Burning Platform: The year in industry events and travel

In the 81st episode of Burning Platform, we host Jon Reed of Diginomica and Brian Sommer of Techventive to discuss the good and bad in industry events we experienced this year and on the state of business travel.

I carved the recording into two videos.

Part 1 covers the slides all three of us presented. Jon kicks it off at 0.59 “I felt before the pandemic events were largely what I would call legacy and not creative enough. And I felt the same as we went into virtual events that most of those events were really passive viewer experiences that really weren't very engaging and very good. Have however, seen a little bit of progress.” He provides a score card in his slides on how hybrid events have evolved.

Brian, starting at 12.00 is entertaining as he describes the trials and tribulations of post-COVID travel. He has several hilarious slides and also useful advice on what events should aim to deliver for customers, prospects and partners (and also how partners could be effectively using the events) – and yes, us analysts.

I start at 24.08. I had much less travel than either Jon or Brian last couple of years, But I made up with over 700 virtual conversations – about 200 for books by execs at IFS and SAP my team has contributed to and another 500 in various video episodes of Analyst Cam, Burning Platform and New Normal. I also describe the events I was at in-person and some of my travel experiences.

Part 2 is more of discussion between the 3 of us. We cover what we like and don’t like about keynotes and guest speakers, whether we prefer dedicated analyst summits or use conferences, need for expanding ecosystems and their presence at events, showcasing differentiation products and business models and lots of other areas event planners will find helpful