Case Study: BlackBerry® Virtual Seminar and Trade Show

[Client: RIM – BlackBerry®][Proposal: Virtual Conference Center + Virtual Seminars]

OBJECTIVES

Create a space for knowledge exchange.

Make BlackBerry® solutions offered by its partners known among RIM clients.

Build BlackBerry® expert users' loyalty.

Promote RIM partners specialized in the development of applications for their BlackBerry® devices.

Gather specific information on BlackBerry® users.

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SOLUTIONS

In collaboration with RIM for their BlackBerry® brand, we decided to use the VisualCity Events tool to create a virtual conference center where, among other things, online conferences were held to explain the case studies of companies that were using the solutions developed by their partners. These conferences were surrounded by a virtual networking scenario with specific areas for partners, where attendees, speakers and partners could exchange information and knowledge.

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Users could personalize their profile and choose their avatar, walk around the virtual areas and build-ings, attend free conferences given by BlackBerry® experts, download multimedia materials, watch videos and presentations, and communicate with other users, commercial representatives and experts through an array of tools, such as public and private chats, internal messaging and forums.

BlackBerry® and 14 other companies shared a virtual scenario to open business opportunities, where they established real-time and direct communication with their potential customers, exhibited their latest products and services at personalized stands, and located interesting profiles by means of the "User locator" tool.

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VisualCity Events seamlessly met BlackBerry® requirements since it allowed video streaming for the online conferences set within an environment similar to that of a real trade show, including a number of functionalities that allowed communication among participants and information exchange. The information was available during three months after the event and participants could access the conference center again whenever they wanted.

To avoid technical and connectivity problems, a check point was created for users to verify if their Internet connection and hardware met the specifications required to access the multi-user trade show. Although these were minimum requirements, such as a basic ADSL connection and the standard hardware, the purpose was to avoid problems that could result from trying to access the application through VPNs or similar restricted connections.

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In addition, specific functionalities were designed which added value to the event, always seeking to increase participation and contribute to the knowledge exchange among attendees and the one-to-one marketing of sponsors and partners. Such functionalities included an announcement system to distribute messages to all attendees by way of a "virtual public address system", demos both for participants and sponsors, a team of virtual hosts that provided constant assistance to participants, a promotion system for sponsors, an advanced user locator or a sponsor locator map that allowed participants to access directly the sponsors and partners' locations.

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TIMING

The environment was set up at graphic levels in a record time of 2 months, as well as the specific func-tionalities of VisualCity Events to run the event itself (from September 30th to October 30th, 2008), which shows the application's outstanding adaptability.

The second event took place on February 24th and 25th, 2009.

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Case: BlackBerry® Virtual Seminar and Trade Show

RESULT/CONCLUSION

The event registration system and having participants create their profile enabled building a rich data base by means of which both RIM and its partners carried out focused marketing and promotion actions.

VisualCity Events allowed tracking participants' activity within the virtual environment: what conferences they attended, which areas they visited, what documents they downloaded and much more information. Thanks to the detailed reports provided by each participant, sponsors and partners were able to identify those participants interested in their solutions and con-tact them directly.

About 3,000 registered users.

36 online conferences attended by more than 500 persons.

1,155 hours of overall connection.

Over 6,000 entries into the different locations.

More than 5,000 document downloads. 7