Why did ChangeYourFlight.com win Flightglobal’s website of the year award? February 7, 2012
Posted by ludozone in Aerospace, eBusiness Applications/Services, International Business Development, Internet Marketing.Tags: Aerospace, eBusiness, International Business, Marketing, Website
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“It all started when five of us booked a trip to Paris”, says Iñaki Úriz, one of the founding partners of ChangeYourFlight. When three of his friends had to back out on the non-refundable tickets, he thought the airline could have made money had they known the three seats would be empty. A simple concept was born: Would low cost airlines offer money in exchange for cancellation of a non-refundable seat they might be able to resell?
That is how this Barcelona based company got started. Úriz and co-founder Jose Vilar put up some of their money for a prototype and then rounded up development money from friends and family. The partners had no IT or aviation background. But the two things they did have were airline consumer experience and design engineering backgrounds.
That explains why, when I first opened the website while judging the “Site of the Year” category for Flightglobal’s Webbies, I knew immediately that I had come across something very special. The concept was easy to understand and the design was simple but very slick. And, as Flightglobal’s Michael Targett points out, this translated into a wining website with fantastic usability.
The current concept took two and a half years of development. The site officially launched in December 2011 with Italy’s AirOne as its first Airline. In a phone interview last Friday, Úriz tells me that things have taken off rapidly for the website: “Air One is approving about a dozen voucher requests per day. And we are getting regular inquiries from a number of other European airlines.” For more background, on the company, check out this excellent post from the APEX blog. The company is now hiring IT talent and is actively looking for its next round of financing.
As a specialist in the use of Internet by the Aviation industry, I see my fair share of “new or improved” websites every day. The vast majority wouldn’t even get nominated for site of the year, let alone win it! So in my discussion with Úriz, I really wanted to find out what sets his creation aside and what other companies can learn from this example. Here are three things companies can learn from ChangeYourFlight.com:
- Innovate. Innovate. Innovate. “It is not because something does not exist that it is a bad idea”, says Úriz. Too many companies perpetuate the same processes and approaches to customer service and relationship “because they have always done it this way.” Most companies need to start from a blank canvas and change things up. This doesn’t always mean building your own website by the way. Using marketplaces such as ChangeYourFlight can bring the benefits of innovation and standardization without the costs of development. Noteworthy websites provide innovative and more efficient ways to interact with a company. Winning websites roll-out simple win-win processes that benefit all parties.
- Users Prefer Doing to Reading. The era of the website as a slick electronic brochure for the company is long gone. Sure, the company needs to describe what it does succinctly right up front (i.e. elevator pitch), but today it is all about customer interaction. Could airlines set-up their own customer support procedures to handle the ChangeYourFlight concept over the phone? Sure! But for Úriz, “what makes our success is that it is all self-service and information rich. You just enter your data, pick a few options and then wait for the answer.” Noteworthy websites provide self-service information portals. Winning websites provide interactive and influential action portals.
- Keep It Simple Seniõr (KISS). “We felt that it we had to explain too much, ChangeYourFlight would never be used”. Did you ever notice that the iPhone does not come with a user manual? Imagine that you had to learn all of the Microsoft Excel functions before you could start on your first spreadsheet. As a rule of thumb 90% of the complexity is introduced by the last 10% of functionality. So the secret is to provide a simple interface that handles 90% of the task at hand and cover the rest some other way. Noteworthy websites provide a simple way to handle the most common tasks. Winning websites handle all the situations with an integrated and layered approach focused on delighting the customer.
I would love to see more website use these principles by next years’ Webbies. But in the meantime, give me your feedback on this winner or these principles. And if you have a good example of a company that is doing this right, pass it along!
Use of Twitter takes off at MRO Americas April 18, 2011
Posted by ludozone in Aerospace, Conference, International Business Development, Internet Marketing, Management, Social Media, Twitter.Tags: Aerospace, eBusiness, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter
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Last week, the MRO Americas conference and exhibition hosted by AviationWeek in Miami Beach was the largest in the 16 years series. Clocking in at over 8500 attendees and 950 exhibitors, it was good to see the buzz in back in this segment of the industry.
Both FlightGlobal and AviationWeek were reporting from the show by posting a constant stream of blogs, pictures, and videos on their respective show landing pages. FlightGlobal sent their aviation web celebrity team of Mary Kirby (@RunwayGirl) and Jon Ostrower (@FlightBlogger), both of whom continue to bring their unique brand of refreshing reporting to the industry. But it was AviationWeek showed notable improvement in their online presence. Largely attributed to the leadership of new President Greg Hamilton, AviationWeek was here in full force from the editorial, sales, and event sides of the business. They all seemed re-energized by the enthusiasm of web-minded talent such as Rupa Haria (@AvWeekRupa) and Alejandro Wyss (@AWyss). 
For example, @AvWeekEvents credited Alejandro for the idea of the innovative Twitter Electronic Boards in the lobby and exhibit halls which many thought were a great addition to the show. Beyond the conference hashtag (#MROAM), the conference also had a Four Square location and a fun tweet-up to get attendees, suppliers, and web followers connected. This resulted in the best performance by the AviationWeek online team to date with much promises for the future.
Beyond an excellent use of twitter by the two news organizations as well as veteran social media users such as @DeltaTechOps , it was good to see a number of suppliers jumping into the conversation, many for the first time. The #MROAM conference stream registered over 600 updates in a period of three days, even briefly trending on Twitter during opening day. But it was obvious by the posts coming from the newbies that they were not really sure how to use the medium. So here are 3 pieces of advice for using twitter effectively at large tradeshows:
1) People talking about you is better than you talking about yourself
Too many suppliers simply said something like: “For a great demo stop by booth 3145”. This is not enticing to an attendee as much as if a journalist says your demo is worth seeing (as did @AvWeekKristin), or a customer proclaims their satisfaction with your services. So rather than tweeting about your own great virtues, ask journalist and customers to tweet about you. That is 10 times more credible
2) Don’t Shout, Converse
The proper use of Twitter is in the form of a conversation. Leave the news flash to the professionals. Instead, ask questions or engage attendees in conversations: “What did you think of this comment?”, “What swag do you like best?”, “What innovations have you noticed in the exhibit hall?”
3) Be helpful without being overbearing
Try to think about what would interest you if you were an attendee to this conference. What would be helpful to you? But if you have nothing to say, don’t retweet other posts. Retweeting is not the equivalent of the FaceBook “Like” button. If you like what someone says, simply reply to the post with a thank you message rather than a re-tweet. This is especially important when you have far less followers that the original poster. If you feel that your audience could benefit from the original post but might not be following the conference stream, retweet it, but by removing the conference hashtag from the post. This will eliminate a lot of noise from the channel and make everyone happier.
For additional tips on how exhibitors can use Social Media at tradeshows like MRO, you can check out my review from last year’s show entitled: “Missed Opportunity for Exhibitors”.
The next big show will be Paris Air Show this summer. With both AviationWeek and FlightGlobal promises new web updates and other goodies for the show, as well as many suppliers entering the social media fray, it will surely be the strongest A&D online event to date. I can’t wait to witness it.
What would you like to see happening online at Paris Air Show?
FlightGlobal updates its iPhone App, makes good progress November 30, 2010
Posted by ludozone in Aerospace, eBusiness Applications/Services, Internet Marketing, iPhone, Social Media.Tags: Aerospace, International Business, iPhone, Marketing, Social Media
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In my previous “FlightGlobal and AINOnline Apps Reviews”, I noted that although FlightGlobal should be recognized for its pioneering effort to bring Aerospace news to the iPhone in a comprehensive app, their first version had a number of shortcomings. Earlier this month, FlightGlobal released its new version 2.3 with a much improved implementation.
First of all, the application has been greatly simplified. It is faster and easier to use than version 1. It provides News, Blogs, Videos, and Images in a clean and simple interface. It is good to see that the twitter feed and jobs sections are gone, thus allowing the app to focus on a sole purpose: keeping up with industry happenings. 
Navigation is reduced to four buttons at the bottom of the screen. The main “Home” button gives you the news headlines, latest videos, new pictures, and latest blog posting in a straightforward scrollable screen. If that was all FlightGlobal improved on, it would already be a giant leap forward. However, there is much more to this version.
The application now cashes text and photos anytime it connects to the Internet, so most articles, images and blog pots are available for viewing offline. The app also uses imbedded text, picture and video browser, no longer requiring a user to jump out of the application. These two aspects were the biggest drawback of the previous version, so I was very pleased to see them fixed.
But the main new feature of this version is the “MyFG” section. This tab is completely customizable to allow the selection of specific news from 12 different categories as well as 11 blogs. This provides the user with a “customizable” view of the news, relevant to their specific topic of interest. In this example, the user can configure the app to only show headlines related to aircraft and airline safety in the “MyFG” tab. This is extremely useful and is definitely the most distinguishing factor for this app.
I could not find any major “flaws” with the design. It is a read-only app with no ability for interaction and sharing on social networks, but it is better to not have these functions than have them implemented in a clunky way. My only other comments are merely annoyances that should be easily fixable in a point release. In the Home section, the blog logos don’t seem to load so it is hard to tell which blog the headline is from. Once a blog post is open it is also hard to tell where it came from. I like the “bookmark” feature that grays out the news articles and blogs you have already read, but the flags don’t carry across tabs (a post read in the “blog” tab still shows unread in the “home” tab), which slightly defeats the purpose.
This version is now definitely an iPhone app you should download. Its distinction from the current AINOnline version is merely a question of personal preference rather than functionality. And apparently, many users are downloading the app. When I contacted FlightGlobal regarding this upgrade, they revealed that they have had over 10,000 downloads of the free app with a current rate of 50 new users per day as opposed to 15 per day for the old version. Next on the horizon for FlightGlobal is an Android version of the Aerospace news app as well as other iPhone app(s) providing access to their data products.
What do you think of the new app? What should the next improvements be? What other kinds of Aerospace app would you like to see on the iPhone?
NBAA 2010 online coverage review October 26, 2010
Posted by ludozone in Aerospace, Conference, International Business Development, Internet Marketing, Management, Social Media, Twitter.Tags: Aerospace, eBusiness, Marketing, NBAA, Social Media, Twitter
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In her excellent NBAA Social Media preview, Benet Wilson of AviationWeek (@AvWeekBenet) predicted correctly that this year show would be well covered on Twitter, FaceBook, YouTube and LinkedIn. Well, a few days after the end of a very successful show in Atlanta, it is time to analyze the results.
First of all, the ambiance at the show was much more optimistic than in the last two years, so there was a lot more to report. The major Aerospace publications all had a strong presence on-site. They each put out 3 show dailies that were distributed online. The format was similar to that of the Farnborough editions, with the exception of AIN which managed to produce much more professional video through their AINtv brand. They also added blogs for the first time which is another step in the right direction.
In terms of volume and quality of information produced, AIN continues to lead with the largest amount of news stories, while AviationWeek took the lead in blog posts due mostly to the personal involvement of Bennet Wilson who was actually on the ground for once! Flight Global continued their casual style of video reporting with the @RunwayGirl and @Flightblogger team. As usual, Mary Kirby stole the show but her style is perceived as too cavalier by some. I personally disagree and the number of YouTube views seems to side with me.
The bottom line numbers go as follows:
| News Stories | Blogs | Videos | |
| Aviation International News (AIN) | 285 | 4 | 10 |
| AviationWeek | 33 | 41 | 1 |
| Flight Global | 103 | 23 | 12 |
But there were other big changes compared to last year’s show. First of all, @NBAA was itself much more active in Social Media. As I suggested in my analysis from last year, they were much more engaged with the people attending the show. They used Twitter a lot and maintained a very active Facebook page with plenty of good information. They also catered to the people who could not attend by providing their own NBAA News Bureau. Finally they once again hosted the very popular NBAA Social Media panel (See report from ABCI’s Paula Williams) which was attended by over 100 people and is now available as online video(s).
Secondly, there were a lot more people reporting directly from the show using Twitter. Over the period of Nov 18-22, over 2200 tweets were sent on the #NBAA10 stream. That is nearly double the volume from last year. Looking at the list of top users below, I am pleased to see a healthy mix of media, large OEMs, suppliers and service providers. Embraer, Boeing, Airbus and Dassault are noticeably absent from the list while Bombardier and Gulfstream gained great exposure with their brand also showing in the top words tweeted from the show.
[Click picture to enlarge]
Finally, there was also the first ever tweet-up at the end of the show. Sponsored by allFBO.com, it was attended by many of the people from the list above and generated a promise for bigger and better things to come in the future.
For now, NBAA takes the crown for online coverage amongst all the shows I have analyzed in the last two years, so congratulations to all on a job well done.
What were your impressions of the show? Please share your comments and highlight below.
Top 10 A&D Magazines Online: Comparing the Numbers August 25, 2010
Posted by ludozone in Aerospace, eBusiness Applications/Services, International Business Development, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Twitter.Tags: Aerospace, eBusiness, Marketing
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In my recent blog post entitled “MRO Americas and EBACE Online Coverage: Missed Opportunity for Exhibitors”, I stated the following:
I would want to see AIN’s news content
in FlightGlobal’s multi-format web platform
delivered to AviationWeek’s online audience.
This was a pretty strong statement that generated much discussion around the water coolers of numerous A&D publishing companies. Flight Global argued that they had a larger online audience and ended up posting their web traffic analysis (PDF) for all to see. AviationWeek sent out a press release about their Farnborough web traffic to show that they felt their presence was pretty successful. Flight Global responded in their editor’s blog. Many others commented to me privately via email. All of this interest prompted me to investigate further. My complete data spreadsheet is available for download (PDF).
PRINT MEDIA CIRCULATION
Using the online BPA circulation reports, I selected the ten most distributed A&D magazines based on their December 2009 Qualified Total Circulation.
As I thought, AviationWeek has by far the largest audience of them all. But there is more than meets the eye. When looking at Qualified Paid Circulation and eliminating the Air Force Magazine which is provided as part of the association membership, the dominance of AviationWeek is undeniable. Quite an achievement since 100% of their circulation is paid versus 77% for Flight International. All the other magazines have less than 15% paid subscribers.
ONLINE PRESENCE
I then looked at the online presence for each company, analyzing the “public” side of each publisher. That is to say, I did not have access to data regarding web pages behind a password protected screen. I also included Twitter information. I gathered the information from websitegrader.com and twitter.grader.com data as well as Google Doubleclick Ad Planner estimates. What quickly emerged, contrary to the statement I made above, is that Flight Global dominates the online audience in every category.
With over 118 thousand pages of information available, they manage an estimated 360,000 unique visitors and 4.6 million page views per month. Next up are Aviation Week and Jane’s who both have a mixed model of public and premium pages. For their public pages, their numbers are similar: around 35,000 pages available, generating an estimated 1.2 million page views by 110,000 unique visitors per month. That is roughly a third of what Flight Global generates. So even if you optimistically double the page views to account for the password protected data (the unique visitor counts would be unchanged), Flight Global is still well ahead. It is important to note that Jane’s traffic numbers are skewed compared to the Aviation Week ones because janes.com handles a number of topic not related directly to our industry. They should therefore be somewhat discounted.
However, niche magazines seem to be missing the online domain entirely. Aircraft Maintenance Technology, Aviation International News, Aviation Today and Defense Systems all have less monthly unique visitors than they have circulation for their flagship magazines. They have the least amount of information available, and therefore generate the least “stickiness” with an average of 6 page views per unique visitor as opposed to over 10 for the industry leaders. Aviation International News has the least stickiness with less than 4. They also all have less than 2000 followers on Twitter (Aircraft Maintenance technology has less than 100!) which seems to be an important traffic driver for the top websites.
Most of the A&D Media publishers also offer “Premium” (paid) products both in print and online. Those are difficult to compare because their circulation and traffic numbers are not public. Segmented headline newsletters (with electronic version usually available alongside) seem to be the most common. The larger publishers also provide database and reference services that are well suited for online access. AviationWeek has indicated a steady growth in their Intelligent Network (AWIN) and MRO Prospector online products. Flight Global has a number of online paid products including the Air Transport Intelligence (ATI) as well as a series of “Analysis Systems” geared at various segments of the industry.
WHAT CAN BE LEARNED FROM THIS?
Despite the introduction of new technologies such as the Kindle and iPad, the convenience and portability of a paper magazine won’t go away for a while. At least not until we have a complete generational overhaul of our industry’s personnel. Judging by the subscription level changes of the last 5 years, the reduction in subscribers seems to follow the natural attrition rate of the industry. That is except for Flight Global. The reduction in their circulation numbers are the most significant in the industry (down 23% since 2005), but they have by far the largest web traffic. Critics will say that providing most of the content for free online hurt their subscriptions figures. However, they offer online advertisers the largest targeted audience with tremendous demographic information, and great campaign flexibility that just impossible to match in print. Will their loss in subscription revenue be compensated by the increase in online advertising and premium web-based product revenue? I personally think it can.
The modern business to business marketing techniques suggest strongly that print advertising still works well for brand awareness, but that online campaigns yield the best results when it comes to cost effective lead generation. That puts the smaller publishers in the toughest spot. They make very little revenue from magazine subscriptions yet must carry the significant production costs. They are sustained by traditional (brand) advertising and small premium products, while their online traffic numbers do not allow them to commandeer premium advert insertion rates on their websites. For example, Aviation International News has a similar print circulation than Flight International. However, they have almost no paid subscribers. They have strong print advertisers and high content volume, but they struggle to invest in their online platform and therefore are losing ground to their competitors. Combine that with a very low Twitter presence and it shows the typical profile of an A&D Media company that used to do well, but is now unable to keep up or grow. Aviation Today, Aircraft Maintenance Technology and Defense Systems are all in the same position.
Air Transport World and Defense News have managed better online numbers that the other small magazines. Defense News in particular has a tremendous amount of traffic and inbound links for very low available content. By focusing on their online products and traffic these companies could continue to play a strong role in the landscape and segment they serve.
As for AviationWeek, they have great revenue coming from their print magazine. Based on their published subscription price, and factoring in some corporate discount, I estimate their subscription revenues at around $7M. In addition, B2B magazine revealed AviationWeek’s print advertising revenue to be at $12.7M. That is roughly $20M/year in print revenue excluding other premium services, online services, conferences, and online advertising. Knowing full well that growing their on line portfolio will cannibalize some of that “traditional” revenue, one can understand the careful and measured approach taken by the company when it comes to web based publishing.
My analysis only covered the 10 A&D magazines with the largest physical circulation. There are dozens of other magazines and websites that cover small segments of the industry and draw a very narrow but enthusiastic demographic. Since most of them are driven by advertising and sponsorship revenues, they will all struggle to keep up with the business environment changes afoot unless they manage to make a significant and successful transition online.
Consolidation of the smaller magazines into larger entities could occur but the difficulty is that the audiences overlap significantly and the net revenue increase for the buying company is usually not meaningful enough. Delivering specialized narrow content is only cost effective online if the company has a flexible web platform. That requires significant upfront investment with a long term ROI. So in the next 5 years, I foresee a consolidation of intellectual capital (journalists) into larger properties. They will create better content in a timelier manner as well as premium advanced analytics tools and services. But unfortunately, I don’t think the printed landscape can sustain the diversity that has existed until today.
What do you think of the A&D media landscape? What are some of the trends and innovations you would like to see as a publisher or a reader? What information will A&D businesses expect from these media companies?
MRO Americas and EBACE Online Coverage: Missed Opportunity for Exhibitors? May 12, 2010
Posted by ludozone in Aerospace, Conference, International Business Development, Internet Marketing, LinkedIn, Management, Social Media, Twitter.Tags: Aerospace, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter
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Two major A&D shows followed in rapid order over the last three weeks, and looking at the online coverage of Maintenance, Repairs, and Overhaul (MRO) Americas and the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (EBACE), there were no major new developments when it came to the coverage of these shows on the Internet. Needless to say, that was disappointing.
As usual, the full press corps was present. Even though MRO Americas was organized by Aviation Week, Flight Global had sent a four people team to cover the show. At EBACE, those two organizations were also joined in Geneva by Aviation International News (AIN).
For MRO Americas, AviationWeek and Flight Global had their usual website landing pages with Flight also producing their online flight daily chuck full of videos during two of the three days of the show. Reporters on the ground posted blogs and used the Twitter effectively. News from the show was also available in Flight Global’s iPhone application.
For EBACE, the organizers were the first ones to try to expand the use of internet during the show. They designed a basic web-based mobile application with schedule information, exhibitor list, floor plan, and news feed. They used twitter (@ebace) before and during the show to provide information and updates in the #EBACE stream. This was a good start that I hope other organizers will pick up and improve on.
On the media side, AIN joined the fray with their regular website landing page, adding to that of AviationWeek and FlightGlobal. AviationWeek did include videos in a couple of their online ShowNews (a first!), but as usual, none of the content from the daily magazine was repurposed on the website (I sound like a broken record!). In fact, if you want a media review of this show, you can read my blog about the Singapore Air Show and change the name of the conference.
I must also point out that @AvWeekBenet was able to attend EBACE in person and that the Twitter feed from AviationWeek was finally of much better quality than that of previews shows. However, all three news organizations could still improve on their online coverage as discussed previously. To best describe the ideal coverage, I would say that I would want to see AIN’s news content in FlightGlobal’s multiformat web platform delivered to AviationWeek’s online audience.
But to be fair, the industry press had these two events well covered online. The 6,000 attendees of MRO Americas and the 11,000 attendees of EBACE certainly were well-informed and so were the ten of thousands of unique visitors that followed on Twitter and came to the AviationWeek, AIN and Flight Global websites during and after the shows. So with such huge information pipe available to them, why didn’t the approximately 800 exhibitors of MRO Americas and the 450 exhibitors of EBACE take more advantage of online coverage?
The MRO Americas exhibition floor was open for 16 hours over a period of three days. As with many events, it was open in parallel to conference sessions for most of that time. Assuming that the average attendee would spend 3 hours a day on the show floor (which in my own experience would be enormous), and would spend 15 minutes to have meaningful interactions with each exhibitor visited, it means that in an ideal situation, 36 exhibitors would get visited by each attendee. That represents 1 company visited for each 20 exhibiting. For EBACE the numbers work out to approximately 1 out of 10. For Farnborough and Singapore, it might be has high as 1 out of 50 or more. As if that was not bad enough, small exhibitors have to compete against larger companies that will attract attendees by default and keep them for longer periods of time. Which means that if you are not Honeywell, Embraer, or Rolls-Royce, your odds of getting visited are heavily stacked against you.
In the past, companies used traditional methods to try to bring people to their booths: use printed advertising, press releases and sponsorship to promote their booth number; make their booth attractive (ooh shiny!); or “buy” as many random business cards as possible with contests, drawings, or give-aways. But today, it doesn’t work that way anymore. The Power Attendees (the ones that matter – not the ones on a “business vacation”) have a pre-determined list of vendors they want to see. They come to the show with a target list and they try to fit them all in. There is no “browsing”, there is no “I wonder what this company does?” Who has time for that anymore?
These days, business is all about efficiency and that goes for attending trade shows as well. Power Attendees will have a predefined rigorous program established before they get to the event: fly in; attend specific sessions (and skip others); visit specific exhibitors; set aside time for email, phone calls and exercise; socialize with industry acquaintances; and fly out.
As an exhibitor, you have to realize that in today’s world, there are only three reasons a Power Attendee will visit your booth:
- they have a pre-existing direct interest in your product (e.g. existing customer, pre-show marketing campaign)
- they are steered toward your product by the industry media or an independent conference speaker
- you are recommended by someone they trust attending the conference.
You should use the web to help develop these reasons and increase the chances of getting visited by the Power Attendees. The basic approach would be to use the trade show to TEACH attendees something rather than to SELL something. What is more attractive: “Stop by the booth the see my new sensors”, or “Stop by to learn the three factors that make old sensors malfunction”? If you are good at teaching and your sensors do address the three factors, you will sell them – implicitly!
With that approach in mind, here are three things should do before and during the show:
- USE YOUR WEBSITE: create a specific landing page related to the event you are attending. So many exhibitors simply put up a link from their event page to the event home page without taking the opportunity to explain why attendees should be interested in visiting them at the show. Create a page that is specific to your participation at the show. Provide a compelling argument about what you want to teach them (perhaps as a short video), provide information in advance such as a white paper (download it in exchange for contact info), and solicit feedback. If a potential attendee posts a comment on your event page saying “excited to come see you at the show”, it will definitely pique the interest of other attendees. Allow attendees to share a link to your show page with others via email or on social networks. Provide practical information about who will represent you on the show floor. Indicate when you will be there (specifically) and where you can be found. List names, function, specialties, cell phone numbers, email address, and twitter accounts. Provide your associates’ pictures. Simply put, make it easy for attendees to find you. Remember to draw the media to your show page so they might have an interest in discussing your educational approach prior to the show (not necessarily in an article, but on a blog or on twitter).
- TAKE PART IN THE PRE-SHOW CONVERSATION ONLINE: prior to the show, start talking about what you want to teach attendees on Twitter, and in online forums such as LinkedIn. Several events set up specific groups or Twitter hashtags prior to the conference where attendees can network before they travel. AviationWeek and Flight Global also have free forums sites (AWConnect and AirSpace respectively) that are a great place to discuss the challenges you are trying to solve. Be non-commercial in your discussions, leverage the website landing page you have built and invite the attendees to connect at the conference.
- INTERACT WITH ATTENDEES ONLINE DURING THE EVENT: monitor the conference stream on Twitter and get involved in the conversation. Try to contribute rather than sell. Gain respect for your expertise in the community. Find out what the “buzz” is, our create your own. Create “impromptu” events over twitter by gathering people of similar affinity or background at a lunch table or at the bar after hours. Involve the press in the discussion. Post answers on their blog posts, upload pictures or even short videos to the conference site or YouTube.
Events are using the web more and more to promote and manage their events. The industry media is jumping on the band wagon (we various degrees of success), but definitely creating buzz. Vendors who are not taking advantage of this media to their advantage are definitely missing out. And despite what many believe, you do not need a big budget or a large staff to take advantage of this opportunity. If you want to check out a company that does this well, check out Duncan Aviation’s EBACE page and follow them on twitter (@DuncanAviation). They understand the digital environment and they are getting ahead!
Are you taking advantage of the Internet when exhibiting at an Aerospace event? Share your story, ask your questions, or share some tips here. We would love to hear from you.
Ludo Van Vooren, a 15 years veteran of the industry, blogs about eBusiness, Social Media, Internet Marketing, and International Business Development.
