of environmental impact. People wonder about whether they loose something essential a face-to-face event meeting provides when thinking about virtual events. Are the environmental benefits worth the potential drawbacks?

Virtual events aren’t just about saving money and reducing environmental costs. They are a way to add value to your organisation by introducing new ways to connect and build relationships with our key customers and audiences.

However many companies are still to be convinced of the value of virtual events. A 2011 survey by Exhibitor magazine on virtual events showed that many organisations are still trying to understand how to use virtual events and how to measure their value.

According to the Exhibitor magazine virtual events survey:

• 60.5% of companies have not yet hosted or participated in a virtual event. This shows a reluctance to explore using virtual events whether it’s due to a lack of familiarity among the target audience, concerns about cost or even a lack of control over the event itself.
• 53% of respondents were familiar with the concept of virtual events, but only 28% said they felt comfortable with the logistics of running a virtual event. The challenge here is to make sure customers feel confident with the planning and execution of a virtual event.

What does 2012 hold for virtual events?

Real-time communication will become much more important with interaction with social media. Whilst it’s easy to read an article or watch a video on the internet any time you want, people still want the common bond of talking as something is happening.

There will be much more experimentation with virtual events in 2012. People are becoming more familiar with virtual events and it’s more intuitive for people to log on to virtual events to figure out how to use the platform.

Running and presenting a virtual event are different to speaking to a live audience at a face-face-face event. Virtual event hosts and planners will get batter at interacting and speaking with online audiences.

Hybrid events will play a big part in 2012 as it’s easy to integrate virtual events technology into physical face-to-face events through areas such as social media. Hybrid events contain both ‘live’ and ‘virtual’ components working together.

There will be more accessibility to social media platforms themselves as mobile technology becomes much more widespread.

Key tips for your virtual event

Generate Excitement! Use the time before your virtual event wisely. This is an ideal time to create teaser campaigns for your audience. The virtual event doesn’t just start on the first day of the event; it starts many weeks, even months before the start date giving you the perfect opportunity to create a buzz and generate awareness with your audience.

Plan, plan and plan! Despite the cost savings on travel and facilities, virtual events still require an investment of time and resources to plan the flow of an event. It is vital to know what you want your guests to experience so you can learn to maximise the potential of the virtual event environment. Don’t make the mistake of think virtual events are a walk in the park!

Analyse! Make sure you know what’s working (and what’s not!) and that you justify it to the decision-makes within your company. When it comes to social media we no longer just through things at the wall to wait and see if it sticks – consider this analogy for your virtual event.

• Awards may be offered after 3, 6 or 12 months at organisations that recognise staff may not be in a role for long and have high staff turnover.
• Traditional gifts of clock, pens and watches are still offered, but awards have evolved to included vouchers for travel and brand-name luxury goods.
• To motivate and engage staff while reinforcing the message of rewarding loyalty, employers must offer an award that is meaningful to the individual.

“Long service awards still play an important role in motivating and engaging staff event if they seem like a thing of the past“, says Nick Hamilton, Managing Director at Inconnection.

Retaining top performing employees, especially in difficult economic conditions, becomes even more of a priority. Research shows that companies that develop a culture based on employee recognition and reward will be in a better position to thrive because employees remain more motivated and engaged. Rewarding loyalty and commitment to your business through long-service rewards is a vital recognition tool.

The costs of recruiting and retaining staff are as high as ever, so it makes sense to retain your best talent. Employees recognise the value of long-service awards as they see it as recognition of their continued commitment to your business and not only that, it shows them that your business values them and wants to retain them.

The evolution of long-service awards

Long-service awards themselves have changed significantly in recent times. Previously it would have been usual for an employer to present a long-service award after 25, 30 or 40 years service. However, it is now common practice to recognise an employee for 3, 6 or 12 months’ service.

“The levels have certainly been reduced to keep the top performers and key people in the business, as opposed to expecting people to stay in the same position for 20 years“, says Nick Hamilton.

Whilst this short-term focus has developed, long-service awards are still given for 5, 10 and 15 years’ service. But during these struggling economic conditions, the award must be seen to have value to the employee in order to have the desired effect on motivation and engagement.

Meaningful rewards

If the reward is a big deal in the organisation and is designed to show appreciation and the value of that member of staff, then it will have meaning.

Employees will look for signs that they are valued when deciding whether to stay within the company. Long-service awards are an effective way of showing employees that they are both valued and valuable.

Rewards can take many forms, but it is the reason for giving them that is the most important factor in motivating employees. 67% of employees believe that a formal ‘thank you’ in front of colleagues is a worthy alternative if the current economic situation means an organisation cannot afford other incentive options.

Long-service awards act as a motivation lever for staff whilst strengthening the culture of your organisation and showing that you value the loyalty of your employees. By rewarding long-service it recognises an individual and their contribution to the business, and it demonstrates that your organisation is one that values people who are committed and add value to the business.

There are many other forms or employee recognition that can have positive impacts on your business. Contact Inconnection on 0161 482 8222 or drop us an email at wowme@inconnection.uk.com to hear how we can create bespoke solutions to solve your business needs.

Hearing the word ‘free’ always grabs attention whether it’s a year’s worth of free insurance when purchasing a new car or hearing kids under 12 go free at Disneyland Paris. The word ‘free’ can also be applied to events, not just certain aspects of an event such as free pens but the entire event itself.

The technical term we use is ‘cost neutral’ which effectively means the revenue generated from the event will cover the costs of running an event.

How do they work?

By offsetting the cost of an event through creating and selling things such as sponsorship packages can make an event cost neutral.

Inconnection have experience of creating and running cost neutral events. Back in 2010 Trustmarque Solutions came to us with a brief which stated that they wanted to create a new vendor exhibition that would involve their channel partners as well as inspiring existing clients and prospective clients.

Inconnection’s solution was to create an exhibition at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London for one day. By selling stands and creating sponsorship packages the event was cost neutral. We added vendor sessions into the agenda, so that attendees were inspired by Trustmarque’s way of working.

Did it work?

Yes! Feedback received from the event showed that it was a massively successful event. The numbers at the event were higher than forecast, the vendors were happy, the customers were happy and the SMT thought that it was one of the most important milestones in the evolution of Trustmarque. Micrsoft said that it was as good, or possibly better, than Channel Expo, which they have been doing for years.

Objectives and how they were met

To develop a new vendor exhibition that will be cost neutral: In 2010, the first vendor exhibition was created with Trustmarque paying 10% of the overall fee. The remainder was covered by sponsorship and vendors.

To sell the benefits of Trustmarque expertise to existing clients, to prospective clients, and to vendors and service partners: A footfall of 220 people – more than expected – attended the event through Inconnection’s marketing and event invitations.

To highlight how Trustmarque’s business is performing: Various vendor sessions were incorporated into the event to demonstrate how Trustmarque works with vendors.

To provide an opportunity for the management team to outline its strategy for the year ahead and beyond: A post event meeting took place to look at the feedback gathered from attendees and incorporate it into the Trustmarque strategy.

To involve their channel partners and include sponsorship packages: Over 30 channel partners bought stands at the event through marketing the event to the right people and providing business benefits.

To generate new lead data: Over 100 new leads were generated that could be followed up by Trustmarque.

Cost neutral events are extremely effective and beneficial especially when creating and running an exhibition as we have shown with Trustmarque Solutions. They allow you to achieve your objectives at a neutral cost.

Contact Inconnection on 0161 482 8222 or email wowme@inconnection.uk.com to see how we can run a cost neutral exhibition for your company.

Less than 5% of event budget is devoted to pre event communications but 89% of respondents rated pre event marketing as “very important” or “essential” to the success of the event.”

The Metric Report 2012: A study of market influences based on feedback from over 400 respondents across the UK

The way we communicate has changed dramatically over the past few years with new technologies coming to the fore and the rise of social media. Today we can get information when and where ever we want with a never ending list of platforms such as email, Google, Twitter, blogs, apps, QR codes, and everything in between. These platforms provide us all with information on demand 24/7.

Communication is essential

Almost 90% of event professionals recognise the importance of pre-event communications, listing them as either “very important” or “essential”. Engaging your audience is key to any event, for example motivating participants in an incentive programme through carefully-designed pre-event communications can have a huge impact in ensuring your incentive is as successful as possible.

It can however leave some feeling a little overwhelmed, if not daunted, at the prospect of getting to grips with the rapidly evolving world of e-communication, and it can be difficult to not be seduced by the ‘latest thing’ simply because everyone is talking about it. Take the QR code as an example. Just because everyone talks about them doesn’t mean they should form the basis of your communications plan as according to research by Comscore only 6.2% of smartphone users scan QR codes. You shouldn’t jump on the bandwagon for the sake of it.

It’s important to remember that, regardless of the medium, normal marketing and communications rules still apply even in the ever changing world of communications. You still need to understand your audience, define your messages, set objectives, and measure the results. New technology provides you with new platforms to engage with your audience and add value to your message. Not only this but these platforms such as Twitter have made it easier than ever to create a real and immediate dialogue whilst gaining valuable insight into what your audience wants in real time as opposed to just telling them what you think they need to know.

Target your audience

Use mediums that your audience are using to create dialogue. For example if social media is where your audience is then use this platform to communicate with them. Research shows that 43% use social media to promote events, a number which looks set to grow in 2012. Whilst social media is free, and is often seen as a quick fix, be under no illusion that its ‘easy’. For it to be effective it takes serious commitment in time and resources as it needs to be fed often with fresh, relevant content for it to have the desired effect.

If your delegates are young, tech savvy individuals then you might consider having them register for a conference via their smartphone. Generating pre-event buzz through launching an event app or via social media will grab your audience’s attention as you are communicating through their preferred media.

Just remember that not all platforms will suit all businesses. Think about your audience and if necessary use a variety of channels and media if your audience is diverse. 59% of event organisers still use paper collateral to promote events showing that printed materials still have a place alongside an e-version for smartphones or tablets. Delivering the right message at the right time through the most appropriate media will have the biggest impact.

One thing will always remain the same and that’s ensuring that your message is consistent and simultaneous across whatever channels you use.

What event organisers use to promote events

• Paper collateral: 58.97%
• Existing internal publications: 51.28%
• Eshots: 48.72%
• Dedicated event website: 46.15%
• Social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc): 43.59%
• Intranets: 38.46%
• Blogs: 20.51%
• QR codes: 10.26%
• SMS text messaging: 10.26%
• MMS messages: 0%

Source: The Metric Report 2012

Communication is at the heart of your event whether it’s through collateral, e-communications, teaser campaigns, or concept development. Successful incentives, events, conferences, and meetings are always supported with a strategically designed and managed communications plan.

Want to know more about how our communication & design service can benefit your business? Then contact the Inconnection team on 0161 482 8222 or drop us an email at wowme@inconnection.uk.com.

It’s all about timing, delivering the right reward, to the right person, at the right time. Creating and delivering bespoke incentive schemes is an essential part to delivering outstanding business results. We love finding unique rewards and hedonistic experiences that will inspire your star performers.

In any organisation, people drive success. Motivation requires investment and commitment, but the benefits of turning talented individuals into effective teams are invaluable. Unforgettable, unique incentives are the perfect tool for motivating your team. Inconnection creates and delivers Incentive and Performance Management programmes which will motivate, reward and incentivise your key people. We have the expertise to deliver exceptional results and help you achieve your business objectives.

Key Facts

Why you’ll like us:

• Our vast portfolio of rewards from vouchers to iPad2′s
• Our focus on increasing motivation and measurable business results
• Our excellent admin and IT – we always deliver!

Part of the service:

• Reward and recognition
• Motivation and incentive programmes
• Web-based catalogue and fulfilment services
• Channel and customer loyalty programmes
• Programme structure and measurement

For further information on Inconnection’s Incentive & Reward service contact the team on +44 (0)161 482 8222 or email wowme@inconnection.uk.com.

You only get one shot at this and pitching it right and making an impact is what it’s all about. We work with your brand to create the wow factor and deliver long lasting memorable presentations. Our talented technical manager’s then use the latest technology with tried and tested methods to guarantee your event runs like clockwork.

There is a wide range of technical skills and expertise needed to make an event run effectively. From online delegate booking and speaker management to audio announcements and video presentation, Inconnection has the specialist skills, experience and experts to ensure that your event runs smoothly.

Key Facts

Why you’ll like us:

• Your dedicated project manager
• Our creativity and ideas
• Our strategic approach

Part of the service:

• Creative design
• Technical production
• Content and speaker services
• Presentation design
• Product launch
• Messaging strategy
• Virtual and online
• AV

For further information on Inconnection’s Event Production service contact the team on +44 (0)161 482 8222 or email wowme@inconnection.uk.com.

We get a buzz out off delivering exceptional events. Our team of highly experienced event managers will plan your event to perfection and always go the extra mile to make sure the event is a huge success.

A great event is a combination of inspiration and perspiration. A strong overall concept is essential, but without the attention to detail needed to ensure that every single element delivered effectively, event the best idea can fall short. Inconnection understands the big picture, ensuring that the concept is right and that the thousand and one details needed to make it happen are in place.

Key Facts

Why you’ll like us:

• Our travel expertise: we’re ATOL-bonded, IATA-accredited and have long standing relationships with all major airlines
• Our experience in events both at home and abroad.

Part of the service:

• Worldwide meetings logistics
• Group travel management
• Charter or schedule solutions
• Campaign and programme design
• Teams fully trained in crisis management
• Tailored online registration services
• Delegate management
• Design, print and production
• Feedback collation and evaluation

For further information on Inconnection’s Event Management service contact the team on +44 (0)161 482 8222 or email wowme@inconnection.uk.com.

Finding the right venue is a time consuming but an essential ingredient to any successful event. We will rise to the challenge to find the most suitable venue to fit your exact requirements.

Matching the venue to the event is essential. From historic locations to iconic modern developments, the right venue for a meeting, conference, exhibition, incentive, reception or dinner makes all the difference. The Inconnection team has the contacts and experience to identify the right venue for your events and to ensure that participants enjoy a genuinely memorable occasion.

Key Facts

Why you’ll like us:

• The time and expense we’ll save you
• Our guaranteed response times
• Our specialist knowledge
• The single point of contact we’ll provide
• Our discounted rates

Part of the service:

• UK and worldwide venues
• Accommodation bookings
• Accompanied site inspections
• Negotiation of venue contracts, terms and conditions
• Diary management
• presentation equipment
• Consolidated invoicing
• Extensive management information

For further information on Inconnection’s Venue Finding service contact the team on +44 (0)161 482 8222 or email wowme@inconnection.uk.com.