B-to-C Events

For all of its events, Microsoft has a security and health mitigation plan in place. Until last year, it had rarely ever needed to put it into practice. Then came a case of the swine flu just days before its Imagine Cup 2009 event, held July 3-8 in Cairo, Egypt. Students from all over the world participated in a yearlong software design competition for a shot at presenting their ideas at the event and then traveled to the foot of the pyramids for the finals.

The tipping point happened about 12 years ago. It was a warm April day in 1998 and inside Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center, more than 100,000 people gathered for the spring COMDEX trade show, one of the largest technology events in the world.