Novell cancels BrainShare users conference after 20 years. But, they weren’t the first (see Apple) and they won’t be the last. What do you think of that? Do you think they are running out of money or customers? Or, are they just taking precautions to survive a tough economy.

Prudent would be the first thing that comes to my mind when considering this decision. All companies should be conservative in their planning. Virtual conference would be the next thing that comes to mind. Virtual meetings (online)  are more sustainable and easier on the environment.

We will see more virtual conferences through Second Life and other online venues. However, some of us who crave face to face networking may have a hard time with the transition (can’t get used to that avatar concept). There are many benefits.  Saving time, travel costs, and archiving presentations online will be wins in the virtual world. A natural for high tech leaders.

 Once upon a time, I coordinated the PR team for the 2001 BrainShare (biggest ever) and had a $300k budget back then to attract 150 press who wrote 300 stories in the following 30 days. Multi million dollar events and taking a week out of one’s work schedule are harder than ever to justify.  From the  public relations perspective, the press want to  save time and money, too.

 www.pilmerpr.com

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 29th, 2008 at 11:17 pm and is filed under Boardroom PR. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.