B-to-B Events

Intimate apparel brand Hanes on August 5 held an afternoon press event to introduce fashion editors, stylists and influencers to its newest women’s products—a line of comfortable, bras, panties, tanks and T-shirts in bright colors. In keeping with the “comfort” theme, the event took place at trendy Nikki Beach Midtown, in New York City, a spot where sophisticated Manhattanites have been known to kick back and relax. Hanes repeated the event later in the day for a second audience comprised of social media influencers and bloggers.

So you just held your company's biggest event of the year, a global meeting that attracted 20,000 attendees and 250-plus exhibitors and featured 300 informational sessions. How do you keep the momentum going? If you’re Salesforce.com, the answer is a b-to-b road show called the Cloudforce Tour, a rolling series of one-day events that for the past eight years has brought the excitement of its annual user conference, a mega gathering called Dreamforce held each December in San Francisco, to the local level.

Cisco’s flagship annual customer conference has been a pillar of its portfolio for 20 years, but nothing rocked its foundation like the economic recession of 2009. Founded in 1984, the San Jose, CA-based maker of networking hardware and software had weathered the dot-com boom and bust with relative ease, but for the first time in its history, faced unprecedented concerns about attendee turnout—and attendee revenue—at its largest event, Cisco Live!

Making consumers work to be part of a brand engagement seems counterintuitive, but brands like Canadian Club Whisky, Starwood Hotels and Red Bull are doing just that.

The secret to their success is a modern twist on an old idea—a scavenger hunt that integrates the web with the real world for a series of branded experiences filled with clues, chases and great prizes.

Most event marketers are trying to find the best way to maximize the power of social media at their events. But that can be hard to do if Facebook and Twitter are the only tools in their bag of tricks. With new and more targeted platforms popping up daily, it can be just as challenging to keep up with which ones are relevant and useful for the event industry. EM narrowed the field to eight of the most interesting social media tools, sites and platforms fit for events.