B-to-B Events

When Comdex resurrected itself as a virtual show last November after the live event was dormant for eight years, longtime sponsor and exhibitor Microsoft got back on board, but this time with a soft sell strategy that was less about plugging the company’s products and more about helping Comdex attendees find solutions to their biggest IT challenges.

Yes, budgets are ticking back and trade show attendance is up. But we’re hardly where we need to be.

Bars Wars? Battle of the Bands? Wha? This is a team-building event?  Oh indeed... oh indeed. One of the largest budget increases across the event marketer’s line items? Team training. Across corporate America, events and meetings are investing in team-building activities that disseminate information and/or bring attendees closer together. The goal, of course, is to increase performance. And the newest team-building activities are doing just that, with fun, funky elements that have event attendees begging for more and ROI through the roof.

Whoever said that necessity is the mother of invention must have worked in marketing.

CITGO in January launched its Marketer Round Table Meetings, an annual series of 18 daylong events held across three regions designed to pump up the local marketers and retailers that sell its refined gas and diesel products. This year the hot topic was the company’s redesigned logo, its new retail image and a portfolio of marketing programs designed to help build their businesses.