Maybe online expos are not goofy after all

I've always held online expos in disdain, for many of the same reasons that I've been reluctant to embrace webcasts (until recently). Unlike other forms of digital media, the online expo is a wholly artificial construct meant to replicate an offline experience in an online environment. The radio-commercial-on-TV analogy.

Plus they just seem darn goofy. Have you seen the screen captures? Little animated people walking past digitized potted plants on their way into the east hall. What's up with that?

Yet hats off to our competitor, Reed Business, for aggressively pursuing these so-called virtual conferences. They've launched eight now, and from what I was able to gather at a presentation at the recent Folio Summit held in Chicago, nearly all are profitable, and some extremely so.

An expo may only have half a dozen sponsors, who pay from $3K to $20K depending on the market and the package. Their most successful expo has 20 to 30 exhibitors.

The expos are held as live events once or twice (or even four times) a year with fresh content (webcasts, "booth" exhibits, etc.). The rest of the year, it reverts to an archived, on-demand model.

The beauty of this concept is that users register once to get into the expo. Then any time they click on an exhibitor's booth or watch a webcast associated with a sponsor, the attendee's info is automatically passed onto that exhibitor. It's basically like a free pass or blanket authorization by the user to share their contact info with any vendor they come into contact with at the online expo. According to Reed, users are told this happens when they sign up.

Vendors are very happy with leads, Reed reports. These are primarily promoted vie e-mail marketing (not print!). The vendor, Unisfair, provides turnkey service.