I just did the Friday Feature on Conventions.net and the idea that people could advertise on our mother site, Conventions.net, and how simple it was, and now you can as easily and as simply advertise on Convention Insider.  Randy Goldberg, Director of Marketing, wanted me to get this information to all of our readers right away as this is a limited time offer and I am told that some of the space has already been taken.

I have some great news! 

Conventions.net is now offering you the opportunity to purchase valuable text link ads!  We are the #1 buyer/seller marketplace online!  All of our main landing pages have a Google Page Rank of 5 or better!  This is your chance to move your site up on Google.com.  There is no better, more relevant text link to be purchased in the Trade Show Industry!  Search Engine Optimization is the #1 way to generate more visitors to your website, and the best way to do this is by acquiring dominant, relevant inbound links from top sites on the net!  This is a limited offer, we can only place a small number of outbound text links on our pages!  For more information, or to lock in your text links please contact me today by phone or email.

Rates:

Text Link Ads (3 month minimum, 15% annual discounts)

1. Site Wide Footer – excluding home page $350/month
2. Main Marketplace Landing Page $200/month
3. Marketplace Category Result Page $125/month
4. Package 1 – 5 Marketplace Category Result Pages $250/month
5. Package 2 – 5 Category Result Pages + Main Marketplace $300/month

Corporate Blog – ConventionInsider.com

1. Blog Roll Text Link Ad (3 month minimum) $100/month
2. 120 x 60 Sponsorship Banner $200/month

I look forward to hearing from you!

Links to your site are the new gold standard when they are relevant to your content and relevant to what it is that you offer.  If you are in the convention and trade show industry, you need to have those back links to make your organic search results soar.  Don;t take my word for it, go and ask your people in your SEO department or ask your website experts.  They will all tell you that links are an invaluable way to increase your page rank, your site searchability and your traffic.  What more could you ask for?  Well maybe you could ask for a discount.  That is why I also want to make you this offer from me.  If you mention that Convention Insider sent you for this offer, you will receive a 5% discount off your first order of advertising!  Sorry Randy, I keep spending your money!

Popularity: 3% [?]

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I was thinking of the amount of cleaning a stay at home dad like myself does in a week and it made me begin to think of hiring some help to get the work done.  I think I would probably have to have the big boss at Conventions.net to give me a little raise for that to be a reality.  It was time to search out a maid convention or trade show. 

The Association of Residential Cleaning Services International held its most recent annual trade show October 22-26, 2007 in Orlando, Florida at the Orange County Convention Center.  The convention was held in conjunction with the ISSA or also known as The Worldwide Cleaning Industry Association. 

This year the event is to be held September 8-11, 2008.  The event will be held at the ever popular Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.  As with most things in Las Vegas, you can’t hold an event without having an exciting show and this event is no different.   The most interesting feature of the show that makes me actually want to go and see the convention this year is one of its keynote speakers.  None other than a childhood favorite of mine, Bill Cosby.  Or I guess I should refer to him as Dr. Bill Cosby as they do in the program details.   Dr. Cosby is scheduled to appear on September 10, 2008, at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel (adjacent to the Las Vegas Convention Center) in the Barron Room.  This is something I have not yet seen other trade associations do much of and that is to get some decent talent to address the attendees.  The good doctor will be addressing convention attendees according to the program:

Listen as Dr. Cosby humorously explains that “You better love what you do, otherwise it sure won’t love you!” He’ll help you ponder what the world would be like without your job and why more people should focus on the personal side of business, especially in the cleaning industry.

I would pay the price of attendance just to get a chance to see this legend in person.  I commend the event planners and would love to see more of this type of thing done at other events!

Popularity: 36% [?]

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On this day of celebrating all things Irish and the partying and all else, I myself think of “green” as a different idea than drinking beer that bears the color.  I think about the new green movement. Everyone is talking about it these days.  It’s all about the carbon footprint or what we can do to make the world a better place.  Conventions and Trade Shows are doing the same things these days.

I tend to look at many convention and trade show locations and not just the big ones like Las Vegas, or New York, and many of the other huge and more popular locations.  There are sections of websites devoted to the fact that convention or trade show centers are taking their buildings “green”.    Many of them are claiming to be the first or the best, or the leader in the green movement.  I like the fact that they are doing this and I hope that more and more convention centers take on the charge to become green.

Popularity: 40% [?]

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We here at Convention Insider understand the world of search and the power of Google.  One of my mantras is “We live in a Google world.”  We are constantly trying to rank high for search terms that will bring people to our site at Conventions.net.  When we bring them to our site, we are bring them to our customers, the people that list their services or wares on Conventions.net. 

I was recently doing some background checking and working on some keywords and phrases as it relates to the search term “convention.”  One of the things that I realized is the highest searched for phrase in that family of searches is “Silver Convention.”  Thinking that people were searching for a convention about the silver industry I decided to see what turned up by searching for silver convention in Google.  I think I really missed the mark on my idea of a silver industry show. 

Turns out everyone wants to find who that cool 70’s disco band was from their early years.

This dates me a little bit  but I too know of this group and I can remember using my best moves on the dance floor of the local disco with my bell bottom jeans and and long David Cassidy hair.  I’m not going to show any of those “moves” again for a very long time.  I’ll let the pros take you there.  Enjoy the video.

Popularity: 33% [?]

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With the ever rising need to be more like online communities such as Facebook, and MySpace, Vegas decides to try their own hand at social networking with MyVegas.  According to Brandweek:

The Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Authority this month is planning to launch a social network for people planning a Las Vegas vacation. Modeled on sites like Facebook and MySpace, MyVegas gives tourists a virtual meeting place where they and their friends can choose a hotel, buy tickets to events and interact with other visitors.

I can certainly see that they will have some people scrambling to get in on the action as people that are very targeted with be signing up to be a part of the network.  Many hotels and casinos will be falling on themselves to be listed as advertisers.  But will the trust factor be significant enough to make people turn over information about themselves?  That will be a big question.

Like other social networks, MyVegas, found at VisitLasVegas.com, gives users a profile page on which they can list their interests, upload photos and network with other users. But unlike sites like Facebook, MyVegas actually encourages its members to pretend to be something or someone they are not.

I am always concerned a bit with the idea of privacy and what the network will do with the data that they collect on their users and what they do with that data once it is collected.  I will keep an eye out for what this network does and more importantly what they will be doing to their users and the information their users provide.  If you are one of the people at MyVegas, you definitely need to get listed on Conventions.net.

Popularity: 36% [?]

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This is not an endorsement of the best conference venue in the world but it did make me wonder if there exists such a high honor of being known as “best in the world.”  I myself have been to a number of conferences and all of them had pros and cons.  As I read through my RSS feeds today I noticed this headline by Ewan McIntosh, “Probably the best conference venue in the world.”

A bold statement for anyone to claim, but I wondered what made him decide to make that statement.  Here is the post:

What a treat for a blogging conference-goer: free, very fast wifi, electricity on tap, a wide-screen projection for wrap-around presentations and no podiums to get in the way of those tasteful headshots we’ll be capturing and posting to the LIFT08 Flickr feed. They’ve even got headphones for the translation of one of the French presentations and Laurent’s gang have laid on trams for us to get to our Fondue tonight. The best conference in the world? Probably.

Sorry Ewan, I didn’t intend to scrape the post in it’s entirety but it was short and to the point.

His list includes the following points:

• Free and fast Wifi;
• Plenty of electricity;
• Wide scree projection;
• No podiums; and
• Headphones for translations.

The real reason it seems that his opinion states that this is the best conference venue seems to be ease of use and being able to have amenities that work and make it easy for blogging or live reporting.  I hear this often when attending events.  It’s always “How’s the Wifi?”  Is there electricity my battery needs a charge?”  My friend and professional blogger Tris Hussey taught me long ago that when attending a conference, bring your own power strip.  Something I keep in my computer bag now as a staple.  You can make many friends if you are the man with the power.

The best conference venue I have been to in recent memory was the Bell Harbor Conference Center in Seattle after I attended the Blog Business Summit.  They had expensive and comfortable chairs, they had decent Wifi access and the stage and screen was easily seen. 

What is your favorite conference venue.  If you are a conference venue what do you have as amenities?  Can you be someone’s favorite conference venue?  It’s the little things that make a difference.

Popularity: 34% [?]

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I have a friend I was meeting with last night over drinks tell me that his boss at work wanted to have a submission for a proposal for all of the conventions and trade shows he planned to attend in 2008.  This would then be approved by upper management.  This may seem like busy work to some but to upper management worried about their budgets for the coming year, it is an invaluable resource to have for their planning.  The problem is which conventions and trade shows are available and where do I find the information?

Conventions.net is getting close to rolling out a listing service of all of the available conventions and trade shows, and will have some very cool features to allow people to search for conventions and trade shows within their niche and can find out more information from there.  I can’t wait to see it finished and a part of the site.  I think it will be a very valuable resource for our users.  How many conventions do you attend in a year?  How to you plan for them?  I would like to interview you and see how you accomplish your schedule, so make a comment here so we can talk!

Popularity: 56% [?]

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I am a prolific procrastinator.  If there was a procrastinator club, I would be its President and best member.  I have a convention I am attending as an exhibitor in the second week in November.  I am only now addressing the issue since we have to have our details into the event planner by tomorrow.  Where do I begin?  In this particular instance I delegated the job so I could procrastinate on something else for a while.  What if I delegated the job to you?  Where would you go?  All very good questions.

As it turns out I probably should have done the job myself because I had to be involved in all the decisions.  How hard can it be to set up a convention booth?  In a word?  Very.  First I had to know what carpet to use and what color, the color of the back wall panels, the color of the sidewall panels, the heights of the aforementioned panels, the type of chairs, the type of drape, wastebasket or not, and the list keeps going on forever.  I had no clue that there was so much involved.  What did we decide on?  We outsourced the deal and sent a check, problem solved.

At Conventions.net the same thing can be accomplished.  Conventions.net wants to a be a complete resource for the little things and the big things.You can find ways around procrastinating, it’s just too bad that it usually costs a little extra for the benefit of being tardy. 

Popularity: 29% [?]

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For those that do not have any clue what the title of this post means, perhaps a small lesson is warranted.  We all know what real life is, and if that one is a difficult concept, I am sorry you are in that not so happy place, but what is Second Life?  Second Life is a virtual world or a world where you live online.  I’ll let that sink in for a minute.

Second Life was born in San Francisco and its founders are at Linden Research, Inc.  Wikipedia defines it for us:

Second Life is an Internet-based virtual world launched in 2003, developed by Linden Research, Inc (commonly referred to as Linden Lab), which came to international attention via mainstream news media in late 2006 and early 2007.^[4][5] A downloadable client program called the Second Life Viewer enables its users, called “Residents“, to interact with each other through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse. Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items (virtual property) and services from one another.

Their own website gives us the elevator pitch and describes Second Life as:

Second Life is a 3D online digital world imagined and created by its residents.

Now that you have a complete understanding of Second Life (tongue planted firmly in cheek), what does that have to do with conventions you might ask?  I had my first experience with Second Life at a convention.  Not in the traditional sense of attending an event either. I was an attendee of the convention in the privacy and comfort of my own home. The people of BlogHer allowed participants to listen in on speakers like Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Presidential hopeful John Edwards, in the comfort of their homes via the virtual world known as Second Life.  I myself, or actually my “avatar” sat in a large meeting room and could actually watch the live stream of the event.  It was an amazing experience and one that many conventions should consider when holding an event.  If you are an event planner and you want to open your doors to more people all over the world, invite them into the virtual world by using programs such as Second Life.  It would set your convention or event apart from any of your competitors. 

Sponsors can be given another place to set up their booths and show their brand, but in a virtual world not just on the convention floor, but digitally.  It is a great seller for those trying to gather sponsors.  The costs are minimal and the benefits are long lasting and can be a great place to show sponsors, vendors and suppliers that your event is forward thinking and a part of the real world and virtual world.  If is estimated that most people will have a virtual avatar by the year 2011. At the time of this writing there were more than 40,000 residents in Second Life living on the other side of the computer screen.  Mine actually has all its hair, is not overweight and is not undertall.  To get ahead of your competition, plan your event for the virtual world.

Popularity: 30% [?]

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I recently attended a conference in California and as I sat and listened to the presenter that was on stage I made mental notes of the things that they were saying and was also jotting some things down I wanted to research and follow up on.  I spoke up to ask the conference presenter to clarify on an issue I was having and he responded to my question.  I then leaned over and made a comment to another attendee and they also commented on what they were hearing.  The attendee and I opened a dialogue and discussed the points further after the presentation was over in another forum and then went on to the next presentation.  This sounds pretty typical of conference attendees and paints a typical picture of what it’s like to attend a conference.  The part that was out of the ordinary?  I was in Colorado at the time of the conference.  Yes, you read it correct I was attending a conference that took place in California but sitting at my desk in my office in Colorado.  Technology is amazing. 

Through the use of Ustream.tv, I was able to listen to the conference presentation live.  The slides were a bit tough to read, but then I can’t normally see them when I am taking notes and listening to speakers in real life.  The live feed had a live chat component to it and I was monitoring the chat room and making comments with the others in the room.  The person that was recording the live feed, was able to see my question on screen and then ask my question live at the event with the presenter speaking directly to me via the live stream.  I didn’t pay the fee to be at the event, didn’t pay for a flight to get to California and didn’t have to have a hotel room while I stayed near the conference.  By my calculations, I saved approximately $3,000 and got all of the regular benefits except maybe the pens and cool schwag other attendees received.

Does this technology hurt the conference planners and the presenters?  I’m not sure it does.  They were still right about the number of attendees that they had projected, plus they had opened it up to many more that could not otherwise be present.  Their sponsors received that much more as far as exposure and it cost them nothing more, other than they were able to get links and exposure that might otherwise not have been afforded given their traditional show.  In addition, they have now opened up a new possibility for a charge for being the official live streamer of the conference asking for bids from people like Ustream.tv to have to bid on being an exclusive provider.  Conventions.net needs to add another resource category for live feeds to their vendors and suppliers.

I may like to attend that event in the future, because I was able to see the quality of the event and also saw that they had cool parties.  Yeah, I might just pay to play next time.  What do you think, should we continue with live streaming of the events?  Are we just allowing people to attend for free and diluting our possible gate?  This is something new I think event planners should take into consideration.

Popularity: 25% [?]

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