Forums of the Future

Mark A. VasquezStrategic Program Development Sr. Mgr.IEEE Meetings & Conferences

IEEE Conferences Committee Meeting16 February 2012

Funding/Trials

$40k seed grant to fund trials and research awarded by IEEE New Initiatives Cmte in Oct 2011Initial trial with IEEE Annual Broadcast Symposium– Fully virtual event interface (live sessions, networking, Twitter feeds, etc.)

– Post-conference, on-demand content (session recordings)

– Promotional material (MooCards)

2

IEEE Annual Broadcast Symposium

Real-time delivery of symposium sessions via virtual site– 2011 event had 4 paid attendees from US, India and Brazil

– Paid attendees also received access to on-demand content

Post-event access to on-demand recordings of sessions– Free keynotes– Paid tutorials and technical talks

Onsite attendees also given access to virtual venue– For networking (creation of symposium “community”) and access to on-demand content

– Total of 161 “attendees” so far

Visit <bts.ieee.org/broadcastsymposium/virtual>

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Additional virtual event trialing

IEEE Broadcast Technology Society is considering doing this again for 2012– Part of BTS’s overall plan for evolving the symposium and the Society

– Plan may include expansion of features to include application of symposium-based CEUs and re-use of recorded material for educational purposes

Inquiries from IEEE Product Safety and Engineering Society and IEEE Robotics and Automation SocietyLooking to collaborate with IEEE Communications Society on 2012 GreenCom (fully virtual event)

11

Publicity/PromotionConference Organizers have repeatedly mentioned marketing/promotion as a key area where support is neededReaching new audiences (and retaining existing ones) requires improved and different outreachWorking with several conferences worldwide to increase visibility, attract sponsors/exhibitors, and solicit speakers and attendees via structured marketing communications planning– Using MCM registration system (Cvent) to issue

invitations and begin developing community database– Developing communications to engage

speakers/sponsors/partners in publicity campaign– Partnering with marketing communications

organizations to create marcomm plan (especially with respect to media communications and engagement)

– …and more

Initial results indicate positive impact12