B-to-B Events

Truck and engine manufacturer Navistar on March 21 held a panel on a hot button issue for the industry—natural gas. The VIP event took place one day prior to the opening of the Mid-America Trucking Show, an annual forum for the heavy-duty trucking industry and the largest trucking show in North America, held March 22 to 24 in Louisville, KY.

Build it and they will come. That’s the idea behind SiMan, an 18-foot tall, 700-pound glowing behemoth built and decorated by attendees over two days at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) held this past September in San Francisco’s Moscone Center. It was a simple way to engage and inform attendees about a more complicated concept—intelligent connected solutions and embedded technology that is key to the future of computing. SiMan helped drive the message home.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are all quickly becoming vital contributors to b-to-b event programs. As attendee communication tools, channels for fast and cost-effective content propagation and forums for feedback and real-time troubleshooting, mainstream social media is changing the way conferences and user events get planned and managed. But for many event marketers, the strategic value of LinkedIn still remains a mystery. Is it a pure networking tool for industry job seekers?

At this year’s Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona (Feb. 21-March 1), Intel executed a new engagement strategy in its booth that transformed its former b-to-b program into an immersive, high-tech b-to-c experience. The 40-foot by 100-foot booth featured three key experience zones created to connect with original equipment manufacturers like Motorola, Nokia and LG, service providers like AT&T and Verizon, as well as developers and press analysts.

In this monthly series, EM brings you tips and tricks from pros and experts who’ve been eating social media marketing for breakfast. So eat up, and check us out on Twitter @eventmarketer and Facebook.com/eventmarketer for more.