B-to-B Events

Who she Is: When Pollack joined Google four and a half years ago she was the first “official” events person at the company bringing 13 years of experience from the production side. That knowledge helped her build an in-house agency of nine people including herself as part of Creative Lab Google’s internal creative agency. Her group will handle 400 events this year supporting YouTube which Google acquired in 2006; enterprise and search-related events; investor relations and Google’s global communications and public affairs department.

"IF YOU BUILD IT THEY WILL COME."  Hold up creepy voice in the background building it is simply not enough anymore. With building costs rising companies are thinking up ways to build booths that will increase ROI rather than burn a hole in their pockets. Add in environmental concerns and there are plenty of reasons to consider hybrid exhibits—a mix of elements from an existing booth combined with some new and rented materials.

EVENT MARKETERS have heard all the myths. Events can’t generate the revenue needed to cover their costs. Events are just for brand building maybe product launches—output investments that don’t contribute much to the bottom line. But what if one of the toughest money making models—nonprofits—could find significant fundraising success in the form of an event program? Nonprofits base their reputation on keeping overhead percentages as low as possible so if they can find success through events who can’t?

Who she is: Litzow is charged with ensuring that SAP’s 3 000-plus annual events offer a consistent brand and customer experience throughout the world. Those events range from large customer conferences such as Sapphire which in May attracted 15 000 attendees in Orlando and another 10 000 in Berlin to Tech Ed conferences for developers and technical audiences that will take place later this year and smaller trade shows and seminars.

Fact: Photo activation is certainly no spring chicken in the event space.