022 | Improving Live Events When You Take Them Virtual with Ursula Ringham&Rachel Miller | Studio CMO - a podcast by Golden Spiral, Shaping Technology Marketing

from 2020-09-24T14:00

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The Episode in 60 Seconds

Events have been and are being canceled and postponed worldwide due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. From South by Southwest to the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics to HubSpot's Inbound, events of all types and for all industries are affected.

SAP's annual user conference, SAPPHIRE NOW, hosts more than 40,000 customers, prospects, partners, and influencers in Orlando. The original conference was scheduled for May and nearly completely planned when the US lockdown occurred.

Within six weeks, SAP had reframed the event and created a snackable, interactive online experience. The results were remarkable.

Two leaders behind the scenes of the major shift, Ursula Ringham and Rachel Miller, were tasked with the challenge of finding the connective tissue for the experience without losing the opportunities for business.

Our Guests

Ursula Ringham leads the Global Influencer Marketing team in collaborating with the entire SAP product portfolio in creating innovative content with trusted external voices to build brand awareness and create sales. Before her tenure at SAP, she had stints at Yoh, Adobe, and Apple where she was the partnership manager for Worldwide Developer Relations.

She has a reputation as a storyteller, author, creator, influencer marketer, digital innovator, social media maven, champion of girls education, and an outdoor sports freak.

Rachel Miller is a social media and content marketing strategist. She's listed as one of the top 50 MarTech influencer marketing and B2B marketing experts worldwide. Her background before SAP includes Thulium, TopRank Marketing, and PureMatter. During the pandemic, she is taking her fitness seriously and has earned the nickname "baby hulk" and is a craft beer aficionado.

Show Notes

User conferences have become a staple in SaaS showcasing the latest software developments and uniting users with platform providers, their partners, and other interested parties. These events also become huge public relations gains. [Find lists of user conferences: IT/Tech, software, engineering]

SAP hosts their annual user conference, SAPPHIRE NOW, for all aspects of their business. Major sales occur at the event. SAP's reselling partners come together to learn new ways to promote SAP and to feel energized about their partnership.

SAP is the backbone of America's supply chain and helps businesses run at their best.

77% of all revenue transactions worldwide run through systems powered by SAP. - Ursula Ringham

Shifting an event for in-person to virtual first requires a shift in mindset. As Ursula talks about at 11:00, "It wasn't a huge change but we had to pivot with how we tell the story."

For a virtual event, keep in mind who your audience is and how they will consume the content. As Rachel puts it at 14:00, "No one is going to sit through a 40-minute, talking head keynote to kick off your event. Think about how your content can be "snackable," easily-digestible, with great takeaways."

Ursula and Rachel talked about the excellent video work provided by their two hired producers. You can reach them here:

Sam Juno
Jon Lieberman

Issues to consider when creating a virtual event

Speakers - how do they present on camera for a virtual audience?

Topics - how do they fit in with a more segmentable, micro-casting opportunity?

Production - what do you want the event to look like on screen?

Connective tissue - what ties the experience together—digital hosts? [Ursula goes into great detail about finding hosts to tie the event together at 16:30]

Platform - what software can manage the registrations, video streaming, recording storage, visitor interaction, VIP connectivity, and social engagement?

Interactivity - how will you facilitate connection—breakout rooms, chatbots, information exchange?

Budget - if transitioning from live to virtual, reallocate the funds along the lines needed to produce a great event.

Was the Virtual Event of Lesser or Greater Value?

We were able to make a lot more noise. - Ursula Ringham

SAPPHIRE grew from 40,000 to over 100,000 attending. The travel barrier was eliminated. Those curious could sample SAP and the event without great risk.

SAP grew from a primarily US-based audience to a truly global audience in a matter of weeks.

We have this virtual global audience now. If we want to make a big announcement, we'll do it virtually because we can reach so many more people. - Ursula Ringham

There's going to be a lot more pressure on making in-person events more compelling. - Rachel Miller

Deploying Influencers to Augment a Virtual Event

Ursula goes step-by-step through how they used influencers at 22:00 minutes.

Mark Schaefer's article on SAPPHIRE NOW Reimagined.

Here are some excerpts from the virtual experience. You can follow the links to pay for access to the video library.

SAPPHIRE NOW is known for giving the entire audience a once-in-a-lifetime concert experience. Past artists include Coldplay and Lady Gaga, and this year, Sting joined the virtual crowd straight from his home studio. Here are brief excerpts from all three past concerts.

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