4,580 Posts served

11,094 Conversations started

Virtual Insanity?

By Jeffrey Rott (Intel) (22 posts) on May 5, 2009 at 2:18 pm

As we’re gearing up for Engage 2009, a virtual event for the Intel Software partner Program, I’m wondering what the general consensus is around virtual events. The economic crisis is obviously having an effect on travel and event attendance, but can a face-to-face event be replaced by hundreds or thousands of people sitting in front of their PCs pretending that the avatar on the screen is really there to help them? The jury is out – and I’m looking for a little insight from the jurors.

I’ve been invited to a handful of events, yet I’ve only attended one live – “virtually”. Most of the time, something at work took precedence over logging into the virtual event. Several times I visited after the “live” event, gathering information at my own pace and at a time that suited me better. The only real down side was that there was nobody to ask questions of. I guess the best way for me to participate is to get away from the office (either home or a conference room) and just dedicate myself to the event.

I participated in one event and even though we tried to make it a global event, you just can’t get around the fact that when it’s noon where you’re located, it’s 1:00 am for someone that you want to attend your event. I guess you can’t please all of the people all of the time – even virtually.

So feel free to comment with your thoughts on virtual events – likes, dislikes, experiences and things you’d like to see changed. And if you attend Engage 2009 , stop by the manageability and virtualization booths. I’ll be the live body behind the attractive female avatars.

Categories: Intel SW Partner Program, Manageability & Security
Tags: Events, ISPP, virtual

For more complete information about compiler optimizations, see our Optimization Notice.

Comments (7)

May 6, 2009 12:07 PM PDT Gael Holmes Hofemeier (Intel) Total Points: 23,299 Black Belt

Well, I don't know Jeff. One thing I really like about going to virtual events is that I can show up looking gooood (as good as I can get my avatar to look, anyway.) Seriously, though. You are struggling with a lot of the questions that we ask ourselves everyday as we try to reach our developers via our forums and communities. Are we providing any kind of benefit? With close to 70% of the folks out there being in the "lurker" group it's almost impossible to say because the folks that are getting something out of all of this virtual and online content, won't say anything about it - good or bad.

May 6, 2009 12:16 PM PDT Jeffrey Rott (Intel) Total Points: 4,295 Community Manager

Thanks Gael. I think that reaching people in a virtual environment is a great idea - especially with this economy. What I'm hoping I'll get responses on is what people's experiences are in attending virtual events. Hopefully we can get some great insight to help us throw even better events.

May 6, 2009 3:16 PM PDT Bruce Mossman (Intel) Total Points: 985 Registered User

Virtual events definitely have their place in the realm of online engagement - the key is the event needs to offer value above and beyond what I would get from browsing or "Googling" the topic myself at my own leisure. That is the value which keeps an audience "lurking." Although 70% may not participate, the fact that folks return and lurk is definitely valuable. Looking forward to Engage 2009.

May 6, 2009 4:36 PM PDT Michael Doyle

I may not be an impartial juror in this case, but I have a little more to add. You are quite right about the global timezone issue it is a challenge with virtual events I've covered it a couple of times on our virtualedge.org site in my blog and an article or two. People are dealing with it in different ways but mostly it comes down to either making the best schedule and just know you are going to have people that don't show up live. More creative was to deal with it are to start (very early in the am) with content that is really geared toward a different region like EMEA and then moving toward more general content and then again more region specific ASIAPAC in the evening. I think next ear you'll see more of this as most event teams were caught off guard this year and were (are) scrambling to get their event produced. Some teams I've talked to are going more toward mixed events with a central physical event with virtual and then regional/local social/meeting physical get-togethers but with mostly virtual content. No matter what, content is usually the primary driver for virtual events and if there is content people want and they can get to it cheaper,more effectively and with less hassle virtually, they'll probably chose to do that. Networking is important of course and people are doing it more and more virtually in fact some events have more people that visit the networking activities and lounges than the expo. But we are still in the very early stages of virtual events and we are still dealing with a large part of the work force that isn't even comfortable with a webcam and most haven't spent time with interactive video games where avatars and movement, etc. just standard...in fact when older people watch the kids they are often baffled by how quickly they can master a new virtual environment. I guess my point there is that future is already written it just isn't quite here yet. In the meantime, the virtual event and meeting platforms and virtual worlds have a lot they can (and I think will) improve on. I hope you get lots of people who give you feedback as it is a great question.

May 7, 2009 8:11 AM PDT Jim Burns

Jeff, here is a simple application that raises the level of interaction and engagement in your virtual event booth and chat areas. This link is to a short streaming Flash demo: http://avitage.com/a?6f6y6b4&

May 7, 2009 12:28 PM PDT Jeffrey Rott (Intel) Total Points: 4,295 Community Manager

Michael - Thanks for your thoughts. I took the liberty of looking into Virtual Edge Summit 2009. It looks like a great event to really start digging into making virtual events work for companies. I hope that I'll be able to attend - virtually. Jim - Thanks for your input as well. As you know, I gave your flash demo a try and was quite surprised when I selected the demo link and found myself looking at you "live". I really think that bridging the gap between a true face-to-face and a chat-only virtual event, will be the key to virtual events becoming more mainstream. Being able to see and talk to someone live during the virtual event is just what the doctor ordered. Hopefully we'll be able to give your product/service a test run real soon.

March 12, 2012 12:42 AM PDT Jacob

ChaLEAN Extreme provide: Women May Feel More Pain Than Men Do The question has been around as long as “he said/she said” has been a phrase: Basically, who is more capable of handling pain? Though not likely to be the final word, new research shows that women may feel pain more intensely than men do, especially for specific types of pain. Researchers mined electronic medical records from more than 11,000 men and women. They showed that across 47 diseases and painful conditions considered in the study, women said they felt significantly more pain than men in 14 of them. Turbo jam:Treat the Person, Not the Gender But blanket statements about treating pain don’t apply. “The new findings do not suggest that all women feel more pain than all men and need to be treated more aggressively," Fillingim tells WebMD. “Each person should be treated based on their symptoms, not their gender. We still need to individualize treatments for pain.” Differences between men and women may be the result of cultural, hormonal, and/or anatomical issues, he says. At the end of the day, it is not the “why” that matters: “A person’s pain report is not something physicians should be making judgments about. We need to accept the idea that what patients are reporting is real and respond accordingly. Pain is an invisible and subjective symptom,” he says. For more information:http://www.p90x2dvdshop.com/blogs How Much Exercise Is Enough? Before you make a decision on how much exercise ( like Insanity Workouts e.g )you need, you should have a good idea of your exercise goal or goals: Are you exercising for physical fitness, weight control, or as a way of keeping your stress levels low? "How much exercise is enough for what?," asks David Bassett, Jr., PhD, a professor in the department of exercise(following Insanity The Asylum), sport, and leisure studies at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. For general health benefits, a routine of daily walking may be sufficient, says Susan Joy, MD, director of the Women's Sports Health Program at the Cleveland Clinic. If your goal is more specific — say, to lower your blood pressure, improve your cardiovascular fitness, or lose weight — you'll need either more exercise or a higher intensity of exercise. So figure out your goals first, then determine what type of exercise will help you meet them and how much of that particular exercise you'll need to do. For more information:http://www.p90x2dvdshop.com/ Lose Weight With The Best Weight Loss Supplements P90X2 Nutrition Friendship Suggestions： Appetite SuppressantsAppetite suppressants allow you to lose weight by releasing brain chemicals to improve mood and decrease appetite. Carb-BlockersCarb-blockers cause you to lose weight by preventing ingested carbs from turning into molecules of fat and by forcing the body to use its existing fat reserves to satisfy its daily energy needs. Fat BurnersYou no longer have to have to rely on exercise alone to lose weight. Fat burners melt away stubborn fat deposits, including those that resist exercise. For more information:http://www.p90x2dvdshop.com/

Trackbacks (0)

Leave a comment