*DeathbyDigitalMarketingConference* era for marketers? Here’s my 10-point selection checklist

Bra Willy, the Chief eNitiater, has attended 2 digital marketing conferences this year and observed the following:

• In the Thinking Mobile (14-15 April 2011) conference the bulk of the attendees were practitioners in the digital marketing industry.
• In the Integrated Marketing Communication Conference (#IMCC) (6-7 June 2011) the number of brand marketers had noticeably increased.

One can speculate on reasons for the difference in the percentage of brand marketers who attended each of the two conferences referred to above. Our takeout is that there is a growing digital marketing noise for brand marketers to get involved. Thus, their number will keep growing with each relevant conference until there is a state of equilibrium in demand for and supply of digitech-knowledge.

Being a marketer himself, Bra Willy could not help but wonder if these many conferences will add real value to marketers’ quest to acquire the much-needed tech-knowledge. Bear in mind that basic cost to company for a 2-day conference is R12,200, which is made up of actual attendance fee that is on average R5,000 plus cost of company time spent out of the office that is estimated at R7,200 (18 hrs multiplied by R400 per hour). Excluded from the basic cost above are employee benefits, transport and accommodation for out-of-towners.

Given the multiple digital marketing conferences on offer, it is going to be a mission for marketers to choose the most relevant one(s) to attend. In response to this challenge, we have put together a selection checklist, in the form of 10 questions.

So, here goes:

1. What is the theme of the conference? Titles of most conferences tell a story about their themes.
2. Who is behind the conference? It gives comfort to know that conference organizers are either practitioners in the digital marketing industry themselves, or they have a reputable track record in the conferencing business.
3. How long has the conference been around for? Preferably, the conference in question should be in its 2nd year or longer. Given the cost involved, marketers cannot afford to be guinea pigs.
4. What were the reviews of the previous year for the same conference? Go through reviews of the previous year. Twitter is a good starting point. Search for the conference using a few variations of its title, starting with a hashtag, and see if anything comes up. If there is nothing there, check the conference’s Website and ask around.
5. Who are the confirmed conference sponsors for the year in question? This will give you an idea of the interest industry players have in the conference. Key players would include telecoms, IT and digital marketing companies. Google the names if you do not recognize them.
6. Who are the speakers? Look at speaker profiles and google them to get a sense about their online reputation. A good mix of speakers must include industry experts, practitioners and representatives of companies that integrate digital marketing in their brand communications. A cherry on top would be inclusion of speaker(s) from outside South Africa, who will enrich conference content by providing a different perspective.
7. What is the structure of the conference? A good conference will have all of keynotes, plenaries, discussion panels, workshops and exhibitions. Keynotes, discussion panels and workshops are a muse for a content-rich conference. You can also read our blog titled “These -shops are about talk- and not about work-, but I’m not complaining“
8. Who is being targeted? It is key to determine relevance of the conference. Profile of desired candidate is not always apparent, but the alternative way is to check conference content – speakers’ presentation titles, workshop titles and discussion forum themes.
9. What is the awareness level of the conference? Check if your marketing colleagues and friends know about the conference and get their views. They may provide information that will assist you make an informed decision. Check for conference awareness levels on Google and popular social networks, including Twitter and Facebook. The more that is being said the merrier.
10. What do you want to get out of the conference? We left this question until last, and this is because we do not always know what we want to get out of conferences until we have answered most of or all the other 9 questions. But it is key to attend the conference with a certain objective. This will help you ensure you derive value from it.

There is no particular order to the check list above. Also, it can be done iteratively if there is a need.