I stumbled upon the virtual tradeshow / conference organzied by Marketing Profs along with their partners. It is the first time that they are organizing this type of event. Though I could not spend time online when the event was in progress, I logged in afterwards with the recorded sessions and exbhitions. It is really a wonderful experience.
Some people dismiss the vitual conferences as a mere extension of webinars. In my opinion, these are much more than webinars, particularly if you could spend time when the conference is in progress when you will have a chance to speak with the exhibitors’ representatives.
The vitual conferencing concept will take off in a big way in the next year or so. It is not only time saving (in terms of travel, etc) but also very big cost saver. Imagine the cost of hotels, meals and air flights that could be saved. However one could the miss the fun of visiting faraway places and taking a few days off from the work place! Vitual conferences may be a boon to the small and medium businesses and self employed individuals who can not afford tons of attending the conferences.