Jessica Heasley

For many event marketers and their customers, taking the leap into virtual events can feel like a trip to a foreign land. Whether they are using a virtual platform to complement or replace a live event, marketers worry that their attendees won't sign up, won't show up or won't know how to participate once they get there. But what they may not know is that virtual events are strikingly similar to live events. Yep, that’s right, Dorothy. It may feel like you’re not in Kansas anymore but rest assured, there’s no wizard behind the virtual curtain.

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.

Gay and lesbian consumers flock to brands that become a part of the community

Your brand may be hiding its modern day marketing magic in its roots

Marketers spend countless hours trying to stay two steps ahead of today’s consumers. Running projections analyzing forecasts studying trend reports and hoping (sometimes even praying) for the best strategies: What do they like? What will they like? And how can we give them what they don’t know they like yet?

Last month EM heard from Stefania Pomponi-Butler just one of a handful of Nintendo Wii’s Mom’s Night Out event hostesses to find out what got her writing rave reviews and sparking positive word-of-mouth on her popular citymama.com blog. This month we dig deeper to find out how brands can best navigate the volatile world of online popular opinion. Whether they’re talking about your brands already or if you hope they might want to some words of advice (and warning) from the blogosphere for engaging their influential fingers of fire.