Last September, we ran a webinar with the help of Sonic Foundry about hybrid events and lessons learned. In cased you missed it, we'll be running snippets from it over the next few weeks. This first video focuses on lesson No. 1: Cannibalization is a Myth. 

It appears that women more than men find value in virtual meetings. According to a recent survey by TeamViewer and Harris Interactive, women are more likely than men to see the benefits of taking meetings online. Furthermore, a majority of U.S. adults (77 percent) surveyed say that online meetings are on the rise.

Specifically, women were statistically more likely than men to say:

• They could save money in transportation costs (78 percent vs. 71 percent)
• You don’t have to waste time traveling to meetings (77 percent vs. 71 percent)
• Online meetings are less nerve-wracking (37 percent vs. 26 percent)
• People are less distracted (22 percent vs. 16 percent)

Generation X/Baby Boomers (ages 45-54) were more likely than young people (ages 18-34) to say they think online meetings save money in transportation costs (80 percent vs. 71 percent) and don’t waste their time traveling to meetings (80 percent vs. 68 percent). When asked about the characteristics most important for an online meeting host to have, women proved much more demanding than men in almost every category, including:

• Organization (81 percent vs. 68 percent)
• Fast-paced (64 percent vs. 52 percent)
• Respectfulness (60 percent vs. 50 percent)
• Fair (57 percent vs. 51 percent)
• Decisive (40 percent vs. 34 percent)
• Clever (17 percent vs. 12 percent)

Some women even say they think online meetings hosts should be passionate (15 percent), attractive (5 percent) and blunt (6 percent).

“These findings demonstrate that women are on the cutting edge of technology and are having a big impact on the way the modern office is evolving,” said Holger Felgner, general manager at TeamViewer. 

To learn more about virtual meetings, please pick up a copy of the MPI research paper, "The Strategic Value of Virtual Meetings and Events." 

Matt Alderton with Meetings Tech lists "Six Steps to Virtual Event Success" to highlight ON24's new Platform 10 Virtual Events and Environments. 

He suggests

1. Get organized
2. Timing is everything
3. Use your own database to publicize your event
4. Make content your No. 1 priority
5. Engage attendees
6. Maximize ROI

What steps would you suggest or do you use to make your virtual events successful?  

Be looking for related information from MPI's latest study on Strategic Virtual Events coming out in February 2012.

“It's time to get strategic with virtual events!,” according to Sam Smith of Interactive Meeting Technology as he shared early findings from an MPI Foundation Research Study on Virtual Meetings at IMEX America’s MPI MeetDifferent Day of Education & Innovation. 

For the past few years, Virtual Events have been treated as one-offs by many companies and professionals within the industry. He discussed what we’ve learned in the study that explored how leading edge organizations are integrating virtual events into their strategic meetings management programs.

The session attendees were polled about their technology IQ. Fifty-three percent of participants rated themselves as “middle of the road – I know a lot but am still learning” and 33 percent felt they’re trying to catch up. Smith’s suggestions were to keep asking questions.

He discussed different virtual platforms such as telemedicine, online university and high school courses and YouTube educational programs as examples of the different applications of virtual connections.

What does this mean for corporate meetings? The Virtual Meetings related to Strategic Meetings Management (SMM) study found that 75 percent of organizations have no formal definition of virtual meetings. Every person they talked to in the study had a different definition of what virtual meetings mean. 75 percent of study respondents admitted they do not have a formal virtual meeting policy, yet 45 percent did have a policy around sourcing virtual meetings. Also more than 90 percent of respondents consider video conferencing and online meetings using platforms such as WebEx to be part of their virtual meetings definition. Finally, 60 percent said they recommend having virtual meetings.

Smith discussed the pros and cons of going virtual – networking being the primary reason to not hold virtual meetings. But cost and time away from office were also compelling reasons to hold virtual meetings.

He had three case study examples of companies who have strategic policies in place regarding virtual meetings and their successes and challenges. These will be reported in the study findings being published later this year.

Finally, the audience responded to the question “where do you need the most help with virtual meetings?” Thirty-two percent said the development team capability was their biggest issue and 20 percent said they need help defining measurements.

Suggested takeways for attendees to use at IMEX and beyond are as follows:

For your IMEX America Experience:
Find partners who can help you develop newly expanded ideas on strategy for your organization. Network with planners and suppliers who successfully organize and manage virtual events.

For your Career:

Understand the repercussions of decisions about new technology implementation and whether to go virtual or partially virtual. Discuss how it will affect outcomes in organizational and departmental strategy.

What are your challenges with virtual meetings and where are you in incorporating them into your strategic portfolio?

The Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre an online version of the Australian Business Events Expo following the close of the two-day event last week. I took some screen shots of the site.

In the foyer, you log in and center CEO Ton van Amerongen introduces you to the event site. 

Once inside, you can head to the exhibition hall to visit stands and download brochures and videos from exhibitors...

...or you can go to the conference room and watch seminars.

You can attend the event here.

The tech giant's next successful project, Google+, has now successfully been used to broadcast a live press conference--performed by the International Tibet Network (see video below).

Yes, the live attendance limit is set to 10 users names, but this could be used by a group of 30 people or more if smaller in-person groups are centered around connected computers.

It's exciting to see free tools, such as the videoconferencing "Hangout" function of Google+, gaining adoption.

The adoption of virtual events as replacements for face-to-face meetings is not taking off as quickly as had been expected.

EXHIBITOR magazine’s 2011 Virtual Events Survey (to debut in the pub’s June issue) revealed, among other findings, that 70 percent of respondents are not currently allocating any marketing budget funds to use on virtual events.

Additional key findings released today:

• Less than 40 percent of companies surveyed have ever participated in a virtual event, the majority of which participated as an attendee only, rather than as an exhibitor, sponsor, or organizer.

• Among marketers who have already dipped their toes in the virtual waters, only 28 percent claim those virtual efforts “met” or “exceeded” their expectations.

• Nearly half of respondents who have used virtual events reported that virtual events helped them increase their brand awareness, and 36 percent reported that their virtual events attracted attendees who did not attend live trade shows and events at which they participated, effectively extending the reach of their marketing campaigns.

• 68 percent of respondents who have participated in virtual events say they’d rather host a live event, most notably because they “miss the energy and networking of a live event” or because “attendees seemed less engaged during virtual events.”

• Less than 30 percent of marketers claim they personally understand how to execute virtual events.

• When asked about their personal prognosis for virtual events in the context of exhibit and event marketing, 59 percent say virtual events offer only moderate potential.

VentureBeat reports that virtual events company Unisfair released its annual marketing survey, showing that even more advertisers will be advancing their brands through virtual events this year, with 62 percent saying they would be increasing spending on that medium in 2011, and 42 percent saying they will cut down on how much they budget for physical events.

“What we learned from the 2011 marketing survey was that even more marketers are planning to increase their spending on virtual engagement compared to last year,” Joerg Rathenberg, vice president of marketing for Unisfair, told VentureBeat. “It is interesting that more marketers are increasing their virtual event budget, where only 32 percent were planning to increase their physical event budget.”

A majority of the 550 marketers surveyed say they want the ability to attend a virtual event from a mobile phone.

"The numbers confirm what much of the business world is already experiencing: That physical attendance at conferences and tradeshows is becoming less frequent as companies switch to cheaper, easier-to-access virtual events," wrote Riley McDermid for VentureBeat. "When asked what the best part about attending a virtual event is, 58 percent cited the ability to multitask, while 14 percent find the ability to be 'invisible' until they want to engage with colleagues or vendors to be a primary benefit of attending virtual events." 

Like most, you weren't able to score tickets to Google's big I/O event this May 10-11. It did, after all, sell out in less than an hour...really late at night.

The good news: You can watch Google I/O online, free.

The bad news: Unless you're attending in-person, you won't get any of the rumored schwag.

Use of virtual conferences by associations is set to triple, according to consultancy Tagoras, as reported by Conworld.

They report that out of a survey of 349 nonprofit membership organizations, about 8.59 percent have offered a virtual conference. However, of 257 organizations using some form of computer-based education, 11.7 percent have offered a virtual conference and another 23.7 percent plan to within 12 months, which would bring virtual conference adoption to more than one third.

Further, they report that more than 70 percent of organizations that have held a virtual conference found that registrations either met of exceeded expectations.

“As is often the case, associations have been somewhat more cautious than their corporate counterparts in embracing and implementing the new technologies, but meetings and education are too fundamental a component of what associations provide for virtual options not to have a big impact," said Jeff Cobb, Tagoras managing director. "Every organization that reported already holding a virtual conference says it will do so again."

The full downloadable report, Association Virtual Conferences: State of the Sector, is available here for $99.