Recently in Events Category

A few weeks ago I logged in to my first webinar ... a really informative session hosted by Adobe as part of their Creative Festival.

It was a really interesting experience, seeing hundreds of "user names" appear down the left hand side of my computer screen and knowing that literally hundreds of people were taking part in the webinar with me. Aside from a few sound and image delay issues I really enjoyed it. But at the end of the session I didn't have anyone to talk to about it. I just got back on with my work. Sure I could have posted some comments to an on line forum or blog, but to me it's not the same as walking out of a seminar and mingling with other delegates over a drink or biscuit and having a good old de-brief!

This has prompted me to ask what the new preference is in terms of being informed and educated? Do you prefer sitting at your desk, in your office, or at home and seeing an industry guru on your computer screen? Or would you rather attend a conference seeing the guru in his or her element, surrounded by a crowd of like-minded people that you can interact with during and after the event?

Interestingly, Microsoft is combining both options at the upcoming ReMIX 09 on June 11th in Sydney, which Aquent is sponsoring.

Not only will the event be held at Sydney's Star City, but some of the content and sessions will be broadcast on the REMIX Online site as well. (By the way, if you would like to attend ReMIX 2009 at Aquent's discounted price (AUD$149.00), check out the ReMIX link and type in the special code "syd0xdis149" when registering online). When you register, ensure that you DO NOT tick ReMIX AUD$199.00 inc GST. Simply write the "syd0xdis149" ticket code in the field provided.

This promises to be a highly informative web industry event in Australia for designers and developers seeking to be on the cutting edge.

No doubt Microsoft will have some nice drinks and buiscuits available at the breaks ... So see you there!

Image courtesy of: sridgway

A recent survey we conducted with the American Marketing Association showed that, even though most marketers are turning to online marketing for salvation in these dark times, they are finding themselves in a bind because they don't want to outsource these efforts but they don't necessarily have the in-house expertise required to get it done. Turns out that, although online marketing was a stated priority for many in 2008, few were able to actually make the online marketing hires they'd planned earlier in the year.

Lesson 1: Unfettered demand for online marketing translates into unflagging demand for interactive designers and developers.

The cultural revolution unleashed by web technology is ongoing and has produced an increasingly refined level of specialization. Whereas ten years ago we primarily distinguished between creative, front-end designers on the one hand and technically-oriented back-end coder/programmers on the other, today we see a proliferation of web-specific roles ranging from Flash gurus to user experience managers to web analytics wizards and beyond.

In addition to this morphing, expansion, and multiplication of web roles, we've witnessed an intense transformation of the way web work happens. The nature of the technology allows for teams to function without regard to geographical location and the fact that the web is always "on" means that web projects know no temporal limitations; they can and sometimes must be executed at any time, day or night.

Lesson 2: Innovation on the web isn't just about what people do, it's about where and when they do it.

The demand for interactive talent obviously means a wealth of opportunities for web professionals whether their focus is design, development, or marketing. The innovations brought about by the web mean that companies who hire web professionals have an amazing variety of options when it comes to engaging the people they need. The fact that the web and what people do with it continues to grow and change means that no one can predict exactly what new opportunities it will create in the future. However, it is undeniable that understanding these opportunities and their implications will mean the difference between success and failure for businesses and professionals alike.

Lesson 3: To take advantage of new opportunities, you need to have a grasp of the possibilities engendered by technical innovation as well as the limitations imposed by the demands of the marketplace.

On that note, if you want to get a better handle on the opportunities offered or precluded by the current interactive talent market, you ought to tune in to this webcast that Aquent is putting on in conjunction with Monster: Hiring Interactive Talent in the New World of Work .

Tell 'em, Matt sent you.

If you're gonna be in the Los Angeles area in a couple weeks and have a geeky streak, I highly encourage you to attend "The World of User Experience," an event Aquent is putting on Friday, February 27, 2009, from 6:30pm - 10:00pm at the GRNAPPLETREE Warehouse at 2324 E. Porter Avenue.

Boasting a prominent panel of guest speakers including Tim Richards of Razorfish, Stephen Ruiz of Rapp Collins (Stephen will also be DJing, fyi), and Josh Galban of Team One, this event will feature presentations on pushing experience design beyond the page, the importance of UX branding, and the tech of UX.

For the complete story, go here or contact Meri Gulyan in Aquent's Los Angeles office.

I'm pleased as punch to tell you that the next Aquent-sponsored AMA Webcast, "Social Media Is About Socializing," will feature Harry Gold, founder and CEO of Overdrive Interactive.

I had a chance to see Harry speak at the New Marketing Summit in Boston and was digging on his tales of getting the likes of Harley Davidson into the social media game. I think you will too.

Great speaker whose company has done some great work for some great brands. I implore you in the strongest possible terms to CHECK THIS OUT. It all goes down on Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 10:00 am Pacific Time (that's like 1:00 pm Eastern). Please join us.

Image Courtesy of bogenfreund.

I'm pleased to announce that Aquent is sponsoring an AMA Webcast on Multichannel Marketing on October 30, 2008 at 1:00 p.m. EST. The webcast will feature Akin Arikan, senior segment manager for internet marketing at Unica and author of the recently published, Multichannel Marketing, a book aimed at providing marketers "practical methods for integrating marketing metrics and actions across online and offline channels." We will be offering registrants a free copy of this timely and detailed study following the 'cast.

In addition to being timely, Akin's book has been very well received, especially in the web analytics community. A particularly succinct reviewer, Gary Angel, founder of Semphonic, writes that Akin's book "...delivers a worthy blend of sound technical overview, comprehensive coverage of multichannel options, and a long overdue look at the way offline and online measurement techniques can and should converge." He adds, "It is sound, clear of judgment, clean in style and admirably free of bloat."

Marketing nowadays will be multichannel or not at all. Tune in to the webcast if you want to hear an informed and pragmatic expert's advice on how to get the most from your multichannel efforts.

Also, let it be herewith known that I want my epitaph to read, "Admirably free of bloat."

I went to the New Marketing Summit (#nms08) not so much to learn as to meet people. Officially, I was on the hunt for potential webcast speakers, though what I was really after were those random, fortuitous connections that inevitably happen when I attend conferences. I'm happy to say that I did meet a number of folks who may fit into Aquent's dastardly webcast plans, and my circle of acquaintances was gratefully widened, but I must admit that I came away with a certain nostalgia for the pre-"new media" conference days.

Specifically, I missed the old-fashioned "raise your hand and get called on" approach to public presentations. At most sessions, participants were encouraged to "tweet" questions to the podium. This may have meant that more questions got considered, but what if asking questions at conferences isn't the main point of asking questions at conferences?

I believe that an important part of asking a question in a public forum is to introduce oneself to the audience. I've often approached askers during breaks and used their questions as a way of initiating conversations, and I've certainly used questions to make my own presence known at a conference, especially when I didn't know too many people there.

I did raise my hand and ask a question at NMS08, but I actually felt kind of funny doing so. That's weird. Conferences should allow people to confer. When we're all in the same room, let's turn off Twitter for a second and, ya know, get together.

And another thing: Although it might seem annoying, running concurrent sessions can also have the same "facilitating interaction" effect. Aside from the physical respite offered by moving from one room to another at regular intervals, the act of choosing sessions, finding a new seat in a new room next to a new person, and comparing notes during the course of the day are added benefits of this conventional conference structure that are frequently overlooked or disregarded.

I've been at the New Marketing Summit at Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, MA (my first time there), for a couple days. Frankly, it's the 3rd new media/marketing thing I've attended in six months and the newness is starting to wear off.

What I mean is that "new marketing" seems kind of like a misnomer, and this was brought home to me by two talks in particular.

First, there was Chris Brogan's interview with Alan Scott, CMO of Dow Jones. Scott (brother of David Meerman Scott, it turns out), was talking about the cool things that he's done using various social media. When asked, however, how much he budgets for social media, he said, "Nothing" (or words to that effect).

Instead, he showed us an overview of his marketing plan including his messaging strategy as it related to his various target audiences. Then, he showed his sales funnel starting with several hundred thousand prospects and filtering down to a smaller number of leads that got pushed to his sales folks and capped off with revenue numbers tied to converted leads. In other words, he does traditional marketing (messaging, audience segmentation, lead generation, sales conversion, etc.), and he just happens to use new media when it is appropriate for a particular audience.

The old vs. new dynamic was then driven home by Christopher S. Penn's presentation (which I have not yet found on-line, but will link thereto when I do), which emphasized "studying something old to learn something new." His main point was that humans are the same today as they were 100 or five hundred years ago and that emerging media and technologies are just new tools that we are applying to a rather traditional situation: communicating with other humans, trying to provide them with valuable information, services, etc., and hoping to influence their behavior. His challenge to the audience was to look for a success story from your industry that happened between 1850 and 1930, and see what applicable lessons the past might offer you today.

In other words, there may be new ways of carrying out some traditional marketing functions like PR or Communications more broadly, but the "new" marketing of today sure resembles the old marketing of yesteryear, at least as far as the fundamentals are concerned.

Am I right or am I right?

A few weeks back, I conducted a webcast in which I said that the ongoing and relentless convergence of marketing and technology was THE factor determining the course of marketing careers for the foreseeable future. Many asked how they could learn more about this phenom.

Well, here's one way: MarketingProfs is holding a Digital Marketing Mixer in Arizona in a few weeks. If you thirst for digital marketing knowledge, and more importantly, want to meet a lot of great, smart people who know a ton about this rapidly evolving world, then Scottsdale is the place to be. Aside from getting to see and hear Arianna "Huffington Post" Huffington and Gary "Wine Library TV" Vaynerchuk, you'll even get a $200 discount on registration if you use promo code ESPNA08.

To be perfectly candid, we are helping sponsor this event, so I'm not just encouraging you to high-tail it on down to Arizona out of the goodness of my heart. Nevertheless, I wouldn't be recommending it if I didn't believe it was valuable. I attended the Summit MarketingProfs held in Boston in May and was lucky enough to meet folks like Chris Brogan, Valeria Maltoni, Greg Verdino, and the editorial light of MarketingProfs, Ann Handley. I was even more fortunate to meet a lot of regular folks like you and me who are struggling to find our way through the digital marketing wilderness.

Who mightn't you meet? There's only one way to find out. Get thee to Arizona and ye olde Digital Marketing Mixer!

UPDATE: In case it's not totally obvious, September 25th is now in the past! If you'd like to see the slides, etc., from this webcast, you may do so here. - Matt

On September 25th at 1:00pm EST, I will be hosting a webcast in association with the American Marketing Association on "Careers in Marketing: Flux, Flexibility, and the Future."

The crux of my presentation is this: Evolving communications technologies continue to drastically change the buying behaviors of consumers, from product research to purchase and beyond, placing new demands on marketing organizations and resulting in new roles, new ways of working, and new means for finding talent and getting work.

These changes affect every marketing function and call for the ability to nurture customer communities, orchestrate engaging experiences, and effectively execute complex, multi-pronged programs. The organizations and individuals who succeed in this environment will be flexible, versatile, and, in many ways, unconventional.

If you want all the details, please join me on the 25th. You can register for it by following this link.

Also, if you have any insights on this subject you are dying to share, please contact me.

Update: Aquent Houston is back on-line. I know it's gonna be a long haul for a lot of others, however. There are plenty of ways to help those folks out and one good one is to donate through Red Cross. Please let me know if there are other aid services you think that people should know about. - Matt

No thanks to Hurricane Ike,1. 5 million Texans are without power, among other things. This includes our Houston office, which is closed for the time being.

If you need to get in touch with our Houston staff, you may do so through our Austin office at 512-442-0992.

If you're just trying to get through this, I'm wishing you all the best.