Many people have attended Digital Asset Management (DAM) conferences in person. Very likely travel some distance to a major city by car, plane, train, bus or whatever means you deem fit. Often stay at a hotel.  Several meals may be included in the price of admission to the conference. Take some time away from work to focus on what the conference has to offer and network with others in the field. Find out you are not alone in the field and that many have similar issues as you may experience. Review the latest business practices, trends and tools of the trade. Meet vendors, analysts, consultants, practitioners and other new contacts face to face. Find solutions to issues you may experience.

Now imagine if you were able to do just about all of this from your home/office online…virtually. Enter the virtual conference. Yes, these types of virtual conferences exist today and have been in use for the past few years.

While some of the platforms to produce a virtual conference are more practical than others, these virtual tradeshows are increasing in popularity in a variety of fields. Some of these virtual events are used for global corporate announcements or remote online training.

What might a virtual conference include?

There is an expo area with a number of vendors showing their products and/or services, eager to answer your questions and connect with you after the conference about doing business. There are chat areas for networking purposes and virtual business card exchange.

There can be speaker sessions with presentations which may include the familiar slides, videos and/or live whiteboard drawings from any speaker.  And the sessions are recorded for you to listen to again and again, weeks or even months later.

There are various downloads available as they are supplied to you during a discussion or by a vendor. No flyers nor brochures to carry around all day and then lose. This paper is trumped by PDF delivery and interactive online presentations.

There may be some prizes for a variety of reasons. Sometimes attendees are offered awards just for checking in with all the vendor virtual booths.

There are networking rooms to share contacts and chat with others virtually present. Virtual conference surveys note a significantly higher sense of community among virtual attendees.

You can ask questions to anyone and the questions can get queued for an answer (instead of forgotten).

What do you need to attend a virtual conference?

All you need is a computer, headphones (or speakers), a high-speed internet connection and registration to the virtual conference. Some work with a web camera as well (there is your face to face interaction).

What does a virtual conference not include?

No travel required. No hotel costs. No meals on the road. No high-priced wifi connection. No time away from home and/or office (think of it as a really long meeting, except much less boring).

As conference organizers, there is no ridiculously high costs for a physical venue such as a conference hall or hotel exposition space. No astronomical costs for food or beverage. General attendance of a virtual conference is often high (especially in the long tail) and attendees are often from all over the globe. After all, it is persistent online destination.

Registering online for such an event may have a fee, but some are free. It all depends on the number of vendors and sponsors. The volume of attendance over a longer period of time helps as well.

Are you interested in attending a virtual DAM Conference?

Please express your level of interest by voting here

When you are ready for some vendor neutral consulting on Digital Asset Management, let us know.