December 2010 | Product Sourcing
Thanks New Orleans and IAEE for a Great Expo! Expo! This summary of the International Association for Exhibitions and Events' (IAEE) Annual Meeting in New Orleans quotes Joe Popolo, CEO of Freeman, "INXPO is a fantastic partner. They have the best platform.”
December 2010 | IT Marketing World
Hybrid Events Take Hold IT Marketing World highlights our White Paper, "Best Practices for Creating Compelling, Innovative Hybrid Events", which mentions INXPO partner UBM Studios.
December 2010 | The New York Times
Growth in Virtual Gatherings Offers Marketing Opportunities Elizabeth Olson covers virtual events and virtual environments in the Media & Advertising section of The New York Times. The article references INXPO partners: Cisco Systems and UBM Studios (who produced COMDEXvirtual)
October 2010 | Event Marketer Magazine
Cisco Live! & Networkers Virtual 2010 Event Marketer Magazine goes inside Cisco's hybrid event to find out how the two experiences stack up. INXPO provided the virtual platform for this award-winning event.
May 2010 | Hypergrid Business
Virtual Meetings offer green alternative to business travel Maria Korolov highlights the benefits of virtual meetings for the environment, writing “According to virtual events platform provider INXPO, each visitor to a virtual meetings saves – on average – 1,217 pounds of carbon dioxide. It would take 25 trees a whole year to absorb that much carbon.”
May 2010 | Cisco Virtual Environments Blog
Cisco Virtual Events Take Home Top Honors from Event Marketer Dannette Veale of Cisco Systems shares the good news that Cisco's virtual events, which are powered by INXPO, won top honors at the Event Marketer Ex Awards. With regard to Cisco Live winning the Grand Ex award, the first time that a B2B and virtual event won this best of show award, Veale writes, "Winning this prize demonstrates the evolution of the event industry from just being about face to face experiences to encompassing a larger audience via virtual and hybrid event experiences."
May 2010 | min B2B
Virtual Events Get Into the Game, Go Social Steve Smith highlights the INXPO Social suite, writing "Everyone wants to get into gaming…even virtual trade shows. In a new twist on a hot category of 2009, virtual trade show provider INXPO is adding a "Social Suite" to its platform, which will better tie an event attendee both to the common social networks and online games."
May 2010 | Virtual Edge
Virtual events innovator, INXPO Launches INXPO Social Suite Virtual Edge provides a summary of the INXPO Social Suite, quoting Chris Meyer, EVP of Sales & Marketing, "By incorporating these three transformative technologies – virtual, games and social media –in our powerful virtual platform, organizations have entirely new ways to connect people, foster education and improve productivity, all within a single virtual environment."
May 2010 | BizReport
INXPO's new suite integrates social, gaming and virtual worlds Kristina Knights highlights how marketers can leverage the INXPO Social Suite: "With the suite of tools, marketers could engage the attendees of a virtual conference by placing an interactive social or gaming widget in one of the virtual rooms. Visitors then click to use the tool and can share information on the products or services through their own social networks."
May 2010 | Thinkbalm Blog
In the name of engagement, INXPO adds game features to its platform Principal analyst, Erica Driver, provides her analysis of the potential of games for workplace productivity, learning and collaboration. Driver continues "This add-on [the INXPO Social Suite] to the INXPO Virtual Events Platform, slated for general availability in early May, will incorporate games and social network integration. The thinking behind this is that by offering increasingly compelling content and activities, INXPO customers (let's call them hosts) can increase the engagement of users (let's call them participants), thereby obtaining benefits such as improved knowledge retention, higher customer satisfaction scores, and increased revenues."
May 2010 | Virtual Worlds News
INXPO Launches Games, New Social Integration Alicia Ashby spoke with Dennis Shiao, Director of Product Marketing, regarding the launch of the INXPO Social Suite. According to Shiao, "We've seen some key trends happening. The first is that the Web is increasingly social these days with the likes of Facebook and Twitter. As a result, virtual events are increasingly social. There is now a lot of activity on social networks around an event."
May 2010 | VentureBeat
INXPO adds social and game features to virtual conferences In a review of the INXPO Social Suite, Dean Takahashi of Venture Beat writes "Virtual conferences are about to get more hip. INXPO, which stages online conferences that replace physical events, is expanding its reportoire to include games and social media inside its virtual experiences."
May 2010 | MeetingsNet
INXPO Integrates Social Networking in Virtual Event Service In this Meetings Net article, Dennis Shiao, Director of Product Marketing, highlights the software trends leading to the introduction of the INXPO Social Suite, "powerful forces: The Web is becoming increasingly social with the growth of sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and, as a result, events are increasingly social, both physical and virtual."
April 2010 | One+
Using Gaming and Virtual Reality to Engage Event Attendees Nancy Mann Jackson provides an overview of how Cisco's Global Sales Experience powered by INXPO, engaged and educated Cisco's sales force with an alternate reality game. Quoting Angie Smith, manager of Cisco GSX:
“The fundamental dynamic at work for the purpose of enhancing virtual experience marketing is creating a rewards-based brand experience through which an individual or group works toward a goal, during which the experience helps demonstrate the brand's values, products or services. There is also an educational and networking component to many games.”
April 2010 | Trade Show Executive
Virtual Trade Shows Offer Real Opportunities and Challenges Hil Anderson of Trade Show Executive provided an insightful review of the Virtual Edge Summit in February 2010. Anderson highlights what exhibition organizers need to consider when going virtual, quoting from industry thought leaders such as: Michael Vargo, director of corporate events of Disney; Kathy Sulgit, director of corporate events of Cisco; Pamala McGlinchey, vice president of marketing operations at UBM TechWeb; and Dennis Shiao, director of product management, INXPO.
In the article, Anderson referred to INXPO's hybrid event, stating “INXPOLive@ Virtual Edge is a top-notch virtual event that featured live webcasting of the sessions, which were immediately archived for viewing from computers worldwide at the user's convenience.”
April 2010 | Trade Show Executive
COMDEX to Live Again as a Virtual Show Hil Anderson provides a summary of the return of COMDEX as a virtual event. According to the article, “UBM Studios is creating the virtual environment using the INXPO virtual event platform.”
April 2010 | Occupational Health and Safety
Occupational Health & Safety Launches Successful Virtual Event Occupational Health & Safety recently held its first virtual event powered by INXPO. According to the article:
"We're very pleased with the success of our first event and are planning other virtual events," said Kevin O'Grady, Occupational Health & Safety Group Publisher. "Occupational Health & Safety is an industry leader, especially in the online category, and virtual events are an exciting, innovative way for us to contribute to the growth of the brand."
April 2010 | BtoB Magazine
Virtual exhibit a hit for GE Healthcare; Kalido Connect sees virtual conference registration up 700% In BtoB Magazine's Interactive Marketing Guide, virtual events was highlighted as a B2B marketing strategy to consider. BtoB spoke with INXPO Customers – GE Healthcare and Kalido – regarding the success of their respective virtual event programs. Mary Wells, VP of marketing, Kalido, stated:
“[The virtual Kalido Connect 2009 User Conference] exceeded every expectation I had. The results speak for themselves: Registration increased 700% from the year before. Sponsorships increased 70%. We came in under budget. The partners got involved with it and created online, customized booths with video—and you could download collateral. They found it interactive and innovative; and they didn't have to travel and set up a booth...”
April 2010 | Virtual Worlds News
Quick Stat: GE Healthcare Saved 1/3 Costs with Virtual Booth Joey Seiler of Virtual Worlds News summarizes a recent ComputerWorld article regarding GE Healthcare's virtual booth powered by INXPO. Per the summary, “It took six weeks and $100,000 to create the virtual booth--one-third less expensive than the Flash-based, static microsite GE had previously used, said Jim Salinsky, global webmaster for GE Healthcare in Milwaukee.”
April 2010 | ComputerWorld
Avatars rising in the enterprise While Esther Shein focused on the role of 3D immersive spaces and Avatars in the enterprise, she included a side bar regarding GE Healthcare's virtual exhibit. Per the article:
"We decided to give the person who couldn't attend as close to an in-person attendance as possible and make them feel like they were on the actual show floor," says Jim Salinsky, global webmaster for GE Healthcare in Milwaukee. Officials worked with virtual provider INXPO to help them "create a look and feel that can be reused and present a consistent branding message globally."
April 2010 | Folio Magazine
Extending Trade Show Reach Online: Maxed out on physical space, PennWell turns to virtual events Matt Kinsman spoke with Eric Schlett, vice president, publisher/executive director of Fire Engineering Magazine, regarding PennWell's decision to add a virtual component to the 88-year-old Fire Department Instructor's Conference (FDIC). While the physical space sold out every year, this also meant some lost opportunities for PennWell:
Working with INXPO, PennWell runs two virtual events per year called FDIC Online. “There are 1.2 million firefighters in the U.S. and that means there's a big audience out there who can't come to FDIC,” says Eric Schlett, vice president, publisher/executive director of Fire Engineering Magazine. “Using the distance learning mentality, how do we drive folks online to give firefighters the opportunity to get educated?”
March 2010 | One+
The Virtual State In this article, Peter Gorman writes on how virtual technology allows companies to meet without being in the same location. According to the article, virtual events are becoming an integral part of the events strategy – not just to replace physical events. In speaking with Cece Salomon-Lee, Director of Marketing, INXPO, Gorman writes: “One of the key advantages she sees is the quantity of intelligence she can gather from virtual meeting participants”.
March 2010 | Meetings:Review
DIGITAL MARKETPLACE 2: Time to embrace the opportunity not run from the challenge In Pete Roythorne's second installment on virtual events, Roythorne looks at how event marketers can embrace virtual event technology. Cisco GSX (Disclosure: Powered by INXPO) is highlighted as a stellar case study regarding the business benefits of virtual. Quoting George P Johnson's (GPJ) director of client services Lesley Mason:
“Cisco is at the cutting edge of virtual events and continues to blaze a trail,” she says. “The Cisco GSX (global sales experience) was a first of its kind – a multi-facetted virtual event that drew over 19,000 attendees with 88 hours of consecutive sessions crossing 24 time zones.”
March 2010 | Tradeshow Week
UBM Goes Virtual: Comdex returns as virtual event in partnership with INXPO Rachel Wimberly spoke with Drew VanVooren, President and co-founder of INXPO, regarding the recent partnership between UBM Studios and INXPO. Under the partnership, INXPO will power all of UBM's existing and future virtual events and be used by 16 worldwide divisions of UBM. This also includes the return of Comdex as a virtual event. According to Kate Spellman, senior vice president and managing director of UBM Studios:
“Together, we will provide the leadership in the emerging virtual-business space. Much like the e-business wave that helped drive enterprise adoption of the Web, virtual business is the harbinger of a new era that will transform the Internet from a collection of pages to a series of engaging destinations.”
March 2010 | Hypergrid Business
UBM to triple virtual conferences in 2010 Jie Hu of Hypergrid Business wrote about the recent partnership between UBM and INXPO. As the first global licensee of INXPO's Virtual Events Platform, UBM will hold over 100 virtual conferences in 2010, an increase from 30 in 2009.
March 2010 | Virtual Edge
UBM Studios Partners with INXPO to Bring Turnkey Virtual Event Solutions to Corporate Customers Virtual Edge provides a summary of the partnership between UBM Studios and INXPO. According to Virtual Edge, “Together, UBM Studios and INXPO have cultivated a working relationship that merges one of the largest event producers with one of the industry's leading virtual event platforms to create a go-to B2B resource that is both comprehensive and flexible.”
March 2010 | BtoB Magazine
Cisco Expands reach of annual global event virtually Erin Biba of BtoB Magazine interviewed Cisco Systems (an INXPO customer) regarding Cisco Live, “an always-on event environment that would enhance the event itself, then continue to run indefinitely.” According to Dannette Veale, virtual strategy manager for Cisco Live:
“Right now, we have 27,000 individuals who have registration access in 170 countries. For all of our live conferences, we include some form of virtual extension. [When we held an event in Australia, the] live keynote was broadcast and extended to anyone who had access to the site. With Cisco Live Barcelona, we'll have two live keynotes and live technical sessions broadcast, as well as live sponsor sessions.”
March 2010 | BtoB Magazine
The year of hybrid events Malcolm Lotzof, CEO and co-founder of INXPO, contributed a column in this issue of BtoB Magazine. Lotzof emphasizes that marketers are “no longer faced with an either/or (virtual or physical) choice regarding events. Rather, marketers are now aggressively exploring the potential of hybrid events and have the ability to combine the best of both worlds to provide a truly unforgettable experience. This is taking their marketing and lead-generation programs to the next level. “
March 2010 | BtoB Magazine
Virtual show evangelists INXPO customer, Cisco Systems, was interviewed for this story regarding the benefits of always-on virtual event environments that enable marketers to “connect and reconnect with their audiences.” In addition to maximizing one's investments, this trend also drives more high-quality leads.
“We know more about what the attendees are doing and where they're going. You have much better access in the virtual space,” said Kathy Doyle, director-global Cisco Live conferences for Cisco Systems.
March 2010 | min B2B
UBM Revives Comdex as Virtual Show Steve Smith of min B2B summarizes the return of Comdex as a virtual event. Smith also writes about INXPO's partnership with UBM Studios, “UBM, which conducted 38 virtual shows in 2009, is ramping up these efforts with a strategic partnership with INXPO. UBM Studios, a division of UBM, will be the first global media licensee of INXPO's Virtual Events Platform.”
March 2010 | Market Research Media
Comdex Launched as a Virtual Event Building on Market Research Media's recent virtual tradeshow and conferences report, the research firm reported the news that Comdex will be a launched as a virtual event by UBM division, Everything Channel.
In related news, Market Research Media also highlighted the strategic alliance between INXPO and UBM Studios which will “transform the web with next-generation virtual business solutions that help organizations extend the reach of established trade shows, reduce costs, and increase employee productivity.”
March 2010 | Cnet
Comdex to be reborn as a virtual trade show Cnet reports on UBM's plans to relaunch Comdex as a virtual event taking place on November 16 and 17. The new Comdex will “be fashioned and presented like a live event. Visitors will be able to interact with online content and other participants (but hopefully no waiting in virtual lines).”
March 2010 | Venture Beat
Virtual events keep growing; even Comdex makes a comeback online Dean Takahashi of VentureBeat highlights the growth of the virtual events industry, pointing to the return of Comdex as a virtual event as an example of this trend. In addition to highlighting a partnership between INXPO and UBM Studios, Takahashi provides a summary of the Virtual Edge Summit, including:
- Presentation by Angie Smith, Cisco, Cisco Global Sales Experience
- Chat with Dennis Shiao, Director of Product Marketing, INXPO regarding integration of games and increase of hybrid events
March 2010 | EXPO Magazine
Notes from Last Week's Virtual Edge Summit EXPO Magazine summarized two announcements from INXPO: The launch of INXPO Labs and the introduction of new virtual platform offerings to make virtual events easy to plan, build and deploy.
March 2010 | MeetingsNet
Comdex to Be Revived as Virtual Meeting Sue Hatch of MeetingsNet reports on Comdex' return as a virtual-only event. According to the article, “The virtual environment will be built on the INXPO virtual meeting platform in partnership with UBM Studios, UBM Media's strategic marketing agency.”
March 2010 | MEETINGS:review
Meeting Technology: Riding the crest of a wave Pete Roythorne of MEETINGS:review interviewed several event industry experts on the impact of Google Wave on the industry. Roythorne spoke with Dennis Shiao, Director of Product Marketing, INXPO:
“Collaboration and networking are important components of meetings and events. As a technology that facilitates collaboration, we believe that Google Wave is a complementary tool that event and meeting planners can leverage to create richer and more interactive experiences.”
February 2010 | 1to1 Media
Virtual Meetings Foster Employee Engagement In this article written by Mila D'Antonio, 1to1 Magazine focuses on how corporations can engage employees. Specifically, D'Antonio highlights the strategy that Cisco used for the company's Global Sales Experience (GSX), such as a virtual reality treasure hunt, emulating the Cisco's briefing center in the virtual environment, and the structure of the four-day event.
January 2010 | Successful Meetings Cover Story
Cover Story – On the Edge: Cisco Systems Pushes Meetings to the Limit Leo Jakobson provides a detailed look into Cisco's sales meeting from the experiential strategy, virtual events platform to the gaming aspects. With George P. Johnson providing the experiential strategy and UI direction, jUXT Interactive (GPJ's interactive arm) designed the alternate reality game. All of the user interface components were then “plugged on top of an existing and well-tried back-end engine provided by INXPO.”
With regard to the future of virtual events based on this experience, Drew VanVooren, president and co-founder of INXPO stated, “I believe that physical meetings and in virtual events , and I believe it will integrate both.”
January 2010 | Opening Moments Media
Experiential Motivational Videos and Events David Haneke of Opening Moments Media summarizes how the Cisco Global Sales Experience achieved great results and cost savings from a virtual meeting.
January 2010 | Business Ledger
Trade shows nearing light at the end of the tunnel Katie Morell, contributing writer, provides an overview of the trade show industry for Chicago. Morell spoke with Drew VanVooren, president and co-founder of INXPO, regarding the impact of virtual trade shows on the industry. Per VanVooren: “I think 2010 will be the year of the hybrid,” he said. “You are going to see companies have physical events with a virtual extension. There will be a combination.”
January 2010 | Financial Post
Virtual meetings come cheap Mathew Klie-Cribb of the Financial Post explores the use of virtual technology for small business in Canada. Erica Driver, principal analyst with ThinkBalm, points out the value of virtual technology beyond small businesses. Per the article:
Ms. Driver points to Cisco Systems Inc.' cancellation of its annual marketing kickoff, where 20,000 sales representatives get together to motivate one another and trade tips last year, when the company announced a $1-billion budget cut. "The problem was they needed to bring together sales professionals and weren't able to do it physically," she said. Instead, they held the event in a 2D virtual environment called INXPO.
