I just returned from Gnomedex. Chris Pirillo, the founder and organizer of the event does an incredible job of building buzz for his event. There are no printed direct mail pieces, no printed exhibitor/sponsor pieces. The only printed piece is the on-site Program. Chris relies entirely on blogs, email, podcasts and [...]

It hasn’t happened yet but I am going to try to get a handle on a certain issue before it comes up. One of my favorite gadget sites is DAPreview.net. Today they post about an Apple copycat product the company calls the “Ipod MP4 player” if you can believe it.
Although our event [...]

I’m happy to report that Audible, the downloadable audio book company (and soon to be podcast service provider, according to their CEO Don Katz) has signed on to be the Platinum Sponsorship of Portable Media Expo and The Podcaster Conference.
It makes sense on many levels, as Audible is all about portable audio. They are [...]

I sent over a proposal for an overall event sponsorship to a medium-sized company a few days ago. One of the many bullet points in the “Here’s what you get” section mentions that all press releases about the show will include the name of the sponsoring company, their website address and their sponsor level [...]

Yesterday evening I did something that will turn out to be either brilliant or incredibly foolish. An exhibitor we have been courting for several months said the most dreaded 10 words for show organizers: “We’re just going to walk the show floor this year.” I couldn’t let it go. The trouble with [...]

I’d guess that of the 2,457 (or so) panels I’ve attended in my life, about 70% of them made me I want to ask the show organizer if they could give me back that hour of my life so I could do something useful with it.
What is it about conference panels that makes [...]

Using exhibitors and sponsors in the conference sessions as panelists or keynotes seems to be a more hotly debated topic these days. Michael Hough says you should absolutely never do it. I disagree to a certain extent – I think it can be done as long as the speaker knows the ground [...]

After many months, it looks like a Platinum Sponsor is going to come on board. I hesitate to even mention it, lest I jinx the whole thing, but it is looking very good. I should be able to announce something next week. This sponsor will really go a long way to give [...]

I’ve used this example a few times before, but a launch event seems a lot like a bobsled race. You stand outside the sled and start pushing hard as hell. You push and run as fast as you can, getting as much momentum as possible until your team finally jumps into the sled [...]